Series Positives
Kagura
Tsuchimiya (voiced by Minori Chihara) is the heiress to a legendary family of
exorcists. Her mother died when she was young and her father is always away
training. With a shy disposition, there was nothing in the world
that could make her smile. That is until she was taken in by the Isayama
household where she met its next successor Yomi (voiced by Kaoru Mizuhara).
The two
girls quickly bounded, forming a strong sister-like relationship between them.
Along with that, they both possess the ability to see the demon world and
are highly skilled sword fighters. They, along with their team in Japan’s
Ministry of Environment’s Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division (SDCD),
are the best line of defense from the unpredictable nature of the spirit world.
However,
events have led to an unthinkable point.
During one
mission, a large number of powerful demons descend upon Tokyo. The SDCD is
more than capable of pushing back the onslaught. Yet the situation turns dire
when an exceedingly strong swordswoman begins cutting through their lines with ease. The woman turns out to be Yomi.
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| Kagura |
Series Positives
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| Yomi |
The events
of Zero take place before the main
story of the manga. Now as per usual, I have not read the manga,
therefore I’m not qualified to say how it holds up in relation to the source
material. What I can say is that I’m interest in said source material.
Be that as may, I’m here to look at this series as it stands as an anime. And with that I
can confidently say that I liked it. I have major problems with it, but those
will come in due time. Still, the show’s positives are enough to balance out
what’s wrong, or maybe more appropriately, keep the issues in check.
The Action
Disregarding
the occasional, but painfully obvious use of CGI monsters, the fights in this
show are sweet.
They’re
fast, fluid, intense, creative, astonishingly creative in fact, and they’re
prevalent. From right out the gate Zero
demonstrates what it’s capable of doing. This series is not boring.
Along with
fights being cool to watch, they’re also not meaningless. They may be
loud and flashy, but they’re never done just for the sake of existing. There’s
a reason behind each conflict; whether it be story progression or character
development.
Taking the
extra step to infuse purpose into a struggle seems obvious right? Well I’ve seen Venus Versus Virus and I can tell you it’s
apparently not. Zero reminded me a
lot of that piece of garbage. The two shows have similar ideas and basically the
same story structure. Yet the difference
between them is night and day.
Take the
climax of both shows. Virus’s was
bull s@#$, like complete bull s@#$. It comes completely out of nowhere right at
the end and we don’t even get to see the f@#$ing thing because the show final credits start rolling. However, even if we did you don’t care by that point due to lackluster build up.
Zero on the other hand was legitimately tragic. You get to see the lead up and more importantly why it happens. I didn’t
want to watch Kagura and Yomi fight.
To be fair
though, the action wasn’t the reason why the ending hit hard.
Kagura and Yomi
Blood does
not make family and these two exemplify this. Kagura and Yomi are sisters in my mind. They are the two halves of their shared coin and what happened to them really sucked.
Their
relationship with other characters was good too, but the love they have for
each was so great that it naturally over took anything else. This is great
character development because it’s able to pull you into the fiction which is the
ultimate goal of any story.
Any flaws,
simple or major, a show may have can be overlooked if there is something that
still allows you to do that. This is not the go ahead to have a series full of
problems because the more there are the stronger that one thing needs to be.
In terms of Ga-Rei: Zero, Kagura and Yomi are able
to soften the issues with this series, thus making a worthwhile watch.
Series Negatives
Ga-Rei: Zero’s first problem, it starts
in episode two. And by the first problem, I mean the problem. Episode one is
such a gigantic waste of time that it single handedly affects the rest of the
show.
We're
introduced to this elite team of demon hunters. We get a rather decent idea of
who they are, a little bit of glimpse of their backstory, a strong window into their group dynamic, and they prove that they are quite the collection of bad
asses. They’re also all killed off at the end of the first episode and aren’t
referenced again in the rest of the series.
Why? Why
f@#$ing do that? This is one of the most unbelievable self-inflicted wounds I
have ever seen. Kagura and Yomi do make up a lot, but the show never
truly recovers or justifies it.
Unbalanced
This is an
inherent risk when it comes to stories told in flashback. You already know
where the plot is going to go, so it’s really hard to have any surprises. It’s
even harder to pull off when what happens is the worst possible scenario.
Let’s say
that you know an inevitable impact is coming. What would you do? I
suspect that many of you, myself included, would brace to mitigate the
damage so that you won’t get hurt as much as possible. That’s what a flashback
story is, it’s a warning.
There is a
way to help keep things in the dark while still showing the outcome. Give away
as little detail as possible. Show us a glimpse; do not give up the full
magnitude of the situation. Zero doesn't do this, because of episode one.
It’s too
long. We get full scope of how screwed up things get. Therefore, while we are
watching, it’s so easy to see things coming and even easier to see when their
rushed. The best example of this is Yomi’s downfall. It’s a hell of a lot
better than what Venus Versus Virus did,
which was essentially nothing. Still, it happened rather suddenly.
Yomi
succumbs to her hatred which allows her to lose control. However she only raged
out, not jokingly at least, once and the next episode she turned evil. There was no lead
up that indicated that she had issues battling her negative emotions. There
wasn’t enough time put into it. Granted there isn’t that much time to begin
with in a twelve episode anime. I mean was there anything that could have
allowed the plot to focus on this super important development…oh f@#$ me that’s
right, episode one happened.
To go along
with the risks of flashbacks is the tone it sets for the rest of the show. A
series is able to establish its atmosphere the best in the beginning. A tragedy can be revealed and the proceeding events can
be lighthearted and silly. However this only works depending on the initial
tone.
Zero’s setup was two episodes long and
it was dark, serious, and violent. There was little room for jokey jokes. Thus
when the series did try to go playful and fun, it was all meaningless
because it's already known what's going to happen. For instance in one
fight Yomi uses a god damn iron as weapon. I know where this is leading and
it’s not happy, how am I supposed to enjoy this slapstick and ignore whats bound to happen?
Again the
problem comes back to episode one because it elongated the setup and thus
solidified a darker tone which made any charming moments feel forced and
contrived. Zero doesn’t start to come
back into balance until Yomi fully turns which is of course in the last few
episodes.
Final Thoughts
Ga-Rei: Zero messed up in the beginning.
Yet it was only a momentary lapse in story telling judgment because it was still a visually
cool opening which helped demonstrated that this show was going to be entertaining.
And that’s
where I leave it. This series was entertaining because of the vast amount of well-done
action scenes. Not only that, the connection between the two main leads allowed
the story to turn into something worth caring about.
While it does needless handicap itself, Ga-Rei: Zero is worth a look and I don’t regret checking it out.
While it does needless handicap itself, Ga-Rei: Zero is worth a look and I don’t regret checking it out.
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