Yu Kanda

"You're too soft, you know that? An Exorcist is simply a destroyer. We'll never be anyone's saviour."

- Yu Kanda to Allen Walker

Yu Kanda is one of the four main protagonists of the anime/manga series D.Gray Man. He is the first member of the Black Order Allen Walker meets face-to-face and ends up in a brief skirmish with him (due to believing him to be an Akuma at the time). Kanda is generally portrayed as a cold, serious and arrogant individual, rarely allowing anything to get in the way of business. He is, more often than not, willing to leave those who slow him down behind, even if it means their death and especially if they are not Exorcists, viewing any field officers (especially Finders) who are not Exorcists expendable pawns who should not be expected to be saved.

Because of this, despite being one of the main characters, he frequently becomes antagonistic, especially to Allen, due to their conflicting views about the worth of the lives of others. He also has a short temper and gets greatly irritated when people call him by his first name, especially Lavi (who often does it deliberately to see how he'll react and even got almost killed for it shortly after joining the order).

He is later revealed to not be human at all, but an artificial construct known as a Second Exorcist, created by the Black Order in an attempt keep the number of Exorcists stable. His brain originally belonged to an Exorcist who died thirty years before the main story. Despite looking like a 19-year old man, he has in reality lived for only nine years.

He is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai in the Japanese version of the anime and Travis Willingham in the English version, the latter of whom also voices Roy Mustang.