Is it better than Tekkouki Mikazuki (the first episode of which was so unbearable, I gave up on the whole thing) and Shougeki Gouraigan? And does it get better than its first episode?

Everyone sings the praises of Garo, so I might give it my vote. But I'm so turned off by what I've seen from Keita Amemiya leading into it that I'm hesitant.

I'll be anouncing the winners when we start the new segment on Wednesday.
Mikazuki got better but it's still a really bizarre series. Gouraigan. Ehh. I got completely burnt out after about 8 episodes of utter randomness. From what I understand it never really gets better or more coherent.

I voted for MagiRanger. It will give me a reason to watch my DVDs again.

Lucha, if you like Devil May Cry and Onimusha, you should enjoy Garo's first season. It feels like those two video games combined as a live action series. The seventh episode of the show features one of the greatest battles I have ever seen in Toku history.

I stopped watching Shougeki at episode 10. I was actually over the series after the fourth episode, but my friends liked it so we kept going and then by episode 10, they wanted nothing more to see of the show.

That fight broke my mind, after seeing all three seasons, and hearing the news about ZERO, the anime, and season 4, I truly feel sorry for any and all toku fans who have not witnessed the majesty of Garo. A tokusatsu for adults, done right.

I've got Tekkouki downloading, so I can't comment on that, but Gouraigan was trash so basically anything that isn't Kuuga is better than that.

All jokes aside, GARO is a masterpiece. It isn't without its problems, a lot of problems that seem now to be inherent baggage for every toku show, but if you like the idea of your toku fights to feel more like they've stepped out of the page of an American comic, if you like strong character arcs and a heavy focus on actual drama and story and don't want some mindless thing to just wash over you, then GARO is your dream toku show.

With Mikazuki, it wasn't necessarily the weirdness that turned me off. It was that the weirdness didn't build to anything or serve any greater purpose. Like you point out with Gouragain, it all felt very random.

"This kid's being bullied, now there's this flying watermelon slice, now there's a sentai team, now there's a robot, now there's a mysterious villain that looks like Witchblade's boyfriend, now there's another robot, now the watermelon slice is a monster, now the kid is in a Buddha cockpit," and on and on and on. It was like a story told by a 5 year old. By the end of its first 75min episode, I didn't know who any of the characters were or what they wanted or why they mattered or why I cared. Also, I don't know. I'm not sure how much of a fan of Amemiya's late-90s chaos magic aesthetic I am.

But I'm willing to believe these are all criticisms that could be levied at Toshiki Inoue, who wrote both Mikazuki and Gouraigan. And since Garo (to my knowledge) has nothing to do with Inoue, I'm willing to believe a lot of these problems may not be an issue.

You know, I've never been much of a gamer :o, but even though those references mean very little to me, I appreciate the attempt! :thumb:

Was that battle in the seventh episode mostly live action, or mostly CGI? I find Amemiya's reach almost always exceeds his grasp when it comes to CGI (of which he is a mega-fan).

Pretty much ALL of GARO's fights are CGI. As much as I love the show, I hate the way the show does this, the quantity of CGI is just ludicrous. Like in one scene, there is a Horror who fights with chains, REAL chains, (well prop ones, but nonetheless physical ones), only for the prop to be replaced by a (insanely fake looking) CGI one mid swing, it's pathetic.

Oy. And it all looks like videogame cut-scene footage, doesn't it?

But hey, if it's good enough that you like it even though you hate the way it uses CGI, that says a lot about the quality of the show.

Another question: does it do grimdark the way Kuuga does? Like that sort-of-adolescent, dark-for-the-sake-of-darkness thing? Cause if so, I'm out.

Saying it looks like a videogame cutscene would be harsh on videogames, it looks like those late 90s straight to VHS movies that used CGI as a way of feeling modern, but realised their budgets only stretched to N64 levels.

But yeah, from a character perspective especially, GARO is just wonderful.

Also no, it's nothing like that shit stain called Kuuga.

Alright, just cast my vote for Garo. I feel like I just voted Nader.