(L) D.Gray-Man Hallow

[Kuroageha]

Yeah, I meant to say Mana, shitty tablet.

[Stark700]

Episode 2:

I think they did a good job at balancing the comedy and the seriousness of the show. So yeah, I'm getting used to the voice acting still in particular with Allen still. Meanwhile, we get the appearance of a level 4 Akuma! Exciting.

Also, this series' OP song has been growing on me lately and has slowly becoming one of my favorites this season.

[AB079]

Well, episode 2 is working for me, this is exactly how I wanted to be. Despite a few character designs being almost completely different from the manga/1st season ones, the series itself is doing a really good job with the pacing and how they develop the story around Allen.

Now about Allen, he's in a really dangerous situation right now especially after Cross Marian "death" (they didn't find the body for now), and if that wasn't enough they're fighting a level 5 and a level 3 right now.

[Wandering_Youth]

Hmm, is it just me or did the level 4 demons became or portrayed to be weaker now in this anime? I remember in the last anime they were ridiculously powerful that they just steamrolled our heroes to the brink of death.

[Kuroageha]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Youth

Hmm, is it just me or did the level 4 demons became or portrayed to be weaker now in this anime? I remember in the last anime they were ridiculously powerful that they just steamrolled our heroes to the brink of death.

Kanda didn't have Mugen as it was still being repaired after Skinbolic broke it.
Lenalee lost her Dark Boots and had serious burns on her body.
Crowley was unconscious ever since he fought Bondomu.

Allen got it worse, barely on his feet after fighting Tikky, curbstomped by Lavi and then curbstomped again by Tikky's Noah Memory. During the whole fight against Level 4he used his Crowned Clown to force his body move, like a puppet.


Then comes Cross and easily gives said Akuma a run for its money .

[relentlessflame]

Reminder: absolutely no source material hints about future content are allowed in this (or any other) anime thread, and all comparisons to the source for stuff already shown must be completely behind properly-marked spoiler tags. Please read this for more info.

[Loran Cehack]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Youth

Hmm, is it just me or did the level 4 demons became or portrayed to be weaker now in this anime? I remember in the last anime they were ridiculously powerful that they just steamrolled our heroes to the brink of death.

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

Kanda didn't have Mugen as it was still being repaired after Skinbolic broke it.
Lenalee lost her Dark Boots and had serious burns on her body.
Crowley was unconscious ever since he fought Bondomu.

Allen got it worse, barely on his feet after fighting Tikky, curbstomped by Lavi and then curbstomped again by Tikky's Noah Memory. During the whole fight against Level 4he used his Crowned Clown to force his body move, like a puppet.


Then comes Cross and easily gives said Akuma a run for its money .

All the reasons you said were spot on, but also: It's still a shonen series, so strong characters tend to get weaker as the story progresses and new treats arise

[Twi]

Episode 2 thoughts:

Kanda's a straight-up villain. And oh good, the terror factor is back. It went from funny to creepy in seconds. Also, Link is a badass.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Youth

Hmm, is it just me or did the level 4 demons became or portrayed to be weaker now in this anime? I remember in the last anime they were ridiculously powerful that they just steamrolled our heroes to the brink of death.

The 4 Level Akuma from the previous series was basically the Noah's trumph card. For some reason when Allen saw it, his cursed eye showed him a lot of souls within the Akuma. I remember even the Generals were first defeated alongside Allen.

[Guido]

God, I don't know where should I start. I mean it's been almost eight years since I watched the anime for D.Gray-man, and I never thought I would get to watch future installments after the first series ended its run with over 100 episodes.

So, here I am again folks after eight years in the same forum, a different thread to discuss D.Gray-Man's third season, a.k.a. D.Gray-Man HALLOW.

I know the fans like us were either all expecting another anime for this show or doubting if it would ever materialize, given with all the hiatus the manga has gone through in the years between the first show and this one.

Nevertheless, we got ourselves a brand-new show that is neither a remake nor a reboot, but a follow-up sequel picking up from where the first anime left off. So, any new fans that have as of recently picked-up D.Gray-man I would suggest you all to start from the first anime series in order to get sense of the story and knowing better the characters.

Just for quick facts to the new fans, the First anime consists of 103 episodes split into two seasons. Season one covers episodes 1 to 51, and the second one covers the remainder episodes.
Another quick note for the new fans is that more than half of the episodes for the first season of the previous D.Gray-Man show are fillers, so you'll have to bear through it until reaching the second season which all episodes are 100% adapted from the manga.
One last fact for the newcomers is that D.Gray-Man's season one is licensed by FUNIMATION while season two as of today still has remained unlicensed.

Ok. Let's move on with my review.....


To start it helps me a lot that the third season uses the same music composer from the previous series. It instilled on me a sense of nostalgia hearing again the soundtrack which became so ingrained and eponymous to the whole D.Gray-Man franchise. Thanks to that, I quickly immersed back into the world created by the manga-ka, Katsura Hoshino.

Moving with the new voice cast, I have to admit that the new actors and actresses are straight decent and even executing well the personal quirks of the respective characters. However, I do have issues with a character, which in my case is Lavi. My complaint is in regard that Lavi's voice actor sounds too childish in tone even for Lavi's character; I know that Lavi's playful and teasing when around friends, but his tone of voice in the first show felt grown-up.
However, for season three his voice has a sort of child-like quality that for the time being feels hard for me to get used to it immediately.

Moving on, as I did in the thread for the previous show, I'll be making comparisons on what was left out from the manga transition to anime in terms of content while not giving away spoilers of any future events in the thread for the new show.

Now to be fair the first episode for season three made a good job at not only reintroducing all the cast from the Black Order but also at delivering a concise but succint summary, played through flashbacks, on the last battle between the Order and the Noah from the previous show.
For the newbies and newcomers I won't spoil that battle, since you'll have to watch the older anime to learn about it.

Right after watching the first episode for the new season I came back to read the manga at the point where the story picked-up in the anime.
The beginning episode for season three covered chapters 165 - 168, and the second half of chapter 169 from the manga, so that was about four and a half chapters of manga material.

Spoiler:

It was a common sense move that the battle with the Akuma at the graveyard in London, which happens long AFTER Cross Marian's seemingly death in the manga was moved before that said event at the start of the new anime.

Because moving that turn of events battle at the start of the show became the perfect opportunity at reintroducing most of our favorite Exorcist characters in one shot after that eight-years hiatus we the fans had to endure
We got to see again right in the first scene Allen, Kanda, Lenalee, Lavi, Miranda, Krory, and Howard Link all together; this battle took place in the second half of the manga's 169th chapter.

I believe I'll need a little more to get myself used to the new animation, but that battle was, nonetheless, awesome.
I see that the Akuma, as well, for the sequel season have been redesigned to appear almost organic which makes me to feel like cringing over the edge of the seat every time I watch them getting hacked to pieces pulling no stops at all with the blood splattering all over the place.

As for Allen's arranged meeting with Cross Marian it played more-or-less the same as it happened in the manga, though I wished they would have had done something with those abrupt shots.
I mean there were scenes that out of the blue jumped from one scene to the next without a proper transition. For example, Allen losing his temper on Cross after being told the truth about himself and the 14th Noah, and then suddenly jumping with Lenalee being tended by Allen at the library after the meeting was over.

Trust me those abrupt scene changes played exactly the same in the manga, and it was a minor letdown for this episode that the staff couldn't handle them with some build-up in the anime.

[GDB]

Oh wow, I completely forgot those Miroku-like Crows existed. So glad this anime is a thing to recap the manga since it had so many breaks/hiatuses.

[Stark700]

Episode 3

Good action this episode, very colorful and stylistic with the choreography. Emilia got some spotlight and we got some divine transformation scen.es. Timonthy impressed me this episode as well and he expressed a lot of emotions

The absorption skill is scary...but glad to see it being adapted. This arc has been entertaining despite how short it is. Meanwhile, I think the show so far has done a neat job with the animation and choreography too.

[Harry Dresden]

Episode 3

This image sums up the show so far to be honest:

Images

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This episode makes it VERY clear that this adaptation runs on the budget that is the cost of a cereal box.

And the highly saturated color palette completely drains the show out of it's gothic tone and ruined the "good morning" moment.

They compressed the worst arc nicely even if pacing is still breakneck, otherwise.

[Twi]

You know, Emilia had really good aim. Every one of her shots was a headshot, with two of them being close to Timothy. That's impressive. Link too, as per usual.


And screw you too, Crown Clown.

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by Twi

And screw you too, Crown Clown.

Crown Clown is just doing it's job. It's not its fault that its master has a noah dormant within him.

[Kuroageha]

Harry stop showing how ignorant you're to not be able to tell what art shift is.

[foxbox360]

They removed the brooker scene from the manga, Humans who sell out the Exorcists for money by working with the earl.

[Kuroageha]

Yeah annf they out instead a scene with the Earl, well, its obvious why and what it implies.

[Elestia]

So far, I'm kind of underwhelmed by the combat scenes. I guess it lacks impact and unable to capitalize on certain important moments when its really needed. In particular, the 14th briefly appearing was supposed to be a really big deal, but there's nothing to emphasize this shocking moment in the anime. It feels like the studio is just going through the motions without putting enough effort into the adaptation, which causes the some lukewarm reactions.

It's a shame, since the previous adaptation had done a much better job too.

[Anh_Minh]

Anachronism: paid leave is a 20th century invention (at least in France), while they're in the 19th.