Ga-Rei

Ga-Rei is a 2005 manga series by Hajime Segawa about Ordinary High School Student Kensuke Nimura and definitely not ordinary high school girl named Kagura Tsuchimiya. After an incident involving a giant monster ghost baby Kensuke follows Kagura into her world of supernatural peril.

Ga-Rei Zero is a Prequel anime series that acts as Yomi (the first Big Bad)'s Start of Darkness. It is also much Darker and Edgier, Ga-Rei is quite light in comparison.


 * Accidental Sacred First Kiss/Crash Into Hello: How Kagura and Kensuke meet. It's quite painful for the latter, as the former runs into him on a motor scooter.
 * Action Girl: Many, Kagura, Kyouko and later  are the primary examples.
 * Afterlife Express: Ghost train, rather.
 * All Myths Are True
 * Aloof Big Brother: Souzaemon, Kyouko's older brother, is both cold and extremely competent. Naturally, he rubs Kensuke the wrong way.
 * Apocalypse Maiden:
 * Art Evolution: In leaps and bounds. Just compare the cover of Volume 1 to Volume 7.
 * As Long as There Is Evil: The source of the Sesshouseki's power.
 * Back from the Dead: Yomi.
 * Beach Episode: They go to a water park, too.
 * Big Damn Heroes: A big one with, i.e., everyone you've been expecting to show up for the past few chapters.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: Anyone taken over by a Sesshouseki, complete with white Hellish Pupils.
 * Bland-Name Product: "Poeky". Similarly, the fake clothing brand Productive Emotion.
 * Blank White Eyes: Used extensively when the characters are super-deformed.
 * Blinding Bangs: Izumi/Yomi, though not consistently.
 * Body Horror: Tons and tons. They fight evil spirits, after all.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy:
 * Butt Monkey: Yomi.
 * Cain and Abel: Yomi and Kagura, in that order.
 * Cat Fight: During Kagura's and Shizuru's festival fight, Noriyuki starts taking bets for who's going to win. Fanservice is mostly absent, though, since they're pretty beat up by the end.
 * Chained by Fashion: Byakuei is chained to Kagura as an indication that it's sealed into her.
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Noriyuki. Especially when it concerns Shizuru, interestingly enough.
 * The Chosen One:
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Izumi definitely fits this
 * Yomi actually shows a few glimpses of these when it comes to Kagura or Noriyuki. While it may not be clingy, it's definitely a scary jealousy
 * Cool Big Sis: Yomi.
 * Cool Sword: Kagura's appears to be a laser; one of Yomi's is made out of several smaller blades attached to a single one in the center. Check the Power of Love page to see what Kensuke's Michael Revolution is capable of.
 * The Corruption: Yomi struggles with it whenever she has screen time.
 * Dark Action Girl: Yomi, Shizuru.
 * Dead Big Sister: Kagura killed Yomi while Yomi was being controlled by the Sesshouseki (see Ga-Rei Zero). It doesn't seem to bother her at first, but it eventually takes its toll.
 * Decoy Protagonist: Kensuke
 * Demonic Possession: Izumi
 * Demoted to Extra:
 * Disney Death:
 * Damsel in Distress: Inverted with Kensuke. While he's lamenting about having to be rescued, a picture of an actual distressed damsel even shows up in the panel.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Replace "black/white priestess" with "lunar/solar priestess", and you start getting Kannazuki no Miko vibes.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending:
 * Easy Amnesia:
 * The End of the World as We Know It:
 * Eye Scream: Kensuke's eye gets slashed open when he tries to protect Izumi from Kirin. Since he no longer has a Sesshouseki inside him, he never fully recovers, and it leaves a huge scar.
 * The Faceless: Lord Tamamo.
 * Face Heel Revolving Door: Yomi starts out heroic in the beginning of Zero, turns heel after being implanted with a Sesshouseki, turns face after being brought back to life, and in current chapters,
 * Furo Scene: Several. They're equally as generous with fanservice as they are with character development.
 * Fire-Forged Friends
 * Gotta Catch Them All: The Sesshouseki, in order to summon the Kyuubi.
 * Groin Attack: Kagura to Kensuke. It's so painful Kensuke even art shifts, and is left lying there for quite a while.
 * Hard Gay: Koji Iwahata. The big badass ex-mercenary.
 * Healing Factor: One of the benefits of having a Sesshouseki embedded within you.
 * Heir to the Dojo: Played straight with Kensuke. His parents are kendo masters, which is the reason he can handle Michael XII.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Who else but
 * Humongous Mecha: The spirit armor used by Tsuina. They're basically mechs that run on spirit energy.
 * Ice Queen: After, Yomi is like this to pretty much everyone save Kagura.
 * Inaction Sequence: Chapter 45, which is more or less an Info Dump.
 * Incest Subtext: While not blood-related, there is A LOT of subtext between Yomi and Kagura, two people who see each other as sisters. May also count as Not Blood Siblings.
 * Interrupted Suicide:
 * In the same chapter, Izumi's dad, now undead, shapeshifts into his own monster of sorts.
 * Karmic Death:
 * Kissing Discretion Shot: Everytime the manga takes some other angles or just skips some seconds.
 * Knife Nut: Shizuru needs hers to summon Kurofoudo.
 * Last-Second Word Swap: Kagura is about to confess her feelings for Kensuke...and then tells him it was Iwahata who said he liked him. Nice going there...
 * The Lifestream: The Reimyaku.
 * Love Triangle: Quite a few for a relatively short series, all of which with Kagura in them (although not necessarily in the middle every time). There's Kensuke/Kagura/Shizuru, Kensuke/Kagura/Izumi, Kensuke/Kagura/Yomi, and Kagura/Yomi/Noriyuki.
 * Made of Plasticine: The evil spirits, who regularly get shredded into pieces by Kagura and company. Justified since they're no longer human.
 * Magnetic Plot Device: gives off miasma, which attracts evil spirits.
 * Maybe Ever After:
 * Meaningful Background Event: In the last page of the final chapter,
 * Meaningful Name: The kanji in Yomi's name mean "underworld".
 * Mental World:
 * The Mentor: Yomi to Kagura; Noriyuki to Tsuina...and possibly to Shizuru.
 * Mind Probe: Setsuna has the Eye of Satori, which allows her to read minds.
 * Mr. Exposition: Kensuke fills this role from time to time, usually at the beginning of each chapter.
 * Only Sane Man: Kensuke
 * Onmyodo: Used extensively by the Countermeasures Department, but mostly by Kyouko and Souzaemon.
 * Parental Abandonment: Kagura, Yomi, Shizuru, Kensuke to some extent... Parents are pretty much never talked about.
 * The Power of Love: Used to cross dimensions, believe it or not.
 * The Powers That Be: They're possibly the ones
 * Put on a Bus:
 * Ret Canon: A few of the manga's later flashbacks borrow either characters or scenes from the anime. At this point, the anime could be considered manga canon.
 * Rich Bitch: Shizuru. She gets better, though.
 * Romantic False Lead: Shizuru to Kensuke. Later,
 * Running Gag: Kensuke gets hit by vehicles really often. It's a wonder he hasn't died.
 * Schoolgirl Lesbian:
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: The demon king from the first arc is sealed beneath the city.
 * Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Byakuei within the Tsuchimiya heirs.
 * Slasher Smile: While controlled by the Sesshouseki, Yomi sports these now and again.
 * Shipper on Deck: The nameless tanuki.
 * Shown Their Work: Chapter 48 features scenes taking place in Washington, The Vatican, and London. All of the scenes actually look like the cities they're representing.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Waaay over to the idealistic side. It's quite pointed when compared to its Darker and Edgier anime.
 * Sleep Mode Size: Byakuei, after the end of the Kyuubi arc.
 * Spirit World: Lord Tamamo's Garden.
 * Split Personality:
 * Team Pet: Despite not having a name, the baketanuki frequently saves the lives of the heroes by turning into a giant wall. It's even used as a sled at one point.
 * Trauma Conga Line: The entire Ga-Rei (including the prequel anime) is just one long series of one tragedy after another befalling Kagura. When you read it in one sit, Kagura begin to look like Shinji Ikari, minus the whininess.
 * The Power of Love: Apparently this is how Kagura gets the powers of the White Priestess. Not revealed to cornily...until suddenly Michael goes, "Kagura! It's time to use the power of love!"
 * Took a Level in Badass: Shizuru, after her training with Noriyuki.
 * Kensuke takes a few over the course of the manga as well.
 * Villainous Crossdresser: Okama Zankurou.
 * Okama is slang for "drag queen" in Japan.
 * The Virus: Naraku seems to be some form of this.
 * Wham! Episode: Chapter 33,
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Master Michael's Hepburn, a snowball machine gun.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end, what happened to
 * Worthy Opponent: Shizuru, to Kagura.
 * Yakuza Princess: Shizuru.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: