Mature (May contain sex, drugs, and extreme graphic violence)
Vintage:
October 5, 2008
Status:
Completed
Summary:
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.
Ga-Rei-Zero is, perhaps, one of those average supernatural anime. What makes it stand apart from others of its genre is its presentation and structure. The anime starts in a unique, spoiler-ish way that may engage the curiousity of some viewers while putting some viewer off. By starting off the series like this, the viewer already knows what is going to happen at the series' most critical point and hence, the rest of the episodes are about getting from point A to point B. The viewer knows that it's not going to end well from viewing the first episode and yet, it is the curiousity, the wanting to know how everything gets to that point that keeps the viewer interested.
What I LIKED about Ga-Rei-Zero:
+Unusual Structure and execution
+Interesting main cast.
+Good animation
+Emotional scenes are well executed
+Great opening and ending songs and visuals
+Good soundtrack
What I DISLIKED about Ga-Rei-Zero:
-Too many canon fodder characters
-Obvious plot armour surrounding the main heroine
-Open-ended conclusion
Summary:
Ga-Rei-Zero is a prequel to a manga that may not ever be animated and anime-only viewers may feel as though the conclusion was lacking closure. Those who have read both manga and anime note that the atmosphere in Ga-Rei-Zero is remarkably darker than that of the manga and have criticized the manga.