Ga-Rei: Zero

I've watched my fair share of anime and consider myself to have a decent handle on it.  I've watched series from a multitude of genres, and I've enjoyed many of them.  I've also watched terrible anime, some so bad that I never finished the series.  Some people treat anime like a genre, but it is a medium.   If you like science fiction movies, you may enjoy science fiction anime.  The same can be said of fantasy, horror, adventure, and the like. Obviously, anime has a Japanese flavor to it, as it is rooted in Japanese culture.  It references food and jobs and school that they deal with on a daily basis.

I felt it was important to mention my previous experience with anime, as many people get very defensive if you judge it, and I intend to review Ga-Rei: Zero.  I'm only going to be talking about the first episode, but I'm still making a call on something that many people have not taken the time to experience.  Anime is not for everyone, but part of enjoying it is enjoying the type of anime you are shown for the first time.  Anime can be really, really weird.  Ranma 1/2 may not be a great introductory show for your intellectual nerd friend, but maybe he wouldn't mind Berserk too much.  I think everyone should give anime a try, just so you can say you got the experience points.

Today, I decided to watch the first episode of Ga-Rei: Zero.  Up until the last five minutes, it was nothing special, merely an anime about an agency that fights spirits.  It's so similar to a ton of other anime that I quickly grew bored.  The animation is about average.  I didn't see any of the super-cartoony, over-exaggerated facial expressions that take you out of a semi-serious anime.  Of course the eyes were overly large, but that is to be expected.  The character design was pretty traditional, as well.  All in all, it was a dull show.

I was all set to not watch any more of the show, but then, the show reached its last five minutes.  Please excuse my language, as I try to keep it clean in my reviews, but I have to use a phrase that my brother, my husband, and I have utilized when discussing anime.  I'm referring to the "fuck you ending" that anime happily uses with abandon.  See, a great deal of anime will lull you into a false sense of security and then do something you didn't expect.  It can come in the last couple minutes of a series, or it might happen at the end of a random episode.  I find it happens a lot in the opening episodes of some anime, and Ga-Rei: Zero is no exception.  Because of how they ended the first episode, I immediately started the next one.  I have to return to work in a few minutes, so I won't be able to finish it, but I may be hooked for the whole series.

Anime seems like a young man's game.  Mark and I used to devour it, but it is pretty rare that we find a series that grips us enough to watch in its entirety.  In the past year, I believe the only anime we watched was Zombie High School (or whatever it was called) and Claymore.  Considering we used to pay almost $30 per volume and can now get our anime for free online, it's amazing we don't watch more of it.  You just get to the point where you feel you have seen it all.  Let's see if Ga-Rei: Zero can give me something new.