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J.H.

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After watching ep 15, i'm kinda wishing we could get a Makai Knight summer training camp spin off series now. Giant monster swooping in at the end to maul & devour several children was a hilariously balsy move...

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Up through ep 20 now, the final stretch has finally kicked off and has lived up to my exspectations so far. 20 alone was so packed that it left me wondering how the heck they're going to fill 5 more episodes. Was worried for a while that the main heel was a little weak for this season but all those doubts have been erased at this point.

 

Cool use of the old "evil twin" trope, totally didn't see that one coming but it was a swerve in a good way. Would have been a much weaker plot had they gone where it looked like they were going with Leo. 

 

Oh and can't remember if I brought this up before or not but the show having a diffrent mini sceen w Kaoru during the end of each show is pretty genious as usually i'll only watch the closing credits 2 or 3 times during a show and then start skipping them but this has gotten me to watch every time out. 

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Thunder Knight BARON/Wataru is by far the coolest of the Makai Knights introduced in Makai Senki. He's played by Kenji Matsuda, who always plays a badass of some kind. When I saw Matsuda was in gARO I lost my shit, because he is always just that cool!

 

James

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Finished off the last eps this afternoon. The entire final run felt like a giant Dragon Gate tag match with just non stop highspot after highspot. 100's (well maybe not that many) of knights & priest & horrors all going at it in this giant battle. Flaming horse missile? why the fuck not, hell yeah. Felt like this was meant to be the blow off of the series so they just went all out with as much crazy shit as they could think of. 

 

Show at times did feel almost too big for it's own good though. Previously everything was centered around Garo himself but now the world is so big that he took a backseat a lot of the time as they tried to fit everyone in. Zero got plenty of eps to himself, Jabbi got an ep, Rekka got an ep, Kaoru and her kind of uninteresting side story of making a picture book, Leo & all the others, etc... Even though he still came across like a putz in this series Tsubasa got kinda shafted in this one. He got his 1 ep then didn't show up for the final battle until the very last minute  (took so long I didn't think he was coming at all) even remarking "sorry i'm late" which had to be a jokey refrence to the fact he got left out so much. Even Gonza got more action.

 

By the end I wasn't so much wishing they'd do a 3rd tv sequal focusing on this crew (where could you even go now?) but that they would have exstended this storyline out a little more before the finish. Like maybe another half season or so. 

 

Oh well, will be interesting to see what happens now that they seem to be focusing on rebooting the show w all new cast minus the spin offs that Zero, Jabi & Rekka got. 

 

Just wait until Jabi and Rekka meet... it starts as tense as you'd think it should

 

 

I'm going to assume you meant Kaoru & Rekka cause yeah that was awkardly tense. Jabi & Rekka got along just fine when they met. 

 

Somethings that ahve been missing since first season make their return here (like the timer on the armors).

 

 

Ok yeah you were right about this. Except for a little bit early on the timer was a totall non issue in this season. 

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The "Wailing Dragon" Movie is different but lots of fun and pretty much the end game for Kouga as GARO as far as I can tell

 

 

Yeah, this was vastly diffrent then anything the GARO universe had done before. Like a mix between a Final Fantasy Game, The Wizard of OZ & Alice in Wonderland but it worked somehow & I liked this one a lot. 

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I hope you watched the Tougen Flute before the last movie, since it indirectly ties in (and its pretty awesome).  The questin now is: Are you going ot keep going and watch Yami Wa Terasu Mono?

 

James

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I hope you watched the Tougen Flute before the last movie,

 

 

Haha, nope, I'll watch that next, either later tonight or tomorrow sometime then the Zero mini series after that. 

 

The questin now is: Are you going ot keep going and watch Yami Wa Terasu Mono?

 

 

Yes though from the little i've read about it, it doesn't have anything to do with any of the previous stories right? As they just jump ahead far into the future with a whole new cast. Which is fine but doesn't make me overly excited since you lose that "can't wait to see what happens next" aspect when you're starting over fresh. 

 

Part of me wants to skip it (for now) and go right to Makai no Hana but it only just started and i'd rather wait until it's further along to jump in. 

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I really liked the ZERO mini, they swerved me a few times and I do like that. Also I love Ray Fujita as Rei/ZERO.

Makai Hana has been good so far save the most recent episode, as I really want the story to move forward at this point.

Yami Wa Terasu Mono was suprisingly good and had lots of BIG moments

James

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The one thing I took away from the Jabi/Rekka special is that there's still a ton you could get out of this franchise in it's current state before moving on to a new cast completely so hopefully they go nuts with the spin offs/sequals/prequals and whatever else while everyone is still young enough to pull all this shit off. Was shocked to learn the guy who plays Kouga is only a year older then me as he looks way older.

 

You could go full on baby face OZ Academy with this crew, Rekka allready looks like Mika Nishio, Jabi would be a fine Ozaki, Shiguto is a bumbling Police, Rin can be...I dunno, Hiren? It writes itself....

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If you haven't plunged head first in to Yami Wo Terasu Mono or Makai No Hana yet I want ot recommend something that isn't GARO that I think you might enjoy. Watch Sh15ya, it is teen gang show with Toku elements andn insane ending. Very dark, possibly the most underrated toku I've ever watched.

 

James

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Finished ZERO Black Blood tonight, good stuff. Wasn't surprised at any of the plot twist myself except maybe

Iyu turning out to be Yuna's mom

and even then they forshadowed it to the point I was thinking "I bet that'll get revealed later on in the series" and then they reveal it by the end of the episode. Ring is prob my 2nd fave horror in the series after Legules. I like that both touch on an underlying theme I noticed a while back, that, minus a few exceptions the Horrors aren't so much purely evil as it is they're hungry and humans just happen to be what they eat, the same way humans or any other carnivorous creature feeds on other creatures. 

 

The Makai Knights rejection of any sort of compromise any time the idea is brought up by an opposing side is an interesting sub plot too. How about the Horrors only eat evil humans? Nope. How about the Horrors only eat 1 or 2 humans a month? Nope. How about the Makai Priest take over and create a mega weapon that can instantly destroy all the Horrors for good, only you'd have to sacrafice a couple ppl to do it? Nope. Every human must be saved, every horror must be killed, end of story. 

 

One last thing I did wonder, at what point in the continuity of the overall series was this spoosed to take place? I ask because ZERO being so unwilling to work with others didn't make much sense given his character seemed perfectly happy to team up with Kouga and all the others last we saw him and has been that way for a while. Only way that'd make sense is if it's a prequal instead of a sequal since that's how his character was portrayed early on. And there aren't any refrences to any other characters or events in the show in this series so it's hard to tell. 

 

If you haven't plunged head first in to Yami Wo Terasu Mono or Makai No Hana yet I want ot recommend something that isn't GARO

 

 

I'll go into Yami next but I have been thinking about what I should watch next after i'm caught up on that and Makai No Hana which shouldn't take me more then a few more weeks to do. I have a bad habit of not going back to finish up shows if I decide to take a break and watch something else in between so it's prob for the best anyways that I get to it now. Shit, I still haven't gotten around to any of the Legend of the Galactic Hero spin offs yet which i'm sorta kicking myself for as that was one of my favorite shows ever. 

 

But yeah, I rememer looking up Sh15buya a little while back and thinking it seemed cool. 

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I think its a trust issue with Zero not be so willing to work with others. Remeber, he even turned down Tsubasa's one pupil at the end of Beast of The White Night? He trusts Kouga because its the whole idea of they went through some shit together. I think the part of Black Blood I liked the most was that they saved Zero summoning Ginga and made it seem extra special when he did.

 

If you end up watching Sh15ya then you might want to delve Kamen Rider 555 since its most of the same cast and director. 555 is one of the better Heisei era Riders as it is dark in tone and some charactrs mak you sit there in disbelief its a kids show.

 

James

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I had this thought a while back but is it just me or is GARO pretty firmly in the Steam Punk catagory? Or atleast a hybrid. 

 

Remeber, he even turned down Tsubasa's one pupil at the end of Beast of The White Night?

 

 

I didn't see that as a trust issue so much as him just not wanting to have a pupil / permanent partner because of the hassel. He was immediatly buddy buddy with Tsubasa when they first met earlier in the film and was glad to work with him and didn't seem too bothered to have the pupil hanging around him later on too. The "i've gotta fight with all my future allies when I meet them" thing was really more of Kouga's gimmick then Rei's. 

 

555 is one of the better Heisei era Riders as it is dark in tone and some charactrs mak you sit there in disbelief its a kids show.

 

 

Something else i'd been wondering. Is GARO unique in being a show of this type specifically marketed towards an adult audiance or have there been others? 

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Kind of, the only other thing I can think of is Akibaranger and that's more parody of the genre. That's pretty much Amemiya in general though as he has always done toku shows with more violence and adult oriented stories (even when he was doing Jetman).

 

James

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That's pretty much Amemiya in general though as he has always done toku shows with more violence and adult oriented stories

 

 

It's funny, thinking about it i've somehow slowly morphed into watching more Japanese live action tv shows & movies then I do anime now (not that I don't still like it).

 

But anyways, the above has always been a huge part of what appealed to me about story telling in Japan as they're far more willing to tell stories that aren't aimed at children in a medium that's traditionally aimed at them.

 

Like for GARO, I think if you took out all the boobs and toned down a few other things to make it suitible for all ages content wise, I still don't get the sense that it would appeal to younger viewers that much minus the cool fight sceens. 

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Initial impressions of GARO Yami after 1 ep.

 

Ryuga is a pretty unlikable geek and you end up wondering how the heck this guy ended up as GARO but I also get the impression that it was designed for him to come off this way too. Upon first meeting, every other character seems cooler, more likable or more interesting. Introducing a whole team of Makai Knights & Priest right off the bat is a potentially nice change of pace. 

 

So questions going forward that I hope get answered

 

1) just how far in the future is this supposed to be taking place?

 

2) Kouga, his dad & his son were all GARO & I don't think this guy is supposed to be a descendent so who screwed up the fam tree allowing this guy to get a crack at the title? 

 

Although thinking about that, Kouga's dad died when he was a little kid and Kouga didn't become GARO until his late teens/early 20's so

 

3) did they just not have anyone as GARO in the meantime as that had to have been like a 10 year gap or was there another unrelated dude rocking the gold during that time frame (don't think this will actually ever get answered and is me just thinking too hard :) )

 

 

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Up through ep 10 now. It's been a fun ride so far but hasn't quite captured me the way the previous 2 seasons did. I think it's because the show's missing a big hook to make me go "can't wait to see what happens next or how things turn out", just a lot of MOTW battles with no sense of urgency. 

 

1st show had the hook of "Kaoru's gonna die, Kouga better find a cure before the 100 days is up and now a rouge dark knight wants to kill everybody", 2nd show had the hook of "oh shit, ALL the Makai Knights are gonna die, oh shit again, it was the priest who did it, who's on who's side now, everything as we know it will be destroyed" 

 

This show the hooks are "GARO isn't golden anymore" and "secret evil bad ppl are making fake horrors who do evil things" which in a way are fine plot points to base things around but aren't quite as catchy to me. Ep 9 showed a lot of potential however where it got revealed that the reporter girl and her boss are in on the scheme and he whips all the knights' asses by himself was a great ep, on par with most of the better stuff from the main series. 

 

Character wise, Ryuga is growing on me a little but still doesn't seem like he should be GARO. Takeru's actually overshadowing him a little bit. The cop lady has become fairly unlikable over time, unsympathetic as a civilian and uninteresting as a villian. 

 

Random other observations

Boy they sure upped the nudity for this one. Naked horror assasin girl was a nice touch. Surprised they found someone with the martial arts skills who was willing to do that sceen. 

 

In one of the early eps, when they did the close up of Takeru making out with some random chick I legit thought it was a lesbian sceen until they seperated and pulled back the camera. 

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My only complaint with Yami Wo Terasu Mono is that all the CGI makes it look like a video game. Once they get to who the actual villain is and how powerful the bad guys are, you realize how screwed the Makai Knights are. Amemiya had nothing to do with Yami Wo Terasu Mono so his storytelling, which is one of his strong points, is missing and it shows. Still tstuff gets cranked up the more the show goes on.

 

James

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Fuck, that ending to ep 11 was like the funniest thing in GARO history so far. Rian is out of the blue a gold digging slut, then gets shamed by Ryuga, rejected by her sugar daddy, falls in love with Ryuga then ask him to make a baby with her. It took 2 seasons and like 3 movies before we even got a kiss between Kaoru & Kouga, this all happened in 1 ep. They ain't messing around in Yami Wo....

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My only complaint with Yami Wo Terasu Mono is that all the CGI makes it look like a video game.

 

 

That actually didn't bother me or wasn't really noticable. Course, since it wasn't that long ago that I watched the 1st season of GARO TV i'm still just impressed and happy that the show eventually got good looking CGI at all.  

 

Once they get to who the actual villain is and how powerful the bad guys are, you realize how screwed the Makai Knights are.

 

 

Yeah, that's one noticable thing about this season, that the knights aren't quite as powerful as the previous generation. Like I can't picture these guys strolling into a horror den and slaughtering hundreds of them with ease the way Kouga & Rei did. Plus, these guys cry....a lot....

 

Amemiya had nothing to do with Yami Wo Terasu Mono so his storytelling, which is one of his strong points, is missing and it shows.

 

 

Who is the main writer/director for this one? Looking at the wiki page there's several listed so I don't know who's doing what or leading the pack. 

 

But yeah, I think the main flaw with this GARO show is that it is a GARO show.

 

Like, on it's own, it's a cool series and I do like it a lot but if this had been a completely unrelated new show or i'd never seen anything previously from the franchise, it's flaws wouldn't stand out as much. But since this is a GARO show, it's hard not to compare it to the other GARO shows and well, it's just a step down from those. 

 

Still tstuff gets cranked up the more the show goes on.

 

 

I'm up through ep 17 now, so yeah, time to see if atleast the tradition of all the REALLY good shit being saved for the final stretch is true with this season as well. 

 

The episode where they flashback and show how everything was being built up & manipulated from the main villians point of view was unique and pretty well written. 

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I think the problem is, Ryuga is a good character but the supporiting cast is far more fascinating (something you pointed out already). The series has more than 1 swerve (the reveal of the actual villain genuinely surprised me). Priest Burai is a fascinating character and he even gets his own background episode. Still, there is a big pay off in those last stretch of episodes.

 

I think the one thing I hated about Ryuga's character development was in the 1st episode they show his recklessness in dealing with horrors was actually very well planned. I thought we were getting a more of that but that side of him only peers is head once more.

 

James

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The series has more than 1 swerve

 

 

Yeah, some work but this is also a show with a LOT of full on Deus Ex Machina 

 

2 pretty hilarious examples are 

 

The little girl who sang the goddess song turning out to be 

Ryuga's long lost, thought to be dead Mom, who among other things has the ability to just magically switch eyeballs with Ryuga making him no longer blind.

 

And Rian

completely out of no where gaining the ability to SHAPE SHIFT and take on Enhou's identity after she's killed off so that she can get the cops to stop chasing them and shoot Rivera instead who one second has part of her face blow off and the next is fine....

 

Few more eps to go, can't wait to see what happens next now :)

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Finished off the show and overall it was a satisfying ending.

 

Had to laugh when Ryuga finally gets his Golden Armour and then the very next episode he's beaten up and has it stolen from him & locked away by Zedom until the other knights destroy the stone case.

 

But, without comparing the show to what came before, it mostly did what it was aiming to do well except for a few loose ends that never got resolved and other story elements that needed tightning up.

 

The sub plot with Lago was weird, Ryuga killed him to become GARO, then he's back with Burai apparently fine, Burai tells Rian to become his new master, she does then never makes use of him and the last we see of him Burai was summoning him again. Things like that. 

 

*EDIT*

Big thing I also wanted to bring up was Aguri kinda got jipped on the character development side too. He starts off this arrogant, heartless jerk who doesn't care about anyone else and is great friends with everyone and a caring person by the end but there was never that big catalyst to explain the change, he just sort of mellowed out as time went on. Never got much backstory on him either to give a reason why he was so cold to begin with either. 

 

So questions going forward that I hope get answered

1) just how far in the future is this supposed to be taking place?

2) Kouga, his dad & his son were all GARO & I don't think this guy is supposed to be a descendent so who screwed up the fam tree allowing this guy to get a crack at the title?

Although thinking about that, Kouga's dad died when he was a little kid and Kouga didn't become GARO until his late teens/early 20's so

3) did they just not have anyone as GARO in the meantime as that had to have been like a 10 year gap or was there another unrelated dude rocking the gold during that time frame (don't think this will actually ever get answered and is me just thinking too hard :) )

 

 

Funnily enough these do sort of get answered or atleast the last 2 as they make it clear that 1) you can't become GARO unless you're able to remove the sword (they'd hinted at this in the 1st season) and 2) Ryuga trained for 10 years before he could become GARO and that GARO had allready been dormant and lost it's gold color when Burai was a child which means it had to have been a minimum of 40 or more years since there'd last been a GARO. 

 

Had thought to wait but I might as well get caught up on  Makai no Hana now

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Few eps into Makai No Hana now and loving it so far.

 

Going back to a show with Amemiya leading the way really highlights even more how diffrent Yami was and how many little touches it was missing to make GARO feel like GARO. This immediatly felt "more like it" while being all new minus Zaruba & Gonza appearing. 

 

Makai Hana has been good so far save the most recent episode, as I really want the story to move forward at this point.

 

 

Were you refering to Ep 3? If so what was it you didn't like? I enjoyed it myself and it didn't feel much diffrent then a lot of previous eps we'd gotten in the series. Certainly not "worst ever" material. 

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Not really sure WTF to make of Crow's Knight armor, pretty diffrent design then any of the others have had so far. Am amused by his over the top respect of GARO though, actually hope they don't screw with that dynamic later on since it's an interesting change of pace. 

 

Feels weird to be completely caught up on GARO now though. Not sure what i'm going to watch next beyond waiting for the next weekly ep to come out. Zeiram's high on my watch next list but i'll probably go back to anime for a bit I think...

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