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D.Gray-Man

redirected from Main.DGrayMan

alt title(s): D Gray-man; D Gray Man

The heartwarming story of young Allen Walker and his fiancée, Lenalee Lee... aah, who are we kidding here?

D.Gray-man is a manga series written by Katsura Hoshino, about a 15-year-old Akuma hunter named Allen Walker with an odd-looking left arm which can transform into a really big claw. Allen fights against The Millennium Earl and his Akuma: living weapons created by trapping a human soul inside a mechanical body, and having it wear the skin of the human that created it in the first place. The Millennium Earl wants to destroy humanity using the Akuma. The Black Order, which Allen joins early in the series, seeks to stop him. As the story continues, we meet the Clan of Noah, the direct descendants of Noah (he of the ark), who are allied with the Earl.

Tends to go on hiatus a lot due to Hoshino's bad health, so updates are a bit unpredictable. The most recent hiatus ended on August 17th, wherein she released a 50 page chapter. The series has now switched to a monthly schedule.

See the character sheet here. And, if you're feeling brave, also check out the High Octane Nightmare Fuel page here.

This manga provides examples of:

  • Action Girl: Lenalee
  • Adaptation Expansion: The anime fillers add plenty of characterizations to characters that had less of the spotlight in the manga, notably Miranda, Krory, Kanda after he was temporarily Put On A Bus, and General Yeegar and Suman Dark, who we barely got to know in the manga.
  • Affably Evil: The Millennium Earl and some of the Noah.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer: Krory and Miranda went through this before they joined the Black Order.
  • Anachronism Stew: With the Black Order's wacky technology, it's easy to forget this series is set in the 19th century.
  • And I Must Scream: All those poor souls that are stuck inside an akuma can't even be seen by most people, let alone heard.
  • Angst What Angst: Allen isn't anywhere near as traumatized by his sucky life as one might expect.
    • Subverted by Lenalee; she has a horrible past and generally acts upbeat and cheerful, but it's mostly an act; she's been harboring a deep hatred of the Order for years and is terrified of the Inspectors from Rome.
  • Apologises A Lot: Miranda, mainly due to her klutzy tendencies.
  • Arm Cannon: Allen's left arm can become one of these.
  • Armor Piercing Slap: Lenalee to Allen, and later Allen to Tyki.
  • Art Evolution
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: Since the main requirement to be a General is to have full synchronization with Innocence, this is naturally what happens.
  • Attack Attack Attack: Most of the Exorcists would never even consider retreating, ever.
  • Attack Of The 50 Foot Whatever: Level 3.5 akuma are huge! And they are made by combining a shit-ton of human-sized level 3 akuma together.
  • Awesome Mc Coolname: General Klaud Nine.
  • Bad Ass: Was, rather amusingly, missing from this list until at least 4 of its subtropes were listed. But there are a lot, especially Allen (It takes unusual levels of awesome to be able to shout Crown Clown in the middle of a fight without looking like an idiot) and Kanda. And General Cross wears this trope like it was made for him.
  • Badass Back: Cross one-shots three Level 3 Akuma that try to come up behind him. At once.
  • Badass Longcoat: The Exorcist uniform.
  • Badass Grandpa: Bookman and Generals Tiedoll and Yeegar.
    • Froi Tiedoll is only 40 years old; badass middle age, maybe.
  • Badass Normal: Inspector Howard Link, despite having no superpowers and appearing at first like a meddling bureaucrat, is able to keep up with the rest of the cast and has a particularly awesome, albeit ineffective, moment attempting to defend an Innocence user.
    • Also Mahoja (So strong that she can kick a level 2 Akuma off her ship!) and Officer Moore. Reever also counts for this.
  • Beautiful All Along: Miranda letting her hair down when she first activates her Innocence.
  • Becoming The Mask: Lavi wasn't supposed to get emotionally invested with the Black Order, only record their activities. Then, he grew fond of them. And Road used that against him horrifyingly well.
  • Berserk Button: Allen when being called "Moyashi" (Bean Sprout) by just about anyone or being reminded of his piles and piles of debts.
    • Also, Lavi calling Bookman a panda frequently causes Bookman to violence all over him.
    • Not to mention calling Yu Kanda by his first name...
    • And Komui? Don't tell him his sister's getting married...
    • Krory has been known to get a little irritated when somebody calls him a vampire.
  • Beware The Nice Ones: Allen, Lenalee and Froi Tiedoll fall into this.
  • BFG: All level 1 and some level 2 akuma have these. Allen's arm also turns into one at lower levels.
  • BFS: The Earl and Allen eventually. And Lavi has a rather large hammer.
  • Big Brother Complex: Komui, Komui, Komui.
  • Big Bad: The Millennium Earl.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Level 4, meet Lenalee.
  • Big Eater: Allen and Krory, explained by their Parasite-type Innocence, which require a great deal of energy.
    • How much of a Big Eater is Allen, you ask? This is his daydream about what he'll do when he gets off the Ark.
    • Also, Howard Link is shown to only eat hilariously HUGE cakes and pastries.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Allen appears to be able to invoke them at will.
  • Bishonen: 90% of the male cast
  • Bishonen Line: The final (for now) results of Akuma evolution. Level One: Giant orb covered in cannons with a human face down the centerline. Level Two: Massive animalistic form, with abilities and design unique to each Akuma. Level Three: Always an armoured figure, with individual variations only manifesting as differing numbers of eyes and unique abilities. Level Three Point Five: A giant, lanky hermaphorditic humanoid roughly the size of Godzilla, made by combining thousands of Level Two and Three Akuma. Level Four: The deadliest Akuma form yet, resembles a naked pot-bellied four-foot tall hermaphroditic ball-socket-doll-like tattooed haloed cherubim, which is capable of batting aside five Critical-level exorcists (that is to say, the Generals and Allen, the most powerful exorcists alive), without breaking a sweat.
  • Bishoujo: All female characters are pretty.
  • Blood From The Mouth: Seems to happen to Allen pretty much every battle, and Kanda fairly often as well.
  • Bloody Hilarious / High Pressure Blood: This flashback scene.
  • Bloody Murder: Krory, eventually
  • Boat Lights: Allen usually has normal gray eyes, but around Akuma his left eye turns red.
  • Body Horror: The Akuma blood bullets make you break out in a pentacle-shaped rash. Then you explode into toxic dust.
    • Also, Suman Dark. Poor, poor Suman.
    • Don't forget when Road stabbed Allen in the eye, then we get to see his partially regrown-but-still-not-there eye-socket!
    • And remember when Allen's arm was all flaked and looked like it was about to fall off? Then Tyki ripped it off and then had his Teez eat a hole in Allen's heart?
    • And Level 0 Akuma forcing themselves down their victim's throat... And Tyki destroying people's hearts... Let's just say there's a lot and leave it at that.
    • Almost payback for Tyki's Body Horror infliction on Allen: He transforms rather gruesomely into a demonic knight thing that turned the Black Knight scary again. He now uses weird energy circle things to basically trounce his enemies left and right. It also seems to have a taste for blood.
    • Why does everyone seem to forget Daisya? We never did find out what all was missing from his corpse, did we?
    • Not to mention Kanda's Freudian Excuse. Czeslaw Meyer would sympathize.
  • Body Surf: Phantom Thief G AKA Timothy's MO.
  • Bokukko: Road
  • Bratty Half Pint: Surprisingly, Allen was bratty, mouthy, and a bit of an urchin back when he worked in the circus, before meeting Mana.
  • Broken Hero: Both Allen and Lenalee are deeply traumatized, but you wouldn't know it to look at them.
  • Brother Sister Incest: Depending on how you view Komui's obsession with his sister...
    • On the other side of things, Ho Yay among them, Cyril seems to enjoy molesting his little brother, much to said brother's disagreement
  • Calling Your Attacks: All Exorcists with Equipment Innocence. Sometimes they can invoke their Innocence just by thinking the name, but in the manga it all reads the same.
  • Captain Obvious: "Phantom Thief G" is slow on the uptake.
    "Huh? What is this?"
    "It's a sword. You've just been stabbed."
  • Casanova: General Cross.
  • Chainsaw Good: Winters Socalo (by rapidly spinning his serrated blades.)
  • The Charmer: Current evidence suggests that Allen could be if he wanted to, but he's too kind to do so. Unless the victim is a robot, that is.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Allen has a rather serious case of "Must save everyone!" and doesn't seem to have quite gotten it through his head that there are only about twenty Exorcists and millions of Akuma.
  • Church Militant: The Black Order
  • Chick Magnet: Allen, oh boy, Allen.
  • Child Soldiers: The Order and the Innocence aren't picky about the ages of the Exorcists who fight for them.
  • Close Call Haircut: Lenalee, during the Eshi battle.
  • Combat Sadomasochist: The Clan of Noah.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: Cross's emotional and physical abuse of Allen is usually played for laughs. The least disturbing form this takes is his habit of racking up massive debts and leaving them for his 15-year-old apprentice to pay, or, in a case that actually was funny, for the guys who were trying to kill him.
  • Compensating For Something: Fans seem to enjoy making fun of the fact that cute, effeminate Allen uses a sword the size of a surfboard.
  • Complete Monster: The Millennium Earl, creator of the Akuma, eradicator of Japan...
  • Convenient Coma: Alma Karma.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses: All over the place - the stigmata on the Noah clan, one of the lower-level attacks from Allen's innocence, the symbol of the Black order (complete with embedded Hebrew and Greek lettering)...
  • Creepy Twins: Jasdevi
  • Critical Research Failure: A priest marrying a nun. *facepalm* The anime fixed this, thankfully.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: When Allen cheerfully and apparently selflessly comes in to rescue Krory when he lost everything but his underwear in a poker game- then proceeds to fleece everyone else out of everything they own, not through luck, but by being very, very good at cheating.
  • Cursed With Awesome: Allen's left arm caused him to be abandoned by his birth parents. And it gives him the ability to cleave through Akuma almost effortlessly. He also has a scar over his left eye that lets him see the souls that are sealed in Akuma.
    • Although when someone else is able to see Akuma the way he does, they practically have a nervous breakdown, so that part maybe isn't so cool. Useful, though.
  • Cute Shonen Hero: Allen
  • Dance Battler: Lenalee, since her Weapon Of Choice is her pair of boots.
  • Dark And Troubled Past: Almost everyone.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The Black [Religious] Order.
    • The more we learn about their methods the more it looks like Dark Is The End Justifies Absolutely Any Means.
  • Deaths Hourglass: Fans assume that that's the deal with Kanda's lotus.
  • Demoted To Extra: In much of DGM's merchandise, Lenalee Lee.
  • Die For Our Ship: Poor, poor Lenalee....
  • Disability Superpower: Noise Marie is blind, but he has such good hearing that it usually isn't a problem.
  • Disease Bleach: Allen's hair turned from brown to white from his childhood trauma.
  • Doting Parent: Cyril Kamelot.
  • Drop The Hammer: Lavi
  • Dual Wielding: Kanda
  • Dude Not Funny: Cross is a complete dick to Allen, with Training From Hell, emotional abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, and a nasty habit of forcing a 15-year-old to pay off debts that reach upwards of tens of thousands of dollars. This is usually played for laughs.
  • Dynamic Entry: It's pretty hard to top Allen's entry into the science division during Lulu Bell's assault. He cut a skull in half vertically.
  • Embarrassing First Name: Referring to Kanda as "Yu" is a very good way to acquire stab wounds.
  • Empathic Weapon: Parasite-Type Innocence, like Allen's; also his eye.
  • The End Of The World As We Know It: The Earl's goal is to kill God and destroy the world.
  • Engrish: The author's English is less than stellar.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: In one character popularity poll, Kanda managed to steal the #1 position away from Allen despite having been absent for nearly three entire story arcs.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Almost all the male cast, but particularly Allen, Kanda, Tyki, and Lavi.
  • Even The Guys Want Him: Allen, Allen, Allen
  • Everythings Better With Monkeys: Klaud Nine's Simian Innocence.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Tyki Mikk. The author admitted that Tyki exists because she wanted to draw a handsome guy.
    • However, on average, the good guys are way hotter than the bad guys.
  • Evolutionary Levels: Akuma.
  • Extra Eyes: Wisely.
  • Extremity Extremist: Lenalee and her Dark Boots.
  • Eyepatch Of Power: Lavi
  • Eye Scream: Allen's eye gets abused a lot.
  • Face Doodling: Lavi even doodles on Allen's eye bandage.
  • The Faceless: We have yet to get a proper look at Mana Walker's face, despite the flashbacks he's been in. The same goes for the 14th's original body.
    • What we have seen implies he probably looks exactly like the Earl's human form.
  • Facial Markings: Allen and the Noah.
  • Fan Service: The camera always seems to shoot the scenes to accentuate and draw attention to Lenalee's perfect legs as much as possible, in particular the opening and ending credits. Also lots of gorgeous, shirtless guys.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Becoming a lost soul bound to an akuma.
  • Fetch Quest: In the earlier chapters, and much of the filler. This dies down quickly when the Earl declares war on the Black Order. The Earl himself remains on a Fetch Quest to destroy all the Innocence.
  • Filler: So very much in the anime.
  • Finger Lickin Evil: Not quite, but the intent was there. Road is psycho.
  • Fingore:Noise Marie gets 2 of his fingers hit by a level 4 Akuma's bullet and has to cut both of them off before the blood virus spreads and kills him.
  • Foe Yay: Despite being Allen's enemies, it's mentioned in canon that both Road and Tyki like him, although whether the true cause of that is this trope or them subconsciously detecting that Allen is also a Noah and thus a family member of theirs is debatable. Even so, some of the lines between Tyki and Allen during their fight on the Ark scream out Foe Yay.
    "This is giving me the thrills! I'll break you, one more time, with this hand...!"
    "It would have been good if we just played poker, and nobody died. If it could come true, this is all I'd want."
  • Four Is Death: Level Four Akuma are horrifyingly powerful. For example, almost destroying the Order over the course of one manga chapter, including most of the Generals.
  • Four Star Badass: Thanks to Asskicking Equals Authority among the Black Order.
  • Fourth Wall Mail Slot: The manga volumes include reader questions answered by the characters.
  • Freudian Excuse: There's a very good reason Kanda is such a cynical Jerk Ass. Namely, he was grown in a lab and constantly subjected to this. For years. And then he was forced to fight the only person he could even remotely consider a friend and thought he killed him.
  • Fusion Dance: Twin brothers Jasdero and Devit sing a little song and shoot each other in the head to merge into Jasdevi, a much more powerful single entity.
  • Gatling Good: Level Four Akuma get two of these; one in each hand. Level 1 Akuma have a considerably less powerful version.
    • Allen gets one of his own early on as well, though he still uses the claw form for much of the series (primarily as a shield.)
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Lenalee does this to Allen, and Allen later does this to Lenalee.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Lenalee, until her Close Call Haircut.
  • God Is Evil: what the Millennium Earl believes- or at least says.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Innocence.
  • Gray Eyes: Allen provides the page picture at the time of writing.
  • Groundhog Day Loop: Early on, there's a town that constantly replays October 9th, and only one person inside notices. It's actually Miranda's Innocence responding to her thoughts in a way she didn't want or expect.
  • The Gunslinger: General Cross Marian, who seems to have been based on John Wayne.
  • Head Pet: Timcanpy with Allen and Cross Marian.
  • Healing Factor: Road and Kanda have this, as does Krory when he drinks Akuma blood. Allen does as well, regenerating both his arm after Tyki rips it off AND his eye after Road stabs it out.
    • Skinn Bolic has one as well.
  • Healing Hands: Partially subverted. Miranda's time-reversing power can heal almost any recently inflicted wound, even fatal ones, but once she deactivates it they all come right back.
  • Heart Symbol: The Earl.
  • The Heartless: Akuma.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Komui is impossible to wake up unless you tell him that Lenalee's getting married.
  • Heel Face Turn: Involuntary- General Cross can turn Akuma good. Also, the 14th Noah, who betrayed the Earl.
    • The second example has also been hinted to be less of a Heel Face Turn than a Heel Other-Side-Entirely Turn.
  • Hellish Pupils: Krory, when in vampire mode; arguably Allen, when his eye detects Akuma.
  • Heroic BSOD: Apparently Kanda in the latest chapter.
  • Heroic RROD: Lenalee after the fight with Eshi. Also happened to Allen when he pushed his arm too far.
  • Hey Its That Voice: Allen is voiced by Sanae Kobayashi. In other words, Lucy. You may now run away and hide under the bed.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page, dontcha know?
  • High Pressure Blood: Akuma and Suman Dark. A little girl Akuma in a filler episode seemed to expel more blood than she could possibly contain. And Level 1 Akuma shoot blood bullets.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Poor, poor Allen.
  • Horny Scientist: Bak Chang and Rohfa from the Asian Branch, who are infatuated with Lenalee and Allen respectively.
  • Ho Yay: Tyki seems to be really obsessed with Allen. Cyril is obsessed with Tyki. Then there's Lavi and Allen...
  • Hyperactive Metabolism: Allen has been shown to eat gigantic piles of food, yet remain rail thin. Justified as all parasite innocence users have an extraordinarily high metabolism to make up for all the energy their powers use.
  • I Knew It: The Earl has horns! (Although This Troper preferred the joke idea of bunny ears...)
  • I Know Kung Fu: "WHY DON'T YOU USE THE SEAL OF WOOD??!!"
  • I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: Allen does this when Lavi turns against him after going crazy from the Mind Rape Road inflicts on him.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Pit 1 exorcist in noticeable attire against 50 level 1 Akuma, bristling with omnidirectional armaments. Guess who doesn't get hit? The few times a shot does connect, it invariably does so to the one person with a Healing Factor.
  • Impossibly Cool Weapon:The innocence and the akuma. BOTH of them.
    • Of course, they are explicitly supernatural.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Some of the Exorcists have Innocence that takes the form of everything from acupuncture needles to soccer balls... and everything in between and then some.
  • Inelegant Blubbering: Almost every time anyone cries properly, it's like this.
  • Jerk Ass: General Cross. He's either this or a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold.
    • The recent manga chapter where Cross hugs Allen when he tells him he's the Fourteenth Noah, then gives him a Rousing Speech hits at the second option.
    • Also, Kanda is probably the only person on Earth other than the Millennium Earl who Allen doesn't like. He even objects to Lenalee's company.
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Jerk: Kanda, in all likelihood.
  • Kick Chick: Lenalee Lee.
  • Kill All Humans: The Millennium Earl's ultimate aim.
  • Killer Rabbit: Tyki's Teez.
  • The Klutz: Miranda
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Komui, so very, very much.
  • Launcher Of A Thousand Ships: Allen, Allen, Allen.
  • Light Is Not Good: The Stigmata-marked Noah are the descendants of the Biblical Noah, and a Level 4 Akuma is briefly mistaken for an angel.
  • Little Miss Badass: Road Kamelot.
  • Love At First Punch: Road and probably Tyki to Allen.
  • Luke I Am Your Father: The manga has revealed Allen's late foster-father Mana to be the brother of the renegade 14th Noah.
  • Madness Mantra: Skinn Bolic. "Never forgive...Never forgive...Never forgive..."
  • Magic Music: The whole Ark Arc describes this trope. Jasdero and Devit sing and shoot themselves to merge into one, the Earl plays the piano to replace the old Ark, and Allen and Timcanpy have the mysterious power of the Musician to control the Ark. Plus Noise Marie's Verse of the Saint that is poison to Akuma and Cross' Grave of Maria that sings to hide people and uses mind control.
  • Magic Pants: Allen's left arm can grow to an incredible size or turn into a sword, but when he stops invoking it, his sleeve is still there.
    • This is addressed by the author during a Fourth Wall Mail Slot segment, where Allen admits that he has no idea what happens to the sleeve when his arm transforms, but is just glad that it doesn't rip.
  • Magic Skirt: Lenalee's uniform skirts are extremely short, but you never get the chance to have a Panty Shot.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Kanda in particular, since he can heal.
  • Mask Power: Cross Marian
  • Master Of Illusion: Road Kamelot.
  • The Magic Poker Equation: Subverted; Allen isn't drawing what he needs. He just cheats, a skill he had to pick up to deal with Cross Marian's absurd amount of debt.
  • Mecha Mooks: Akuma, sort of.
  • Megaton Punch: Do not annoy Lenalee.
  • The Messiah: Allen loves everyone, even the Akuma and villains.
    • With two exceptions: He nurtures a great hatred for the Earl, and tries to kill him in the Ark, and he absolutely cannot get along with Kanda.
    • To the point where, when he started to subconsciously love humans more, his Innocence refused to reform, and only did so when he remembered that he loves both human and Akuma equally.
    • Subverted by Lenalee. Although on the surface her strongly caring nature could appear to invoke this trope, we later find out otherwise when it's revealed that she is only this way towards the people who make up her 'world', and she doesn't care about what happens to those outside it.
  • Mind Rape: What Road Kamelot does to Lavi during the Ark arc.
    • And also what she does to Marshall Yeegar earlier in the series.
  • Monster Clown: The Earl gets frighteningly close at times
    • Also inverted with the evolved form of Allen's innocence, the Crowned Clown, though Akuma naturally find it frightening.
    • And quite possibly Mana...
  • Mood Whiplash: Chapter 189 careens between the aftermath of an attack by the Noah, the Fourteenth showing up and being incredibly creepy, and... Amusing Injuries being inflicted on the Earl.
  • More Dakka: The Level 1 Akuma have quite a lot of dakka available. Higher levels, though, rely on quality rather than quantity.
  • Multinational Team: British, Chinese, Romanian, Japanese, German, Australian, Turkish... and that's only the good guys.
  • Nakama
  • Narm: It's very hard to scream "CROWN CLOWN" without sounding stupid.
  • Narm Charm: Jasdevi's Fusion Dance. Relatedly, the Level 4 Akuma would look outright stupid if they weren't so terrifying.
  • Needle In A Stack Of Needles: Jasdevi hid a key this way during the Ark Arc.
  • Nice Guy: They don't come nicer than Allen.
  • Nice Hat: The Earl has a whole collection. It's to cover up his horns.
    • General Cross has an awesome fedora.
    • Tyki Mikk and Mana also routinely sport some classy headwear.
  • Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Allen's attempt to remove the Noah from Tyki did not end well.
  • The Nicknamer: Lavi does this a lot. He calls Bookman "panda" (due to dark circles around his eyes) and Aleister Krory "Kro-chan" (Krorykins!)
    • Tyki Mikk does this quite a bit himself, such as calling Lavi "Eyepatch-kun" and Kanda "Kitchen Knife."
      • And Skinn "Sweet Tooth".
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: The Earl, once again.
  • Nightmare Face: Many characters (mostly akuma), but the best example is the earl.
  • Norio Wakamoto: Voices General Winters Socalo in extremely awesome fashion.
  • No Sense Of Personal Space: Lavi and Road, especially towards Allen.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: The higher-ups' response to Allen and Cross saving everyone's asses by preventing the download of the Ark and capturing it for the Black Order? Put Cross under house arrest, put Allen under surveillance, charge Allen with heresy, and prevent them from talking to one another. While Cross didn't especially care, since now he could charge the debts for his ridiculously decadent behavior to the Order, this still rid them of one of their most powerful exorcists and seriously alienated another.
  • Offhand Backhand: See also Badass Back.
  • Older Than They Look / Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The Noahs and For.
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: Road's song.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: The Earl, again
  • One Hit Kill: Kanda, especially in the anime, although eventually all Exorcists are one-shotting Level 1 and 2 Akuma.
  • One Hundred And Eight: There were originally 109 Innocences, one of which is the Great Heart.
  • One Winged Angel: The Akuma. Also, exorcists who use a parasitic-type Innocence could be described as the good side's version of this trope.
    • As Tyki (and Skin) showed, Noah can do this too.
  • Oracular Urchin: Meilin, for a while.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Again, the Akuma.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Krory, although he's not really a vampire
  • Overly Long Name: According to an omake Q&A, the name of the Black Order's gatekeeper is Alestina Drow Joanason P. Robathan Gia Amadeus No. 5.
    • That's the translation of the name which is used in the Viz English edition, which makes more sense of the katakana and leaves out the weird punctuation. But even so, according to the Gray Ark fanbook which lists the character names written in English, the even stranger official spelling is Ares Teena = dloe = gynosan = P = ruporson = gear = Amadeus 5th.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Level One and Two Akuma wear human skin and are indistinguishable from humans, except by Allen.
  • Parental Abandonment: Allen's parents supposedly abandoned him because of his arm. Allen has no memory of them whatsoever.
  • Pet The Dog: The Earl buys a flower from a flower girl on the street while in a normal human form, and another villain lampshades this.
  • Phlebotinum Overload: Allen and Lenalee push their Innocences too far, with negative repercussions.
  • Please Keep Your Hat On: The Earl.
  • The Pollyanna: Lenalee and Allen.
  • Post Kiss Catatonia: Very understandable; poor Allen got unexpectedly glomped and kissed by the Chaotic Evil Road, and she had stabbed him in the eye last time they met.
  • Power Degeneration: Parasite-type Exorcists have very low life expectancies due to the strain the Innocence puts on their bodies. Similarly, Kanda's Healing Factor seems to sacrifice long-term life force for short-term healing.
  • Power Fist: Allen's left arm, at low levels.
  • Power Tattoo: Kanda has one.
  • Properly Paranoid: Exorcists other than Allen have no way of telling whether a person is really human or not, so they have to be ruthless.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Noah Family
  • Raised By Wolves: Krory. Made more obvious in the fillers.
  • Rape Of The Lock: Lenalee's Close Call Haircut during her fight with the Level 3 Akuma.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Jasdevi.
  • Razor Floss: Noise Marie
  • Red Eyes Take Warning: Allen's cursed eye turns red and starts looking really weird when he detects an Akuma.
  • Red Headed Hero: Lavi, who really looks colorful next to the monochrome Allen, Kanda and Lenalee. Also General Cross, sort of.
  • Red Right Hand: Inverted in more than one way with Allen Walker: Not only does he have a literal one [almost his entire left arm], but he is also the main character of the story and very much so a good guy.
  • Redshirt Army: The Finders, or as the Akuma call them, "free exp."
  • Replicant Snatching: How the Akuma masquerade as human.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: General Cross, one of the most Badass characters, uses a revolver, Judgment, as one of his anti-Akuma weapons.
  • Running Gag: Komui's defective, dangerous Komurin robots. Made more prominent in the anime.
  • Sarashi: Kanda is seen wearing one, at the start of volume 2 of the manga.
  • Satan: At the beginning of the series, The Earl had shades of this. Now, it's one big YES.
  • Say It With Hearts (the Millennium Earl. Subverted when he's in human disguise. He still likes sweet stuff, though.)
  • Scars Are Forever: Allen's cursed eye. Also, he and Tyki now both have giant scars all over their chests from Crown Clown's BFS form.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: The Earl, frequently.
  • Seiza Squirm: Allen and Lavi get this for punishment.
  • Series Hiatus: Katsura Hoshino seems to have frail health and has needed to take months long breaks a few times. The series came off an extended break in November, but is now being released monthly, instead of weekly as it has been up until now.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: Parasite-type Innocence users, as well as For.
  • Ship Tease: Notably Allen/Lenalee, Allen/Road, and Lavi/Lenalee. And there's all the Ho Yay...
  • Shirtless Scene: Several, including Allen wrapped up in bandages and Kanda... pretty much just for the hell of it. Tyki, too.
  • Shock And Awe: Skinn Bolic
    • Also Lavi
  • Shoot The Shaggy Dog: The Fallen One arc. After going through a set of horrible ordeals to rescue the fallen Exorcist Suman Dark, Allen manages to amputate Suman's Innocence and rescue him, which almost destroys Allen's Innocence and exhausts him. After saving Suman, Allen finds that Suman's soul is gone. When he decides to bring Suman back to his family, Tyki Mikk appears, explodes him, destroys Allen's Innocence, and tears a hole in his heart so he can slowly bleed to death.
  • Skunk Stripe: Krory.
  • Slasher Smile: Tyki and the Earl. The other Noah are prone to this as well. And in 189th night, the 14th did this through Allen...on the 14th page if we count the cover as page 1.
  • Slipknot Ponytail: Kanda.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Too many, please don't list them all. Let's just say that there are lots of characters in this Japanese series who are not Japanese, and have "B"s, "V"s, "L"s, and "R"s in their names.
  • Split Personality: Krory and the Noah
  • Squick: Cyril is way too touchy-feely with Tyki (his younger brother) and Road (his adopted daughter). For their part, Tyki thouroughly dislikes his brother's attentions while Road is either oblivious or doesn't care.
  • Stalker With A Crush: Bak, although one of the good guys, spies on Lenalee and takes pictures of her.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Tyki, mostly, although all the Noah have Superpowered Eviller Sides.
    • And for Allen, in Chapter 189 we learn that the 14th Noah, whose consciousness is still partially active inside him, is not really a very nice guy at all despite earlier hints to the contrary. Turns out he doesn't want to stop the Millennium Earl so much as replace him.
  • Super Senses: Allen's eye, Marie's ears, and Krory's nose.
  • Sweet Tooth: Skinn and, to a lesser degree, Road.
  • Tall Dark And Handsome: Tyki-pon. Hot Damn.
  • Tall Dark And Snarky: Kanda, with not much chance of becoming a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold even if he is a good guy.
  • Tarot Motifs: Briefly in the anime; the Finder Allen and Kanda were traveling with was doing a tarot reading adapted to a normal deck of cards- and at one of the key points ends up with a Joker. One that looks rather similar to our hero, in fact.
  • Team Pet: Timcanpy is adorable, bites people and gets away with it, eats although he never needs food, and is deeply attached to those he's closest to.
  • Tear Jerker: Has its own page.
  • Tears Of Blood: The Third Exorcists vaporize a ton of Akuma without using Innocence. Allen, who has to watch Akuma's souls screaming in torment all the time anyway, does not react well.
  • Technically A Smile: The Earl is always grinning cheerfully, but the look on his face when he's pissed goes way, way beyond Slasher Smile and dives head-first into Nightmare Fuel Unleaded.
  • This Is Unforgivable: Said by Allen after Lulu Bell's minions turn Tup into a Skull.
  • Through His Stomach: Definitely the way to make Allen happy.
  • Tokyo is the Center of the Universe: Seriously averted. Japan's isolation allowed the Earl to conquer it easily; at the start of the story almost all of the Japanese are dead and the country is run by Akuma.
  • Tomato In The Mirror: The manga revealed that Allen Walker is the new 14th Noah - or will be, once the memories of the previous 14th awaken fully within him.
  • Too Cool To Live: Cross Marian, who receives a head wound that would kill any human. Although they Never Found The Body...
  • Too Dumb To Live: Jasdevi have the power to materialize anything they both think about at the same time. So why didn't they just materialize a mass of concrete filling up the whole room or something else that would instantly end the fight?
  • Transformation Trauma: Level 1 Akuma bursting through their human skin. Probably painless, but very unsettling. Also Level 0 Akuma forcing themselves down their host's throat.
  • Training From Hell: Why Allen doesn't seem too fond of General Cross.
  • Trickster Mentor: CROSS. So much so, that he qualifies Allen for an honorary mention on the Abusive Parents trope page.
  • Tsundere: For is this in a big way. She is cranky and aggressive towards Allen, putting him through brutal training sessions, during one of which she calls him weak and cowardly because he can't activate his Innocence. After that session, she disguises herself as Rohfa and consoles him, encouraging him to do better. She even gets a little flirtatious. When the real Rohfa sees her, For immediately reverts to her tsuntsun side, saying, "Don't get me wrong Allen, I didn't come here to cheer you up!" Turned away and blushing, no less.
  • Uncanny Valley: Level 4 Akuma, a.k.a. "DEAR GOD, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!"
  • Ungrateful Bastard: The Black Order officials to Allen after the Ark arc. You'd think they'd be excited that the new kid managed to capture the Ark, temporarily disrupt the Earl's supply of Akuma, find the missing General, and hit General-level synchronization rates himself, but instead they immediately suspect him of being a traitor. Despite the fact that going by Suman Dark, that's not even possible.
  • Verbal Tic: The first Level 3 Akuma we meet has an artist's soul and likes to start his sentences with "Title".
    • A lot of level 2+ Akuma do this, such as the cat akuma that comes after Miranda ("Nya!") and the frog akuma Krory and co. meet in the small farming town ("Kero!") The biggest offender is Cross' modified Akuma, whose constant tendency to end her sentences with "Cho!" causes Lavi to dub her "Chomesuke."
    • The Earl's umbrella, Lero, frequently punctuates its sentences with its name.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: This◊ is a guy? Seriously?
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Allen throws up when he first sees a Level 4 Akuma's soul.
  • Where The Hell Is Springfield: In the beginning, the main character is supposed to find the Black Order Headquarters without knowing where the hell it is. The location is still unknown, but a filler episode seems to be hinting it's in France.
    • Well... At least in the Anime, Cross Marian asks Allen if "he knew the way to the Black Order" before knocking him out, because the good General won't be joining him on the account that he "hates that place". And even if Allen didn't knew, or forgot because of the blow to the head, Timcanpy surely knows the way, So... yeah.
      • According to the first D.Gray-man Reverse novel, which is part of canon, all that Cross had ever told Allen was that the Black Order was somewhere in Europe. And so Allen had to travel to Britain, hoping that a particular supporter of the Order he knew there might be able to give directions - which she did. Timcanpy didn't help.
  • Whip It Good: Klaud Nine and Lulu Bell.
  • White Haired Pretty Boy: Possibly averted since Allen is so gosh darn nice.
    • Wisely is a straight example.
  • The Woobie: Allen. Not that he seems to notice.
  • Word Salad Title: Hoshino said in her interview at the Animagic convention in Germany that the idea for the name D.Gray-man came from the fact that "The colors black and white play an important role in the whole series. And the color gray symbolizes that."
  • Wrecked Weapon: Allen's arm. It gets better eventually, though. Also Lavi and Kanda, later. Heck, this is the Earl's ultimate goal.
  • Yandere: Eliade. So very much.
    • Justified, as she is genuinely in love with Krory, but is being driven crazy by the conflict this presents with her Akuma programming.
    • Also, Road Kamelot.
  • You Can Barely Stand: Sometimes Allen literally can't stand and keeps fighting anyway. Empathic Weapon body armor sure is handy, huh?
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Lenalee Lee: Hello Legs!!
  • Zombie Apocalypse: One of the manga arcs after the end of the anime. Hilarity Ensues.

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