Ga-rei Zero Review

Before I begin this review, two key heads-up:

1. This review will be highly spoilerrific. I don't think that I can do justice while delving into the key strengths of this anime, without spoiling a lot of it.

2. I came into this show in large part due to its moe appeal. In other words, I didn't come into it mainly for the action, which I think will give this blog a very different (if not contrary) flavor when compared to some of the other Ga-rei Zero blog reviews that I've read. This anime was recommended to me on Anime Suki by 0utf0xZer0 when I asked for suggestions for a "moe character designs with dramatic storyline" anime. After watching the Higurashi animes, the Nanoha animes, Clannad, and Mai HiME, I've come to feel that moe actually blends very well with serious sophisticated suspenseful drama, as I think that the two compliment one another nicely while providing crisp contrasts between look and feel that can give the final work an added 'oomph!'. However, notice that Clannad is on the list there, so fighting action scenes were not a prerequisite for what I was looking for here, but they certainly can help. And it helps a lot for why I enjoyed Ga-rei Zero a lot.


 However, while I very much liked the action scenes of Ga-rei Zero, and while I particularly loved the exceptionally epic episode 12 conclusion, it was actually the somewhat maligned middle portions that had the most appealing and entertaining stretch of episodes for me. Again, this is likely because I went into this anime because I was looking for precisely what those middle portions provided, rather than for graphic, hardcore, fast-paced action scenes. For people who went into Ga-rei Zero primarily (if not exclusively) for the latter, I can understand why the very first episode was so resoundingly well received.

Personally, though, I have to break from conventional wisdom on that very first episode, and strongly question if it really did constitute an awesome stroke of genius on the part of this anime's producers.

Don't get me wrong, the very first episode is a thunderously terrific thrill ride, with excellent art work, glorious animation quality, great action scenes, startling plot twists, and an overall sense of shock and awe. It is visually stunning, particularly for people with strong stomachs. The first episode of this anime is essentially Elfen Lied meets Darker Than Black. For anime fans who love extremely realistic death-dealing action scenes, it's hard to imagine a better combination.

However, this is not really what Ga-rei Zero is primarily about, and I can't help but wonder if what it is primarily about would not have proven more widely popular than the initial impression that anime fans, as a whole, must have taken from that first episode.

Elfen Lied has dedicated fans to be sure, but its also an acquired taste. It's gorier bits tend to constitute anime elements that people either love or hate. So while it has a passionate fanbase, it also brings in a strictly limited one. It's worth noting that Elfen Lied did not sell well at all on DVD in Japan itself, as demonstrated by this post.

Ga-rei Zero itself sold significantly better than Elfen Lied, as demonstrated in this post. Those are respectable mid-range sales figures. However, they are a far cry from the sales that Mai HiME or Fate/Stay Night enjoyed, and Ga-rei Zero strikes me as, on the whole, being much more like them than like Elfen Lied. So would Ga-rei Zero have been better off trying to have its first episode appeal to the same sort of anime fans that like Mai HiME and Fate/Stay Night? In complete honesty, I'm inclined to think so.

Beyond that, I simply find it questionable in general to almost entirely exclude your actual main cast from the very first episode of a a short 12-episode anime. Ga-rei Zero's first episode introduces an essentially fraudulent main cast, and then proceeds to have them all killed off by a lethal and vicious assailant that (we'd later learn) seems to have no real connection to any of them. In almost hilariously wasteful fashion, the first episode even treats us to the first episode's male lead having a seemingly important flashback scene. However, that flashback scene's only lasting relevance is to foreshadow the true main antagonist of this anime that operates behind the scenes.

In fairness, I do think that Ga-rei Zero's first episode would have worked very nicely as a promotional prequel OVA to the real Ga-rei Zero series airing later the same year, or early the following year, but that the series' actual first episode should have introduced us to the actual main cast. An OVA isn't likely to make a person drop a later anime series that they otherwise might like, but a first episode that doesn't sit well with them could very well lead to a drop.

However, that's enough of me playing contrarian on Ga-rei Zero's first episode; let's touch on a few of the aspects of the middle portions of this anime that I very much liked.

The two female leads have a great relationship with lots of chemistry and honest emotion.

I also appreciated and enjoyed the contributions of Kagura's two school friends.

This guy has one of the best intros ever. He made me laugh sooooooo hard! XD

The mirror fight was my favorite fight of the middle episodes. Lots of fun!

The main villain having a blue butterfly motif. Now I can't help but to see him as
the son of Beatrice from Umineko! :-D

Kagura and Yomi are wonderful, well-fleshed out characters. Their relationship is genuinely beautiful and charming, and makes for a perfect core element for this anime to revolve around.

I also loved the friendship between Kagura and her two school friends; it reminded me of Nanoha Takamachi's friendship with her two school friends in the original Nanoha anime. I'm just a sucker for the approach of one girl secretly being a superhero, and her two best school friends finding out about that in the heat of the moment.

The cast is loaded with amusing, if not interesting, figures, and all of the character machinations and political maneuvers and family disputes and government agency quarrels give this anime a certain sense of grandness and dramatic importance. It all comes together in such a seamless and believable tapestry, with each and every major and minor character taking actions and making statements ever consistent with their personalities and beliefs. The different perspectives and naturally conflicting goals coalesce together to make for suspenseful conflicts emotional, familial, political, physical, and psychological. It also adds great layers of depth to the anime, as numerous intriguing subplots are always there, either simmering on the backburner or coming into sharp and immediately intensifying focus.

There's a certain quickness, and desirably brisk pace to this anime, yet nothing is ever lost as things move steadily and swiftly forward. I can't recall a signal plot hole worth mentioning.

This anime is also gorgeous to simply behold. Some critics argue that the character designs are overly conventional, but I would argue that just the slight artistic touch with how the animators for this show draws lips differently adds just the tiniest needed dash of distinctiveness. Beyond that, Kagura and Yomi are both drawn very attractively, and that certainly adds a lot to why I like Ga-rei Zero a lot.

The action scenes are impressive at worst, always a joy to watch, and flawless at best.

There is a great deal to love about this anime. It blends some of the best diverse elements of anime together to create an excellent final work. Indeed, it does this as well as any anime that I've seen since Higurashi Kai.

Finally, the conclusion of this anime was simply perfect in my eyes. It was a fitting and cathartic climax of both conflict and growth.

The final Kagura vs. Yomi struggle was an explosive treat for the eyes, accentuated magnificently by the welling up of emotions in the form of a scintillating crescendo eventually reaching a fever pitch and Kagura's ultimate victory... and hence, paradoxically, her ultimate loss.

And in that victory and lost, Kagura's "coming of age" story, which is the true main plot of this story, meets with an outstanding conclusion. Kagura's father would be proud, I'm sure.

Truly a masterpiece (and this is not a word I use easily) of an ending.


However... it was undermined, somewhat, by how this anime chose to unveil its plot.

Revealing Yomi's descent into Lucy-level mass murdering madness in the very first act makes the proceeding acts more of an intellectual exercise than an emotional one. The viewer becomes more like the inquisitive Inspector, wondering what led up to the murders, and hence combing through suspect background and clues to gradually piece together the big picture of the murder mystery.

This can, admittedly, be a good way to keep viewer attention, but I think that it also very much mutes the otherwise immense emotional impact of Yomi's inevitable descent into monstrously malevolent villainy.

Simply put, the way the plot unfolds in the first few episodes of this anime results in desensitizing the viewer to the dramatic and normally
heart-wrenching events of the final act. We know that Yomi will eventually become a murderer that simply has to be stopped, and as such, we're not quite as emotionally shaken by seeing an otherwise very likable female lead become that and eventually get killed.


I did not shed a signal tear when watching this anime.

Given the nature of this anime, and its totally tumultuously tragic ending, there's probably something wrong with that.


I think that if the audience of this anime was not aware of what would eventually become of Yomi, that then seeing her become that in the latter portions of the anime would have left an emotional impact every bit as great as what a Jun Maeda can illicit. And that, my friends, could have sent Ga-rei Zero into stratospheric popularity, the bloody action-esque yuri answer to Clannad.


And so, I hold that Ga-rei Zero's lone flaw is exactly what it ironically gets complimented most for: That being how it chooses to begin its series.


9/10 for an astoundingly awesome anime. But not a perfect one.

Kudos to 0utf0xZer0 for this supremely super suggestion. :)