page_title: D.Gray-man
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: D.Gray-man / Production
caption_attribution_description: A portion of a photo of the manga artist Katsura Hoshino while she attended the 2008 AnimagiC convention in Bonn, Germany.
context_page_description: D.Gray-man is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. Set in an alternate 19th century, it tells the story of a young Allen Walker, who joins an organization of exorcists named the Black Order. They use an ancient substance, Innocence, to combat a man known as the Millennium Earl and his demonic army of Akuma who intend to destroy humanity. Many characters are adapted from Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone. The series is noted for its dark narrative; Hoshino once rewrote a scene she thought too violent for her young readers.
  The manga began serialization in 2004 in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha. Production of the series was suspended several times because of Hoshino's health problems. D.Gray-man made the transition from a weekly to a monthly series in November 2009, when it began serialization in Jump Square. In December 2012, the series went on indefinite hiatus. It resumed serialization in July 2015 after the release of Jump SQ.Crown, a spin-off from the magazine Jump SQ. After Jump SQ.Crown ceased its publication, the series was switched to Jump SQ.Rise, starting in April 2018.
context_section_description: A draft of D.Gray-man was sent to Shueisha by manga author Katsura Hoshino on a non-specified date. She had mixed feelings about writing the series, since she had been offered other jobs (such as developing video games). However, Shueisha liked the draft and the staff asked Hoshino to go ahead with the series in 2004 believing it would be popular. She had originally intended to write a story about zombies, but was discouraged by her editor T-shi and decided to abandon the idea during the third chapter. Asked about her inspiration for writing about the supernatural, Hoshino said that she feared the supernatural after seeing the 1973 film, The Exorcist. Although the horror film frightened her, it also inspired the author to design the manga's Akuma.
  The area in the series known as Noah's Ark was based on science fiction ideas rather than the supernatural ideas that had influenced the Akuma. After conceiving of the Ark's role in the series, Hoshino decided to write a song when Allen is rebuilding it through a piano. She requested help from her editor, a university graduate, but decided to use her own lyrics. She blamed it on her own ego.
  Elements of D.Gray-man first appeared in Hoshino's one-shot title, Zone, in which the Akuma, the exorcists, and the Millennium Earl plan to end the world. Although Allen Walker is male, his character is based on Zone's female protagonist. Lavi is based on the protagonist of Hoshino's planned series, Book-man, that she originally wanted to write. Other characters, such as the Millennium Earl, Lenalee Lee, and Komui Lee, are based on real people whom Hoshino has not specifically identified; some are well-known scientists, and Komui is based on Hoshino's boss. The character of Yu Kanda, based on a samurai, was created to vary D.Gray-man's Western setting. Hoshino found the design of some of the characters difficult early in the series. In 2011, the author visited New York City for research, and believed that the city had greatly influenced her work. Hoshino visited cemeteries, and was deeply impressed by her guides' comments at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center (left after the September 11 attacks). She said that she would like to spend more time in New York City to gather data for the series.
  After beginning D.Gray-man, Hoshino considered continuing to use the name Zone and also contemplated naming the series Dolls or Black Noah. She chose "D.Gray-man" for its several meanings, most referring to the state of Allen and the other main characters. Although the title's meaning was not completely explained, Hoshino said that the "D" stands for "dear". According to the author, she got most of her ideas for the series while sleeping in her bathtub for six hours. One exception was the second-volume plot, based on a Noh story entitled "Koi no Omoni".
  When the manga moved from weekly to monthly serialization in 2009, Hoshino heard concerns from readers about its possible cancellation and reassured them that the series would continue. She set up Kanda's backstory by introducing the Third Exorcists, characters related to him and Alma Karma. In Hoshino's original drafts, Kanda's past had a number of plot holes. A rewritten, published version had a young Kanda walking along a path surrounded by dead people who had cared for him. Due to its violence, the image was replaced with one in which Kanda learns that Alma Karma had killed them all. When the chapters were collected into a volume, Hoshino added a small chapter which included the corpses.
  When drawing the series, Hoshino entrusts her storyboards to her editor, which was initially complicated to her due to D.Gray-man being her first series. She faced difficulties with the initial weekly serialization of the manga resulted in multiple changes due to the how the storyboards changed across this period. Following Hoshino's change to a three-mestral serialization, she uses digital from the storyboard stage. In bringing this style, she looked after manga author Tite Kubo, famous for writing Bleach, who uses a similar style. This allowed her to add more de
caption: Manga author Katsura Hoshino incorporated several elements of her one-shot title, Zone, into D.Gray-man.[5]
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