of D.Gray-man. In other early colored chapters, Hoshino experimented with giving Allen gothic lolita style clothing and color style referencing American comics. Other early colored illustrations were meant to give the idea of symbolism such Kanda's being seen as a puppet or Allen being covered by threads of Akuma and later the idea of his Innocence returning to his body, giving him a shocked appearance. Some characters like the Third Exorcist were created as a setup and connected to both Kanda and Alma Karma's backstories. For their story arc, Lavi was supposed to appear but Hoshino found this challenging because it featured multiple characters. As a result, by the end of this story arc Allen abandons the Order so that Hoshino was able to write fewer characters per chapter. Hoshino has gone on to say that she often creates so many new characters across the series, the plot starts to change as it is driven by them. Originally, the setting and plot begin with a more coherent tone, but Hoshino must change them to match the characters' actions and believes it is more exciting to the point they might affect the conclusion. In designing the characters, Hoshino found it challenging as some of them, like Allen and Howard Link, started sharing similarities. To gather research for them, Hoshino uses the fashion magazine Sou-en and also asks for her assistant's help. Casting During production of the first anime adaptation the author often visited the TMS Entertainment studio, where the voice actors asked for her advice about their characters. While nervous about giving advice, Hoshino was amazed by the work of most of the voice actors. Tyki Mikk's voice actor, Toshiyuki Morikawa, remembered the series' recording sessions as being "lively" because of the presence of many popular actors. After the anime wrapped, the actors (who became friends during production) kept in touch. Sanae Kobayashi aimed to portray Allen properly as she feared, her performance might make the character act like a child. She states that despite his peaceful demeanor, Allen often shows angry mannerism when fighting, which allowed her to relate with the character. Once the series started airing, Kobayashi commented that Allen will mature across the narrative thanks to his interactions with other characters from the series. Hoshino was impressed by the delivery of his lines Kanda had when first seeing him while working in the making of the series. Meanwhile,