D.Gray-Man 12 cover is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

15-year-old Allen Walker lives in a world that is essentially an alternate version of our world’s 19th century.  He roams this world searching for a substance called “Innocence.”  Allen is an Exorcist and uses Innocence to fight his enemies, and Innocence has bonded with his left arm to form a bladed weapon.  Allen and his comrades battle the evil Millennium Earl and his minions, the demons known as “Akuma.”

In D.Gray-Man, Vol. 12, Allen and his comrades are on the verge of escaping the fabled Ark of Noah, but waiting for them is the Noah, Tyki Mikk.  Tyki demands a duel with Allen, a fight that will either cost Allen his life or unleash a terrible power within him.

THE LOWDOWN:  Although the opening and closing chapters of this volume of D.Gray-Man are exciting and revelatory (the closing), the middle of the book is surprisingly run of the mill and isn’t indicative of how good this series is on occasion.  This is certainly a series that can be up and down in terms of the quality of the storylines.  When it’s good, D.Gray-Man is pretty fiery, but when it’s down, it can be a fairly average action comic.  New readers will find that D.Gray-Man is a shonen fight manga in the tradition of Naruto and Bleach, with its best storylines being almost as exciting as Bleach.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of those explosive, superhero-like titles that make up the “Shonen Jump Advanced” line will like D.Gray-Man.

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