Ga-Rei: Zero

After I saw the overall score, and red some of the reviews at the end of the anime my soul was screamin "and this is it?", no like seriously that was it? So to summarize story, Kagura (a girl who shouts only "Yomi/demo/sonna") is a best friend and a sister wannabe off Yomi(a mediocre orphan written character) and because Yomi is in her teen age (probably that is the only thinkable reason) she will get brainwashed into thinking that it's NOT ok to feel hatred against someone who killed her father manipulated everybody to hate and abandon her by using a some stone which turn ... you into evil person, and because she is an exorcist she will kill her(which is ok, but nobody gets it), and so Yomi will feel abandoned because nobody but her close frends believes her and she will do exactly the same as the person she killed.... AND THATS IT, yes thats it, and not to mention that 70% of the story is a flashback so you know right at the start how the story will progress. So you are just waiting for something to hapen..but it wont. I feel really dissapointed. Not because the story was promising at the start, or because of unique storytelling or character design...oh hell no. I am dissapointed because my expectations were set much higher then usualy would be and that is because of ridiculously overrated score this anime has.

Oh I am so angry, I wont even read my rewiew again for typos!
Have a good night!!!

Ga-Rei Zero caught my attention while browsing a forum. To be more accurate it was a character named Yomi. The motto of the show “Will you kill someone you love because of love?” seemed interesting and makes you wonder about the series.

The show starts basically with the ending. We don't get any introductions we just arrive in the middle of the action. The whole first episode is raced through the events, and it got a sudden and suprising end. At the beginning of the second episode the whole pace changes, and we return to the events that happened years before the first episode. After this ... the show basically turns into a slice of life show with few bits of drama and pretty much cominc relief elements.

We get see the main characters relationships to each other and their motives explained. There are some action scenes in-between, but they don't become important to the main story until the end. The last few episodesw pick the pace up again and show us the events that eventually led to episode one.

Now few words about the ending. After all this build-up, you wait for a a climatic, atcion-packed conclusion and you might think everything gets explained and resolved. Wrong. You get the action and you understand the motives of the main characters, but it is so rushed and meaningless, that barely feels like an ending. The anime was a prequel to the manga series, so it is a bit understandable, that not everything is wrapped up, but there are so many unexplained elements to the story, that I had to look after the answers to my questions at more places.

The last episodes introduces dramatic changes in the story that felt rushed and they came basically out of the blue. I think they are supposed to have a dramatic effect on the viewer, however they only raise more questions instead. While the ending is dramatic, the monologues of the side characters ruin the mood and while these scenes are supposed to show the inner thoughts of the main characters, while they are explained through the viewpoint of the supporting cast. This distances the viewer from the main characters.

The characters themselves are colorful we can see many types of people appearing in the first episode. Too bad, that the supporting cast takes too much focus from the main characters, Kagura and Yomi. This wouldn't be bad if they played important part in the events. Sadly in the end the majority of the supporting characters only serve as cannon fodder to the demons and don't even play any role to the development of the story, save for a few exceptions.

Yomi is the one character who bears the whole show on her shoulders. She sets events in motion, her character is pretty unique and she has the most focus throughout the story, while the other characters are static. Her development is the only worth mentioning altough her actions may seem inconsequent due to the poor storytelling. But if there is one character you might get attached to during the that is undoubtly Yomi. Kagura, the other main character of the show is young girl who joins Yomi in her job as an exorcist at a very young age. She has a naive and kind nature, and this remains so during the events. She faces many hardships despite her young age, but the sad thing is, it doesn't even change a bit of her personality. At the end of the show, the flash-forward shows, that her personality hasn't gone through any changes at all, rendering the previous events almost meaningless.

I personally feel, that the show could have been much better if the story would only be about Kagura and Yomi. While they get much screentime, too much of it goes by without any meaningful events, and this gives back the feeling of a slice-of-life show.

The animation and the action scenes are the major strong-points of the show. The fights are well animated, the motions are fluid, the scenery is also nice. The sound effects and the music is pretty mediocre, it is not really worth mentioning. The opening song is very catchy, it goes well with the action scenes of the show and the slow ending matches the mood of the story.

The pacing of the show totally ruins the mood of the anime. I only can recommend the series to people who like action shows and are prone to tear-jerkers. For those, who look for a more time, Ga-Rei is certainly not their choice.

Like some other reviewers have mentioned, the characters are somewhat predictable, and the truckload of supporting characters don't get much development at all. This is somewhat hard to do in 12 episodes, but that brings me to my next point - the show feels a bit slow until around episode 7, and then starts to keep you hooked.

As for the story, it's a bit predictable, but still a rather unique overall plot.

Verdict: Certainly not bad if you're looking for something to watch - however, not the most enthralling or groundbreaking show you've ever seen.

People really think this is a 10/10?

The story is trivial, there's not much to say about it. The first couple of episodes is nothing but carnage. We do get to see the main characters becoming likeable, but it doesn't last very long in the arc as the most likeable character's turn to evil is the entire point of the anime.

The characters aren't all that likeable, the story isn't incredible by any means. This anime is just average. Well overrated.

The action is pretty boring, nothing special about it. The character that was most badass to me dies in the very first episode, and there wasn't even ... much to say about her, maybe that she seemed very caring but got her head chopped off five minutes after we see any likeable qualities out of her.

The main villain is annoying, too, but not even annoying enough for you to focus on him. He never does anything exciting. He kind of just watches from a distance and causes pain for the main characters. Taking control over them with a stone, causing them to fight amongst each other, and avoiding an altercation with the one person powerful enough to fight him? Snoooooore.

Is this anime worth watching? Yeah, sure. I definitely was entertained enough to sit through all of it, but it's absolutely nothing to write home about. The entire point of me writing this review was just to express my befuddlement at the fact that it's so positively rated and all of the reviews are between a 7 and 10 rating. This anime really is nothing special. I came to watch from seeing a gif of the two MC's kissing, and that ended up being the most exciting part of the show. Even yuri couldn't save this anime from being boring.



So what's the takeaway from this review? 6/10, not enough yuri.

So, finding this anime was a mere coincidence. Browsing through titles just based of their names to find something "new". And to be completely honest i think what sold be in, was the picture for the anime. Let me spoil something. The best thing about this one is probably going to be the graphics.

To be completely frank, the anime starts off amazingly, cool fight, cool characters, the whole introduction was done really well. You get a good view into the universe and what to expect.

And if you haven't even watched the first episode i suggest you do so, cause *spoiler* that entier view of ... yours is butchered up into fine pieces, along with what you thought where the main characters. Brilliant, this one starts on episode 2 and not episode 1...

And yeah, yeah, i get where they are going with it. Killing the main characters is generally a jawbreaking and intriguing thing to do. But they need to be just that, main characters for it to really take effect. It's like dropping a fully made cake you made on the floor versus dropping just the bowl of ingredients.

Ga-Rei: Zero, is just this bowl of perfectly fine ingredients with potential to make an incredibly good cake, but which someone has just spilt on the floor.

Don't take me wrong, it's not a terrible animé and you'll probably like it alot more than i did. But personally i saw so much more potential in this one. It could have been the fucking greatest cake in the world.

Do you like action? Watch Black Rock Shooter.
Do you like gore? Watch Elfen Lied.
Do you like psychology? Watch another or Higurashi.

But if you think you'll like this one, go ahead i'm not hear to stop you. BUT if you ask me there are plenty good animés who have covered similar stories in ways that are far superior to this.

Ga-Rei: Zero, could have been a masterpiece. Id had A LOT of potential which just, didn't come out quite as good as it could have.

Now i've spent far too much time writing this, and not doing things im supposed to. But hope I have enlightened at least one sole being on his / her journey to understanding.

Peace \\Y//Tabbs

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This review was written as a script for a video-review, so it may be a bit weird to read for some people. You can either ignore that and read it, or watch it and listen to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxFm3S640zA

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Ga-Rei: Zero,having aired in 2008's fall season, is a 12 episode prequel to Hajime Segawa's manga „Ga-Rei“. It's an action-drama with a bit splatter,
though giving of a SoL-like atmosphere at times, was directed by Ei Aoki and animated by studios AIC Spirits and Asread.

Ga-Rei: Zero is a story about two girls, Isayama Yomi and Tsuchimiya Kagura, in a world, in which so called vanquishers fight against phantoms,
monsters invisible to ... the normal human eye. After Kagura's mother dies in a fight against those phantoms, and with her father not having much time to bring her up, she is sent to live with one of his close friends and his daughter Yomi. Over the course of 3 years, these two girls become not only best friends, but sisters, sharing a deep and seemingly unbreakable bond.
But, due to the structure of the show, which starts at the end of these 3 years and then goes back to when the girls first meet, we know that Yomi turns evil at some point, and the show is full on set on explaining why that happens.


If you didn't know, for me personally, characters and their relationships are important. Like really, really important. And Ga-Rei does that really well.
In itself, the characters aren't that special. To be honest, the only two worth mentioning may as well be Yomi and Noriyuki, her fiancée, but Yomi and Kagura together are just one of my favorite teams in all anime I've seen.

Yomi is great. She's a fun older sister, giving her best to crack open Kagura, who's timid in the beginning, but is also a really hard worker and has her fair share of problems. All in all, I'd say she feels the most like an actual person, and not just a character.

Kagura on the other hand, she's nowhere near Yomi's level.
She's sad about her mothers death, she had a very strict upbringing by her father, and is incredibly talented, but there isn't really anything genuine in these features. What feels genuine though, is her admiration of Yomi.
She idolizes her big sister, which makes Kagura's shock of her going rouge on their team of vanquishers that more understandable.

The rest of the characters are one-dimensional and bland, Izuna Noriyuki being the only one with more importance, as he's got a bond over the ordinary „being colleagues“ with Yomi, being her fiancée, but still, there's not that much more.

Sadly, this is just about everything hugely positive I can squeeze out of the show, but I want you to understand, that if you value character relations as highly as I do, this is amazing. The posed question of „Would you kill someone you love, because you love them?“ made me really invested in Yomi's and Kagura's bond.

Of course, it also handles the task of „being a prequel“ pretty well, with most of the show taking place in the past of the first two episodes. We basically know that Yomi's got something going on before we really know her or Kagura at all. This is great, as readers of the manga already know of their relationship, putting both returning fans and new watchers on about the same level of knowledge.

Animation is on a level just above average. There weren't any panning shots over still images I could notice, but often, only mouths would move during dialogues. Something is always in motion, but there's not too often a lot of it.

Next, I have to mention monster and weapon design, as this is one of Ga-Rei's weaknesses. Except for the metroid-like latchers and Byakuei, the spirit beast of the Tsuchimiya-family, I didn't like any of the phantoms. Many of them seemed off, or just boring. Same goes for the weapons, there's a character fighting with suitcases or one with a drill, which annoyed me whenever I saw them. Kaguya's pressure-powered sword and the naginata that can turn into an umbrella were pretty cool though.

In the OST, we have a pretty decent selection of different soundtracks. From action-rich to sentimental, I think there's something for everyone to like. Personally, the best one were #3 -“Megalocytic shadow“ and #5 - „Execution“, because they reminded me a bit of „Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann“, and #8 - „Reincarnation“, just because I like it.

So, all this talk may have seem a bit messy, but as always, the final question posed: Is „Ga-Rei: Zero“ worth watching?

To be honest, I'm really sad that I can't recommend this show to everyone. I'd like to say yes, but only if you really care about characters, and if you find yourself not liking Yomi after a few episodes, it's fully understandable if you'd drop the show. That said though, the first 2 and final 3 episodes were really cool and with its decent fill of action, I can see people enjoying those, if not the rest. Also, it's one of my favorite shows and too few people have seen it, but I don't want it get forgotten over the years, making me really thankful for every person deciding to watch it.

I initially thought with a promising first episode and music that made a good impression, that I would have another shot but good series on my hand. Turns out I just happened to lose interest in this thing and just didn’t jive with the plot.

How things developed felt… clunky. I don’t really know how to put it. And I thought the promising stuff from earlier on that made for a good impression sort of faded over time to a pretty standard and meh show.

VA work is fine but nothing to really applaud.

Still enjoy the music.

I even do think there is some decent action and animation ... at times but I think I am just more disappointed that this series didn’t pan out like I had hoped.

Ga-Rei: Zero focuses on the turmoil that emerges when the city falls into the grip of supernatural creatures and the team of the most competent operatives in the frontlines of containment. At the height of their misfortune, a former ally disowns them, with a parallel development that weaves the story into the tapestry of classics such as Berserk and Gungrave, telling a tragic tale of lost friendship. However, the series aims at revenge-based tension, but it fails to reach the apex of such tales.

Right in the center of plot are Kagura Tsuchimiya and Yomi Isayama, who have their bond full of clichés and intertwined with ... the family saga about the demon hunters of the new era that fight against Yomi's claim to power. Of course, the action scenes are indeed thrilling, but since they are sparse, they can not be the consistent highlight of the whole story. Even with the good budget, the animation is still not outstanding enough, and the ominous ambiance scenes are not well-done. The score is adequate, but the character development is not deep enough, so a lot of the secondary characters get lost in the narrative fog.

Among the shortcomings of the Ga-Rei Z manga, the fact that it is a prequel and therefore requires familiarity with the original manga lore to better understand the story is notable. This might also be a weakness for newcomers who are not familiar with Ga-Rei manga.