Shameful Otaku Secret!

Hey guys. Been pretty busy lately, trying to steadily pump out posts but after seeing this recentAsk John(thx owen), I remembered I had a post I’ve sitting on since winter, in which I talked about Ga-Rei Zero. Short story is, I dug it.

Well, the holidays got me sick. Not fun. But being bed-ridden was a great excuse to do my first legit series marathon in a very long time. I chose the supernatural action thriller Ga-Rei Zero. There may be minor spoilers, but considering the bulk of the story is laid out within a couple episodes, there’s not a lot to spoil in this series.

Story

Ga-Rei Zero is the origin story of the Ga-Rei manga, showing the path a young girl named Kagura took to become a powerful exorcist in a world full of demons and government “spiritual defense” organizations. Told mostly in flashback, Zero recounts the love she shared for 3 years with her surrogate sister Yomi.

There’s not much way to talk about this series without talking about the bizarre beginning: The non-traditional structure is a make-or-break point for Zero. By starting somewhere near the end, telling in flashback, then finally joining the two ends, writer Katsuhiko Takayama (also series writer for ef) constructed a horrible ode to inevitability that anime doesn’t deal in often, and some people just aren’t gonna go for. I can think of a live-action parallel: In Scorsese’s Casino, Robert De Niro’s character dies in a firey car bomb in the first couple minutes. The ensuing movie is entirely a flashback, and three hours later you remember: oh, yeah. He dies. Ga-Rei Zero takes an even more desperately depressing approach. Scorsese aimed to shock you with your forgetfulness, but this series constantly twists the knife to remind you what awaits.

On a superficial level of motorcycles, government demon-fighting teams, heroes-turned-bad, and depressive mood, Zero strongly resembles Blassreiter. It has a few key traits that separate it, though: half length, devotion to standard anime-“isms,” superior animation, and more personal themes of love and individual destiny versus Blassreiter’s focus on faith and duty.

Characters

I really wish Kagura were a more interesting character, but in truth that goes for most of the characters of G-RZ. Rather than a complex collection of emotions, they often feel like they’re just a product of the things that happen to them throughout the series — can you honestly say there are many people out there who wouldn’t have taken Yomi’s route, given the absolute emotional and spiritual pummeling she suffers?

That said, their generic qualities might serve to make them more sympathetic (same question applies here), and as the climax approaches, it’s hard not to feel for Kagura and, to a degree, Yomi’s erstwhile fiancé Noriyuki.

Technical

There isn’t a whole lot to say here. Nothing animation-wise, or audio-wise, went over-the-top for execution, but it’s appealing and more than solid the whole time. Character designs and overall style project a Production IG vibe, but maybe that’s just because Kagura = Saaya (Blood+) to some degree in my mind and it colored everything else. Fight scenes are well-directed and there’s no slippage in the high quality over 12 episodes.

Themes

Amidst all the standard anime junk — dead mothers and distant fathers, swordfighters in seifuku (not complaining), a world of improbable science-meets-magic — Zero manages to raise some interesting points. It’s really too bad that it spends a lot of time broadcasting those points through viewer proxies, dramatic monologues, and its lovely Engrishy tagline, “Would you kill someone you love, because of love?” Not that I expect the average anime to stop holding its viewers’ hands, but Ga-Rei Zero teased that it was going to give me lots to chew on, then took that away by outright verbalizing almost all of it.

While the show really wants us to ponder the question of whether Yomi overcame the Stone’s power or it just granted her true wish, what’s the difference? Either way, love tragically triumphs over greed and revenge, not that it helps anything. In hindsight, it’s kinda like the Haibane Renmei question of intent, except with damnation in place of salvation as the end result.

The Y Word

If you’ve read anything on blogs about Ga-Rei Zero, you’ve probably heard the word yuri tossed around a few times. In fact, ANN’s page lists “yuri” as the only theme. Glad I wasn’t watching it for that, or the other themes of “senseless suffering,” “inevitable tragedy,” and “sweet swordfighting” would have really distracted me.

But you can feel the sisterly love, and it really has to be ramped up for the horrific result to be felt. In the end, out of 4 hours of series there are about 30 seconds worth of anything that could be called yuri. There is one mouth-to-mouth kiss (a sort of Lady and the Tramp thing with Pocky), but that scene is there for a reason: it’s paralleled later, with horribly sad (if slightly overplayed) results.

So don’t watch this for yuri anymore than you’d watch it for guro — there’s enough blood, bathing, and shortness of skirts to cover your perverted needs, but it’s just not that kind of show. You’d have to be pretty depraved to get your jollies from something so damn depressing.

Bottom Line

Ga-Rei Zero caught me with its surprises in the first couple episodes, but after those were over, it continued to entertain and satisfy with good animation, cute girls with swords, and my ultimate anime fanservice, ludicrous tragedy (geez, maybe I am an extremist after all, clearly some people are not up for that and I guess I can’t blame them).

1990s OVAs full of tits, blood and total apocalypse fed my early fandom, and while this isn’t strictly an update to that it does provide the same kinds of thrills with a little more depth, a lot more heart, and a modern edge. Plus, it’s a lot better than Mnemosyne. Take its 12-episode length into account, and it’s hard for me not to recommend Ga-Rei Zero to anyone who likes their anime dark, action-heavy, and depressing.

Fall’s unexpected bright spot

The other day, Jason asked me what the dark horse this season was. The True Tears, if you will.

Seems like I haven’t seen enough to make a real judgment yet, but to my surprise I answered pretty quickly: Kannagi.

What a catch! If asked to sum it up, I’d say Kabitzin suddenly became a cute female spirit of nature with a dime-store magical girl wand and is living at some kid’s house, watching TV and eating all the cup noodles! What’s not to love?

(Tree) God is in the details

The premise is nothing new. In the world of anime, gods and spirits become flesh in the form of cute girls and shack up with high school losers all the time. Then they break stuff around the house while they try to figure out how the mortal world works. They create misunderstandings with the boy’s childhood friends — who, as we all know, are the only fitting mates for our male heroes. They even have arguments early on, wherein they storm out of the house for good, only to need help (from the boy) and finally return home, where they find that the incident has only strengthened their inexplicable relationship.

The difference in Kannagi’s case is in the execution.

Nagi is not too cute and klutzy, though she’s no athlete. She’s not too tsun-tsun, even though she does get angry and obstinate when Jin hits a sensitive spot with his words. And she’s not too helpless, needing a loser-boy-master to help with everything — even if it did take her a second to figure out the TV.

Instead of her traits adding up to one big cliché, they add up to a real character. And with the added benefit of her love of puns, Nagi becomes a lot more enjoyable than any supernatural-girl-in-your-house in recent memory.

Lookin good

High-quality art really benefits that characterization too. Like Lucky Star’s cartoony-yet-realistic body language helped create a million Kagamin fanboys, the execution here makes Nagi more real when she scratches her leg with her foot while watching tennis on the floor, as Jin saws frantically at the glued-on wand behind her. Or, best of all, when she describes the circumstances surrounding how the wand got glued to the exact center of the table.

Birdy DECODE’s animation slipped badly last season, but the style here is already so inextricable from the overall experience, I hope A-1 Pictures can maintain this level.

Acting — not so wooden (LOLS)

I was surprised to find that Nagi is voiced by Haruka Tomatsu, the voice of Lala in To Love-Ru. If this isn’t proof that the material makes a difference, I don’t know what is. I actually wished for the ability to jump through the television and strangle Lala’s seiyuu once. Now I’m glad that the god of comic book powers didn’t grant me that one, since every conspiratorial half-stifled laugh at an awful pun is cuter than the last.

Hiro Shimono, ef’s Hiro and RahXephon’s Ayato, already had my vote going into this but he’s proven to be great as well. Take this scene in episode two, when Nagi finds some kittens:

Nagi: At least get them some milk.
Jin: you can’t feed kittens cow’s milk.
Nagi: Your breasts are too small to make any milk, so give it up. HAHAHA. That’s what you’re thinking isn’t it?
Jin: I’m not thinking that.
Jin: Maybe a bit.

It doesn’t look like anything great in transcript. LOL small boobs no one likes those except anime fans harhar, we’ve heard that one. But the delivery on both of their parts is what makes it special, and funny.

That’s a lot of high-quality ingredients all thrown together in a pot, but unfortunately it’s not a soup until you cook it right. And in this metaphor, which is itself pretty half-baked, that means the story. I think we’ll still have to wait and see where that goes. From next episode’s title, it sounds like Nagi will head off to school with Jin, so I hope that we don’t get deluged with clichés from here on out. I also hope the whole smashing-impurities plot will continue to develop, while helping the charming characters do the same. It may still be too early to definitively guarantee Kannagi’s place in the season, but as of now I’m surprised and hopeful.

Edit: I’m not the only one. Hop over and tell OGT he’s not as alone as he thinks.

Kirameki

As much as I went and talked up the anthology factor of Shigofumi last episode, I’m also really digging the character developments that happened here.

Recap

We begin with a Kasai Haruno, a young would-be editor who’s apparently deemed useless by her publishing company; unexpectedly, she’s given her first real job after three years — editing for Mikawa Kirameki. Coincidentally, her younger sister Natsuka is the same girl that Kaname called when he saw the phantom Fumiko on the roof.

Natsuka digs the nerdy type, and though she knows all Kaname really wants is to grill her about Fumiko, she is excited to have him over.

When Haruno forgets her map on the first day to her new job and Kaname helps Natsuka scan and email it to her, Kaname’s obsession brings him and Natsuka to the bizarre glass Mikawa complex as well. But that’s not all: Mikawa Kirameki is the recipient of a Shigofumi, and guess whose job it is to deliver it? Fumiko, of course. And Kirameki seems to roll with it, for some unknown reason.

So the end of the episode is a pretty unexpected turn of events as all the characters converge on Mikawa’s remote glass castle thingy.

What We’ve Learned

Fumiko did indeed shoot her dad back in the day, though obviously he still lives. She is well aware of her sleeping body in the hospital, which she calls her “other half.” And Kirameki is even more “eccentric” and cold-hearted than we’ve been shown in previous clips.

Thoughts

Kaname’s obsession with finding answers is pretty hardcore, but it’s getting to be a plot contrivance. Natsuka is a shy girl, so maybe she wouldn’t have really stopped him, but it seems like bad form to follow your sister to work on her first day, especially when she works for The Fucked-Up Poet (isn’t that another Shakugan No Shana character?). At any case, we’re made to accept that in order to get all the recurring characters together in on place at the same time. I suppose I’m OK with it, because it’s still a fine show, and the merger of anthology-style and recurring characters in this episode is pretty interesting.

Looks like next week is the flashback to Fumiko shooting Kirameki that a lot of people are probably pining for at this point. Seems early to lay those cards on the table, so hopefully there is a lot more planned for the rest of this season’s episodes.