An interesting thing when your counting down your favorite anything, is that it's never quite as you imagine it. When I was putting this list together, I really stopped to think about what anime I love most. And I certainly wasn't expecting this one to be on the list. But it ended up surprising me. Ga-Rei Zero is interesting in a lot of ways, but the reason I love it is a little less quantifiable.
Ga-Rei Zero is about a girl named Kagura, who is sent to live with a family of minster slayers to become proficient in the art and eventually adopt her father's role as head of the family. While there, she meets a fellow monster slayer in training named Yomi, and the two quickly form a sister-like bond as they begin to learn to fight. There are a lot of key elements as to why this show works so well, but really what sells it is everything working together.
A lot of messed up stuff happens in this show
For one, I really like the premise; it's never made explicitly clear what the monsters are, but you can venture they're demonic in nature, and also the fight scenes are some of the coolest I've ever seen; with awesome swordplay, beasts fighting beasts, and all kinds of other things. Also the story is really tightly controlled, to the point that only ten of the twelve episodes are needed. The other two are spent establishing the setting, and the first episode almost feels like the audience is being punked. (If you've seen the show you know what I mean.) but while all that is great, it really boils down to the characters.
Ga-Rei Zero has so many entertaining characters that there's rarely a moment the audience isn't invested. And at the core is Yomi and Kagura, who are enough to carry the show by themselves. There are a couple scenes between them, one near the middle of the show and one at the end, that are so emotionally devastating that everything else feels like it was just leading up to these two moments. And that is the core reason why I love this show so much.
These two are really the hear t of the show.
Even setting aside the cool premise, well paced story and the excellent characters, the reason Ga-Rei Zero is one my favorite anime is because few other anime have left such a lasting impression on me. To talk about it any more than I have would just spoil so many of the best moments, but if I can feel that keeping spoilers to a minimum is that important, than that probably means I love this show a lot more than I realized. Keep in mind that this show is very, very tragic, but it's absolutely worth seeing.