D. Grayman

More stories from Grant Hess

The TV show, “D. Grayman” intrigued me. It is an anime, and I would classify it as an action adventure. It popped up in 2004 and continued until 2016, though I would say maybe 1 out of 1000 people have heard of it. I have heard of most shows in this genre, but this show had not come on my radar until about a week ago.

When I first discovered the show, I wondered how or why it had hidden from me for so long. It had been a while before I came to realize that it was because it has many plot contrivances that the writer clearly made up out of nowhere. This, for me at least, made it feel distanced and mechanical.

It is also one of those shows where the main character always wins. For example, in his first fight against the big bad, he should have been killed, and easily. However, his weapon gets upgraded out of nowhere and at this point, it’s only a few episodes in. We, the audience, haven’t even seen him use it in normal form yet, we don’t need an upgraded form. This is not a problem, but it was so easy to see coming that I was not really surprised. To be honest, I was over it by the 3rd time it happens.

The main character, Allen Walker, is likable but is nothing special. The uniqueness about him is written off when it is explained that while he is a rarity, so is everybody else around him, making nobody a rarity.

Martin McConnell, 12, remarked, “I really hate it when shows trivialize the special quirk of the main character.”

Overall, I would give “D. Grayman” 3 out of 5 stars. While entertaining, it is predictable, and not at all groundbreaking.