D.GRAY-MAN HALLOW - Ep.1 | The Fourteenth
I’ve been a huge fan of D.Gray-man for years.
I started reading the manga back when I was about 11, and I’ve loved it
since. It started off kinda shaky, but after sticking with it and
getting to the first major story arc, the series really picks up.
Katsura Hoshino’s writing and artwork began to get really good, and
further along in the manga, it’s nothing short of excellent.
However, I’ve always disliked the anime. Coupled with shoddy animation and pointless filler content, there were a lot of other problems like storyline changes. I can get behind these a lot of the time (Fullmetal Alchemist is famous for its completely different storyline halfway through, and I love that anime), but here it was poorly done. As the anime went on, however, it stood by the manga more, and it improved in quality ever so slightly.
The Japanese voice cast was pretty bad, though. It was hard to watch it
in Japanese, and none of the voices really matched the looks of the
characters. The English cast, on the other hand, did a great job (even
Travis Willingham’s questionably deep voice for Kanda), and they made it
that much better to watch. But overall, it wasn’t that great of a show
and I was kind of glad that they ended it. Generic art, shoddy
animation, and questionable changes made it a less than enjoyable
experience.
Then soon on, they announced a new anime that would be picking up right where the previous one left off. D.Gray-man Hallow. And lo and behold, after watching the first episode, it’s far better. Great art, far better animation, and just overall much better production values, it’s a great watch.
Hallow picks up exactly where I left off in
the manga, and I’m happy about that. The first episode tells a good
adaptation of the chapters it’s based on, and it’s a good mixture of
action, drama, and comedy. They never go overboard on any of these
things. As well, if you’re like me and you haven’t kept up with the
series lately, the beginning of the episode has a nice recap to remind
of you of what last happened.
Despite how much I love Hallow so far (based
on the first episode), I will say that I still am having a hard time
getting behind the Japanese cast. The cast is entirely different from
the original series’ cast, with a lot less famous actors (Sanae
Kobayashi, Kenichi Suzumura, and Takahiro Sakurai are all gone), and
while the performances are better, for the most part I still feel the
voices don’t match the faces. Despite that, they’re easier to listen to
since they sound significantly less stiff.
The comedy is less ham-fisted, and fits in well with whatever scenes
they’re in. On top of that, even simple scenes like conversations are
far more interesting to watch due to the fact that they’re no longer
just still frames. Characters move constantly, breathing more life into
each scene. The action scenes are all relegated to the first quarter of
the episode, and they’re all brilliantly animated.
I can’t say much about the story without spoiling some heavy plot details of D.Gray-man, but what’s there was implemented and executed very well. There’s... not much more I can really say about it, aside from the fact that I’m really excited to see more of this series.
OVERALL RATING:
9/10
