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. 

First things first, in a weird way this show feels like a Garo anime. The opening theme and the tits and gore all help make this show feel like an authentic Garo series. This really helps the series because of how different it is from anything Garo related we have had in the past. The setting takes us so far away from anything we have seen before in the franchise. Instead of Japan, like every other series, it takes place in a kind of generic, European kingdom, during the middle ages or about then. This is interesting in itself. Garo has always been very set in its own setting, of generic modern Japan with an east meets west theme for its magic and mysticism. The Knights themselves are designed in a western style while the Makai Priests are more a conglomeration of both. To me this always implied that there were Makai Priests and Knights in other countries, all over the world and this kind of confirms it. 

Boobs, booze, and blood (eventually in the episode) Truly a Garo series

The story so far is also interesting. In the European kingdom, a woman is burned at the stake for being a witch, and right before she dies she magically gives birth to a baby, who is saved by a Makai Knight. The witches death, and the confirmation of the Knight who people think is a demon, leads to a wide man hunt, killing hundreds of ‘witches’ and ‘demons’ over the course of 17 years. Of course, the witches are Makai Priests, and the demons are Knights. Also over those 17 years the boy who was saved is trained to be a Makai Knight and is just actually Garo. 

I really think the monster designs with this show are going to be awesome.

Plot wise this seems to be closest to season three. The person manipulating things in the background is purposely trying to kill Knights and Priests and cultivate a society where Horrors can thrive and just treat humanity like cattle. Another big similarity is the apparent damage to the Garo armor. The armor is cracked and damaged and flames seem to lick out of the cracks. It actually looks really cool, but also wrong, in the same sort of way that the black armor looked really cool, but also wrong for the golden armor. 

He does the sword/wrist thing! How awesome is that!

For a first episode it was good. It did a good job of kind of explaining the overall lore of the series without bogging down the episode with extraneous exposition. The action was tight, and really shows just how much animation can do so much more that traditional live action. While I will always love the fights in Garo because of their fantastic choreography and emphasis on out of suit fights, this anime will really be able to push the limit, and show things that live action CG just can’t do. I am going into this series with some worries though. For me, while every season of Garo has a storyline, the show really hinges on the one shot episodes and how they show the growth of the characters. Even Garo’s most plot heavy season still took time out of the day to either have a breather episode or a few character development episodes. This season seems to be, just from the first episode, a very story heavy series. And that can be fine, and my initial inclination might be wrong, but it is something that Garo hasn’t done before. As a series that is expanding on the Garo universe, I am really excited. Look forward to next week, where I will talk about something or other about Garo. So until then, have fun watching.