Review for Ga-Rei Zero: Complete Collection

Introduction

MVM are challenging me this year. I’ve often stated that of all genres, horror is my least favourite. There’s something about spooks and spectres, zombies and vampire that just leaves me cold, unenthused. There are the occasional horror movies that I do find entertaining, just because they are so well made, but I actively avoid most of the summer slasher blockbusters that come to our multiplexes. I’m also the same way when it comes to anime, although it seems every second anime has a vampire in it at times. The last few weeks MVM have come out with a raft of new license announcements, and I have been thrilled to see the company getting back into anime in such a strong way. Then I took a closer look at the titles announced. Sankarea is about zombies, and so is Is This A Zombie? obviously enough. Bakemonogatari apparently has its share of monsters, as does it sequel. Another is reputedly spooky, and Inu x Boku SS is a spiritual drama. I’m just glad that Waiting in the Summer and Kids on the Slope are in there to mix things up a bit. Anyway, I think it’s MVM’s plan to turn me into a horror fan by hook or by crook. They eased me into it by re-releasing Vampire Princess Miyu, one of those rare spooky titles that I do like. Now it’s deep end time as they bring Ga-Rei Zero to the UK, the anime prequel to the Ga-Rei manga series.


How can one sister kill another? Ga-Rei Zero begins with a supernatural menace wreaking havoc through the city, secret organisations, the PDCH (Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters) and the SDCD (Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division) run ragged trying to control the situation and paying heavily in human lives in the process. At the heart of the mayhem, sisters Kagura and Yomi at each other’s throats with swords unsheathed. Three years previously it was so different. Kagura’s mother had just died, and her father had inherited the clan legacy of the Spirit Eater, and had little time to raise a young grieving daughter. So it was that Kagura moved to Yomi’s family to be raised with her as her sister. While Kagura’s father was a leading figure in the battle against the supernatural, Yomi’s was on the front lines. Yomi herself was a member of an SDCD squad that dealt with spirit infestations, and it wasn’t long before Kagura was recruited as well.


All twelve episodes of Ga-Rei Zero are presented across two discs, while the show’s copious extra features are all presented on a separate third disc.

Disc 1
1. Above Aoi
2. Expression of Hatred
3. The Times of the Chance Encounter
4. The Cause of the Duty
5. Obstinate Feelings
6. Beautiful Enemy

Disc 2
7. Chains of Blame
8. Whereabouts of Revenge
9. Spiral of Sin
10. The Other Side of the Tragedy
11. Turmoil of Fates
12. Yearning Prayer

Picture

Ga-Rei Zero gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer on these discs, which courtesy of Australia’s Madman Entertainment are in the native PAL format, complete with 4% speed-up. The transfer is without any immediate issues, detail levels are good, colours are robust, and there is no visible sign of compression or significant aliasing. As a result the animation comes across very well, which is good as Ga-Rei Zero is a quality show, with a great deal of thought put into the world design, appealing character designs which don’t stray off model, and detailed animation throughout, whether it is an action scene, or a quieter character moment. This isn’t a show which panders to the usual anime tropes, no cutesy characters or mascot animals, and it has a more realistic feel to its world and character design. The transfer does this show full justice. A Blu-ray of the show was released in the US, but apparently it’s an upscale of an SD source.

Sound

Ga-Rei Zero gets audio in DD 5.1 Surround English and DD 2.0 Stereo Japanese, along with translated subtitles and a signs only track. Once again Madman pitch correct the audio for their PAL disc, and once again I noticed it, with a bit of clipping in the background music evident. Personally I’d rather that the audio was left at the higher pitch, but your mileage may vary. In a mistake in the menu screen, the Japanese track is advertised as 5.1 surround, but that isn’t the case in this release. The US release from Funimation had a Japanese stereo track as well. The Japanese audio track was preferable, with some robust voice actor performances. The stereo does enough to give the action some space. I gave the dub a try and found it to be a fairly routine effort from Funimation, nothing to complain about if you prefer English, but not quite standing out enough to do the show justice. The subtitles are clear, accurately timed, and are free of error.

Extras

The episode discs get static menus, and jacket pictures to look at when the discs aren’t spinning. The only snag is the aforementioned error in audio options.

All of the show’s extras are on disc 3, also presented with a static menu screen. The basics are there, textless credits, and 3 minutes of promo videos for the show. Also on the disc, you’ll find trailers for other MVM titles, Rosario & Vampire, Broken Blade, and Fruits Basket.


The bulk of the extra features come in the form of the Location Special Featurettes. There are six of them here, running to a total of 2 hours 11 minutes, although there is no Play All option. In it, the production crew go location scouting for the series, and the featurettes conveniently do a compare and contrast with the final anime when they do find interesting locations to use. It’s also a very interesting sight-seeing tour of some of Japan’s public utility edifices, the kind of temples to big city living that your regular tour guide will leave out. It’s amazing the level of realism and detail that the animators bring to the finished product when you compare the anime to the actual locations.

Conclusion

A somewhat silly little game I’ve been playing for a few years now, is that when I encounter a show that has a character that is tempted by, and succumbs to the forces of evil, I tend to compare it to Star Wars Episode III, and ask if it is better than the downfall of Anakin Skywalker. I say it is a silly little game, as the answer is invariably yes, but once again, I find that in Ga-Rei Zero, a character’s turning to the dark side is done in a way that Star Wars really should have done it.


It also appears from this UK perspective that Ga-Rei Zero takes something of a risk, starting at the end of the story, and then working its way forward from the beginning to catch up with its cliff-hanger. You have to remember that Ga-Rei Zero is a prequel to a manga series, and that fans of the manga already know how it starts, who will survive from this prequel series and who won’t, so starting it from the end is not such a problem for them. It is a shame, judging by the strength of the prequel, that I couldn’t find the Ga-Rei manga available in an English translation. In practice, starting Ga-Rei Zero from the end makes for a great dramatic device, introducing one sister with utter contempt, loathing and disgust for the other, on two different sides of a battle, and then flashing back to the beginning to reveal an absolute contrast.


Actually Ga-Rei Zero turns out to be completely masterful at misdirection, tightly written and well-crafted, yet utterly engaging, all from the opening episode. We get thrown into the thick of things, with a supernatural disturbance unleashed in the city, and the authorities totally outclassed and out of their depth in dealing with it. We then get introduced to our heroes, the PDCH special unit, PDCH standing for Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters. We meet two of their most adept and skilled members, Toru and Natsuki, and we see the mayhem that they can unleash on wayward spirits and evil ghosts. The show spends time building their characters, revealing their back stories, developing their relationships... And then it turns out that they aren’t the heroes after all.


We’re not actually interested in the military response to the danger, rather the Ministry of the Environment’s rival organisation, the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasure Division, the SDCD. Once more we meet some heroic characters, Kagura and Noriyuki, and the rest of the group, skilled warriors against the forces of darkness, and once again we see them excel against the danger, until Yomi appears, a schoolgirl with a sword, labelled a category A by the hunters, but someone they are acquainted with on a personal level. But Yomi most certainly isn’t friendly, especially when she begins to reap. Once again it looks like the show has only introduced a band of heroic types, only for them to exit the stage after just one episode, but episode three takes us back to where it all began.


Ga-Rei Zero develops a complex and interesting world of the supernatural existing alongside the modern world, kept in check by governmental organisations and clans that have passed on the knowledge, skills and abilities to deal with the supernatural through the generations. Kagura’s clan has controlled the Spirit Eater Byakuei, and she was being raised to be its next inheritor. The problem was that when her mother died, the power was passed to her father instead, and it became his responsibility to wield. So it was that she was effectively orphaned, and passed to Yomi’s clan to be raised there instead. Yomi’s clan also has a spiritual power embodied in the sword Shishio to pass down through its ranks. Yomi herself was adopted into the family after her parents were killed, and through sheer ability alone, it looks likely that she will be the next head of the clan. When Kagura moves in, Yomi sees something of a kindred spirit, not only in terms of loss, but also given the strict upbringing that Kagura has had, she’s also a lonely and isolated girl. Yomi takes her as a little sister and goes about bringing some joy into her life and the two are pretty much inseparable in short order.


The first problem is that Yomi has duties fighting the supernatural which means she has to say goodbye to Kagura almost every night, a goodbye that reminds Kagura of the last memory she has of her mother. So it is that Yomi starts taking Kagura with her, and soon Kagura becomes a member of the team as well. The second problem is that where there are clans and organisations, there are clan politics as well, and Yomi’s uncle is not pleased about the clan leadership being inherited by someone without any blood tie to the family. He would much rather that his daughter May be the next leader, and it soon becomes clear that they are willing to be underhand about it. The third problem is that rather than just random supernatural apparitions plaguing the city, there is a malevolent intelligence involved, one more than aware of the divisions in Yomi’s clan, and more than willing to exploit them, and so Yomi’s downfall begins.


Some aspects of Ga-Rei Zero are typical anime. The categorisation of supernatural forces, the various organisations formed to deal with them, the jargon and the excessive detail appeal to the collector mentality of certain niches of anime fandom. Also, while never out of step with the story, there are enough cute and clichéd aspects to the show to tick off more than a few boxes in an otaku anime trope checklist. But certain aspects of the show transcend this; really leave it in the background. For one thing, the production values of Ga-Rei Zero are really high, great animation and audio, an attention to detail and a level of realism that justify the disclaimer at the start of each episode, pointing out that none of the events and organisations in the show are real. Not a lot of anime need something like that. The second thing is that the characters are so well written, there is depth and complexity to them (except maybe the Nabu brothers) that goes beyond what you would expect in a supernatural shonen anime. The third thing is that the story is just so engaging. It is so intricately constructed, well thought out and compelling that once you start watching it, it’s hard to switch off until the end. I don’t like horror, but I love Ga-Rei Zero.