Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 5

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

The new episode of Garo really focuses on a topic that I haven’t talked about much in these weekly logs, and that was the Prince. The story seems to be having two separate story-lines that at some point will meet up and then both groups will go after the final boss. The Prince’s story is the Shakespearean tale of a disposed prince who will go out, raise an army, and come back home taking the throne and saving the day. He is teaming up with the Purple Knight, who we now know is the Knight of Defense Gaia. For now at least the Prince will be training under the Knight to gain the skills and powers to defeat the Horrors. I really like this, because it creates a good mirror for Leon, especially since Leon and the Prince are cousins. I am reminded of the mirror storyline from Gekiranger, which turned out really great, though that had the added benefit of the mirroring being much deeper, it involving the main character and the main villain. I hope this dual storytelling works out, as it will be something new for the Garo franchise to do and it can make for a really great story.

The Prince and his Knight

The other big thing I wanted to talk about from this episode was the idea that armors are passed down through bloodlines. This is interesting, to say the least. Before, armors weren’t necessarily passed down via blood. While the Garo armor itself is passed down this way for the most part, it was never confirmed Ryoga, who is the main character of Garo: The One Who Shines in the Darkness, is in any way related to the previous Garo, Kouga, though to be fair it isn’t said he isn’t related. The third season takes place so far in the future that Ryoga’s ancestry might be forgotten. And even if the Garo armor is passes down, we have seen other armors that are not. The Zero armor is passed down to adopted son Rei in the original series. So that makes the whole idea of blood lines in this kind of questionable. I think it is more like it is common to pass down one armor to another through a family, but it isn’t 100% necessary. And I think that means that the Prince will take up the Gaia armor before the series is over. 

This dude is seriously cool.

The anime is still going strong and has yet to, in my opinion, make a misstep. I think my only big complaint so far is that the shows focus on the overall story might eventually impede the more standalone episodes, but that has yet to be shown. So until next week, have fun watching.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin Episode 4

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

I might still be on a Zaruba kick.

I really like the way this series is teaching the audience the ins and outs of Makai Knights and the Garo franchise in general. This episode showed the Horror checker of the season, usually a lighter with a special flame but currently a bell, which is a good of way of showing the temporal setting of the show for long time watchers and is good to explain how Knights tell the difference between Horrors and regular humans. Also brought up is the Knights non-confrontational nature when it comes to anything not related to the Horrors they hunt. It is something important for the show to establish. It explains why these people with amazing magical powers get easily caught and killed by regular humans, and also why those same super powered people aren’t ruling the world. It is something important. 

The third Makai Knight of the series, who ever he is.

One of the things Garo has always been good at is showing just how horrible humans are. Yes, Horrors torture and maim their food, just to make it sweeter to them, but humans can be just as cruel and for less reasons. We have seen humans feed others to a Horror, human’s that rape and murder before they were Horrors, and this time we see a whole village of people who have no association to the monsters ritualistically sacrificing their own members. While there is a Horror involved, everyone in the episode was working fully independent of that, acting like horrible people, keeping secrets and always looking for the next excuse, the next person to sacrifice in the name of purity. And showing how awful humans are fits into the theme. It is the darkness that we create that brings to life the Horrors. If it wasn’t for us, there would be no monsters.

Example of the darkness of humans? or Just sage fatherly advice? You decide!

The other thing this episode did was really highlight Leon’s inexperience with being a Makai Knight. Combat wise he is fine, with the exception of his suit breaking apart from the inside. What he lacks is experience dealing with people. He is young and foolhardy, and almost always willing to believe anyone. When the villagers said everything was fine, he was ready to move on. That was partially because of his lust for revenge against those who killed his mother, something that this episode also touched on, but we also see that he can’t see past other people’s lies. He believed the mother outright, and I am pretty sure his father didn’t. He also hesitated whenever the Horror showed him the face of the child. This is natural for humans to do, but a Knight can’t hesitate against a Horror, no matter what. One wrong move and it will be over, and that Horror will go and kill many more innocent lives. This is a good way of showing Leon’s inexperience, but also hopefully showing that he will grow as the season progresses. 

The anime has been progressing well over the past four weeks, with each episode being both an interesting look at this new world and also a good introduction to the overall world of Garo for new viewers. Next week though we get to start something brand new, the exploration of a new Makai Knight, a purple knight who is helping out the main character of the secondary plot, the son of the King who was manipulated into killing all those Priests and Knights. It looks like it will be a good time. So until next time, have fun watching. 

I still really like this image.

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin Episode 3

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

Me with this blog

I might be realizing that doing a weekly post in a timely manner might be a bit tough. But I am not going to stop! I shall go on undaunted and make a post for every episode! Even if that means that the post themselves will be almost a week late. But enough of me complaining about my problems, let’s talk about the most important part of any Garo series, Zaruba. 

Fall 2014 Anime Season: First Impressions

Fall 2014 Anime Season: First Impressions

For a better look at the Fall anime chart, click this!

Coming in like a speeding bullet, here is the 2014 fall anime season! This season looks amazing, so let’s not waste any time. Here are my first impressions of the 2014 fall anime season. 

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin Episode 2

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin 

The second episode of Garo has so far proven to me that this show is not a fluke. The anime has really shown just how much more animation can do over live action. The designs are incredibly dynamic with this show. Just the monsters alone from the first two episodes really show just how much more you can do with animation. Mind you, I think the Garo live action series have much better action so far. The animation allows for crazy action, true, but the live action series just has much tighter fights, but that has always been one of the highlights of the franchise. 

A better picture of the cracks in the armor

                I think the first thing I have to talk about from this episode is just how Garo himself acted. Leon, the main character, after he had dawned the armor started to freak out, and the armor itself started to roar and act on its own. Now, for viewers of the franchise, this looks very familiar. In the live action series, the armor, after a certain amount of time, tries to consume its user and turns into a giant monster, which 9 times out of 10 kills the person inside. And what happens there looks really similar to what is going on with Leon’s armor. We saw early on in the episode Leon has some sort of black flames that appear on him during times of strife, appearing exactly where the cracks in the armor appeared from the first episode. I am calling this right now, whatever curse or something that Leon has, which presumably has something to do with how his mother died, limits the amount of time the armor can be donned, more so then usual. Of course I could be completely off, but my gut is saying that I am right. 

See how the cracks correspond with the marks? It can't just be a coincidence.

                The other big thing introduced in this episode is the Makai Priest who I assume will be traveling with Leon and his father. This show did a great job of showing just how bad-fucking-ass a Makai Priest is, and Emma is totally badass. She caught a fist with her mouth! And she also completely destroyed the monster of the week. My only complaint is that she doesn’t use paint brushes like most other Priests, but the show takes so far before the main series that brushes might not be the main weapon, and even if that isn’t the case she doesn’t have to use it, it is just a cool way to fight in my opinion. But Emma is really great, and I hope she becomes more of a main character.

She bit his fucking fist! She is so hardcore.

I think my only problem with this show so far is a problem with the subbers. They are translating Makai Priests as Makai Alchemists. I know this is really petty, and doesn’t matter at all, but it is something that whenever I see it, it bugs me. It is just mislabeling a whole segment of the characters in this show. There are four other series out there already subbed that all use the same terminology, and then with the new series they just decide to go in some other random direction. You know a series is good if my only complaint is with how the subbers are choosing to translate a word. I’ll leave it here for now, but next time I am going to be either very critical or squeeing like a bitch, because one of my favorite characters is entering the show. So until next time, have fun watching. 

I think I should end every review with this image now. It is such a good image.

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin Episode 1

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin

This is the first in what will hopefully be a weekly series looking at the 2014 Garo anime series. This is the first time I’ve done something like this, so this will be uncharted territory for both me and you. Let’s hope that this doesn’t end in pain. So, let’s look at the show in question.