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D.Gray-man (ディーグレイマン ,Dī Gureiman?) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. The series tells the story of a boy named Allen Walker who is able to use an ancient substance called Innocence, and becomes an Exorcist in order to collect all the Innocence that is lost in the world alongside other Exorcists and to defeat the Millennium Earl who possesses an army of akuma. Many characters and their designs were adapted from some of Katsura Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone, and Continue, and her assistants.

The manga was first serialized in 2004 in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha under their Jump Comics imprint and currently sixteen volumes have been released. There is also a novel series called Reverse, authored by Kaya Kizaki, that tells the characters' backgrounds. As of February 3, 2009, Viz Media has released the first twelve volumes in the United States. The manga has also been adapted to an anime series that aired from October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008 in Japan for 103 episodes. Novels and video games of the series have also been released by several companies.

The manga series has become one of the best-sellers of Shueisha. During its second release week, the volume fifteen of the manga ranked as the second best seller comic in Japan. Most reviewers compared it to a typical shōnen manga but praised that at some moments it became more original as well some of the characters have solid personalities.

PLOT: Set during the end of a fictional nineteenth century on Earth, D.Gray-man mostly centers around 15-year-old Allen Walker. In his childhood Allen was abandoned by his parents due to a 'deformed' left arm and was adopted by a man called Mana Walker. At some moment Mana died and Allen tried to revive him with the help of a person called Millennium Earl. Allen revives him but Mana reappears as a akuma (アクマ ,lit. demon?) that is ordered by the Millennium Earl to kill him. During that moment Allen is gifted with the ability to control a weaponized form of a divine substance from ages past, called Innocence and accidentally kills Mana. Before Mana dies, he curses Allen's left eye, which later gives him the ability to see the souls of akuma. After that Allen discovers that the Millennium Earl tries to trick those who have lost loved ones to turn their dead souls into akuma and decides to train himself in order to stop him. Soon he becomes an Exorcist from the Black Order, a secretive organization which aims to stop the plan set in motion by the Millennium Earl and to save the souls trapped as akuma. However, the Earl has raised an army of akuma, created by taking advantage of grief over a loved one's death, and summons the direct descendants of Noah himself, the 13-strong Noah Clan, to aid him in his second attempt. Because of the akuma's ability to wear a human's skin, they are nearly undetectable by any human. Allen proves to be a powerful asset as his 'cursed' left eye is able to detect the akuma.

RECEPTION: The D.Gray-man manga has been highly popular in Japan; as of 2007, the series ranked as the ninth best seller series of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine.[44] During its second release week, the volume fifteen of the manga ranked as the second best seller comic in Japan.[45] The anime DVDs have also been popular; they have ranked high in several Japanese Animation DVD Rankings.[46][47] Zassosha's manga magazine Puff ranked the series as the seventh best long story manga of 2006.[48] The series has also picked up attention in France as it was awarded the prize for best manga series 2006 at the Anime and Manga 2007 French Grand Prix, which was organized by Animeland. It was also awarded the prize of manga of the year 2006 by Webotaku.[49] Even the novel adaptions were well-received. The second novel adaption was the third bestselling novel in Japan in 2006.[50] But it has received criticism too. In his review of volume one, Carlo Santos of Anime News Network stated that certain plot points "come out of nowhere" and that the story was kept from its full potential due to "generic character designs and sparse backgrounds." The quick moving story plot and the series' exposition and back-story received positive comments.[51] A.E. Sparrow of IGN also reviewed the first volume and compared the series' antagonist to three of Batman's villains. He also said that "Walker is a solid hero with a dark past, the Millenium [sic] Earl is a menacing villain you'll love to hate" and the supporting cast shows enough potential to hold interest into future volumes.[52] Carl Kimlinger, also from Anime News Network, gave his thoughts on the first episode of the anime. He stated the series was very derivative and there was "absolutely nothing original". However, Kimlinger said that it was not a boring anime.[53] Mania.com commented that series becomes better as it continues, remarking that some elements seemed derivative but it has developed its own unique identity. However, they criticized several changes made in the Viz Media edition, such as the fact that the Japanese sound effects have been replaced by ones that make fans detract while viewing it and some translations of the names of the characters that the reviewer felt it was awkward.