To be honest, I was extremely iffy to watch D. Gray-Man. I mean, a series over 100 episodes screams out filler and something more mainstream like Naruto or Bleach. I began to watch it because I already had it and the holidays had come by. With nothing else to do, D. Gray-Man was the better option out of the rest of my anime storage.
This anime is really quite a typical shounen with action, a set enemy and a love interest. It goes more into the dramatic side though. Of course, D. Gray-Man follows the exorcist Allen Walker. It depicts his time at the Dark Order. DGM shows struggles within one's self and such. Once you get to about episode 40+ you are thrown onto a roller coaster of emotional struggle. It's really good, it gets to ya sometimes but it's not a tear jerker. It just makes you feel for the characters.
That's the main plot of the story. The idea is great but it's been seen before, most obvious example being FMA. It's the directing that let's DGM down at times. Some points in the plot is plain boring itself, it's nothing you haven't seen before really. The pacing is inconsistent and it bugged me. You get really tedious 4-5 episode long arcs at the start which are somewhat important to introduce characters and the idea of Innocence to the audience. It just could've been handled better and without the 2-3 episodes to get to the main point.
After you're introduced with everything, nothing big happens until about episodes late 30's early 40's. Feel free to skip anything you deem filler and come back to it later. It's what I did and if you come to be obsessed with the characters in the end like I was, you'd be glad for them fillers you get to watch once you actually do have some sort of appreciation towards the characters. I skipped about 10 episodes, majority were filler and the rest were part of the actual plot. Even the original storyline can get boring as well.
Art wasn't anything major. It was nice but it definitely wasn't something with a high budget. Only major characters were given a decent amount of detail, but at least the animation was smooth. I was also quite surprised with a scene near the end of the series, which I thought had quite a bit of effort put into it. If the scene was handed down to another anime, I fear that the detail would disappear as it's not something I see producers really caring about. So props to the producers for that. It's not shiny and wow looking, it's just a scene that felt realistic is all.
I didn't take note of the BGM. BGM normally doesn't appeal to me unless it's really good. DGM didn't hit that really good standard. OP and ED's were quite normal for me. Catchy, but not something that was really really good. The voice acting I liked. I thought Allen had a too high pitched of a voice at first but it grew on me and is very suitable for him. Everything was up to normal standards and enjoyable.
Now I have a thing for characters so this area usually gets a higher mark then the other categories. You get a range in characters and a few main cast ones but I only felt that Allen was the only one given any character development. Yes we find out Lavi's and Lenalee's past a little but it never really stood out. It felt like something thought up to fill in that curious gap, though it wasn't satisfying. That is why I find the characters bland when I seriously think about them. But if you think of them based on enjoyment then yes that would be quite high. The characters are fun to watch, it makes you happy to see them being well, happy with each other. The Noah are great. They're evil yet human at the same time and it's just so fun to watch.
To sum it all up, DGM is definitely not a technically good anime. It more bases on its fandom and enjoyment rate for its success, like the mainstream anime. DGM is a little deeper then that though. It's better then mainstream but not good enough. This is really something to watch when you have the time and are bored. It's agonising just look at how many episodes there are. Just skip to about 40 once you watch maybe the first 20 and it should be more bearable. Don't expect something that is breath taking, expect something simply fun and addictive, like how Kuroshitsuji is. Both are dark but it's mainly the fandom which makes them awesome.
