I think Leo sees himself more as a Makai Priest than a Knight, especially since he was rather gifted at creating items like the Priests do and was probably afraid the Senate would force him to be a Knight instead if they were aware of this.

Well, Sigma was suppose to be The Knight of the family. Both him and his brother Reo. Were taught the ways of a Knight by their father. But there father chooses Reo to become the heir. Because although Sigma was strong, he wasn't responsible enough as Reo was. Reo wanted to be a Priest and Sigma wanted to be a Knight. But it didn't turn out that way. :( Yes Sigma is a sore looser. Which is why he didn't get chosen.

Now a Male can be both a Priest and a Knight. There's no rule stating that they can't. But it's extremely rare for a person to be fully trained in both disciplines (like Reo Fudou). Some of the knights-to-be picked up partial priest training and can utilize magic. Like Tsubasa Yamagatana (Dan/The White Knight)

And I also forgot to mention the prequel movie for this series. GARO - Red Requiem. It was the movie which introduced this series, as well as Rekka. :)

I think Red Mask has to be the worst GARO villain yet. Barago was actually pretty interesting and well realised, until he got shafted. The Watchdogs, Echo and Messiah all less so, but since they didn't get explained at all, we could just appreciate them on how badass they were and they were very badass. But not only does Red Mask have a pathetic backstory, he's so ludicrously overpowered he just becomes boring.

Personally, I'd love to be a Priest, rather than a Knight.

Also I watched Red Requiem! It was...okay. I liked it from a storytelling point of view, and the choice to focus on Priests over Knights but the action was really really bad, and GARO had never felt so cheap.

I agree with you, Sigma/Red Mask was a pretty dull villain in my book also. But I loved the twist that they pulled. Because I thought Reo was Red Mask at first too.

Now personally for me I'd rather be both. Like Reo, able to kick butt and cast spells at the same time. Because the Priests are well trained also. But the reason why they created the Knights. Was because it was Horrors who were smarter and/or stronger then they can handle. (recall Red Requiem) So they created The Makai Knights, to be the "special forces" for them.

For me I tend to disregard all of the small stuff and just enjoy the shows. Because it's easy to get caught-up and get disappointed and say screw this show. I felt like that with season 3 and stopped watching for while. But I took my own advise, caught-up on the episodes I missed and finished the season.

Makai Senki 20.

I like how the show seems to have suddenly realised how meandering this series is, and how little of it comes together now we've had some of the big reveals, so they're basically just name dropping plot points of the series in the hope that that counts as tying up the series.

Still, as I've said before, I do really appreciate the scale of this show. I love seeing the entire Horror Hunting community and the effect Red Mask has on them, it gives a greater sense that this is real. We don't have to try and swallow that two people, in a single city, are defending the entire planet.

I must say, despite the primitive CGI, GARO has so many cool visuals that I can't help but appreciate them. The Magic Train has a really awesome design, and the fact the villain, with no hint of humour, rides a train to the fucking moon is just awesome in how utterly ridiculous it is.

So all along, all Kouga had to do, was cut the rubbery arm off? Why didn't he just do that in the first place?
I thought the twist was pretty weak 'oh it isn't Leo after all!...it's his butthurt twin brother...'

Being critical of series, is how I enjoy a series. I don't mean needlessly ripping it apart, but simply saying 'its good' and swallowing the flaws, does not make for good discussion, and these are discussion boards after all.

I always thought the twin brother thing was kind of an ass-pull, personally.

Gonna marathon 21 - 23, take a break, then watch 24 and give my final thoughts, in the final post.

Still not quite made up my mind on the all CGI battles, on the onehand, making everything CGI helps make the cheap CGI blend in more, as there is nothing worse than seeing two practical armours fighting a blurry, jerky, CGI abomination. But of course the only reason the bad CGI blends in better when everything is CGI, is because everything on screen is a jerky, blurry mess and that isn't a good thing at all. Although the weird, ultra clear, cell shaded CGI they used towards the climax was even more jarring.

Although it was super cool to see Zero and Kouga get backed up by the Thunder and Lightning Knights! However it was a shame Wataru had to sit out, when Tsubasa appeared. Tsubasa got a whole movie to be awesome, but Wataru has had barely any screen time at all, and I assume as next season is a whole new story, this will one of his last appearances. Still makes you wonder how much hell is happening in the world right now if all the Makai forces are fighting a single enemy.

How does the armour thing work? Why does Zero, Waturu, Leo and Tsubasa have unique armours, and everyone else has a generic bronze and silver one? I kinda get why Kouga would have one, but this doesn't really make sense...

Then again, it isn't as bullshit as all the power of love stuff. I thought they'd totally abandoned the romance bent, as Kaoru was barely in this series at all but despite totally destroying the emotional resonance of this relationship with the audience, they decide to make it the linchpin of the climax. Although Kouga is a lucky guy, having three babes charging in to save him.

I found it really funny, that of course the two girls fight Shion (I know that isn't her name here) and as it's a fight between three women, there has to be copious amounts of boob and leg fondling. I'm not complaining, but it was just distracting.

The whole 'Kouga is awesome and that is why we must save him' scene felt out of place, in this season. It was the first season really, where Kouga had lots of focus and growth, his character arc over the first season was really amazing. Here however, in the second season, with a more focused villain, new characters like Leo, greater focus on characters like Zero and a higher quantity of action Kouga really hasn't had much of a chance to do anything except swing his sword around, so I didn't feel nearly as much investment in him, as I did at the end of the first season. So I felt a lot of the lead into the climax felt fairly flat, and made Kouga feel unnecessarily like a Gary Stu.

The person I oddly felt the most for here, was Gonza. Gonza is basically Kouga's father, now Taiga is dead, and yet Gonza can do nothing. Kaoru has the power of love, the Knights have their armour, the Priests have their wands. On the one hand Gonza is a lovely guy, and probably, genuinely, didn't want Kaoru in harms way but you could also almost feel his frustration and jealousy as well, as he knows that he can do absolutely nothing to save the most important person in his whole world. Every time Kouga suffers, all he can do is watch.

So what did Red Mask need Ganon for? He seemed to make Edea just fine without Kouga or Ganon. But yes, why are they interfering so much? Zero and Kouga clearly want to have normal lives, and Sigma has built a device to eradicate all Horrors, I don't understand why they are trying to stop him?

So basically they're just doing the same ending from the last series? Spend the whole show establishing a villain, just when he has the upper hand he's consumed by some all powerful female Horror, who claimed to be behind everything the entire time? Blergh.

That was pretty much just a budget thing. There was no feasible way to design and animate hundreds of different sets of unique armor for the final battle. It's still kind of lame, but understandable given the limits of making a CGI-intensive tv series.

Yeah, there are definite echoes in the finale.

That GARO logic infuriates me 'let's take the most expensive route each time, for the least impressive outcome!'. Tokusatsu is plagued with abysmal CGI, but most of the time that CGI is used for things that just couldn't ever realistically be done practically. Here GARO takes the most simple things and turns them into a ludicrously complicated CGI shot that looks a billion times worse than just doing it practically, which would have been easier as well.

Since the next season of GARO is its own unique story, can I watch that as soon as I finish Makai Senki? As I won't have time to watch the two movies until my next day off, and if I can start the third season in the meantime I will.