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Garo
Like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, GARO is a Japanese live action special effects show featuring dudes in costumes fighting dudes in rubber suits. Unlike Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, GARO is not merchandise driven with children as its primary target audience; it is a horror-themed series that is very dark with an adult audience in mind. It is 25 episodes long, has a silly side-episode with a goodly number of meta jokes, and features an epilogue movie which resolves things for one of the secondary characters. Furthermore, there is going to be another movie, a special going into greater detail regarding one of the main villains, and a sequel series, so now is a pretty good time to become a fan of Garo.
However, before I go any further, I should mention that some of the material in the show can be triggering; the Horrors which serve as the Monsters of the Week will often times perform their kills in a sexualized fashion, and there are times when the violence can be pretty graphic or self-inflicted. If you believe this would be an issue for you, then I would recommend passing on this show.
Okay, so Garo is primarily the story of two people, an artist named Kaoru Mitsuki and a Makai Knight named Kouga Saejima; even before they encounter one another, we know they are connected as Kaoru has a recurring dream in which she as a child reads her father's picture book about the golden knight, only for him to save her for real. Their first encounter could not be less fairy-tail though, for while he does end up saving her from a Horror, she ends up getting splashed with its blood which is very, very bad; a human who comes into contact with a Horror's blood draws all horrors in the area to themselves, and even if they somehow survive, they will die a horrible bloody death in 100 days. As such, Makai Knights like Kouga are supposed to immediately kill such people, but Kouga does not kill Kaoru. Ostensibly he intends to use her as bait to make his job easier, but it quickly becomes apparent that not even he believes this deep down, especially when he tells his butler Gonza to look into ways to purify Kaoru of the Horror blood. Over time a rival shows up, forgotten childhood friends make appearances, backstories are delved into, intrigue arises, and almost nothing is what it seems. Ultimately, the emotional payoff for all the characters is just magnificent, and by the end of the epilogue movie, I was left grinning like a loon for hours on end.
Visually and musically speaking, Garo is an absolute delight for the senses, with crisp direction and fight choreography alongside haunting themes and powerful battle music. Really, if you were to fall under the impression that this was a style over substance series...you wouldn't be all that wrong to be honest. However, there are quiet moments of substance that makes all the spectacle and style worth it on an emotional level, and sequences that feel more than just a little mythic, like something out of a greek tragedy.
However, before I go any further, I should mention that some of the material in the show can be triggering; the Horrors which serve as the Monsters of the Week will often times perform their kills in a sexualized fashion, and there are times when the violence can be pretty graphic or self-inflicted. If you believe this would be an issue for you, then I would recommend passing on this show.
Okay, so Garo is primarily the story of two people, an artist named Kaoru Mitsuki and a Makai Knight named Kouga Saejima; even before they encounter one another, we know they are connected as Kaoru has a recurring dream in which she as a child reads her father's picture book about the golden knight, only for him to save her for real. Their first encounter could not be less fairy-tail though, for while he does end up saving her from a Horror, she ends up getting splashed with its blood which is very, very bad; a human who comes into contact with a Horror's blood draws all horrors in the area to themselves, and even if they somehow survive, they will die a horrible bloody death in 100 days. As such, Makai Knights like Kouga are supposed to immediately kill such people, but Kouga does not kill Kaoru. Ostensibly he intends to use her as bait to make his job easier, but it quickly becomes apparent that not even he believes this deep down, especially when he tells his butler Gonza to look into ways to purify Kaoru of the Horror blood. Over time a rival shows up, forgotten childhood friends make appearances, backstories are delved into, intrigue arises, and almost nothing is what it seems. Ultimately, the emotional payoff for all the characters is just magnificent, and by the end of the epilogue movie, I was left grinning like a loon for hours on end.
Visually and musically speaking, Garo is an absolute delight for the senses, with crisp direction and fight choreography alongside haunting themes and powerful battle music. Really, if you were to fall under the impression that this was a style over substance series...you wouldn't be all that wrong to be honest. However, there are quiet moments of substance that makes all the spectacle and style worth it on an emotional level, and sequences that feel more than just a little mythic, like something out of a greek tragedy.