So I ended up getting engrossed in the D. Gray-man anime.
It's horrible fluff most of the time, but the psycho Batman-esque villains are great fun to watch and keep you interested.
Also, it's another 'alternate history' / 'historical fantasy' story, so I'm digging the visual style, even if there's very little to suggest the time period outside of the aesthetics.
Also, Miranda Lotto is really easy to empathize with, so I suppose the writers are doing -something- right with their characters.
Still, it's ridiculously -meh- for how popular it is. That said, I still like it and I'm looking forward to the conclusion. I'm on Episode 43-ish if anyone follows this series and has any comments, positive or negative, they'd like to add/warn me about.
In the DL!
Allen Walkter: Well, Allen is pretty awesome. He has the most variety of moves of the entire cast - he can attack ranged, up close, multiple targets at once, not to mention his Hamedo-like blocking abilities. He's also got a parasite-type Innocence, so he gets immunity to Akuma POIZN! Special bonus points for having the Eye That Sees Demons, which is kind of broken. Being the main, he gets the highest number of kills, certainly.
Kanda Yuu: Despite being an ass, he's another versatile one. Mostly a close-range swordsman, he has a few magic tricks (and multi-target moves) that he can do with his Innocence. Kind of average on speed for an Exorcist, but his ridiculous recovery speed means that he's pretty durable overall. The team could probably do without him.
Linali Lee: Has the feeling of token girl. She gets magic boots for her Innocence. You know what that means - she's the speedy/evasive one! She has no real multi-target abilities to speak of, but she should get enough turns to keep up with the boys. Arguably immune to ground-based attacks while she's using her level 2 Innocence. Not a powerhouse, though.
Lavi: Favorite character, he's essentially the Big Guy, despite his appearance. He wields the Giant Hammer that grows larger on command, which while decently fast, he's certainly the slowest of the Exoricists. He's also the only one who can use more than one Element, plus he knows some low-level First Aid, so he's all-around useful.
Bookman: Finally, a Healer! He's the wise old man-type, who can supposedly kick some ass, but the only thing we've seen him do is Heal people. He's good at it though, which is awesome considering that there's not a lot of ways to heal yourself in the D. Gray-man universe.
Alestair Crowley: Vampire-guy! He's really a nice dude, and he only drinks Akuma blood, so it's okay. He has a parasite-type Innocence that takes the form of his teeth, so he's definitely a short-range, single-target fighter, whose not even particularly accurate. His usefulness comes from the fact that he's one of the fastest characters, that all of his attacks drain HP, and that they often cause ID on Akuma. Note that he's useless against non-Akuma, but being one of the few characters who can keep his HP up makes him useful enough.
Miranda Lotto: Her Innocence is a Clock. As can be expected, she fills all the roles your average Time Mage does - she can speed things up, slow things down, Reset an entire battle, form an impenetrable barrier out of Time/Space such that anything that passes through it suddenly reverts back to initial state of nothingness (okay that last one's kind of new). More importantly, she can turn back time in a localized area for a short amount of time such that wounds and other injuries revert back to normal. However, once she stops using this effect, all the wounds and injuries received come rushing back to the recipient all at once. Better hope you're close to the Inn.
Daisya Barry: Temp! SPOILERS! He doesn't make it to the end of the series! END SPOILERS! He uses a sound-based Innocence, so most of his skills are effectively ITE. He's also ridiculously fast. Not particularly durable though. You only have him for one mission, but he's memorable enough - and good for when you have him!
Noise Mari: Blind and as such relies on MT attacks. Slow, durable type who uses mostly physical attacks and not a lot of tricks (or personality! or screentime!).
Komui Lee: Not an Exorcist! He's Linali's big brother! ...and leader of one of the main branches of the Black Order! He sends the characters out on missions, but he can do some fighting too. Sort of. He makes robots (he calls them Komuin) that tend to be overall useless, but never fail to wreck destruction to the area. Since they are uncontrollable and often attack allies, it's best to leave them out of the party. They -are- capable of healing, which is nice, but it doesn't make up for the indiscriminate damage they cause. Could be useful in sections where you don't have a full party.
Finders: But a better option would be the Finders! They tend to be seen as nameless (useless) recruits in the war against the Millenium Earl, but if you don't ever bring them along, you're likely to never find more Innocence fragments! They can use a weak-level Barrier skill to protect the party or to stun an Akuma. They also make great back-up healers if you don't have Bookman or Miranda around. Unfortunately, they tend to die to a sneeze and have no immunities to Akuma POIZN!
Generals: A group of 5 temps that come and go throughout the plot. They are ridiculously overpowered and tend to leave just before you have to fight a really hard boss, so don't rely on them!
Akuma: They have a range of abilities and basically act as Random encounters. The 'Level Two' Akuma are slightly more difficult and range from 'pushover' to 'badass' as Bosses. Since Innocence is designed to be specifically an Anti-Akuma weapon, these guys end up with lots of penalties against the main cast. Some of the better developed characters tend to be Akuma.
Noah Clan: Sucks to be an Exorcist fighting these guys. They're supervillains without any real weaknesses. Since they're still actually Humans, Allen won't kill them (think STactics Kyril), so you'd better hope that someone else is around to land the final blow.
Millenium Earl: Well, I haven't reached the Final Boss yet, so who knows? But he's pretty badass and psycho in plot scenes, so I'm hopeful.
...That was more fun than I was expecting it to be. I had just wanted to make a joke about Allen being immune to Akuma POIZN! and it spiraled out of control to the point where I think I ended up making a rough outline for a D.Gray-man RPG...
-Djinn
