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REVIEW: Ga-Rei Zero DVD/Blu-Ray


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darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5514
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2011 11:39 pm Reply with quote
I swear, this is one of the few TV series that's so hard to rewatch!
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Eri94



Joined: 14 Feb 2011
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2011 11:55 pm Reply with quote
darkchibi07 wrote:
I swear, this is one of the few TV series that's so hard to rewatch!
It's so good! I love Yomi <3
I never read the manga, only watched this, so if they come out with a Ga-Rei anime, I'm going to feel weird watching it because Kagura won't be the main character, nor Yomi. It's a bit of a weird situation IMO if you've only watched the show and never read Ga-Rei first. It'll feel like they just randomly inserted some main character boy.
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Zenador



Joined: 28 Mar 2011
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 12:11 am Reply with quote
I completely agree with this review, despite the fact that I have yet to find the time to finish the series Sad. The way the series is plotted really draws the watcher into the story and the characters, especially for those who, like Carl said, enjoy the several different genres in it. Luckily for me character driven drama and psychological horror (and any mix of those things) are my favorite things to watch!
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Seif



Joined: 16 Nov 2004
Posts: 458
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 2:36 am Reply with quote
So, I checked out the first episode to check out what the fuss over the first episode was about. I had an idea of what to expect judging by the nature of his review,spoiler[ but I severely underestimated the extent of it]. On the positive side, I now have a rage/trolling tool to dispense on my fellow anime fans when I'm feeling particularly sadistic.

Yeah, it was totally cheap. But dammit, it intrigued me enough to watch more. So, it did it's job, I guess. Gonna have to set some time aside this weekend and give this show a proper shot.

I checked out the first episode dubbed initially to get a feel for it. Ironically, it's totally useless in that regard. spoiler[They've already used up the usual standbyes for those character types, so I'm curious to see who they'll bust now now.]
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 3:31 am Reply with quote
Gotta say, I really did not like Yomi's English dub voice. Usually I'm just indifferent to a character's voice in English, but not in this case. This may just be a case of simply loving the Japanese rendition too much to be open to any other interpretation though.

I really enjoyed the series, even more when I learned that they didn't really have much of a source for this since I believe it is a prequel to the manga and not an actual adaptation.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2267
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 4:29 am Reply with quote
I think I saw this about a year ago on Hulu (maybe?) and I have to say I totally fell for the opening gimmicks. I wasn't too impressed with the characters and wasn't paying too much attention, but by the end of the first episode I was "WTH just happened!" So, it definitely hooked me and I thoroughly enjoyed the series. It had its weak points, but overall I think it was solid and am looking to pick it up.

One thing I don't like is the promos kind of giving part of the story line away. It kind of annoyed me. I also have some trepidation after reading in the review that they changed the dialogue for the dub. Hopefully it wont be too drastic.
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here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1529
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 8:25 am Reply with quote
I keep reading good things about this series. I'll have to check it out.
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Eri94



Joined: 14 Feb 2011
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 10:03 am Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Gotta say, I really did not like Yomi's English dub voice. Usually I'm just indifferent to a character's voice in English, but not in this case. This may just be a case of simply loving the Japanese rendition too much to be open to any other interpretation though.

I really enjoyed the series, even more when I learned that they didn't really have much of a source for this since I believe it is a prequel to the manga and not an actual adaptation.
Maybe it's because I never watched her in Japanese, but I really loved her dub. I thought it was a decent step up from Kagura too.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 10:29 am Reply with quote
The first episode wasn't really that clever for being such a simple idea, but it was effective. I have a problem with it, though;spoiler[the characters who die are boring; dour hero, heroine with no character who's in love with him, annoying geek, a dude who's actually like 30 years old or something, a little girl techie, and a somewhat ominous chief. It's a real cliche "super action team" line-up (I was especially reminded of the forgettable Burn Up Excess) and a significant part of my emotional response once the massacre started was relief that I wasn't being asked to watch a whole series starring these people.]

Eri94 wrote:
I never read the manga, only watched this, so if they come out with a Ga-Rei anime, I'm going to feel weird watching it because Kagura won't be the main character, nor Yomi. It's a bit of a weird situation IMO if you've only watched the show and never read Ga-Rei first. It'll feel like they just randomly inserted some main character boy.

Never read it? Don't. It's awful. It's the perfect stereotype of an bland action manga; boring protagonist who gets thrown into violent circumstances and is constantly comically out of his depth but is somehow special and able to overcome all obstacles and he sees the heroine's panties in the first chapter.

Even the brief flashbacks to the period elaborated on in Zero are different and lack the latter's quality. spoiler[They all but say that Yomi was only pretending to be Kagura's friend and deliberately turned into an evil magical warrior just because she's a bad person.]

I have no idea how this was tapped to be animated in any form and find it curious that so little of the (dreadful) substance of the original was used. Why bother? Unless someone was dared to make something good out of it, like growing roses from manure.

The fact does bad things to the ending, though. spoiler[Despite the fact that this story is a tragedy, for some reason some characters tell us that there's some kind of hope for Kagura.]
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fireaxe



Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 503
Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 11:50 am Reply with quote
I can't wait to get my hands on this! Ga-Rei Zero was by far the best anime series of 2008, as far as I'm concerned.

Sadly, I'm reading the manga at the moment and I've got to say that so far I'm really disappointed. It's not bad per se, but it's the kind of story/characters that you've all seen or heard of hundreds of times already. I already bought the first 9 volumes though (and only read the first 4), so I hope it'll get better at some point....
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GrilledEelHamatsu



Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Posts: 703
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 12:53 pm Reply with quote
fireaxe wrote:
I can't wait to get my hands on this! Ga-Rei Zero was by far the best anime series of 2008, as far as I'm concerned.

Sadly, I'm reading the manga at the moment and I've got to say that so far I'm really disappointed. It's not bad per se, but it's the kind of story/characters that you've all seen or heard of hundreds of times already. I already bought the first 9 volumes though (and only read the first 4), so I hope it'll get better at some point....


I've been waiting for ANN to give thier take of Gai Rei Zero for quite some time.(I saw it for the first time at the Alamo almost a month ago.)

The first episode will turn people off seeing that it doesn't really focus on character development. Seeing that they practicly used two names from Azumanga Daioh as the main protagonists. To me the who anime feels like thier trying to rip off Gatekeepers 21 while sqeezing lemons.

But nonetheless, its still a very enjoyable series goinf through all the flashbacks, not to mention all the fan service and explict yuri overtones.
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Fronzel



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1906
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 1:34 pm Reply with quote
GrilledEelHamatsu wrote:
Seeing that they practicly used two names from Azumanga Daioh as the main protagonists.

That's an extremely weird thing to say. Yomi and Kagura are just Japanese girl's names.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 1:41 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, if any character was lifted from some existing character in the first episode of Ga-Rei Zero, it'd be the motorcyclist Natsuki... who looks and acts pretty much exactly like... Natsuki, from Mai HiME. Though the sacred markings (or whatever they were) on the motorcycle were sure spiffy.
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bob_loblaw



Joined: 14 Oct 2005
Posts: 229
Location: Tanning in Hell
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Fronzel wrote:
Never read [the original manga]? Don't. It's awful. It's the perfect stereotype of an bland action manga; boring protagonist who gets thrown into violent circumstances and is constantly comically out of his depth but is somehow special and able to overcome all obstacles and he sees the heroine's panties in the first chapter.


I could not agree more. Shortly after I finished watching Ga-Rei Zero some several months ago, I was so excited to know that Kagura's story wasn't over and that there was a manga out there to read. Whoo-hoo.

UGH.

In the animated prequel, I watched Kagura grow to become a confident, talented swords-woman who could cleave towering monsters in two with a single strike.

So, there I was reading the manga and seeing this amazing character reduced to crying for the clichéd shonen protagonist to save her one chapter after another (i.e. "EEEEEEE! Somebody save me!!"). It was just so, so disappointing and sobering to see one of my favorite heroines reduced to a simple "damsel-in-distress/deus-ex-machina". I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Why in the world does Kagura need saving by this Kensuke dope? She can easily dust these monsters off herself, before finishing off her box of pocky." I was left shaking my head. And I really don't want to get into spoiler[Yomi's "return" in the original manga], unless I want to risk going into a huge rant.

::sigh:: A part kind of wishes Katsuhiko Takayama and Ei Aoki would adapt the manga into an animation and completely rewrite it. But that wouldn't be fair for them to trounce all over Hajime Segawa's work, even if I'm not a fan of it.

However, this has led me to wonder what fans of the manga thought about the animated prequel when they watched it for the first time. Were they troubled by the changes or gushing all over them?
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Eri94



Joined: 14 Feb 2011
Posts: 220
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2011 6:13 pm Reply with quote
Fronzel wrote:
snip

Bob Loblaw wrote:
snip

Aww...I was afraid of that. Maybe we'll get lucky and Zero's creators can make an anime adaptation with Kagura. But I won't hold my breath.
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