The D.Gray-man anime and manga series features a cast of characters created by Katsura Hoshino. The series is set at the end of a fictional 19th century during which the Black Order searches for Exorcists, the "Apostles of God" chosen to wield a divine substance called Innocence. They are the only ones who can destroy Akuma, weapons created by the Millennium Earl from souls of the deceased when humans curse God for the loss of loved ones, and stop the Earl's plan to destroy humanity.
The series' main character is Allen Walker, a young Exorcist who trained under Exorcist General Cross Marian and is sent to officially join the Black Order. Early in the series, he is sent on missions with fellow Exorcists. He meets Yu Kanda, a cold and mysterious swordsman looking for a certain person from his past; the friendly Lenalee Lee, who has been an Exorcist her entire life; and Lavi, the cheerful and energetic future Bookman, chronicler of the secret history of the world. They travel the globe, retrieving the pieces of Innocence scattered during the Great Flood and recruiting new Exorcists while fighting the Earl and his Akuma. However, the Black Order soon learns the Earl has help in the form of the Clan of Noah, a group of thirteen super-humans who can destroy Innocence and claim to be the true "Apostles of God". Both groups quickly begin searching for the Great Heart, the most powerful Innocence that can strengthen or destroy all the others, to bring an end to the war.
Many of the series' characters are taken from Hoshino's previous one-shots, both published and unpublished. She also modeled characters on her friends and well-known people. Designing and illustrating most characters was often difficult due to their beauty as well as their personalities. Critical reception to these characters has been positive, with writers praising most of the cast members as well as their development. The antagonists received a similar response. However, initial chapters of the manga, or episodes of the anime, attracted some criticism as a result of some of the characters feeling generic. Critics praised the voice actors for both the Japanese series and the English dub.
Creation and influence
Katsura Hoshino's Zone one shot featured many similar characters, especially Allen Walker, the Earl, Lenalee, and General Cross. Many other characters are also "leftovers" from previous, and sometimes unpublished works. Allen Walker, the series' main character is also based on the previous series' protagonist, who is a girl. Hoshino changed some of his characteristics to make him look more masculine. Hoshino says that she does not know where Allen's concept came from, since she likes her main characters to be rambunctious, rude idiots. Nevertheless, the character started behaving more informally across the series. In addition, Lavi was meant to be the protagonist of one of her planned series, Book-man. Other characters such as The Millennium Earl, Lenalee Lee and Komui Lee are based on real people, although Hoshino has not confirmed who they are. She has mentioned that some of them are famous scientists, while Komui is based on her boss. The character of Yu Kanda, based on a samurai, was created to vary D.Gray-mans Western setting. Hoshino found the design of some characters difficult early in the series. This resulted in Kanda having few appearances in the early volumes until the Noah's ark story arc, where he returned to join the cast with Allen having become harder to draw than him. On the other hand, she found the Millennium Earl and Reever Willingham easier to draw.
When designing the characters, Hoshino first imagines their lives even though some parts might not be featured in the story. Their personalities are then written down along with their habits or eating preferences. She has admitted she does not have written details about a number of D.Gray-man characters. Hoshino chose the title "D.Gray-man" for its multiple meanings, most referring to the state of Allen and the other main characters. The Akumas were inspired by 1973 film, The Exorcist which Hoshino admitted scared her when watching it. In Timcanpy's case, his design is based on the silver accessory brand Timcanpi. The character Bak Chan was created with the help of Kaya Kizaki, who wrote the D.Gray-man Reverse novels. Hoshino has revealed that she got most of her ideas for the series while asleep in the bath for six hours.