Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 17

Garo Honoo no Kokuin 

Well we all saw this coming. It was telegraphed a mile away and if you didn’t see it coming you might want to get your eyes checked. I am actually writing this before the next episode is out! Oh, and Leon’s new life is destroyed and everything is sad and terrible again. Let’s look at the episode.

                As mentioned before, the main plot of this episode is Leon being emotionally destroyed for a second time this series. Alfonso comes to the sleepy little village that Leon has been living in because he has heard rumor of Horror. Of course, that Horror attacks the home of the family Leon has been living with. He tries to get them to safety, but they run back to their house to save their crops, and all die. The girl that Leon has been growing sweet on specifically dies in his arms. This is a really interesting character growth for Leon. Before his world is wrecked for a second time, we see him talking to Alfonso about finally figuring out what it means to be a Makai Knight, to be a person who protects instead of avenges. And it makes sense, Leon had no one to protect when he was growing up, all he had was his father and he was another Makai Knight who needed no protection. The lesson of protecting the weak seemed to have just gone over his head. He knew it as a rule, not as a way of life, which a Makai Knight needs to. Now he has learned that lesson, but also now has no connection to the people who taught him this lesson. I hope this will be the first real step to him becoming a Knight again. I’m not sure if I want Leon to become Garo again, but I feel like if he does they can still do it right and make it a compelling story. Also, Zaruba was in this episode and had a speaking role. Best episode of the season, hands down.

                After the past few one off episodes, I feel like this is the first step the show has taken to the next big storyline. We will finally see Leon’s growth of a character come to fruition, which I can’t wait to see. So until next week, keep on watching.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 14, 15, 16

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

I am really terrible with keeping schedule. I blame being a college student and having a ton of stuff to do. Luckily for me not much happened in the past three episodes. Let’s not waste any time and look at the past three episodes of Garo Honoo no Kokuin.

Episode 14- We mainly follow Alphonso around in this episode. We start by seeing his day to day duties as the prince and for substituting for his father, and then him running away for a bit of relaxation, but of course he ends up finding only danger and has to kill a Horror, one who was once his childhood hero, a legendary knight. On that level it is interesting to see Alphonso be confronted this way, with his childhood past sort of ripped apart in front of him, but they don’t really do anything with it except for maybe showing Alphonse being distracted for a split second, but I think the girl falling off the building was the bigger distraction there. I do like the idea that we are now seeing how being both a leader of men by day and a hero by night is starting to wear on Alphonso, but he still has German to relay on so it isn’t over whelming yet. We also get to see Leon, and he is still living with the nice farming folks and getting closer to the daughter. I admit, after the success of the last episode just focusing on those folks and Leon, I want more of that. Though when Leon eventually leaves will just be all the more painful because of that. All in all not an important episode, but nothing really wrong with it. 

Episode 15- This is probably the most interesting of the three episodes I will be covering in quick succession. A group of crafters, from metal working to cloths and boot making to a butcher, are so inspired by the Knight of Light, Alphonso using the Garo armor that they want to make their own and protect the city themselves. The episode is very silly with the main character for it speaking into a camera, though none exist at this time in history that the series takes place in, to the suit they built having a rocket punch feature. From the second the episode started I was expecting this whole endeavor to do dark very quickly. I was expecting the suit to act as a gateway for a Horror, or someone to take the building of the suit too far and sacrifice someone for it. And the show knew that. They joke about the intestines used for the steam pipes being the intestines of the butcher’s son, but not his real son but his prized piglet, really through me for a loop in a good way. Garo as a franchise does episodes like this fairly often, where the focus isn’t on our heroes at all, usually only showing up for a short scene in the middle and then at the end to defeat the Horror of the week. It usually goes very dark very quickly, but this time everyone lived. For a really random episode that didn’t even really have a Horror in it, it was really great. 

Episode 16- This episode follows German in one of the more classic Horrors that the anime has produced. Many Horrors in the live action series usually prey on a specific type of meal. They like to make their food taste better by bathing them in an emotion of some sort. Fear for some Horrors, bliss for others. There was one who would create a scene of absolute fear, followed by relief that it was actually fake, and then eat her meal. So this week’s Horror, a doctor who heals his prey and when they are at the height of health once again, consumes, is right in that wheel house. The Horror was really great. He was so obsessed with healing the sick he had to heal German in the middle of the fight. That is just really funny, and gives the Horror some much needed characterization. Yes they are monsters but the older ones have personalities and quirks. It’s nice to see them once in a while. German also shined in this episode. I like his slowly developing relationship with the one girl, though I also know that most likely it will end in tragedy. That’s just how Garo works. Nice things happen only at the series finale. But this was a classic style episode and was very enjoyable 

Next week, and yes I will get back on track with doing these weekly, we see more of Leon and his life in the country. Let’s see how badly it goes for him. So until then, keep on watching.

Winter 2015 Anime Season: First Impressions

Winter 2015 Anime Season: First Impressions

For a better view of a season chart, click here.

The winter season has begun and there is a slew of new anime have appeared. It seems a lot of anime this season are actually sequels to past ones, and it is nice to see a lot of those familiar faces. Let’s not waste any time, and get right to it. These are my first impressions of the 2015 winter anime season. 

Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep13

Garo Honoo no Kokuin 

It’s a new year and with it Garo continues. Lets first talk about the new opening theme. While Garo’s opening has always been one of its weakest components, every opening theme sort of fits together. With most anime or live action shows, each opening theme of a season can be wildly different. But for Garo, no matter the season, each opening theme seems to be written for the franchise as a whole, and not just for that particular season, lyrics not permitting. I don’t mean this as a negative critic either, I like how all the opening themes seem to work together. This new opening, at first, didn’t seem to fit this theme. But as the song went on, I could see it as another good addition to the franchise. I think I prefer the first opening theme of the anime so far, but we will have to wait and see. 

                The show proper starts about where we left it a few weeks ago. Leon is awoken on the side of a river by a simple farming girl after his failed suicide attempt at the end of the last episode. German is being cared for by the woman he ran by naked twice before. Alfonso has taken up his role as prince again, and by day he rebuilds his kingdom and night he slays Horrors as Garo. While Alfonso’s and German’s stories are touched upon, mainly that Alfonso is now living this double life to protect his people and Alfonso helps where he can, the episode mainly focused on Leon. Leon is now living on this small farmstead with a girl his age, two grandparents, the girl’s mother, and their dog. At first Leon is his usually mopey self, passively looking at the world around him, and trying to figure out why he is still alive. But lowly he learns about this family, and starts to help. He digs an irrigation canal with them, he eats with them, and he even smiles. Leon is acting like a real person for once. 

                The core of this episode is Leon kind of letting it all go. At the beginning of this episode, and the end of the last one, Leon was at his lowest, suicidal even. He was a broken man who had lost all that he cared for. He lost his chance for revenge. He lost his Armor, the only thing that he had inherited from his mother. He was shamed and defeated at his strongest, by someone who had been a Makai Knight for a shorter period of time. But now Leon doesn’t have to worry about all this. He has to worry about this nice family, like whether or not their harvest will come in good or their irrigation system will work well. The question is how far he will take this. Will Leon ignore all that he has seen, all the monsters and heroes that he has seen, all the magic and evil that he has witnessed, for this idyllic farm life? Or will he stay long enough to get back on the horse and go out and fight again? Leon is at a cross roads and I am honestly interested in seeing which direction he will take. Hopefully this little weekly blog will work better this year than it did the last. So until next week, have fun watching.

Final Thoughts: Fall 2014

 Fall 2014 anime Season

I still miss this series

As the year comes to an end, as does the fall 2014 anime season, our last anime season of the year. Let’s not waste any time and get right to it, these are my final thoughts for the fall 214 anime season. But first, let’s look at the shows that will be sticking around into next season.