D. Gray Man

D. Gray Man is an action, adventure, shonen battle, drama, comedy, romance, dark fantasy, tragedy anime series. It was based on a manga series written by Katsura Hoshino and published by Shueisha for the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from May 31, 2004 to May 11, 2009, Jump Square from November 4, 2009 to December 29, 2012, and Jump SQ Crown from July 17, 2015 to present. The series began on May 31, 2004, and is still ongoing, with 25 volumes in total so far. After that it got a light novel series, titled D. Gray-man:  Reverse, which was written by kaya Kizaki, illustrated by Katsura Hoshino, and published by Shueisha from May 30, 2005 to December 3, 2010 for 3 volumes in total. After that it got two seasons of the anime. The first season was directed by Osamu Nabeshima and Nana Harada, written by Reiko Yoshida, musically composed by Kaoru Wada, and produced by TMS Entertainment. It originally ran from October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008, for 103 episodes in total. The second season of the anime, titled D. Gray-man Hollow, was directed by YOshiharu Ashino, written by Michiko Yokote, Tatsuto Yiguchi, and Kenichi Yamashita, musically composed by Kaoru Wada, and produced by TMS Entertainment. It originally ran from July 4, 2016 to September 26, 2016 for 13 episodes in total.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
 * 2) Excellent animation in almost every scene, especially during fight scenes and dramatic scenes.
 * 3) Great soundtrack.
 * 4) Well-written exposition.
 * 5) Enjoyable, quick moving plot.
 * 6) Awesome villains which are reminiscent of comic book villains.
 * 7) The main villain in particular, the Millennium Earl, is quite likable, despite his role.
 * 8) The main character, Allan Walker, is very likable, complicated, and interesting.  He has a tragic backstory, which makes him sympathetic, and it's well integrated into his character rather than feeling tacked-on.
 * 9) While the series early on seemed like an amature comic, it has made significant improvements as it continued.
 * 10) It's impressive how the manga was able to combine so many different genres, such as action, adventure, romance, comedy, horror, drama, and fantasy, making it an atypical manga from it's demographic.
 * 11) While some of the elements seemed derivitive at first, it eventually developed a unique identity.
 * 12) Amazing, intense, heart-pounding fight scenes.
 * 13) While some plot twists could come out of nowhere, many of them were still, nevertheless, enjoyable and fascinating, such as when it was revealed that Allan Walker was actually the 14th Noah and that he'd be an enemy of the Order.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some plot points could come out of nowhere.
 * 2) In the manga, the artwork was rather hit or miss. Some of the fights could be rather unintelligable.