not as positive, believing that the story was kept from reaching its full potential because of "generic character designs". He also said that because the action scenes are thrown together without a change of pace or mood, the readers never get to know the secondary characters better. Tom Tonhat of The Escapist praised the cast because it inspired multiple cosplaying and praised the Earl's characterization for how he tricked people into reviving others, a theme he found dark. Like Osman, Brain Henson of Mania Beyond Entertainment enjoyed how both the Earl and the Noah clan, who have been working for him, have made the storyline darker. Additionally, in later arcs Anime News Network writer Anne Lauenroth found the Earl's characterization more intriguing as he was shown in a more sensitive way after failing to find his former comrade, Nea. In early episodes, while finding Allen outstanding, Kevin Learthers said the Noah such as Road and Tyki were more interesting characters than most of the exorcists. When it came to the voice actors, Lauenroth said she became a fan of Kanda mostly because of his Japanese actor, Takahiro Sakurai. For the anime sequel, D.Gray-man, the entire cast was given new voice actors. While Lauenroth praised Ayumu Murase for her work as Allen, and started developing another persona, Nea, filling two roles, she had a mixed reaction to Takuya Satō's work as Kanda. Nevertheless, in following episodes she praised both Satō's, Tsubasa Yonaga's (the young Kanda) as well as Megumi Han (Alma Karma) for their work in Kanda's and Alma's backstory. Thanasis Karavasilis from Manga Tokyo said that while many fans of the series were bothered by the new actors, he did not mind the change in the main cast's voices. Funimation's English voice actors have also been well-received by critics with Animation Insiders Kimberly Morales noting most of them were equal to the Japanese cast with the exception of Travis Willingham, Kanda's voice actor. A similar opinion was voiced by Michael Marr from Capsule Computers. DVDTalk's Todd Douglass Jr. said he preferred the English version for its "immersion" in the series, but did not consider it satisfactory. On the other hand, Casey Brienza criticized the English dub saying that while the actors did not use British accents despite most of the first episodes being set in Europe. Instead most of the cast have North American accents. References D.Gray-man manga volumes by