This year is looking to herald the return of several fan favorite anime, with the latest among them being the adaptation of Katsura Hoshino's "D.Gray-man." At AnimeJapan, the largest anime-themed event in Japan, The TMS Entertainment stage panel announced more of the voice cast as well as the new series' title and July premiere date.
The return of "D.Gray-man" is bound to please faithful fans who have stuck with the original manga through its troubled times in recent years. As for the anime, the last adaptation came before these troubles began and was quite popular during its run, lasting for two seasons, accounting for the beginning of series-protagonist Allen Walker's adventures up through the conclusion of the Black Order HQ Invasion arc. It went through 103 episodes, beginning in 2006 and ending in 2008.
The new adaptation will be titled "D.Gray-man Hallow," and the producer notes that the series will start off from where the last one left off rather than reboot the series as a whole. Regardless, the series may very well prove to be a totally new experience - even for those who watched the original - as the anime series will feature a whole new cast, which includes:
- Ayumu Murase as Allen Walker
- Takuya Satō as Yū Kanda
- Natsuki Hanae as Lavi
- Ai Kakuma as Lenalee Lee
- Shinnosuke Tachibana as Howard Link
- Yutaka Aoyama as The Earl of Millenium
- Masakazu Nishida as Tyki Mikk
- Yui Kondou as Road Camelot
- Souichiro Hoshi as Wisely
- Ryōta Asari as Alma Karma
No word on the full staff behind the series yet, but TMS Entertainment did provide a cool promotional video and visual, whose tagline reads, "Don't stand still. Keep walking."
Published in 2004 in "Weekly Shōnen Jump," Hoshino's "D.Gray-man" has been wildly popular over the years, ranked among the best-seller series of the "Weekly Shōnen Jump" magazine, with individual volumes appearing on lists of the 50 best-selling manga of any given year since its debut. However, that popularity has been stymied by production issues. The manga has gone on hiatus several times through the years due to Hoshino's health, with the series eventually resuming in "Jump Square" magazine in 2009. The manga's latest hiatus had been ongoing since 2013, but the manga resumed in the new "Jump Square Crown" quarterly magazine when the magazine launched on July 17, 2015.
Even with all these issues against it, "D.Gray-man" has withstood the proverbial test of time sparking various spin-offs. Aside from the already-mentioned 2006-2008 anime adaptation and upcoming 2016 one, the series has also inspired several light novels, audio dramas and two video games, with Walker himself appearing as a guest in several others.
To date, "D.Gray-man" has 24 volumes with the most recent one being published in November 2013.
Check out the promotional video below:
