Ga-Rei: Tsuina no Shou

Tsuina no Shou is a 4 chapters long manga serialized while the publication of Ga-Rei was still on going and at its peak popularity (2007-2008). It serves as an extra story about the characters that appear in the latter part of the main manga, Tsuina and Mikado. In simple words, it's Tsuina's coming of age short story and exorcist origin. It's 100% canon, written and illustrated by Segawa Hajime and it has the same feeling as Ga-Rei early chapters, a simple adventure with one girl trying to exorcise spirits in Tokyo, she is helped in her quest by other people, most notably being Mikado and ourbeloved Izuna. Compared to Ga-Rei it lacks the overall plot, mystery and high stakes, the only important thing here is to see how Tsuina becomes an exorcist and gets accustomed to this new life. It feels a lot like a coming of age story, our main girl is a weak fragile simple kind of girl in the beginning but she will try to get over her hardships in the span of these chapters in order to become a better person and a full fledged exorcist. Like Ga-rei, the tone is light-hearted so to say, characters joke and smile and Izuna is still same ol' Izuna, we also get comedic moments and ecchi situations, it's fun and it really made me feel happy reading another story set in Ga-Rei universe. It also has action, we need to fight some spirits from time to time or it's plain boring, and we have that. Of course, we're talking about small spirits, we don't want our characters to die (they are weak now, let's be fair) but it felt engaging. In regards to the technical aspects of this manga, the art style is typical Segawa Hajime, nothing more nothing less, the spirits look great, the backgrounds look great, character design is as usual, nothing to complain and like I said above, we get to see some sexy scenes. It took me one hour and 15 minutes to read it all in one sitting and I never got bored, it was meant to end in 4 chapters, it's exactly what Segawa intended to do with this project, a short promotion for these characters. Was it necessary? To be honest, not really but if it exists and you're a fan of Ga-Rei, why not read it? It's enjoyable and I bet there are some people who love Tsuina and want to know more about her, this manga should do the trick. If you aren't a Ga-Rei reader, it still works, in a short read you will be presented with some elements that make the main manga appealing (if you wanna get into that but don't feel like starting it because of its length), as in the spirit exorcism, the cool art style, the general setting and Tsuina's story is completed, she really grows and becomes a stronger girl in the end, it really feels satisfying. Personally, I can safely say that this work is a good introduction to the main series and a good stand alone story about a girl trying to become a spirit exorcist and a better/stronger/you name it person overall.