Ga-rei

The Enchained Spiritual Beast Ga-Rei (喰霊), also simply known as Ga-rei, is supernatural action manga by Hajime Segawa (瀬川 はじめ). It has been serialized by Kadokawa Shoten in the magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace and collected in eleven tankōbon volumes. An anime series taking place before the manga, Ga-Rei: Zero, was released on October 5, 2008, serving as a prequel to Ga-rei where members of the Agency including a younger Kagura and active Noriyuki are hunting down rogue spirits in the Greater Tokyo Area.

Story
Life is slightly depressing and normal for high-schooler Kensuke Nimura - except that he can see spirits. This ability generally hinders him more than it helps him, until he encounters Kagura Tsuchimiya while being pursued by evil spirits. They accidentally kiss and fight off the spirits together. The next day, she transfers into his class. Kagura is an agent of a government agency that defends the public against supernatural enemies. She wields a Ga-rei, a spirit beast that kills these spirits. Kensuke's spiritual awareness and his attraction to Kagura forces him to follow her to the agency, where he is recruited to fight the supernatural.


 * Yomi arc:

Their first enemy is Yomi Isayama, an old friend of Kagura's, now an evil spirit due to a stone known as the sesshōseki. Also introduced is another old friend, the perverted Izuna Noriyuki. Yomi 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 sesshōseki, and disappears.


 * Juugondō arc:

The next story arc concerns the re-emergence of a sect known as the Juugondō and its heir, Shizuru Imawano. She encounters and alternatively threatens and flirts with Kensuke, angering Kagura. Soon, it turns into a contest between her and Kagura as to who can collect more sesshōseki, with Kensuke as the prize. The pressure is building as Kagura starts losing control of her Ga-rei Byakuei, and the Juugondō arrive in full force. Shockingly, Shizuru's long-lost sister Setsuna arrives, kills her father and takes over the Juugondō. She attacks and demolishes the Agency, and the government try to distance themselves from the Agency for fear of revealing secrets to the public. Kagura, Kensuke, Kyouko and Iwahata survive, and meet Izuna and Shizuru at an agency hideout. After resting the group faces off against them inside Tanamoto's garden with Kagura as the winner, she's possessed by Kyuubi and destroys the center of Tokyo before being saved by Kensuke.


 * Naraku arc:

Kagura has amnesia and resumes her daily life at school but continues doing psychic consultations alongside Kensuke, Tanaka, and a new classmate who looks like Yomi called Izumi. They later meet up with Mikado and Tsuina from the Agency and encounter Kirin, a black wolf from Naraku. Kagura's new friend Izumi is revealed to be Yomi, who has dissociative personality disorder, alternating between Yomi and Izumi. When the revived Agency imprisons Yomi with the intention of exorcising her, a process that could kill her, Kagura breaks her free and the two go on the run.

Main Characters

 * Kensuke Nimura (弐村 剣輔)
 * The protagonist, an ordinary high school student who has had the ability to see ghosts ever since he was a kid. Because of this, he always felt different, but things changed after meeting Kagura. He started practicing kendo from a young age, being the son of a kendo instructor, and utilizes his skills during missions. When fighting, he sometimes dons a pair of sunglasses. The story-line concerns his growth as a spirit-user, his main weapon being swords. He initially wields "Michael #12," but after breaking it in a battle, is given the sword "Michael Revolution" in its place. He supports Kagura during her emotional lows, and a bond develops between them.
 * The protagonist, an ordinary high school student who has had the ability to see ghosts ever since he was a kid. Because of this, he always felt different, but things changed after meeting Kagura. He started practicing kendo from a young age, being the son of a kendo instructor, and utilizes his skills during missions. When fighting, he sometimes dons a pair of sunglasses. The story-line concerns his growth as a spirit-user, his main weapon being swords. He initially wields "Michael #12," but after breaking it in a battle, is given the sword "Michael Revolution" in its place. He supports Kagura during her emotional lows, and a bond develops between them.


 * Kensuke has the same sesshōseki that transformed Yomi into an evil spirit, embedded near his heart. According to Yomi, the sesshōseki itself wished to be placed there. The stone gifts him with partial memories of Yomi's past, as well as allowing his sword techniques to become radically more powerful. This stone was later removed when Imawano Setsuna forcefully tore it from his body in the Garden of Tamamo, fatally damaging his body in the process. He survived after Kagura defeated Setsuna and revived the Kyuubi, using its powers to restore his body from the brink of death. After firming his resolve to save Kagura from being controlled by the Kyuubi, he unleashes the true power of the Michael Revolution, the ability to cut through dimensions.


 * After the Counter-Measure department was broken up he stayed with Kagura as a Psychic consultant. He faces off against Kirin only to have his eye slashed protecting Izumi. After Kagura runs away with Izumi, he questions his lack of strength due to him being weaker than the other exorcist and losing to Okama and falls into a depression, which is only lifted by Tanuki's encouraging words. He is serving as her escort, opposite of Okama.

Later on we find out that Kensuke was an exorcist in a past life. His parents were killed by spirits in this past life, and Kirin's master was his teacher and exorcising partner in his past life as well. Said man was driven mad by the power of the sesshōseki, thus forcing Kensuke to kill him, and trapping him within the stone's karma.


 * Kagura mentions that Kensuke has a unique presence which puts spirits at ease and even Byakuei feels more secure when Kensuke is near.


 * Kagura Tsuchimiya (土宮 神楽)
 * Always smiling, Kagura is the heroine of the story. She is feisty and ambitious and can put up a good fight with her spiritual beast, the Ga-Rei Byakuei (nicknamed Shirō), an inugami who resembles a large white dragon. She controls Byakuei from the seal on her back and a long chain that connects her soul to his, so any damage Byakuei receives also damages her as well. Over time, she becomes stronger and more motivated because of the support that Kensuke gives her. She shows signs of having feelings for Kensuke, as she gets jealous when Shizuru and Kensuke are spotted alone together and is shocked when Kyouko tells her that she should go out with Kensuke if she's worried about him. Although she initially treats Shizuru as a rival, they become closer as events in the manga progress.
 * Always smiling, Kagura is the heroine of the story. She is feisty and ambitious and can put up a good fight with her spiritual beast, the Ga-Rei Byakuei (nicknamed Shirō), an inugami who resembles a large white dragon. She controls Byakuei from the seal on her back and a long chain that connects her soul to his, so any damage Byakuei receives also damages her as well. Over time, she becomes stronger and more motivated because of the support that Kensuke gives her. She shows signs of having feelings for Kensuke, as she gets jealous when Shizuru and Kensuke are spotted alone together and is shocked when Kyouko tells her that she should go out with Kensuke if she's worried about him. Although she initially treats Shizuru as a rival, they become closer as events in the manga progress.


 * The anime shows a younger Kagura. Originally a shy, dutiful and sad young girl, her meeting with Yomi after her mother's death changed her life. She came to love Yomi, who treated her like a sister, and was under great emotional stress when she found out that Yomi had turned against the Agency and all of humanity.


 * In the anime, Kagura receives Byakuei from her father prior to his death, and her new weapon from Michael Kohara, the "Michael 13." The "Michael 13" would later be destroyed in a battle with Yomi, which is why Kensuke received the "Michael 12" instead of the 13. In the same battle that broke the "Michael 13," Kagura killed Yomi with the weapon Noriyuki left before his departure. Her bitter victory was a key which unlocked her restraints against fighting former-humans, as, according to Iwahata, once she killed the most important person to her, she would no longer have any reservations about killing anything else.


 * After gaining all of the sesshōseki and being deemed the victor, Kagura becomes the Kyuubi itself and rampages across the city, eventually being stopped by Kensuke. She has lost her memories as a result. She attends Kensuke's school and makes a temporary Psychic Consultant group. She's decided to continue the spirit investigations feeling it may unlock something.


 * Kagura regains some of her memories in chapters 38 and 39, and immediately recognizes "Izumi Isoyama" as Yomi. This causes Izumi/Yomi's transformation into a monster because of the sesshōseki. However, before Kensuke can stab Yomi, Kagura steps in front of his blade, removing the evil from Yomi and causing her to revert back into Izumi. She breaks her out of the Agency and goes on the run before "Judgement Day" caught up with them, during the struggle she finally remembers Kensuke.


 * She is known by the members of "Judgement Day" as the "White Priestess", the opposite of Yomi.


 * Yomi Isayama (諫山 黄泉)
 * Sister-figure of Kagura Tsuchimiya who turned evil because of the power of the sesshōseki. Also, she was the person who killed Kagura Tsuchimiya's father. She was killed by Kagura herself and has turned completely evil in her afterlife. She was extraordinarily talented when alive and slaughtered over 70 ministry agents by herself, and defeated the head of the Tsuchimiya clan and his spirit beast, Byakuei. As an evil spirit, she becomes even more powerful. She tries to awaken a great demon sealed in Tokyo, and seals a piece of the sesshōseki in Nimura Kensuke. For this, she incurs Kazuhiro's wrath, and he takes away her own sesshōseki. She dies when the demon is re-sealed.
 * Sister-figure of Kagura Tsuchimiya who turned evil because of the power of the sesshōseki. Also, she was the person who killed Kagura Tsuchimiya's father. She was killed by Kagura herself and has turned completely evil in her afterlife. She was extraordinarily talented when alive and slaughtered over 70 ministry agents by herself, and defeated the head of the Tsuchimiya clan and his spirit beast, Byakuei. As an evil spirit, she becomes even more powerful. She tries to awaken a great demon sealed in Tokyo, and seals a piece of the sesshōseki in Nimura Kensuke. For this, she incurs Kazuhiro's wrath, and he takes away her own sesshōseki. She dies when the demon is re-sealed.


 * Yomi's past is prominently revealed in Ga-Rei: Zero, where she is shown to be more of a tragic heroine. She lost her parents at a young age to specters, and was taken in by Isayama Naraku, then head of the Isayama family. Yomi grew to love and respect her foster-father, and polished her skills to repay him for his kindness. Her efforts led to her inheritance of the priced Isayama heirloom, the sword Shishio, which held the spiritual beast Nue in it. Before Naraku's death, she was betrothed to Izuna Noriyuki and would have succeeded Naraku as the next Isayama head. However, Naraku's death at the hands of her cousin Mei, who was jealous of her good fortune, and the alteration of Naraku's will, resulted in her being stripped of her position in the family and therefore her entire inheritance. Yomi eventually found out the truth behind her father's death, revealed by Mei herself after the latter lured her out in order to kill her. Partly in self-defense, she killed Mei and avenged Naraku, but was ambushed by Mitagawa Kazuhiro, who wounded her so badly that she became hospitalized, her throat and most of the tendons in her body cut and unrepairable, unable to talk or move. This, in addition to the suspicion that she had murdered Mei, led to a series of events that caused her to succumb to Mitagawa's temptation to accept the sesshōseki. Though Yomi managed to retain some control over her mind, she had nonetheless fallen under the destructive influence of the stone, causing her to kill many many members of the Agency. Ultimately, it was her love and desire to protect Kagura that caused her death at Kagura's hands, in a desperate wish that she could remove anything that would harm Kagura, including herself.


 * As of Chapter 34 a girl who looks like Yomi named Izumi Isoyama (磯山 泉) has transferred to the school as a result of the Kyuubi disaster and befriended Kagura. She admires Kagura in the same manner Kagura admired Yomi. When Kagura was in danger she instinctively used Kensuke's sword to split the spirit in half. At the end of 35 she said "Kagura, I won't let anyone else have you", and in chapter 39, when addressed as Yomi by Kagura, who had just begun to regain her memories, Izumi's eyes turn yellow with slit pupils, much like Yomi's when she was under the power of the sesshōseki. Eventually after a grueling transformation into a monster because of the sesshōseki, Kagura saves her by interfering with Kensuke's blade which is about to kill her. The Agency imprisons Yomi with the intention of exorcising her, and Kagura breaks her free. It is revealed that Kagura's experience as the Kyuubi caused her desires to come true, including Yomi's resurrection. Noriyuki is fatally wounded when he protects Yomi from a stab meant for her. When she asks him why he did that, he says that it is because he's "like Kagura. I guess I, also still love you". As of chapter 49, Yomi had one of her protectors sacrifice the remaining power of his soul to save Noriyuki. He is seen later defending her from Mine, sharing the same Evil spirit state Yomi is in. Yomi and Izumi's souls are nearly completely merged.

She is known as the "Black Priestess", which is the opposite of Kagura.


 * Tsuina Takiguchi
 * The main character in Ga-Rei: Tsuina no shou and appears in vol. 8 of the main series. She is a girl possessed by a curse that brings misfortune upon all those she falls in love with, if she even thinks about love it weakens those around her. Her ability is absorbing and purifying Spirit Energy. She fell in love with Mikado at first sight.


 * In Ga-Rei she appears in Vol. 8 alongside of Mikado after one year of training overseas(Presumably America)and is more confident, cheery, and skilled enough to absorb Miasma and discharge it into a spear to destroy a huge spirit. She then asks if Kensuke wants to rejoin the Counter-Measure department if it is rebuilt. She can also fight using a Robot-like suit, she is an escort of the white priestess, Kagura.

The Agency

 * Noriyuki Izuna (飯綱 紀之)
 * An old friend of Kagura and ex-fiancée of Isayama Yomi. He uses Kudagitsune, or spirit pipe foxes, to spy on people and fight. He's very perverted, and constantly tries to grope Kagura, with painful results. He is part of the information department.
 * An old friend of Kagura and ex-fiancée of Isayama Yomi. He uses Kudagitsune, or spirit pipe foxes, to spy on people and fight. He's very perverted, and constantly tries to grope Kagura, with painful results. He is part of the information department.


 * Underneath his perverted and cheerfully helpless facade, Izuna is very powerful, able to fight on equal terms with Yomi. He is very knowledgeable on the subject of spirits and is skilled in hojutsu. He treats Kagura like a little sister and demonstrates concern for Kensuke. As Yomi's ex-fiance, he still had feelings for her. Behind all of his jokes and lecherous acts lies a man full of pity and self-loathing. After the Kyuubi arc, he tagged along with Imawano Shizuru to find her sister, Setsuna, but it is still unknown if they managed to locate her. He meets up with Kensuke and Kagura on the mountain and mistakes Izumi for Yomi. Izuna sees a lot of himself in Kensuke, which is why he wants to help Kensuke become stronger so that Kagura won't share the same fate as Yomi. It is reveled that he was blinded when he was poisoned by Mitogawa; now relying on his Foxes to see. He is fatally wounded when he protects Yomi from a stab meant for her. As of chapter 49, Yomi had one of her protectors sacrifice the remaining power of his soul to save Noriyuki. He is seen later defending her from Mine, Sharing the same Evil spirit state Yomi is in.


 * Ga-Rei: Zero reveals how different Noriyuki was before the events of the manga. He was more of a playboy rather than a pervert, which angers his fiancée, Yomi, even though it is shown he does care about her.


 * Ga-Rei: Tsuina no shou reveals he saved Tsuina from a evil spirit and fought Mikado when he was planning to kill her to stop a spirit, claiming "Pretty girls are the countires treasure" and took her under his wing for training. He claims to be interested in her but given his nature he could be joking.


 * Kyouko Mine (峰 京子)
 * An agent of the Ministry, and heir of her clan. She controls paper spirits, or shikigami. She gets along well with Kagura, and often tries to get her and Kensuke together. She is very proud, and went to fight Kidoumaru when he broke through her shikigami barriers. She ended up badly injured, but landed a critical blow on him. Usually, she is amiable and friendly. She is currently back in her parents' home in Kyoto.


 * Fujiko Mine (峰 不死子)
 * Head of the Ministry as well as Kyouko Mine's grandmother. Her name is written as "Immortal Child". She may be old but she's not a person to mess with. In the events of Ga-Rei: Zero, she retired from her position and gave it to her other granddaughter, Ayame Jinguuji. After Yomi's attack on Ayame and Kiri, she left retirement to resume her former duties in Ayame's place. After the agency was disbanded she watches over kagura.


 * A side-chapter featuring a 18 years-old Fujiko reveals that she took care of Kagura's grandmother, Ruri, before the formation of the Agency after WWII.


 * Kouji Iwahata (岩端 晃司)
 * An agent of the Ministry who dislikes Izuna. He is very tall and muscular, and a powerful spirit-user. He uses guns to fight. Some of the more comical moments in the manga suggest that he may be homosexual (which is confirmed in the anime). He is an ex-soldier, and was hired by a mercenary corporation until the Agency recruited him for his ability to sense spirits. After the department breaks up he disappears until chapter 38. In the anime, he was attracted to both Kensuke and Kazuki, which made them both uncomfortable.
 * An agent of the Ministry who dislikes Izuna. He is very tall and muscular, and a powerful spirit-user. He uses guns to fight. Some of the more comical moments in the manga suggest that he may be homosexual (which is confirmed in the anime). He is an ex-soldier, and was hired by a mercenary corporation until the Agency recruited him for his ability to sense spirits. After the department breaks up he disappears until chapter 38. In the anime, he was attracted to both Kensuke and Kazuki, which made them both uncomfortable.


 * Ayame Jinguuji (神宮寺 菖蒲)
 * The Minister of Environment during the events of Ga-Rei: Zero and Fujiko Mine's other granddaughter. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, she is nice and kind-hearted person with a relaxed air. While likable, she is very serious and earns her respect from her subordinates. Her personal assistant is Kiri Nikaidou who she affectionately calls "Kiri-chan."
 * The Minister of Environment during the events of Ga-Rei: Zero and Fujiko Mine's other granddaughter. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, she is nice and kind-hearted person with a relaxed air. While likable, she is very serious and earns her respect from her subordinates. Her personal assistant is Kiri Nikaidou who she affectionately calls "Kiri-chan."


 * She confronts Yomi and is later presumed to be dead, thus explaining why her grandmother, Mine Fujiko, returns to take her place as the head of the Ministry. In the last episode, she is seen alive and well in a hospital talking with Kiri.


 * It is hinted in episode 11 that Ayame may be married (thus suggesting that Jinguji may actually be her husband's family name). She is shown taking out a ring and a photograph of her before she became crippled, holding onto a man whose face is not shown. During her confrontation with Yomi, Ayame states that she once killed someone more important to her, hinting that her husband may have suffered corruption himself and was killed by her.


 * Ayame is also the only person who addresses the spiritual beasts (chiefly Ranguren) with nicknames that end in "-chan" (e.g. Ranguren as Ran-chan).


 * Kiri Nikaidou (二階堂 桐)
 * Ayame's personal assistant who helps her in her duties as minister. She has a serious work attitude and is very loyal to her boss, Ayame, and doesn't hesitate to scold others who disrespect her boss. She serves as the disciplinarian and the harsh voice of the Agency, in contrast to Ayame's friendly attitude. She is last seen in hospital talking with Ayame about Yomi's attack on HQ two years ago. She appears to have suffered mental damage due to her ordeal with Yomi, becoming childlike and addressing Ayame as "onee-chan" (elder sister).
 * Ayame's personal assistant who helps her in her duties as minister. She has a serious work attitude and is very loyal to her boss, Ayame, and doesn't hesitate to scold others who disrespect her boss. She serves as the disciplinarian and the harsh voice of the Agency, in contrast to Ayame's friendly attitude. She is last seen in hospital talking with Ayame about Yomi's attack on HQ two years ago. She appears to have suffered mental damage due to her ordeal with Yomi, becoming childlike and addressing Ayame as "onee-chan" (elder sister).


 * Kazuki Sakuraba (桜庭 一騎)
 * An agent of the Ministry. He is a young and sarcastic, annoying yet talented man around the same age as Noriyuki during the events of Ga-Rei: Zero. Interestingly, his weapons are two suitcases that open up at the bottom to reveal rows of muzzles, a kind of multi-row gatling, which he also uses as melee weapons. Later in the anime, it is revealed that Isayama Yomi killed him because of Noriyuki's inability to kill her, explaining why he does not appear in the manga.
 * An agent of the Ministry. He is a young and sarcastic, annoying yet talented man around the same age as Noriyuki during the events of Ga-Rei: Zero. Interestingly, his weapons are two suitcases that open up at the bottom to reveal rows of muzzles, a kind of multi-row gatling, which he also uses as melee weapons. Later in the anime, it is revealed that Isayama Yomi killed him because of Noriyuki's inability to kill her, explaining why he does not appear in the manga.


 * Nabū Brothers (ナブー兄弟)
 * Two large twin brothers who both have the same name, as they come from a culture that give twins the same name. Both brothers tend to finish each other's sentences. Because they look identical, it leads some of their teammates to confusion. In the manga, only one of the Nabuu brothers appears (as a minor character with no lines) since the other brother was killed by Ranguren in Ga-Rei: Zero. The surviving Nabuu was later killed during the Juugondō's attack on the Agency, after trying to protect Fujiko Mine from enemy fire.
 * An omake in volume 5 of the manga states that the Nabuus are part of the San people from Africa, further confirmed in their character page on the anime's official website. According to the omake, they lost their home and family to war.
 * An omake in volume 5 of the manga states that the Nabuus are part of the San people from Africa, further confirmed in their character page on the anime's official website. According to the omake, they lost their home and family to war.


 * Michael Kohara
 * A large man from Australia who speaks bad Japanese with a foreign accent, frequently mixing in some English words. He is Iwahata's master and the creator of most of the Ministry of Environment's weapons from the practical guns and swords, to the often bizarre irons and boilers. Because of his appearance, he tends to be arrested by the police for indecent exposure. Despite being outlandish, he is greatly respected in the Agency for his skill, his creations famed for their ability to augment the user's spiritual output by several times. He possesses mid-tier spiritual abilities.
 * A large man from Australia who speaks bad Japanese with a foreign accent, frequently mixing in some English words. He is Iwahata's master and the creator of most of the Ministry of Environment's weapons from the practical guns and swords, to the often bizarre irons and boilers. Because of his appearance, he tends to be arrested by the police for indecent exposure. Despite being outlandish, he is greatly respected in the Agency for his skill, his creations famed for their ability to augment the user's spiritual output by several times. He possesses mid-tier spiritual abilities.


 * Souzaemon Mikado


 * A main character in Ga-Rei: Tsuina no shou and appears in vol. 8 of the main series. An Exorcist for the Kyoto division of the Counter-measure department. He uses a shikigami called "Shuwarutsu" and he's skilled with Fuda to the point he can make a road in the sky . He takes his duties seriously and if killing someone to protect the greater good is needed he'll try to go through with it.
 * In Ga-Rei he appears once in Vol. 7 when Kagura is possessed and states that she must be killed. In Vol. 8 he appears with Tsuina and helps with the plan to purify Naraku. He also informs Kagura she was once a member.

Juugondō

 * Shizuru Imawano (忌野 静流)
 * A mysterious girl who first encounters Kensuke at school, and then corners him in the bathroom. She demonstrates knowledge of the sesshōseki and threatens him with a gun, but then flirts with him. She reveals she has a sesshōseki of her own on a necklace. She is a lively and flirtatious girl but is emotionally closed-off, and gets angry with herself when she gets closer to Kagura and Kensuke, as she is afraid of becoming too involved. She has been forced to kill from a young age, and feels that there is no way out of the path set for her as heir to a criminal organization, explicitly shown after her elder sister, Setsuna, kills their father. This is something Kagura sympathizes with and is a key factor why she wants to help Shizuru.


 * There is a competition between her and Kagura to obtain the most sesshōseki, with Kensuke as the prize, but after the Kyuubi arc it is shown that Shizuru accepts the close bond Kagura and Kensuke share, and bows out. She left Tokyo with Izuna to look for her own path and to find her sister, who disappeared from the hospital after the battle, but it is still unknown if they managed to locate her. She reappears with Izuna to rescue Kagura from the daidarabochi.


 * Shizuru is very competent with a gun, and is shown to have excellent markmanship from when she silenced Kensuke by intentionally shooting at his forehead in an instant with her arms chained together, and only causing a presumably shallow wound on the side of his head. Shizuru's hand-to-hand combat ability is equal to Kagura, as the two passed out simultaneously after defeating each other. She is shown to be ambidextrous, alternating a gun and her knife between her left and right hands respectively.


 * Setsuna Imawano (忌野 刹那)
 * Shizuru's sister, who used to be very close with her. She was a genius of the Juugondō, which made the head of the Juugondō, her father, feel threatened. He tried to have her assassinated and used Shizuru as a hostage, and so she disappeared, leaving Shizuru distraught but safe. She turns up when her father comes to Tokyo, and kills him immediately with the other members in a coup, leaving her in control of the Juugondō. She later attacks the Agency and kills most of the agents, except for Kagura, Kensuke, Kyouko and Iwahata.


 * Setsuna is a skilled fighter, able to easily toy with Kensuke. She has the "Eye of Satori," a telepathic ability that enables her to read minds. As a consequence, one of her eyes is remarkably different from the other. She has a spirit beast, a water-using ogre-like creature called Suiko (Water Tiger). She is ruthless and ambitious, willing to kill her own sister and subordinates. Her goal was to set the world into eternal war.


 * During the fight in Tamamo's garden she killed Kensuke; however, after using the power of the Kyuubi, Kagura revived him. During the cataclysmic event when the Kyuubi was came into being again, Setsuna lost an arm to protect Shizuru. She has disappeared from the hospital, and since then Shizuru and Izuna have been tracking her down.

Judgement Day
A group trying to bring about the end of the world, nearly all of them were exorcist of the past. They seeks to escort the Priestesses of Dark(Yomi) to Naraku. Their reason for being born in this era is to destroy it.


 * Okama Zankurou
 * A cross-dressing samurai, his swordsmanship easily surpasses Kensuke's and he can completely hide his presence. He was an exorcist living during the Sengoku Jidai and took under his wing a boy who resembled Kensuke (and whom he claims to be Kensuke's previous incarnation), orphaned by a spectre attack. Unfortunately Okama fell under the spell of the Sesshouseki and was ultimately killed by his own student (whom Kensuke believes was his ancestor).


 * Hattori Naizou
 * A masked and cloaked ninja who uses Kunai. He too was an exorcist who for unrevealed reasons abandoned his duty and became a nuke-nin. His design resembles Batman but with a top-knot on his head instead of the bat-ears. After Izuna Noriyuki was mortally wounded, Hattori offered to revive him by combining his essense with the former, which turned Noriyuki into a spectre and supposedly caused Hattori to disappear.


 * God of the Land
 * A tanned old man, in the past he was known as the "God of the Land", he is the same as the Kyuubi and Tengu, a body born of a pure soul and ancient earth. He is completely neutral stating that as a "God" he is part of the "Decimation Plan", he gives advice to Kensuke to protects Kagura as her Escorts and awakens her memories.

Antagonists

 * Kidōmaru (鬼童丸)
 * A spirit who helps Yomi. He is a swordsman in samurai attire, and is very powerful. He is critically injured by Kyouko, but not before he almost kills her. Later, he is finished off by Kagura.


 * Kazuhiro Mitogawa (三途河 カズヒロ)
 * A boy who used to belong to the Agency. He was enthralled by the sesshōseki, hoping to use the Kyuubi's powers to revive his mother, an exorcist who had been previously killed in action. When Lady Tamamo appeared to him in the Vatican's library, he willingly became one of her minions, sparking off the events in Ga-Rei: Zero and the first 7 volumes of the manga. He was the one who gave Yomi her sesshōseki, and later took it away after he was displeased with Yomi giving one to Kensuke. He mentions a "Lord Tamamo" as his overlord, the former mistress of the Kyuubi before its sealing. After Yomi's demise, he is next seen participating in the Juugondō coup as Setsuna's underling. He removes Kagura and Kensuke's souls from their bodies, and takes them to a spirit dimension he calls "Tamamo Garden", where they encounter Lady Tamamo.
 * A boy who used to belong to the Agency. He was enthralled by the sesshōseki, hoping to use the Kyuubi's powers to revive his mother, an exorcist who had been previously killed in action. When Lady Tamamo appeared to him in the Vatican's library, he willingly became one of her minions, sparking off the events in Ga-Rei: Zero and the first 7 volumes of the manga. He was the one who gave Yomi her sesshōseki, and later took it away after he was displeased with Yomi giving one to Kensuke. He mentions a "Lord Tamamo" as his overlord, the former mistress of the Kyuubi before its sealing. After Yomi's demise, he is next seen participating in the Juugondō coup as Setsuna's underling. He removes Kagura and Kensuke's souls from their bodies, and takes them to a spirit dimension he calls "Tamamo Garden", where they encounter Lady Tamamo.


 * He uses insect-related magic, and seems to have powers related to the sesshōseki, such as being able to remove the souls of people who possess them. One of his eyes contains a sesshōseki. He was later killed by his resurrected mother, before Izuna could avenge Yomi. He wanted to expose the world they live in to the public, in a way he succeeded since the kyuubi was seen around the world.


 * Lord Tamamo
 * The successor to the Kyuubi, she is the mastermind behind the sesshōseki-related incidents that have occurred, and Kazuhiro's overlord. She used to be a demon-user who became an evil spirit of incredible power after death. She is first identified in chapter 19, when Kazuhiro removes Kagura's and Kensuke's souls and takes them to Tamamo Garden. When Kagura attacks him, Tamamo intervenes and reveals herself. Tamamo tells them to fight and search for the ten sesshōseki, and that the one who collects them all will control the Kyuubi, and be its true successor.


 * Lord Tamamo doesn't seem to have a discernible personality, and appears quite inhuman.

Spiritual Beasts

 * Byakuei (白叡)
 * Kagura's beast. A dragon-like inugami with chains wrapped around it. The chains connect its soul to Kagura's, and whenever Byakuei gets injured, Kagura will get hurt also. He is one of the most powerful spirit beasts on earth. He was sealed in ancient times and has been passed down to the head of the Tsuchimiya family for generations. A lengthy ritual is required to seal Byakuei inside the recipient, and Byakuei is never completely released, as he would break free of the seal and devour his owner.
 * In the fight against the immortal demon, Kagura tried to fully release Byakuei as she thought she was going to die. While she didn't, Byakuei's seal had been weakened, and he started going out of control. Kagura initially wanted to kill him with the power of the Kyuubi, but has rejected that notion, as he is the only family she has.


 * In actuality, Byakuei is a wolf-like beast in his uncursed form, and unlike his dragon and twin-head dragon forms, he has only one set of eyes, instead of two sets on each head.


 * After the incident with the Kyuubi and to the due loss of spirit energy he became a puppy version of himself. He gains a wolf like form while fighting Kirin but soon shrinks once it disappears. He carries a sword in his tail and Mikado believes his puppy form may be temporary. He can now transform at will.


 * Byakuei has the ability to absorb and convert another spiritual body into his own, an ability he demonstrated in the Garden of Tamamo against Setsuna and during the end of the Kyuubi arc, where he "ate" the Kyuubi's form. The full extent of this ability is shown in chapter 52, where he merged with the Tengu, which was released due to the weakening of his seal, and took over the latter's body and powers.


 * Ranguren (乱紅蓮)/Nue (鵺)
 * Yomi's spirit beast, below Shizuru's Kuroford on the Spirit Beast Rankings. Nue is the japanese equivalent term for chimera, a mythical beast having different animals as its body parts, like a lion for its head and snakes as tails.


 * Kuroford (黒四駑)
 * Shizuru's spirit beast, the second strongest after Byakuei. Kuroford was originally sealed within an iron knife, but Shizuru drew him out. He utilises lighting-based attacks. After Shizuru lost her Sesshoseki to Setsuna, she could not unleash Kuroford. However, her willpower finally drew him out when attacked by the Juugondo in the haunted house.


 * Tanuki (狸)
 * A Bake-tanuki (raccoon-dog with spiritual powers) that can transform into a metal wall with a human face. It is introduced in chapter 16 of the manga, where it protected Kensuke from its mate, which was corrupted by a Sesshouseki, hoping to prevent her from killing. Unfortunately, the extraction of its Sesshouseki result in the demise of its mate. Since then, Tanuki has stuck on to Kensuke, becoming a loyal sidekick of sorts to the latter. Tanuki's wall form is surprising sturdy, capable of withstanding even a missile and even laser emitting from the Kyuubi's defense system, QB9. It has a pouch and bell resembling that of Doraemon from the anime of the same name, with a similar facial structure. In later chapters, Tanuki now dons a cape as well. It also encourages Kensuke to keep going after Kagura. In chapter 52, Kensuke calls Tanuki "Boko" to which it responded, suggesting that this might be the name that Kensuke has decided for it.


 * Kakushigami
 * A peculiar black square-shaped creature kept in a cage with protruding spikes. It has the ability to turn people near it invisible, and was first introduced in the 22nd chapter of the manga. While Kagura and the others were in hiding, it hid them from their pursuers, and subsequently came to live with them during their exile.


 * Kirin
 * A black-wolf from Naraku who acts as Byakuei's opposite, it emits a large amount of miasma and is extremely violent. It is revealed in chapter 52 to be the incarnation of the Kyuubi.

Terms

 * Sesshōseki
 * A stone made by the crystallization of the Nine-Tailed Fox's spiritual power when it was defeated hundreds of years ago. There are several spread all over the world. As the power that they are made from is inherently evil, they tend to corrupt their user's minds and consume their bodies and minds, in return for temporarily limitless spirit power. There are two in Kagura's earrings and one in Kensuke's body, near his heart. Kazuhiro appears to be their "keeper" of sorts, as he gave one to Yomi and later took it away. They are the reason for Yomi's metamorphosis into an evil murderer and are extremely dangerous.


 * A person who possesses sesshōseki will have advanced regenerative abilities and may even be able to slow his/her aging, as demonstrated by Kazuhiro.


 * Shikigami
 * Paper spirits used by Kyouko and other members of her family. They are pieces of paper with incantations on them that can be used in several different ways, such as making them into paper giants or barriers. The paper that forms the shikigami are referred to as fuda.


 * Hōjitsu
 * Spells, usually preceded by a lengthy Buddhist chant, that most spirit-users use to create a type of nature-related attack such as a lightning bolt. They are commonly used in conjunction with hand seals.


 * Jūgondō (呪禁道)
 * Taoist magic that was developed in the shadow of Onmyou and was later banned. Its practitioners were driven underground and reformed under the guise of a smuggling syndicate. They have since resurfaced. Shizuru and Setsuna are the daughters of the leader of Juugondo.


 * Naraku
 * An area of Miasma created from the Kyuubi attack in Tokyo, all those trapped within become evil spirits.

Manga
Ga-Rei is published by Kadokawa Shoten in the shōnen magazine Shōnen Ace and is collected in eleven tankōbon volumes as of December 2009. In Europe, the series was licensed by Pika Édition for France and by Planet Manga for Italy.

Anime
Ga-Rei: Zero is directed by Ei Aoki and animated by AIC Spirits and asread. The show is aired on AT-X, Chiba TV, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Kanagawa, TV Saitama and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

The adaptation was announced on the promotional sleeve wrapper of Ga-rei's sixth volume regarding the green lighting of the show. A Ga-Rei: Zero television ad was soon aired to promote the show's upcoming release, followed by 30 second commercials that were on the Ga-Rei: Zero websites. Originally, it was announced that the anime would be an original story, suggesting that it had nothing to do with the manga except its setting; however, after the first episode aired, viewers were confused as the entire cast was suddenly killed off. It was only later revealed in the second episode, and still later in a radio interview with cast members Minoru Shiraishi, Kaoru Mizuhara & Minori Chihara, that the anime in fact tells the backstories of Yomi and Kagura before the events of the manga thus making Ga-Rei: Zero a prequel which hence explains the 'Zero' in the title.

The final scene of the anime takes place two years later, and ends by showing Kagura and Kensuke about to battle a giant monster stuck onto the Tokyo tower, just after Kagura gives Kensuke Michael 12. This coincides with the first scene shown in the manga.