First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

ED: “Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru” 「夢の足音が聞こえる」 by Mizuhara Kaoru (水原 薫)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Show Streaming ▼

「憎 発露 －にくしみのはつろ－」 (Nikushimi no Hatsuro)
“Manifestation of Hatred”

Impressions:
Well that was a huge surprise. Not only did we get an entirely new cast this time around after all the ones in the first episode were killed off, we also had a bunch of characters from the manga show up — including Tsuchimiya Kagura (Chihara Minori). While I didn’t specifically mention it last time, Isayama Yomi (Mizuhara Kaoru) was confirmed to be the girl at the end of the first episode according to the credits, who shows up this week to kill off everyone again. Presentation-wise, GA-REI -zero- continues to draw me in with its excellent use of music, but I’m admittedly confused as to where the series is headed after these turn of events. At best, I’m suspecting this is an alternate telling of the manga. Nimura Kensuke has yet to show up and Kagura appears to have been killed off already, making the probability of this being a prequel pretty unlikely now.

As things stand now, this is definitely the most shocking new series two weeks in a row, which uses the same “ploy” to make me want to watch the third episode as well. Cast-wise, this week’s group isn’t really any less well-rounded than last week’s either, so I still can’t tell who the main character is here. Judging from the credits, I would say it’s Yomi though. Evidently, she used to be on the Supernatural Countermeasure side and was seen as an older sister to Kagura, so perhaps the recurring question at the end of each episode alludes to her actions. “Will you kill someone you love, because of love?” At this rate, I wonder if we’ll get a new cast of characters every week, only to see the majority of them killed off by her.

On a separate note, this week also featured an ending song with the credits scroll, titled “Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru” (I Can Hear the Footsteps in the Dream) and sung by Yomi’s seiyuu, Mizuhara Kaoru. It’s a pretty good song, but I’m still in awe as to what’s going on in this series. Anyone else as confused but as interested as I am on this one?

 

Notable Cast:
– Isayama Yomi (諫山 黄泉) : Mizuhara Kaoru (水原 薫)
– Tsuchimiya Kagura (土宮 神楽) : Chihara Minori (茅原 実里)
– Iidzuna Noriyuki (飯綱 紀之) : Takahashi Shinya (高橋 伸也)
– Jinguuji Ayame (神宮寺 菖蒲) : Aizawa Mai (相沢 舞)
– Nikadou Kiri (二階 堂桐) : Tsuchiya Maki (土谷 麻貴)
– Sakuraba Kazuki (桜庭 一騎) : Shiraishi Minoru (白石 稔)
– Iwahata Kouji (岩端 晃司) : Inada Tetsu (稲田 徹)
– Nabuu Brothers (ナブー兄弟) : Wakamoto Norio (若本 規夫)

62 Comments

  8. Argh so they all died after all? Then what the heck was the point of introduceing them in the first place? I was really hopeing to see more of Natsuki and Tooru >< Oh well I’ll keep watching to see where this is heading.

    FlameStrike
    Reply

  10. Did Kagura really die? And from what I see she still does not have her Ga-Rei yet. Remember that it’s HER Ga-Rei that gives title to the story even if it’s about Kensuke
    Also, her body is still not as curvy as I remember it in the mango :3

    linkinstreet
    Reply

  12. im guessing this is just the story of how Yomi turned out in her afterlife… Evil lol , but still even if this is a alternative telling, wtf ur gonna kill of the Manga main female at the end of this episode?…

    I guess Confusion really does make u want to watch the next episode again… however seems like if that goes on they might just piss people off like me and say fuck this..ill just watch it at the end…

    Chimasternmay
    Reply

  13. Wierd episode. Can’t follow it without subs. On a positive, great animation and action. At some point they have to get us invested in some characters. There is a little “Men in Black”, “Rental Magica” and “Dawn of the Dead” in this. Don’t think the manga is going to be of much help with this series.

    Irie
    Reply

  17. Hnnn, this is very interesting indeed. If that was truly Kagura who got ‘shafted’ by Yomi at the end, this series might best be considered as divergent to the manga story. Same characters (more or less), different story altogether. So now I’m definitely gonna watch it. More chance for Shizuru to show up. :3

    But wait, manga events occure 3 years AFTER this happened so there’s time for Kagura to grow up….IF she somehow survived.

    Arakan7
    Reply

  20. The unpredictable factor is making me interested in this show and I really want to know where the story is heading. This episode and the one last week kept me on the edge. I wanna why Yomi keeps killing every one off so I’ll keep watching.

    ayumikat
    Reply

  25. this contains a spoiler, so don’t read this if you haven’t read the manga yet.
    ——————————————————————————

    So I think that this is a prequel to the manga since Yomi is still alive and Kagura is still in her middle school’s uniform, so this must be the event where Yomi almost wiped out all of her clans.

    Kagura is wielding Nimura’s sword when she fights Yomi. So this means that she hasn’t meet Nimura yet because this is 3 years before the beginning of the manga.

    I’m guessing that Nimura will show up at the end of the next episode or 2~3 more episodes, right after Kagura killed Yomi. then do the ultimate Timeskip, just like gundam 00.

    from my point of view, this is just like the Manga, with backwards storyline (flashback first?) and the first episode was just a fan-service on how Yomi massacred her Clan, So theres no surprise that the first episode’s character got killed off because they were ment to be killed by Yomi(they don’t even exist in the manga). Also, they don’t need to make so many flashbacks and explain everything after Kagura meets Nimura.

    Because there’s a ZERO at the end of the series name, so there is a high possibilty that the whole Series itself will going to be a prequel of how Yomi turned out in her afterlife.. Evil, Just like in Chimasternmay’s comment.

    this is just what I think, So please don’t bash me and I already warned you that this comment contains spoiler.

    KuzeRokuRokuRoku
    Reply

  27. @KuzeRokuRokuRoku: I don’t think they will animate the manga. For me, the season will end with Kagura meeting Nimura. One, because this IS Zero, and for another, the anime tone is too dark and would never match the dry and witty humour of the manga. I still lol at the “I luve QB” tatoo on the kyuubi in the manga.

    linkinstreet
    Reply

  28. Mmmmmmmmm! i just saw the raw and it’s not comfirm that kagura died, unlike the previous cast members no body=still alive and then you could see yomi’s ga rei that lion thing that show up,and yes it seems kagura does’t have her ga rei yet,so her father must still be alive. by the way nice fights i can complaint and the animation was good too, but i am still mad they kill off natsuki and touru with out proper development >:(.

    lucky_huh?
    Reply

  30. The question is more like what they’re going to do with the cast that got killed off in episode 1. The main male lead in the first episode seem to have had some connection with Yomi…

    NightStars
    Reply

  31. Weird. I’d like to see the first cast come back somehow. I’ve already read some of the manga, but I’d like them to keep the darker tone of the anime.. instead of the light heartedness of the manga.

    min
    Reply

  32. This is a prequel to the manga, heck Yomi plays a major part there. I don’t wanna spoil the others so I’ll stop there. Having read the manga, this anime shed some light to some questions I had. I’ll continue watching this one ^^ I just hope the new chapter comes out soon –___–

    ryggim
    Reply

  37. Whether this is a prequel to the manga or not, this is a version quite different from the manga. Kagura looks more firm than she did in the manga. Two, the trailer I saw only had the people from episode 1. I don’t think they’d be showing them in the trailer if they’re only 1-episode characters. Three, the site only has character profile for the characters in episode 1.

    Zeiro
    Reply

  38. Kinda discouraging to watch this series. It’s very different but maybe way too different for me. If next week’s episode will be the same where a new group will be killed them I’m dropping this.

    panaghoy88
    Reply

  39. Yomi arc(from the manga)

    Their first enemy is Yomi Isayama, an old friend of Kagura’s, now an evil spirit due to a stone known as the sesshouseki. Also introduced is another old friend, the perverted Izuna Noriyuki. She tries to release an ancient immortal demon sealed under Tokyo. The Agency manage to stop her after a long battle, resealing the demon and killing Yomi in the process. A mysterious boy removes her sesshouseki, and disappears.

    “Yomi” Arc.. that killer, so either this could be the prequel to the arc, or a short alternate way of telling the story before proceding to the Arc just like according to the manga

    Mike
    Reply

  40. DDD: WTF is going on here?! I liked those characters in the first episode! Maaaan. I hope this doesn’t turn out to just be a ridiculous series of one-shots that don’t go anywhere. -____-

    Magical Poof
    Reply

  46. This show is getting under my skin in all the wrong ways. Not having read the Manga doesn’t seem to be a penalty since no one knows how the Anime links in, if it does at all.

    I’m a little frustrated by the lack of a hero and a definite lack of an explanation for what the heck is going on. At this point it’s just zombie slaughter porn with really good production values.

    It’s compelling not for what we have seen, but what we might see if they ever decide to let us in on the plot. They’ve shown us they know what their doing as far as putting it all together, but they’re giving us nothing to hold on to week after week. At some point people are going to just say, “This show is too annoying. Let me know when it starts to make sense.”

    At this point they’ve managed to kill off (apparently) the two characters who would be instrumental in helping the audience understand what is going on. So after two weeks there is still no entryway character that would hold the audience’s attention or sympathy, no protagonist to match the antagonist. All there is is the mystery – the mystery of “What is the studio thinking???” Because that’s probably a bigger one than “Why is she killing everyone who’s been important to her in the past?”

    aka Argent
    Reply

  47. To aka Argent,

    I recommend picking up the manga. A lot of evidence in GRzero point to it being a prequel of the manga; its picking up the story a few years before the manga story. Show Spoiler ▼

    points to manga prequel-ness. I just finished ch. 22 of the manga and the story is strangely good.

    Blueberry
    Reply

  52. yes! im as confused but still as interested in this series as you are! 😀
    i honestly don’t think kagura’s gonna die. afterall, it is not confirmed whether she died or not, since they didn’t explicitly show it.
    also, the ministry of environment dudes in the anime are also present in the manga.
    so i guess, episode 1 and 2 are the prequels to the manga itself. 🙂
    and it seems like shiro/byakuei was only given to kagura when she was in highschool as well… so maybe here’s when it all started?
    now we just need kensuke to come in…

    shinobixi
    Reply

  53. Well seen as nobody seemed to guess what was going to happen in the second episode I recon all our speculation about the third is worth squat too.

    I like the fact that they’ve unsettled norms, which hopefully means they can do some very interesting things and keep the viewer guessing.

    Matt_D
    Reply

  54. i think this is like a prequel to the manga?

    Show Spoiler ▼

    in the manga it says how yomi wanted to become a category A demon – so she killed over 70 members of the countermeasure department. yomi was like the guardian of kagura (who inherits her family demon – badass and for killing other demons) when her mother died…

    interesting to see if this all goes to manga and ken-chan shows up!!

    kungfu_hamster
    Reply

  56. This is the prequel, promise you that the noise at the end of the episode is Kagura killing Yomi and not he other way around. It is an interesting set up to say the least, the manga never really did a good job pointing out how deep Kensuke was in the beginning.

    k2000k
    Reply

  57. I’m really impressed with this show so far. I’ve heard somewhere that Natsuki and Tooru are listed as the main characters on the official website. I’m not really sure how that makes sense. Still, it looks really promising but I hope they don’t keep doing this “new characters who get killed by Yomi” thing every week. Hopefully, the next episode will be give us a better idea of where this is going.

    Hikari
    Reply

  59. Please dont spoiler so much 🙁

    I havent read the manga.

    Still, I found first to be a cliche (quite standard characters, fights and story) untill the very end when the main group dies. 🙂 That was very unexpected and nicely done. (in most movies/anime/series almost at the begening you can tell that some chars are, lets say, expendalble).

    I liked the second ep better and might keep watching.

    the_sly
    Reply

  60. i was hoping they wouldn’t use the same “ploy”, but had a feeling they would. that they did has an opposite effect on me, and has actually annoyed me and left me disinterested in the rest of the series. however, i have a theory as to how this story is moving along. i suppose i’ll keep watching to see the outcome (or have we seen the outcome already?)

    FCast
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *