D.Gray Man (1-10)

D.Gray man, a 2004 shounen manga by Katsura Hoshino, sets in an alternate and very eerie 19th century, where the supernatural and demons called "akuma" run amok. We follow the perspective Allen Walker, a 15 year old orphan whose arm and eye has been cursed, as he joins the "Black order", a group of exorcists pushing against the akuma. 

The themes and tone of the story is fairly dark, as it takles concepts such as the the death of a loved one, the acceptance of fate, the rejection of fate, religion, and the duality and fragility of humans. For instance, the main antagonist of the story, the Millenium Earl, wishes to create another "great flood" and start the world over again with his family of "Noah" (The Family of Noah are the main antagonists--- they call themselves the "true apostles of god"). He is the source of all the akuma, of which he creates through tricking desperate, grieving people into performing necromancy on their deceased loved ones. To fight against this growing evil, the "Black Order", an organization of humans that can utilize abilities called "Innocence", was created. However, having abilities doesn't mean you are invincible, and with every passing day, more and more exorcists die fighting the akuma.

Such is the nature of the show.... its actually pretty depressing...

D.gray man is a fun ride... which is surprising considering how bleak and depressing the setting and messaging actually are. It was one of the first ever animes I watched, and I remember getting so hooked into the story that I finished the show in only 3 days (it has 103 episodes, for context). For a show that I had initially thought would be an edgy interpretation of the "friendship is magic" idea seen in fairy tail, the depth and subtleties the story brought impacted me in a way I would have never imagined. 

Rewatching the show has been a blast and relearning the characters that I cared about so much during my youth has also been comforting! It is definitely not the best show, nor will it be one that most people would enjoy, but to me, it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I recognized a lot of bits and pieces of the conversations the characters were having! For instance, when Allen was asking to be let into to the HQ, he used ーですが。。。to explain what he was there for. I also heard alot of ーんです being said by all the characters, and I was also able to recognize that they were mostly speaking with the plain forms of verbs and adjectives (Like 〜しらない、Or （ADJ)だ！）.