Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 6

Garo Honoo no Kokuin 

This week, we learned a piece of the villain’s plan, how bad ass a father can be, and that Leon is a virgin. Obviously the last piece of information was the most important. In actuality Leon is shaping up to be an interesting character. On the outset he looks like he is a cool, calm warrior type. He cares about honor and working towards his ultimate goal. Distractions of drink, money, and flesh mean nothing to him. But that is only the most visible layer. In actuality he is still young, an adult by the standards of the time period of the show, but he is still a boy, and not only because he is a virgin. I mentioned before that he is naïve as a Makai Knight, but that naivety seems to stretch further than that. While he acts calm and cool, his emotions are always surprisingly just about to boil over. He is basically just a normal teen. But this gives me hope for his growth. Yes he is an emotional youngling right now, but by the end of the show? Who knows?

Ignore the shitty play button and animewow in the corner. I needed to make screen shots fast, alright!

                On the episode itself, I want to say that is was very standard. That isn’t a bad thing, standard Garo is still getter then most things on television. While the plot of the week was just ok, I have to admit I really like the villains plans. The idea of inducing the darkness that is required to be first consumed by a Horror, and then forcing the Horror into the person is an evil yet effective plan to build an army of the damned very quickly. While they don’t get a lot of screen time this season, I am really digging the villains this season. My only complaint is in the next episode it seems to be introducing another Makai Knight. This brings the totally up to four, and this one will actually be evil. I believe the most Makai Knights we have gotten before was in season two, but I am not counting the final battle with all the Knights, I mean just named ones. And they were working off of ones from the previous season. This season alone we have gotten three brand new Knights. I feel like we might be getting too many. But on the other hand, that is a benefit of animation over live action. It costs less to draw a new suit then to manufacture one and do the CG for it. 

This is a good plan. I am happy to be a part of it!

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.