Kurogane’s Anime Blog

Evil Yomi is born finally. God, I really want to wring the neck of that detestable shota, especially after what he did to Yomi in this episode…

The producers are really not letting up any chance for fanservice aren’t they?

That being said, the circumstances of Yomi’s transformation was not what I expected. I’d thought it would’ve been a lot more dramatic… possibly involving a lot more killing/blood/gore, so seeing her getting “approached” at her most weakest moment, both physically and mentally, was kinda anti-climatic for me. But then again, it’s more logical this way I guess, and it does promise a higher chance of success :P.

Fuck yeah, shit starts hitting the fan this episode! About damn time we get some Yomi action already.

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Kagura cries.

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More plot development with the escalating infestation of evil spirits in the Tokyo area reaching critical levels. The team is being pushed to the limits to deal with the widespread manifestations around the city and Kagura faces another test of her resolve as a spirit-exterminator when her own school is attacked and someone she knows falls under the infestation of a nouryou.

Pretty much another bridge episode, but with quite a bit more action in it. I am seriously impressed at the rate that Ga-Rei Zero is keeping up with making all the fighting scenes fluid and impressively choreographed. If there’s one thing this show doesn’t lack, it’s style and it’s undeniable after seeing Mei’s spear serving dual-purpose as a parasol as well, XD.

Speaking of Mei… damn, she sure got killed really fast. That butterfly-controlling shota is a real shinigami. Everyone he meets or approaches surely dies sooner or later. I was expecting Mei to stick around and provide some psycho-bitch aspect to the show, but hell, she got knocked off just one episode after being introduced? Bet she’ll return as a evil spirit infused with the sesshouseki just like Yomi did.

Kagura gets the bulk of the focus this episode and it continues to deal with her less-than-amicable relationship with her father (not surprising since the only things he seems to say are “Get stronger, Kagura.” or “You must uphold our responsibilities.” bla bla bla) as well as her naivete and inability to kill spirits that have taken over humans or are humanoid in form, although funnily she seems okay with cutting imitations of either herself or Yomi, ahahaha. One thing’s for sure, she’s really got some real skills of her own with the sword and it shows in this episode, although not exactly as good as Yomi’s skills are yet.

Wonder what’s gonna happen next episode. The lack of preview footage really does a good job at making me get the latest episode as soon as it comes out. Oh I’d like to mention that the guy who’s providing all the <40MB raws (that seems to be ripped from Nico or somewhere) is doing a really good job at those. Hell, it even edges Horrible Raws in terms of quality, not discounting the small resolution.

I just realised Ga-Rei Zero is the only show this season that can make me snap out of “gaming mode” (as I call it) for it. Man, I’m have terrible backlog on the most of the shows once I get bored of Kirovs and Dreadnaughts.

This episode a breather episode, and instead of Kagura x Yomi, we’re treated to Yomi x Noriyuki, who are both engaged to each other, in case people haven’t noticed yet. So far they’ve been neglecting this dynamic, so this episode is well-due for it.

The setup is pretty much generic, where Kagura worries about both of their relationship since they keep fighting with each other, thus tries to set up a plan to make then both get closer together. As with most setups of this kind, much hilarity ensues as their plan involves getting Nikaidou (poor girl) laying the moves on Noriyuki while hoping Yomi will get jealous. Of course things backfire, but thanks to Kagura’s tears, the day is saved, heh.

Of course, we all know that when a couple fights over trivial things all the time, it’s actually a sign that they’re really close to each other instead, so I wouldn’t be worrying about the both of them. Yomi also inherits a kimono belonging to her father’s wife, which turns out to be the same outfit she wears in the manga that happens later on. More links to the main story, heh.

Meanwhile, plot development isn’t abandoned too with a new character, Isoyama Mei, is introduced. As her surname suggests, she’s Yomi’s cousin, born from her father’s brother, who opposes Yomi getting engaged to Noriyuki and tries to suggest Mei for the engagement instead, since he doesn’t want Yomi, as an outsider, to carry on the Isoyama lineage. While it seems Mei doesn’t care about being the heiress of the lineage, she is concealing a “darker” side to herself and as hinted in the OP sequence, most probably will be the antagonist character for this series.

One thing I gotta admit, this show seriously has character designs for females that push every moe-button in myself. If Mei wasn’t so “dark”, I think I would be moe for her too.

Yuri supernatural action anime, Ga-Rei Zero continues to lay the awesome more and more, juggling breathtaking action with superior visuals and spiced up with much welcome yuri-yuri fanservice.

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Remember all the speculation that the show go in to “flashback” mode? It happened.

The third installment finally slows down the show’s frenetic pace of the first two and rewinds back to the first meeting between Yomi and Kagura and how they subsequently became siblings in spirit. Yomi sure was a fun-loving and free-spirited girl, so something truly terrible must’ve happened to her to turn her in to the monster that she is. Perhaps it’s related to the “Will you kill someone you love for love?” subtext that appeared in the earlier episodes?

The show finally gets a real theme song, and as speculated, it is Minorin’s latest single song, Paradise Lost, as well as the first time she sings solo for an anime OP/ED. It’s quite similar in tone to her older songs like 君がくれたあの日 and 詩人の旅, so fans of her will love the new single. I’m not quite attracted to it though, perhaps like j1mone, I’m a bit underwhelmed by her style now. It may change when the full song comes out.

Another point to talk about is Kaori Mizuhara’s performance as Yomi, virtually unrecognizable in the first two episodes with her sadistic and self-confident tone, but this episode she slips back to a more laidback tone, suitable to the portrayal of the younger Yomi that exudes an aura of friendliness. It’s almost hard to believe that this is her first major role. I agree with j1mone as well that Kaori Mizuhara has a nice onee-san voice, but I wouldn’t put it fully in the realm of “sexy”. Instead, I think she sounds extremely reliable and a comfortable person to be with. Shiraishi Minoru also seems to be making quite a good impression as Sakuraba Kazuki.

This is what would Negima’s Secchan be if she was evil.

Okay, so it’s pretty much confirmed that this is the manga prequel now with Kagura, Yomi and Nori featuring prominently as well as the other minor characters from the manga. The show will probably cover the Yomi events of 2 years ago that was mentioned in the manga, so it looks like some of the manga mainstays might not appear, such as the lead guy and the love rival.

The action-level and quality remains superior and from the looks of it, it may as well be the best action title for this season yet if they keep up to this level. Already we have zombies and awesome sword-fighting perfomances from both Kagura and Yomi as well as more unorthodox battle-skills being displayed such as briefcase pummeling and drill hands. What surprises me is that Kagura isn’t using the “Ga-Rei”. Instead, the “Micheal” Iaijutsu sword that will be handed to the hero in the manga is hers now. It looks like they’ve made a few changes to characters and the settings of the show but I welcome them as it makes the show a lot more kickass, seriously. Bobcut Kagura might take a while to get used to though, definitely wouldn’t have recognised her if not for the Pocky in her mouth!

I still can’t believe they decked out a full cast listing for the team in Episode 1, plus with promotional material featuring them as well only to have them all killed off in the first episode. That’s a lot of budget for the shock factor, seriously. Maybe they might play a role in the show to come later though, I still can’t believe they would just let them off after one episode, LOL. If they don’t, that’s one heck of a rickroll, man.

Additionally now, after checking the credits for the seiyuus, I’m totally floored. Minori Chihara’s doing Kagura while Yomi is played by Mizuhara Kaoru, popularized by her role as Misao Kusakabe in Lucky Star. I totally didn’t recognize her as Yomi at all, with the totally malevolent voice she uses. Even Minoru Shiraishi is in the show as well, as the briefcase-wielder Kazuki Sakuraba. No wonder that voice sounded familiar. His first serious seiyuu role in a while? XD. Norio Wakamoto also plays a side character(s) in the show too.

One thing’s for sure, Ga-Rei Zero is definitely a show to watch. I wonder how much budget this show has? I hope it doesn’t run out of steam halfway through!

Wow, I thought this show would be shit since the manga sounded oh-so-cliched, but damn this is probably one of the most shocking first episodes this season.

Uh, since the manga story doesn’t seem to apply here, I’ll summarize a bit. Kanze Tooru is part of a team that dispenses with supernatural enemies. Incidents involving them seem to have increased after an event three years ago. His team mates include Kasuga Natsuki (bearing an uncanny resemblance towards Mai Hime’s Natsuki), Shindou Masaki, Kusuno Kudou, Izumi Mami and they’re led by Konparu Kiriya. Their team is the “special forces” type, that deal with high level incidents which normal troops can’t handle.

The show begins with a Category D beast appearance that decimates the first team on the scene, so Tooru’s team is called in and they quickly dispatch of it. But another Category D pops up somewhere else, this time about 30x larger than the first one, so they devise a plan to use the sewage system in order to contain the threat. Natsuki acts as the bait, while Tooru takes up a sniping position and the other two set up stuff to create a large amount of “holy water” using the system.

The plan goes off smoothly but Tooru messes up when he snipes because of his flashbacks to a past event causing Natsuki to suffer a bit of rough treatment. In the end, the beast is dead and the team relaxes with some coffee, but suddenly Masaki and Kudou and killed by a katana-wielding girl that Tooru recognizes as a Category A. He takes Natsuki to hide and gets contacted by Mami, but it turns out she’s possessed herself and killed Konparu, eventually turning the gun to herself as well.

Tooru has a flashback at this point where he was forced to kill his own possessed girlfriend with his own hands, urged on by a girl, I suppose his team mate then. He snaps out of it only to find out that Natsuki’s slain as well and he confronts the killer, the same girl from his flashbacks, which proceeds to slash him as well. The episode ends abruptly at this point, with the caption “Will you kill someone you love, because of love?”

That was… rather abruptly shocking for a first episode. I thought we’d be seeing more of the other guys, especially the Natsuki-lookalike, but they all got killed within the first episode(?). I don’t know how the original manga is, but the anime looks set to be a pretty intense ride if the rest of the show keeps this up.

Notably, the production quality is one of the best yet from the crop of premieres I’ve watched so far. The action scenes are well done and at parts, impressive, such as Natsuki taking down a bunch of low-level enemies by using her mystically-enchanted motorbike tyres. The character designs look good as well, especially Natsuki and the katana-wielding girl at the end but with Natsuki already getting knocked off in the first episode, will we still see her?

The main questions of the series looks set to center on the flashback Tooru experienced as well as the “grand summoning” event that happened 3 years ago, though the issue at hand is how will the rest of the series look like if most of the candidate main characters are already dead from the start? I can’t wait to see how the second episode goes.