Anime Review: Ga-rei Zero

Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural, Thriller
Episodes: 12
Aired: 2008
Producers: AIC Spirits, Asread, FUNimation Entertainment

A prequel to Segawa Hajime's manga Ga-rei, Ga-rei Zero surprises with a torrent of drama superseding its thrills and spills.

What initially started out as a ho-hum ride with an anti-paranormal special forces government agency called the Supernatural Disaster Prevention Office (SDPO) quickly rolled into an exciting, emotional rollercoaster affair.

To tell the truth, the first three-quarters of the opening episode nearly bored me to tears. Graphics were great, no doubt, and there certainly was some demon-hunting action. But the setting of the story simply rambled on too long without getting anywhere.

The real action, if you must know (and even if you don't, I'm gonna tell you anyway) only began in the last 5 minutes. Just when you thought: "Oh, there's the assembly of the main cast - the cool male protagonist, the tough female counterpart, the nerd, the muscle man, etc", someone comes and kill them all off. Every single one of them.

"Huh? Wtf just happened?" I screamed, shaking my monitor furiously. Halfway through the show I had already dismissed this series as a bore and closed the window of the next episode that I had been loading. "Noooooo!"

An agonising wait for the next episodes to stream.

The actual story is about two sisters - Yomi Isayama and Kagura Tsuchimiya. Yomi is the mystery killer we see at the final seconds of the first episode, brandishing her bloodied sword.

And here she is, endorsing Pocky with her sister and looking cute as a button, one of the million times they do so in the short 12-epsiode series. Not sure if it is blatant product placement but you'd be surprised how crucial this chocolate stick is to the development of their bond.

So how did Yomi end up on the wrong side of the tracks? That brings us to the flashback of their story.

Kagura, the younger of the two, is the youngest descendant of a powerful family of exorcists, whose heirloom is a deadly white dragon theirs to command. 

When her mother dies in battle, Mr Tsuchimiya inherits the white dragon and the duty that comes along with it, and sends Kagura to live with another family of exorcists. There, she continues to grow as an exorcist with new-found sister Yomi.

Yomi is an adopted daughter of the Isayamas and is bestowed a special sword by her father, which grants her a magical lion-looking beast. She works with the SDPO and is betrothed to a guy also working at the SDPO. They bicker constantly, much to the amusement of their colleagues, but are really undercover sweethearts.

Just when everything looks rosy, Yomi begins to run into trouble. It starts with the Isayama inheritance, challenged by her uncle and seemingly more capable cousin, and everything tumbles downhill from here. This is the turning point that results in the tragic ending awaiting our two lovable leads.

"Will you kill someone you love because of love?" This question repeats endlessly and is the ultimate decision that Kagura has to make in the final episode.  

Following their story, you will feel the same happiness, pain and despair that they go through. The powerful story-telling, coupled with the fabulously understated swordplay scenes, make this series an absolute must-watch!

Rating: 9.5/10