Ga-Rei Zero: Complete Collection Blu-ray offers decent video and great audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
The Japanese Ministry of Defense has an anti-paranormal special forces group called the Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters. They're the ones responsible to protect Japanese soil and its people from supernatural and paranormal events. However, things didn't go so well in one of their missions, which leads to intervention by the Ministry of Enviroment's Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division after the PDCH has sustained large numbers of casualties battling demons.
There is something deep in the post-World War II Japanese soul that seems to express almost atavistic fears in sometimes rather odd ways. For example, whole swaths of animes feature horrible attacking forces that typically take on Tokyo and other Japanese locales, places that are in many cases already in the depths of a post-Apocalyptic nightmare. It's probably too pat to lay this phenomenon squarely at the feet of the horrors of the atomic bombs having been dropped on Japan, but there's no denying that that unimaginable horror affected the Japanese psyche in manifold ways which are perhaps still being worked out, maybe only semi-therapeutically, in a host of artistic endeavors where mutant creatures wreak havoc on an unsuspecting public. Many animes posit these forces in terms of aliens arriving from a hostile sky, but Ga-Rei Zero takes more of an X Files or Buffy the Vampire Slayer approach, with hosts of attacking demons and spirits who harbor malevolent intent against the general Japanese populace but more importantly against the Japanese Defense Ministry's Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters and an even more elite unit which is called upon the fight the supernatural terrorists, the Ministry of Environment's Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division. Quite a mouthful to be sure, but the core story of Ga-Rei Zero is really more about a trio of young demon fighters who each have their own tormented pasts to overcome. Though there's certainly a science fiction element which fills Ga-Rei Zero to the brim with visions of hideous wraiths and huge Godzilla-like beasts, it's really the interpersonal relationships that sets the series apart from a lot of its anime kin.
As with so many successful animes, Ga-Rei Zero began life as a manga, in this case The Enchained Spiritual Beast Ga-Rei by Hajime Segawa. The manga actually detailed the relationship between Kagura Tsuchimaya, a sort of Japanese Buffy, and a young man to whom she becomes attracted, Kensuke Nimura (think a post-adolescent Mulder, all doleful and angst-ridden). Kagura is part of the elite counterattack unit whose provenance is keeping Japan free of things that go bump in the night. Soon Kensuke has joined her in this enterprise, as he is yet another "seer," someone who is able to ferret out the spectral entities that have malevolent intent. The manga set up a major battle with a former friend of Kagura's, a young girl named Yomi Isayama who had once been a protégé of Kagura's, but who has since literally gone over to the dark side courtesy of being influenced by a Sesshôseki, a stone which has the same nefarious impact on its carrier that the Ring does in J.R.R. Tolkein's fantasies, or, to use a more contemporary example, how a Horcrux disables its carriers in the Harry Potter books.
Part of the problem with Ga-Rei Zero is that it is a prequel dwelling on the relationship between Kagura and Yomi, and yet anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Ga-Rei universe knows going in that this is a relationship which is not going to last. The series also makes a calculated misstep in setting up a purported mystery which is only too self-evident to anyone who's read the manga or at least knows the outcome of the Kagura and Yomi arc. And so what are we left with?
The good news is that, despite its shortcomings, Ga-Rei Zero manages to deliver some fitful goods along the way, especially with regard to the three main characters' tortured pasts and how those play into fateful decisions they're forced to make. While there are obvious mirroring aspects between various characters' decisions to kill friends who have become possessed, the series does a good job of delivering two distinct characters in Kagura and Yomi. The problem here is that the series starts off with such a stunning conceit that most viewers will assume that the rest of the series is going to be one slam-bang surprise after another. What actually develops is a much more quiet, even meditative, look at the interpersonal relationship between two emotionally damaged girls. Of course there's copious demon butt-kicking along the way, but my sense is Ga-Rei Zero is really more interested in the characters than in the conceit of katana wielding demon slayers.
Design elements here are quite impressive, and the series does a really superb job of recasting a variety of real life Japanese locations as settings for various episodes. (A wealth of location scouting documentaries are included in one of the bonus DVDs in this set; see the Supplements section below). The demons themselves are often the best things about the series, at least in terms of visual interest. We get everything from melting skeleton like creatures to huge, fiery beasts that might be figurative cousins to Godzilla, only slightly mutated. The katana wielding heroines also give a nice archaic edge (in more ways than one) to the series, and help to establish the "tradition" of exorcism as something that's supposedly alive and well in Japanese culture, whether or not that's actually the case.
The series probably devolves into unneeded melodrama too many times for its own good, especially after Yomi is revealed to be the "villain," and Kagura needs to decide how to handle her former protégé. When Yomi goes ballistic within her own private life as well as Kagura's, the series stretches to its breaking point, and though the series gets off to a bombastically effective start (courtesy of a rather surprising denouement in the first episode), it then backtracks and tries to develop storylines that too often go off on unneeded tangents and may leave some viewers feeling overly frustrated that that shocking denouement may be the only surprise the series has up its collective sleeve. From a plot perspective, Ga-Rei Zero is pretty standard shounen fare, but in the backstory of Kagura and Yomi we finally get something really distinctive, and it's in fact that element which ultimately raises Ga-Rei Zero above its demon killing anime cousins.
Ga-Rei Zero slashes onto Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer (upconverted from an SD master) in 1.78:1. This is a relatively soft and lackluster looking Blu-ray, though it does offer occasional visual interest. Though it may seem strange, this is actually one series where the backgrounds take center stage at least some of the time, courtesy of some lovingly detailed renderings of real life Japanese locales that populate the series. Truth be told, Kagura and Yomi are fairly generic looking character designs, and though they're represented here cleanly and clearly, there's nothing intrinsically exciting about either of them. It's the backgrounds and the demons you'll probably remember most about Ga-Rei Zero, and it's in these elements where the series displays the bulk of its visual ingenuity. The series is intentionally rather dark, but the color scheme utlized is strong and variegated and reds are especially robust and well saturated throughout the bulk of the episodes. In the long run, however, nothing really pops with high definition wonderment throughout this enterprise. The closest we get to anything approaching a "wow" factor is in some of the demonic creatures, but even those are so frequently rendered in a dark, low contrast setting that it's hard to get very excited about them.
Two above average lossless Dolby TrueHD tracks, one in Japanese (2.0) and one in English (5.1), help elevate this series above the norm, at least sonically speaking. Because of the English dub's surround activity, I chose to stick with it for the bulk of my first time through this series on Blu-ray. From the first episode, when you are thrust smack dab in the middle of an involving sound design as various ghosts and goblins go on a rampage, you realize you're in for some excellently detailed sound effects positioning, and some awesomely robust LFE. Strangely, this is also one of the quieter animes in recent memory, at least when it delves into the more introspective aspects of its characters' lives, but even there, the track offers superior fidelity and an extremely effective underscore. Dialogue is crisp, clear and well mixed, but it's the ubiquitous sound effects which give this series its sonic muscle, and the good news is that those effects are delivered with excellent fidelity and very impressive dynamic range. For the purists who prefer the original Japanese soundtrack, while obviously much narrower, it also provides bristling fidelity and some real "oomph" in the low end. Even without the repurposed surround activity, there will probably be few complaints from listeners here.
This nicely slipcased set includes two keepcases, one with BDs and the other with DVDs. While two of the three DVDs simply offer standard definition versions of the television series, the third DVD offers copious bonus content:
Location Specials is a set of six outings the Ga-Rei Zero crew undertook to scout various locations which would then be utilized (in animation form, of course) for the series. This is a really fascinating (if sometimes laborious) set of documentaries that shows exactly what pre-production is all about. The crew goes to an incredible variety of locations, both mundane and iconic. We get to see everything from the Oya Stone Museum to the Hibiya Utility Conduit to industrial areas to forests. Several of the specials begin with an textual apology of sorts asking viewers to understand any issues with the video or audio quality, but all of the specials include forced English subtitles which capture the bulk of what's being said. The complete list of specials and running times is:
Special 1 (19:57)
Special 2 (25:04)
Special 3 (19:03)
Special 4 (22:04)
Special 5 (25:04)
Special 6 (20:03)
Series Premiere/First Episode Promo Videos (1:04)
DVD Promo Videos (00:48)
Textless Opening Song (1:32) (Note: this defaults to English subtitles on, but they can be turned off).
Textless Closing Song (1:35) (As above, English subtitles are defaulted to on but can be removed).
I'm more than a little conflicted about Ga-Rei Zero. It's too stereotypical for its own good, and it travels a well worn shounen path that any fan of manga or anime is going to feel like they know like the palm of their own hand. And yet the series defies all expectations with one of the most surprising opening gambits in recent anime television outings. Unfortunately that conceit is only good for one big shock, and then we're left to pick up the pieces of a too traditional story. What works inarguably here is a very lush background design, as well as some compelling demons and beasts, and the interpersonal relationship between Kagura and Yomi becomes very affecting as the series hits its stride. So are you a cup-half-full or a cup-half-empty sort of person. If you're the latter, you'll probably want to pass this enterprise by; if you're one of the former, this series, flaws and all, you'll probably want to give Ga-Rei Zero a spin, if only to experience the relationship between Kagura and Yomi.
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