Ga-Rei-Zero - Reviews

Story 6.5/10  The show starts of great, you get introduced by a team of special forces who are trying to stop an outbreak of supernatural beings. When the team members are all dying one by one they realize that one of their team members is fighting against them.This show really has a great opening because you get introduced to all the side characters while also covering the main characters. 

Then after the first 2 episode's the show flashbacks to explain how it happend and gives you a view on the main character's past. it gives you an nice backstory of how the two main characters became friends and how they got into the team of special forces, it does feel like fillers but you get an nice backstory how both girls deal with fighting monsters and growing up.

The ending is satisfying altough some things are not explained in the show, wich is kind of a let down so the total score is a 6.5 if this show did explain things than it might have been good. 

Animation 8/10 The action in this show looks great and this show does a good job on the basic animations: the backgrounds look good, I personally liked the character designs tough most of the troopers and monsters are copies of each other. the colours are a bit gloomy wich really suit this anime. the only bad thing in the animation is the CGI the monsters look bad if they are in CGI but for the most part the animation does a great job at keeping you watching.

Sound 7/10 Sound effects in this show was good since it added someting extra to battles, in the sad moments of the show the sound strengthen that even more. The voice actor were not bad they matched the characters, the OP and ED match the show and I found them pretty good overall the sound in this show is great.

Characters 6/10 The main problem this show has that it is too short for any real development, the two main characters do have some stronger points but minus them all the other characters are really flat tough I must say I really laughed at the introducing of Nabuu and Nabuu other than that not much likeability in these characters.

Enjoyment 7.5/10 Overall I got from this show what I expected great action scene's a few moments of yuri (lol) and good animation, the mayor things a disliked about this show was some of the characters and the ending but overall this show is pretty solid and if you like horror/supernatural shows you should try this out.

Thank you for reading my review if you have any tips, or things you want to say just leave a comment and i'll make sure to reply.

The animation looks really good except for some weird angles from swords and things. If you pay close attention you can see that it is slightly flawed but aside from that it looks great and combat when it is around, is entertaining and pretty legit.

The sound and music is solid. The characters get along really well and are pretty well thought out. The story starts out confusing because it starts near the end and then backtracks which is really the best way to handle what happens. It is done well.

There are a few moments that make no sense. At one point a character comments on the unnecessary movements they had in battle even though they were fighting something that was mimicing them, which is really the only  situation where this statement could be flawed. Another example is it is mentioned that one of the characters has advanced techniques with battle however these techniques are never mentioned before or after this converstation and are never seen.

Overall it is actually really good. The characters all get along in differnet ways and feel very lifelike and are consistany throughout the whole show. They are actually just as interestaining as the combat and action, which really gets the viewer pumped.

8.5/10 Solid stuff!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This anime is the prequel of the Gai-Rei manga (not an adaptation of it) and was made to explain the past of the lead heroine, which was only hinted there. Although it can easily be watched by anyone, the fans of the manga will definiyely appreciate it a lot more for enriching the setting with further details. It will also be a nice recommendation to anyone who likes action/gore/supernatural/mystery/lesbians, since it is mostly style than substance.

The show was animated through a collaboration of studios AIC Spirits and Asread. Both of them are very bad in their overall works, since the first deals only with forgettable harem shows, while the later is notorious for the very bad adaptations it makes out of books and manga. Thus be warned that the show is not made with much quality.

The director is Aoki Rei, who clearly is talented as he has taken over both bad and great shows and managed to bring out the best of whatever their settings could offer. Thus despite the bad studios behind animation, he succeeded in making the best of what he had.

SPECIFICS

ART SECTION: 8/10 [Soldiers with Power Scouters that detect invisible ghosts and chicks with motorcycles kicking ass of a building tall spider freak.]
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 2/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 2/2

The production values are good on a basic level, so the optical department does a great job in keeping you watching for more. The level of detail is quite nice and the colors have proper antithesis. Even lighting effects are used properly to hide or focus something important. As for eye-candy, there is a lot of it too. Semi-appearing phantoms? Check! Huge spirit ass-kicking monsters? Check! Japanese schoolgirls fighting and kissing in short skirts? Check! Secret organizations with high-teck gismos, and a hint of Feudal setting as aesthetics? Check again! There is a high amount of eye candy in the series that exists purely for fan pleasing. There is a gay afro-hairdo exorcist, poke-eating pseudo-lesbians, kawai secretaries and so on. If you like this sort of thing, you will not be disappointed.

Of course it is not perfect when it comes to the finer details. Most ghosts and SWAT soldiers are copies of one another. The huge monsters are rather crude-looking while moving. The battles lack choreography and are practically random slashes, bulky CGI monsters and crude energy beams. The scene changes are usually sloppy too. But if you are a viewer who doesn’t care about directing, you won’t mind all that and you will probably give it a perfect score.

SOUND SECTION: 8/10 [Huge chained hairy dragon, I summon thee!]
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 3/4, Sound Effects 3/3

Nothing bad in overall. Voice acting had no real problems, with everyone talking with proper pinch and tense that fitted the situation they were in. Sometimes it sounds far-fetched and retarded but it’s not like they were ever talking about philosophy in a serious way. Music themes were catchy but not memorable in any way. Sound effects had strength and did spice the otherwise blunt battles.

STORY SECTION: 6/10 [Lesbians kissing and slaying ghosts; just for our pleasing!]
Analysis: Premise 2/2, Pacing 1/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 1/2

The premise is simple yet interesting. It is about the formation of a demon-hunting duo, where one crosses over to the dark side. It is nothing much by itself, yet the presentation is what makes it appear rather catchy. They included school comedy, some ecchi and a lot of yuri innuendos that had nothing to do directly with the story but are there to make the tragedy more bold. It would be quite dry without them.

They also included traditional feudal Japan elements, such as Miko priestesses and youkai along with modern multi-corporations and secret organizations. These elements are again not directly necessary to the plot but are supposed to offer a situation where obedience in the old ways still exists in modern world and creates issues despite the progress in technology. The contrasts also made the drama/gore in the end to look more shocking for combining occult medieval gore in an advanced and secured present.

There is also an uncommon way of presenting the story. The first two episodes are chronologically the last ones and then a flashback begins to explain how we got there. Although this way you know from the start that things won’t end nice, at the same time you are intrigued to find out how did that happen. And knowing it will be a bad ending is a nice hook, since most are accustomed to expect cheery happy ones. It is a smart way to tell the readers that the story is not some generic yuri/mahou shojo variant and does make you interested in learning how everything so fluffy went to hell in the end.

Other than that, the story has lots of plausibility issues, since there is a huge amount of magic and super advanced technology which makes lots of things to feel like they happened too conveniently. If you have monsters that can magically appear anywhere they want or bend human will, then you get a chaos of randomness. Of course this can also make the story unpredictable and thus exciting for many but it is true that if you ever ask yourself if an event could be prevented somehow, you will probably not get an answer. It happened because the scriptwriter said so and there was no way to protect against it.

CHARACTER SECTION: 4/10 [The ghost of Kannazuki no Miko returns to torment me yet again!]
Analysis: Presence 1/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 0/2

There are about 30 characters in the series and in effect only three are the only ones that matter (the two leading girls and the big bad). All the rest are basically there as flavoring. Although each one covers a different aspect of the setting or the story, it is rather sad to see how none of them do much other that pointing out various sides of the heroines. There is no development for them and even the motives of the main villain are left vague (since it is still a prequel and you are supposed to read the continuation in the manga). Of course, since you know that they will all die horribly right away there is also no reason to expect them to develop or appear in the manga later on, but it is still a rather lazy part of the cast.

And now for the main heroines, which are also the meat of the show. One is the shy and innocent one, and the other is the out-going and depressed one. They make a fine duo and their interaction with each other as well as all the rest make you to care about them. The change of heart one of them shows happens in a rather straight and predictable manner but on a basic level it is excused and works.

Other than that, I can’t say they are that different or that memorable in overall. They are simply good for what the story is. Although they are focused upon nicely, they are otherwise not amazing as personalities and there isn’t any actual catharsis since one just passively stares at the events and the other one… well, dies.

FINAL THOUGHTS

VALUE SECTION: 1/10 [Freedom has no price]
Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 0/3, Memorability 1/4

So what are my after thoughts about it? I wasn’t thrilled with anything in it, other than the interesting flashback mode in the story. It is mostly for those who are fans of the manga, which to be honest never were that many to begin with and after all these years the title is practically forgotten by everyone.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 3/10 [Amusement park, here we go!]

It is also one of those shows that bet too much on emotion rather than careful planning, so it is just events that happen with the sole reason to make you laugh or cry and not because it makes sense in-story. I mean you are supposed to pay attension to the yuri or the action and not mind how the heck does everything work. If you have a villain who can appear anywhere he likes and bends human will then you are just looking for the sake of gasping with a tragedy you already know it’s coming and not to see if there is an actual strategy somewhere in here.

The characters aren’t as great as you may think at first. You are only taken in by their tragedy, which is mostly imposed by magic or brainwashing that can’t be prevented. And the secondary cast is just there as background decoration and cannon fodder.

The action is not that good either. There aren’t many interesting battles in it.

I am not an emotional guy and I am sure not a fan of the manga. So I see this as nothing more than superficial, short-termed, easily forgettable fan pleasing through cheap shock effects. It is by no means a masterpiece but plays its cards right most of the time.

VERDICT: 5/10
Oh, come on, you are dressed as a geisha and yet I can see you are nothing more than a cheap concubine.

SUGGESTION LIST
Other similar deified garbage: Kannazuki no Miko, Elfen Lied, Mnemosyne, Blood-C.
Do you want to watch a good demon-slaying series? Then watch Monomoke.
Do you want to watch a good yuri series? Then watch Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Do you want to watch a good dementia series? Then watch Serial Experiments Lain.
Do you want to watch a series that combines a lot of genres without becoming bull? Then watch Vision of Escaflowne or Brigadoon Marin to Melan.

 I was peacefully reading Ga-Rei manga and just finished Yomi Arc. But the story of Kagura-Yomi past was barely explained in very weak, not engaging way. So since I remembered hearing something about prequel to manga I thought - "Ah what the hell... let's stall manga for a while, and watch the prequel, I mean come one it can't get worse than this average manga right"?

With that attitude I  played first episode, and was dissapointed immediately. The air of being a prequel smelled from every scene,  and instead of manga characters there were some worthless random people. But I decided to finish it anyway, since I was still curious about Yomi past. And to my suprise after first ep it only got better and better. Crappy prequel turned into a real darkhorse, a show that delivers a good, dark story and does it in a top notch way. If I haven't read manga before I'd never guess this anime is a prequel to typical shounen battle manga..

Story - 8/10

Prequel tend to have it hard. You know who will survive, since you you know what characters appear in the main story. So you have to plan how to keep viewer interested in story that finale is already spoiled. This show stood up to the challenge and actually used it for it's advantage thx to the little trick called "In medias res" (starting the storytelling from the middle of the plot). And so at the beginning we are shown the evil Yomi slaugthering her colleagues. She acts like a bitch, she kills good guys - you should hate her, right? And in exactly that moment we are thrown into past - past in which Yomi is a great character, surrounded by friends.  Creators of this story perfectly know how to use a "tragic fate scenario" (unlike George Lucas who didn't exploit the potential of Anakin turning into Vader nearly as much as it was possible).

So we have a pretty classic world setting (evil spirits and exorcists fighting them from the shadows). There is some mysterious power exceeding all normal powers (Kyubi fragments), some internal disputes and family traditions being passed from one generation to another. And in the midst of that we have a touching story of Yomi and Kagura friendship (love?). It sometimes gets near the borders of Shoujo-ai, but most likely it's just a bit exaggerated form of love between siblings (yeah, that's Japan for you :P).

Animation - 7/10

 The animation wasn't something really hot, but it was acceptable. I'm not too fond of the characters drawing style (especially the eyes), but I guess if they wanted to achieve dark feeling the animation had to be a bit more mature. The powers or the swordfights also didn't make me gasp in an awe - it's acceptable, nothing beyond that.

Sound - 8/10

 I really like both opening and ending. It's rare for me, since I usually hate endings and skip them. But this was was good enough for me to listen to it every episode.  They also had some good seiyus. Background music had some nice tracks, and the main theme wasn't bad, but they still didn't manage to leave permanent impression (like some of the X TV tracks did for example)

Characters - 8/10

Yomi is probably the key to this production success. They made her into one of the most likeable characters of the whole show, and then showered her with unfair hardships. It's one thing when character turns evil because of his own will (like for example Harry from Gungrave). But when he is a really good person, that is suddenly and unjustly stripped of everything valuable in his life  - that's when the viewers will really sympathize.  It's the best kind of villain - someone that is evil because of the a tragic fate. Frankly, once the show gets back to the present the first impression Yomi being a bitch is long gone. This time it's hard to decide which one you should cheer on - the tragic villain, or hero that is forced to fight against her best friend. One thing is certain - by the end of the story you might develop a killing intent to some white haired brat.

Kagura is a bit more annoying as a character, but her personality is also essential to this show. The  pure and naive soul forced to do the dirty job can gain almost the same sympathy as tragic villain. Well except the fact that her attitude is often annoying to the extreme.

There are some other character like Noriyuki, Mei, Kagura father, etc., but they are less important and less developed. This is mainly a two person show and everything around is just a decoration to make it more realistic. Well  Noriyuki might be the most developed from those three, and even though his action aren't as important as Kagura, he also is partially responsible for Yomi betrayal.

The rest is either a comic relief, or a character "to be killed".

Overall 8/10

This is really well written and well executed story. If you like a slightly dramatic, dark action story, with some possibly tearjerking moments you should watch it. It's defienietly not the same weak joke as manga.

Ga-Rei -Zero-

     Were you feeling the need for a violent and disturbing show, filled with copious amounts of blood and death? Were you feeling the urges to watch a show about two close friends growing up in a crazy world? Well, in a strange way, GR:Z can fill both of those urges.. sorta... nevermind.. Here is the review

Story 7/10:

    Ah, the story starts, reveling several characters, who are thrown into a violent situation. But, after episode one, that doesn't really matter. *cough*

    For a prequel to an anime, it really does not have a bad story. The story centers around two girls. One who’s father is the head of a major family, and has a very cold heart, while the other main female lead is a girl who is going to inherit power. Both girls deal with the trouble of fighting monsters and growing up together. The end. Or well, so you will think, until the things go seriously wrong.

All in all, the story becomes rather predictable near the end, but is still fun to watch if you like the episodes leading up to it.

Oh, and it's sad.

Animation 7/10:

    Well, not a lot to say. It's pretty to watch, and the people and monsters (guarding a few of the computer animated ones) are rather cool to look at. Nothing super special, but not hard on the eyes.

Sound 8/10:

    Much like animation, the show provides good music, with only a few tracks that really stand out (much like the opening, the ending, and the battle scene between... oh nevermind).

Characters-

    The reason I didn't want to really add this, was because I have rather mixed opinons. The development and attachment you feel for the two main leads is awesome. You really want everything to be ok with them, and its fun to watch them grow and feel together. so with that said, they get a 9.5/10

    Now... Every other person in the show? Well, they don't really matter that much. some are explored a little bit, while others you forget about within minutes of them leaving the screen. So they get a 5/10

    Here is catch. They don't really matter. The show is about the two girls, so it really doesn't bother me that the anime didn't waste time focusing on random people.

Overall 7.5/10

    Ga-Rei:Zero is not a show for people looking for happy go lucky romance, nor is it a show for people who want a deep psychological plot, with a final conclusion. (Remember, GR:Z comes BEFORE the actual story.) All in all, it is a fun show to watch if you are a fan of action and violence, and at some points you can really find yourself connecting with the main girls.

Oh yeah, and there is motorcycle and wheelchair fight scene. They rock.