D. Gray-Man Season 3

Hey guys! So I was going to just do this as a combined post with Season 4 and Hallow...but I decided that was cruel of me and wanted to talk about each season and their respective DVDs separately. Also, as this will be the first blog post of 2018 (I lied! It's actually the second! But it is the first to feature the new format!), I figured I would show you the new format I was hoping to roll out. Let's see if it sticks. It is going to be a combination of an old format I had with the one I currently use. Plus, in 2018 I am hoping to expand the KAC team and allow you to read from more than just my crazy ramblings...funny thing, on my sister's Netflix account I have a profile on there that says "Krazi Kat" because Lord knows I am extremely crazy. Anyway, let's get started.

D. Gray-Man Season 3 Recap and Review

Back in January of 2010, Funimation released the last of the first two seasons of D. Gray-Man. They no longer had the rights to the series and were unable to dub the last two seasons of the series. Flash-forward to 2016 and D. Gray-Man was returning to us. A fifth season was released and simuldubbed through Funimation. We were graced with the beauty of our favorite series and fans (like me) who were caught up on the series via anime and manga were excited to see a favorite arch finally animated. Flash-forward once again to 2017 and Funimation finally had the rights to dub and release the third and fourth season of the show! And here we are talking about season three. 

Cast and Crew

Luckily, a lot of the original cast and crew were able to return, however, there were some changes to the lineup due to either scheduling conflicts or unfortunate circumstances. I won't be talking about EVERYONE in the show, but I will be talking about a couple people. 

Crew

ADR Director: Cris George

ADR Director: Tyler Walker

Assistant ADR Director: Todd Haberkorn

Head Writer: John Burgmeier

Source

Cast

Allen Walker - Todd Haberkorn

Yu Kanda - Ian Sinclair

Lenalee Lee - Luci Christian

Lavi - Jason Liebrecht

The Millenium Earl - Jason Liebrecht

Road Kamelot - Cherami Leigh

Tyki Mikk - Brad Hawkins

Komui Lee - J. Michael Tatum

Reever Wenham - Chuck Huber

Bak Chan - Ricco Fajardo

Fo - Felecia Angelle

Miranda Lotto - Colleen Clinkenbeard

Arystar Krory III - Eric Vale

Bookman - R Bruce Elliot

Noise Marie - Ray Gestaut

Chaoji Han - Cris George

Froi Teidoll - Jerry Russel

Jasdero - Joel McDonald

David - Z Charles Bolton

Skinn Bolic - Sonny Strait

Cross Marian - Christopher Sabat

Wong - Garrett Shenck

Li Kei - Clay Wheeler

Shifu - Derick Snow

Lo Hua - Jeanne Tirado 

Suman Dark - Robert McCollum

Lero - Monica Rial

Everything is amazing about this casting and the crew are really dedicated to this series. Everyone of them worked on the original series in one way or another and this show means as much to them as it does to us. So please go give them love! 

Episodes

Now the episodes that are included in season 3 follow directly after episode 51 from season 2. Season 3 Part One includes episodes 52-64 and Season 3 Part Two includes episodes 65-77. Now let's take a look at each of the episode titles. I'll talk about my favorite ones only, otherwise we'd be here all day.

Ep 52 - "Raid" 

Ep 53 - "Fallen One" 

Ep 54 - "The Beginning of the Night of the End"
Ep 55 - "A Scream"
Ep 56 - "Delete"

*Okay, so if you've been following me long enough, you know that this is one of my favorite episodes/chapters of the series. I even took the time to draw Allen from this scene. This scene is a turning point in the series and shows how strong Allen truly is. It's also one of the saddest episodes.*

Ep 57 - "Loss and Reunion"
Ep 58 - "Asian Branch"
Ep 59 - "The Road of the Pledged"
Ep 60 - "Title"
Ep 61 - "Sinking Darkness"
Ep 62 - "Maiden Who Has Fallen into Darkness"
Ep 63 - "Ship Stalled, Girl Remains Absent"
Ep 64 - "Message"
Ep 65 - "Landing"
Ep 66 - "Confusion and Impatience"
Ep 67 - "Heading to Edo"
Ep 68 - "Silence"
Ep 69 - "Invasion"
Ep 70 - "God's Clown"

*I LOVE this episode! I used to know it word for word in Japanese. Allen finally synchronizing with his innocence and gaining Crown Clown is amazing. It also finally gives you a bit more insight into Allen's heart and gives you an idea of where the series is headed.*

Ep 71 - "The Name Chronicled"
Ep 72 - "Showdown in the Capital"
Ep 73 - "Kanda Joins the Battle"
Ep 74 - "Edo Annihilated"
Ep 75 - "Clown and Auguste"

*Finally! A showdown we had been waiting for! Allen finally joins the battle once again and fights the Earl to save Lenalee. Plus it has one of my favorite interactions between Allen and Kanda.*

Ep 76 - "A Key and Noah's Door"
Ep 77 - "The Skinn Bolic Room"

DVD Design and Features

I am always impressed by anime DVD designs. D. Gray-Man is a beautiful series and Funimation did a hell of a job creating a case to match. Not only did they match the artwork of the original series' DVD releases but they are just very beautiful. Part One features Allen Walker who is holding his bloody hand over his heart while his arm of innocence is exposed and his jacket is in tatters. It foreshadows what happens to Allen in this season. 

Source

Part Two features a grinning Tyki Mikk surrounded by Tease. Whereas Allen's cover is black, Tyki's cover is white. It is contrasting and very beautiful. Tyki's cover makes it seem like he won while Allen's cover makes it seem like he is trapped in darkness...which technically he is. 

Source

Now some features on the DVDs include a variety of things from commentaries to textless openings. Part one features Video Commentary for Episode 52 and Audio Commentary for Episode 58. It also features the textless opening "Doubt & Trust" and the textless ending "Anata ga Koko ni Iru Riyuu". Part two features two Audio Commentaries for Episode 72 and 77. It also features a funny as fuck video called Todd Haberkorn Presents: D. Gray-Man. I can never get enough of the ever beautiful Todd (if you've been a fan of KAC long enough you know about the HUGE crush I have on him). He also gets to feed Ian Sinclair cheese balls too...but you'd have to watch the video to understand. And finally, the DVD features the textless openings for "Doubt & Trust" and "Gekidou" as well as the textless endings for "Wish" and "regret". If you haven't purchased a copy of this yet, I highly recommend it! 

You can find them here: Season 3 Part 1 // Season 3 Part 2

In all honesty, I was very excited when they announced the return of D. Gray-Man. So as a dedicated fan, I am very pleased with this release. Funimation made all the right choices and I can't wait to see Season 4! (When both parts of Season 4 are released next year, I will cover those too!) Let me know what you guys thought of D. Gray-Man season 3! What were your likes and dislikes? Also, like I said, please go give love to the amazing staff who worked on D. Gray-Man. We've waited patiently this long and so have they. 

That's all for this time. Next blog post will be my SF9 post that was supposed to originally go up in December but wasn't uploaded out of respect for the loss of a k-pop idol, then I will be starting Korean Break Season 3 which will be a massive 10 parts...whoa. Then I will be back on anime again especially because in May I will be attending AniMinneapolis with the whole KAC Team. 

Until next time! 

Ja ne!

xx Kat

=^.^=

Update 1/8/17