D.Gray-man is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. The series tells the story of a boy named Allen Walker, a member of an organization of Exorcists who makes use of an ancient substance called Innocence to combat the Millennium Earl and his demonic army of akuma. Many characters and their designs were adapted from some of Katsura Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone, and Continue, and her assistants.
The manga began serialization in 2004 in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha under their Jump Comics imprint, and to date, 18 collected volumes have been released. It is currently slated to make the transition from weekly to monthly series in November 2009, when it begins serialization in Jump Square. There is also a spin-off novel series titled D.Gray-man Reverse, authored by Kaya Kizaki, that explores the history of various characters. As of August 4, 2009, Viz Media has released the first fourteen volumes in the United States. The manga has also been adapted into a 103 episode anime series that aired from October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008 in Japan. Video games, a card game, and other assorted media have been released based on the series.
The manga series has become one of the best-sellers for Shueisha. During its second release week, the 15th volume of the manga ranked as the second best selling comic in Japan. Although most reviewers compared it to other series from the same genre, they praised its moments of originality and its well-developed characters and their personalities.
D.Gray-man follows the adventures of 15-year-old Allen Walker, whose left arm can transform into a monstrous claw and destroy akuma, evolving machines created by the Millennium Earl to help him destroy humanity. As ordered by his master General Cross Marian, Allen becomes an Exorcist, people who can destroy akuma, for the Black Order, an organization attempting to stop the Earl. He becomes a powerful asset for the Order because he can detect disguised akuma with his left eye. Allen is sent to recover pieces of Innocence, a substance that gives certain people, called Exorcists, the ability to destroy akuma. The Earl decides to call together the Noah Family, superhuman descendants of Noah who can destroy Innocence. Both sides start the search for the Great Heart, the most powerful piece of Innocence that will assure victory to the side that finds it.
During his search, the Earl begins killing the Generals, the Order's most powerful Exorcists. To protect them, the Order attempts to bring the Generals back to headquarters, and Allen and three other Exorcists are sent to search for the missing General Cross. During the search, Allen and Lenalee Lee are nearly killed and saved by their Innocence, leading the Earl and Bookman and his apprentice Lavi, who are chronicling the war, to believe one of them possesses the Great Heart. Meanwhile, the Order learns that the 14th, a Noah that betrayed and was killed by the Earl, implanted his memories into Allen. The memories will erode Allen away until he becomes the 14th. This leads the Order to believe that Allen may betray them.
This manga review was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.Gray-man
Thursday, December 10, 2009
D. Gray-man
Bloody Monday
Bloody monday is a story about Fujimaru Takagi, a "wizard class" hacker who have a code name "Falcon" in the hacking world. He is a prodigy who has an incredible computer skills but only hacks into corrupt's people computer and bring their crime to lights. Bloody monday until now consist of two chapter where the first chapter is over now and the second one is on running.
In a small town in Russia, a deadly virus is sold to a seductive woman who quickly turns the town into a testing ground, killing everyone in it. Meanwhile in Japan, a group of friends in school live out their happy school life. One of them, Fujimaru is secretly the genius hacker known as Falcon. His father works for a secret government agency and Fujimaru's skills are often called upon to aid the government. Fujimaru has been recruited by the PSST (based on the Public Security Intelligence Agency) to find out what happened in Russia when Third-I PSST agents had recovered an unknown memory stick containing files of the incident.
Fujimaru realize then that his friends and family life suddenly in danger because of the mission. After several incidents Fujimaru find a clue that is "Bloody Monday". The mission become even harder when his father accused of murdering his superior. However Fujimaru is driven by the quest to find out the truth behind Bloody Monday.
Soon after, the terrorist Maya Orihara, who was responsible for the incident in Russian is now in Tokyo in order to find the memory stick to stop Third-I and falcon from knowing the truth. She goes under cover as a teacher at Fujimaru Takagi High School. From there it is hard for Fujimaru to find out who he can trust because there're agents from terrorist organization even among his close friends, as he uses his high-level hacking skills to try and save the country. But it's not easy because he have to face strong enemies with high intellectual level and hacking techniques.
Veritas
Veritas is a Korean manhwa (manga in Korean) written by YOON Joon-sik and illustrated by KIM Dong-hoon has been in production since 2005. A middle schooler named Gangryong Ma is saved one day by a man whose strength is beyond belief. This man is called Lightning Tiger. He teaches Gangryong the Enlightenment Of Thunder and Lightning, thereby introducing him to a world of power that will change his life forever.
Gangryong Ma was the boss of his middle school, getting in fistfights almost every day. He thought that winning those fistfights was what it meant to be strong. That all ended when he met Lightning Tiger, a man whose power dwarfed that of any man Gangryong had ever met before. After arguing, begging, and jumping through hoops for a year to prove his loyalty, Gangryong convinced Lightning Tiger to be his master.
For two months, Lightning Tiger taught Gangryong the secret of ki manipulation by way of the Enlightenment Of Thunder and Lightning (EOTL), a traditional Korean martial art passed on through the centuries to one student at a time. By properly refining and focusing his ki, Gangryong learned not only to increase his strength, speed, and stamina, but to create powerful lightning attacks that could level trees. When the two months were up, Lightning Tiger left Gangryong, warning him of an inevitable battle against a strong enemy and hoping that they might one day see each other.
Months later, Gangryong was approached by an ominous group of men. He was presented with a box, and was told that it contained the arm of Lightning Tiger, whom they had supposedly killed. These men were from Reunion, a multinational organization whose main goals were the collection, evolution and eventual perfection of traditional martial arts and the creation of artificial ki, or natural energy, which could be used to make people more powerful. They forced Gangryong to enter a special school designed to train suitable fighters in the fighting styles that had been collected and created by Reunion.
Now, within Reunion, Gangryong finds himself a flash-point for controversy. As student of a sworn enemy of Reunion, there are many who want him dead. As the sole practitioner of EOTL, there are many who desire to see his success, so that they may use his techniques. All the while, Gangryong must work to uncover the secrets in the training he was given, so that he may achieve the power he seeks, and finally avenge the presumed deceased Lightning Tiger.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Gantz
Gantz is one of the best manga I ever read. The story is not usual and very unique and the plot of story itself is quite unpredictable. Gantz is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. Gantz tells the story of a teenager named Kei Kurono who dies in a train accident and becomes part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which he and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens. The missions they embark upon are dangerous. Many die on most missions, but are usually replaced in the same manner as Kei Kurono's appearance.
The story starts when a pair of high school students, Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, are run over by a subway train in an attempt to save the life of a homeless drunk who had fallen onto the tracks. Following their deaths, Kurono and Kato find themselves transported to the interior of an unfurnished Tokyo apartment. The pair soon realize others are present and find that they are not able to leave the apartment. At one end of the room there is a featureless black sphere known as "Gantz".
After some time in the room, the Gantz sphere opens up, revealing a bald naked man with a breathing mask and wires attached to his head, and three racks protruding from it, that offer various items for them to use. These include the custom fitting black suits Gantz makes for each of them, giving them super-human abilities, a controller which act as a radar and stealth unit, and three types of guns.
When the Gantz sphere opens, green text appears on its surface, informing those present that their "lives have ended and now belong" to him. A picture and brief information is shown of some of the Gantz Targets, Gantz ordering them to go and kill them. All but one target shown thus far, have been aliens living on Earth, which take on a wide variety of forms. After a period of time which varies between missions, everyone except Gantz are transported to the location of the mission.
Those sent cannot return from the mission until all enemies have been killed, or the time limit has run out. If they survive a successful mission, each individual is awarded points for the aliens they have killed. They are then allowed to leave, and live their lives as they see fit until Gantz summons them back again for the next mission. The only way to stop having to participate in the missions is to earn one hundred points, and choose the option to be freed. Several participants, including Kato, are killed through the third mission they are given, leaving Kurono as the only survivor and the new leader from the "Gantz Team". However, as the series continues, Kurono participates with the objective to revive his deceased friends with the 100 points he can obtain throughout the missions.
After several missions, Gantz's sphere indicates that the human race will be over in a week for an unknown reason, but it also frees all the participants from the game. Kurono and the others feel so glad that they can finally get free from Gantz, but then the world start to become strange and the sky become red as the sign of the destruction of human race by unknown creature. What I really like about Gantz are the plot and "Reika" who is the female character in Gantz story who loves Kurono so much. I will write about the characters of tis manga later. You should read this awesome manga yourself guyz. I'm sure you'll find it really interesting.
