Right?? We need answers Toei!

Aaahh, I see. Thanks for those! Though man, that must some good armor considering Octavia seemed to regrow her leg upon donning it. That or her new giant peg-leg is now flexible? It's not a major deal or anything, just something I noticed during that final bit.

Hmm, interesting. So is Zero unique to the LA show and Zorro to the anime? Or do both coexist at any given point? Having re-listened to a few lines from past episodes, Silver in this show is definitely "Zorro" which is still weird to me. Like, maybe they were just trying to reference the pop culture Zorro when choosing the name?

I don't know if they did choose Zorro cause of pop culture, but that's what I first thought of when they unveiled his name.

But yeah, Zero is unique to LA, Zorro is basically his anime counterpart but also different enough. The two don't coexist at any given point.

The only armor that shows up in both LA and Anime is the Garo Armor.

I always interpreted it that since zero and zorro share a steed, a mado item and an overall fighting style- that they were the same knight with just the name slightly changing over time

Also don't count to much on mado armor- it has a pretty serious flaw you'll find out about soon enough

Yeah no I don't think they do, given well, I believe Zero has Ginga and Zorro has Getsuei. Then you have Silva for Zero and Jiruba for Zorro.

Zorro is definitely meant to be the anime Zero but the two are entirely different Knights. Especially since Zorro has the cool chain stuff that Zero can't even do.

Episode XXIII: Doom

Alot happened in this episode. Some good, some bad. And I mean that in more ways than one.

What I'm basically getting at is I have some mixed feelings on this episode.

As such, I'm gonna try something a little different on the write-up for this one. I'm basically gonna do a good-cop-bad-cop type deal. Where I'll first talk about a negative, and then try to follow-up with a positive. I do wanna overall try to end things on a positive note, afterall.

Hope this ends up working out and that you all can see where I'm coming from when it comes to my analysis, and maybe see what exactly are the types of things that stand out me when it comes to shows like this.

With that out of the way, let's begin.

Bad Thing: They reminded me that Emma and Leon are a thing.

https://i.imgur.com/Bp6UlA4.png

I cannot stand when two characters are forced into a relationship solely out of the fact they happen to be the lead man and lead woman in a story, and as such, they obviously need to end up together. Emma and Leon showed absolutely no romantic chemistry up to this point, which overall makes the relationship ring hollow.

Heck, with this scene, you can't even argue that the earlier forced sex scene between them was just something born out of Emma being drunk and Leon needing a way to vent his feelings. No, we are honestly expected to believe that Emma and Leon are truly in love, meant to be, and yet their relationship has no defining values outside of the fact that they find eachother physically attractive. It's completely shallow.

Contrast with the relationship between German and Ximena. The entirety of German's' arc was about actually opening his heart up. On the outside he's cheery and full of life, but via his actions throughout the show we learn that he actually has no self-respect nor keeps attachments because he's essentially resigned himself to die due to his duty as a Knight ontop of what happened to Anna and Bernardo(which is a subplot that went nowhere, by the way). His worldview is challenged the moment he meets Ximena.

Not only does Ximena show him genuine care and compassion, German can't bring himself to treat her like he had a ton of other girls beforehand. Their relationship grows organically and actual, genuine, care and love blooms between them over their time together. The sex scene between them is in turn not hollow because it's something born out of a greater purpose, and infact closes German's' arc by giving him something more to live and fight for(the revelation of what's happened to him by the midpoint of this episode not withstanding). Meanwhile, Leon and Emma? They worked together, therefore they must be together. TOTALLY ON THE SAME LEVEL.

In a meta context, things like this also tick me off because it gives off and perpetuates the idea that men and women can't simply be friends. As a male who has a handful of female friends of whom I've never had any sexual attraction towards, this idea is nonsense, and even ignoring the real world implications, only makes for very forced storytelling. Which is ALSO another huge mark down because this is a show where the character writing and interactions have otherwise been, for the most part, the biggest strength that the story has had. It really does alot of drag the narrative down and I don't like it.

Hope I made myself myself clear on that rant. I could go on, but I won't.

Good thing: The fight scenes were excellent.

The biggest highlight being Octavia in her new "Maju Armor" against Alfonso and Emma. I especially loved the bit where Alfonso and Octavia clash on the spinning girder mid-air. Made for a scene that was really dynamic and like many moments before it, showed the advantage that animation has over anything live-action. Don't get me wrong, I love practical effects, I am a Toku fan afterall, but when you can pull this off and it's done well? Man does it show, and it's another reason why I don't get why alot of Toku fans immediately turn their noses up at anime.

Bad thing: They brought back the teleporter.

https://i.imgur.com/nWXcrTa.png

I was willing to let the teleporter thing go on sheer coolness factor last time because I figured it was a one-off thing that they did just to be cool and that it'd be gone afterwards. However, now that they've brought it back as a legitimate in-universe constant, I have questions I now have to ask. First off, how and when did Emma actually manage to steal that cross? We never see her do it(that I can recall), and it's not like she'd've had a ton of time to do so anyway. Thus her having it in the first place feels like a total asspull. And while the result is a pretty cool fight scene in a trainyard, it comes at the expense of making any sort of sense. Even if we go by the assumption that the trainyard was an illusion, that doesn't account for things like the very clear fact that it physically exists.

And yet again, it only raises so many questions in terms of both this universe and its characters. The biggest one being; If Mandosa has multiple teleporters that can lead to other worlds, pocket dimensions, or time travel, how in the world could this guy have ever been stopped outside of him being uncharacteristically dumb? Even if you say he had to stay in the caverns below the castle to revive Anima, he still could've easily just laid dozens of teleporter traps that'd keep literally everyone far away from him. The one that lead to modern day Tokyo clearly wasn't the only one he had, and the implication given his backstory is that he could've made many more. Which also raises the question of if Makai Alchemists can just make these things in general and that just spirals into a whole 'nother discussion that I don't wanna think about.

Good thing: Tons of really cool moments

https://i.imgur.com/pf0sEJo.png

This is essentially what this episode lives on. I already went on about how the action scenes were on point this episode, so no need to go into detail there. But there were a bunch of other small touches that I really did appreciate. For example, the sceenshot above where Alfonso personally repels the entire Watchog Center? That was really cool! The dub started pronouncing Jiruba's' name properly? Also cool! German's' blades sticking around to aid the party even after he's passed? Also really cool! Octavia having a shotgun leg despite this taking place in like the 1600s or whatever? Hilariously out of nowhere, but also cool! Garm actually meaning what she said about letting Anima free on purpose? GOOD! I have one less thing to be disappointed about! Ximena rushing to aid the townsfolk who are under attack? Hell yeah! Things like this are what kept the episode together for me. Good show!

And... I think that's about all I have to say on this one. Hope you all can see where I'm coming from here. But hey, if you disagree, that's cool. I'm open to seeing an alternate perspective. Two episodes and the movie left to go!

Wow, you're almost done with the series! That only leaves you with the finale, the ova and the film

I see where your coming from on these things, admittedly the pocket dimension that looks like a modern city I just kinda dismissed and glossed over like "Whoa that's trippy and cool" and just treated it as a set piece.

I usually don't think too in depth with things I'll be honest.

With Leon and Emma, yeah I'm pretty meh on them I'll be real. Granted, it doesn't really feel like a big, big deal relationship. Just two people who lost their lovers trying to cope with like, emotions, and stuff. Even then I'm pretty meh on it.

That being said, would you believe despite this stunt, Garm isn't the worst Watchdog in the Franchise's history? Because despite the threat level of just deciding to nuke a Kingdom to get rid of a Super Horror, there is still one that is way, way worse than Garm.

First I've heard of an OVA. I'm guessing the dub just packed it in with the regular show as "episode 25."

I typically don't think super deep on stuff either. I also totally get that the teleporter traps are likely just there to be cool and not much else, but when you do something multiple times, I like to think there's a purpose behind it, ya know? Sorry if it came across like I was asking for this show to become super "deep" or something like that.

And man, that comment on Garm scares me. And makes me wonder why most Knights even follow orders from the Watchdogs? Yeesh. Guess I'll find out if I ever get into the LA show.

While it was never fully explained, not all knights serve under watchdogs, and with the ones that do it's heavily implied that they don't have much of a choice in the matter

And some series that branch out from the main timeline have it to where there are High Ranking Priests that take the place of the Watchdogs.

But despite what I say, not all Watchdogs are bad, some are insufferable and the Knights just have to deal with that, but other than like a few bad eggs, they're relatively alright.

Episode XXIV: Chiastolite

https://i.imgur.com/r5irnmj.png

It's the finale of the TV show proper, and while I felt it was good, it could've been more.

Let's start with the good first. As always, the action in the episode was well done, and I never thought I'd see Knight vs Punch Ghost but here we are.

The animation and effects were really good too. I really liked the entire sequence where Mandosa absorbs Anima. Yet again, the JRPG influences shine here, as it's something that wouldn't be out of place in a final boss intro.

Adding to that, even though fusing together two Makai Armors was something that was never even stated to be possible before, it's really cool, and since Leon DOES have the blood of both Garo and Zorro in him, it checks out enough for me to give it a pass.

Raphael's' cameo was nice to see too, and helped to highlight what is probably the biggest "theme" of the episode(if there is one): A Knight's' resolve. Leon being willing to seal himself in the Makai Space just to keep Mandosa from running rampant in the Human World really showed just how far he's come over the series. Also Emma and Leon broke up, so that was nice.

Unfortunately that's about where the good stops.

The main issue I have is that there's alot of questions and plot threads left unanswered. Granted, maybe the OVA and Movie will answer those questions, but I really felt like they were things that should've been addressed here in the main show itself. For example, the plot hook about finding a successor for Bernardo went absolutely nowhere, which is kinda crap considering the importance Bernardo had to German's' story.

They also never answer why Mandosa became old or how he even survived that first battle. Granted, there's a throwaway line about his illusions being super powerful, but if they really are going for the classic "It's just a hologram" then man... that's really weak, gotta say. And let's not even get into the teleporters again. It's also a damn shame that the final fight with Mandosa pretty much involves only Leon, especially considering how Alfonso was built up to be the secondary protagonist. Kinda makes Raphael's' words ring hollow.

Overall, I was pretty neutral on this episode, and I'm hoping that I can find the OVA and Movie to be more fulfilling in terms of an actual ending to the show. We'll see in the coming days.

Wait was that like an actual plot hook? It's been so long I can barely remember, but normally when it comes to Dark Knights, they're just there to be obstacles/antagonists and nothing more. So I suppose I was used to just Bernado's story ending there.

Also adding to the Mendosa thing, it's really confusing and they don't explain it wellbut like, when you see the old him it sorta makes sense given well, you see him young during the first episode but when we time skip he still has the exact same appearance. So it only did hit me at that point that Mendosa was likely casting an illusion and had a backup just in case the whole Blood Moon thing went awry.

But anyway, here's fun fact time!

This exact thing doesn't have a usual precedent, but the entire concept of that upgrade in general is a thing that's been done many times in Garo prior to this. It's what I'd like to call, Last Hour Power Up or Miracle Hour Power Up. It's a power up/form change that is created to allow Garo to gain an edge and defeat their opponent.

Cause the fun thing about Makai Armor in general is that there is no real upgrades to them like usual Toku. While some Armor's slowly gain more features over time (though we've only seen one case of that outside Garo), Garo itself is a special case. It's basically the idea of the feelings and bonds with others creating a new temporary power. Which is nice because these are very special last minute power ups that can't be spammed.

Now there are a few cases where Garo gets permanent upgrades, but those are pretty rare compared to the Miracle Hour Power Up I mentioned.

Yeah. As Bernardo was dying, German promised to find him a worthy successor. It unfortunately ended up going nowhere, which is a shame since Black Knights are 99% of the time evil in media and I was hoping this show would subvert things.

By the way, does Bernardo's' armor even have a name? I don't recall it ever being said in-show.

Yeah, I could totally buy him casting an illusion on himself to make himself appear younger, but if they were trying to imply he made some sort of copy of himself? Weak, but I can deal.

I see. Good to see the anime is keeping things in terms of thematics then. Also makes me wonder what a fusion of Gaia and Garo would be like, considering it's totally possible for Alfonso to be able to do that.

Oh yeah, they probably didn't mention it aside from calling him Dark Knight, but it's Zex.

So that just leaves you with the ova ("ep 25") and the film, what's next after that? Do you plan on moving on to guren no tsuki and vanishing line? Or take break with something else?

Thanks!

Depends. While I will definitely be taking a break to have something else occupy my time for a bit, when I do get back to Toku anime, I will definitely consider watching Crimson Moon next.

I'm gonna be super busy at work over the next few days, so let's watch the OVA!

Episode XXV: Home

https://i.imgur.com/kzh0zt5.png

While I do think it was a mistake to label this as the 25th episode, I ended up really liking this episode!

This episode centers entirely on Emma, to the point that none of the other characters we've known up to now so much as even make a cameo. She visits the home of an old friend of hers, where a family of orphans are now living.

We got to see alot of sides of Emma in this one. Her motherly side when taking care of the kids, to the value she held in her relationship with her old friend, and of course, the part of her we've come to know up to this point: That of the hardened Makai Alchemist who slays Horrors in secret.

I loved the atmosphere in this one: Starting off as something that appears simplistic and innocent, only to slowly remind us of what exactly Emma's' world is like. Slice-of-life doesn't always mean upbeat and happy. As Emma outright tells Tina, they live in different worlds, and the consequences thereof are shown in full force here.

While it's certainly no proper finale in any sense, it's a great character episode, and I actually ended up liking way more than the one Emma got in the main series. Heck, it makes me actually kinda find it a shame that Leon and Alfonso didn't get epilogue episodes of their own, though I suppose what exactly they'd be doing after everything is said and done would be kind of obvious. Glad to see the show's' biggest strength, characterization, came back in full force.

Like I said earlier, work is gonna have me swamped for the next few days, so the movie will have to wait until all of that's done. But yeah, but one thing left until I finish off the first Garo anime!

Can't really say anything for alfonso, but Leon definitely gets his finale in the film "divine flame"- which I dare say might one of the best films in the garo franchise (yes there are several- though divine flame is the only animated one)

I believe Crimson Moon got a movie as well.

But yeah I'd rank Divine Flame in my Top 3 Films for the Garo Franchise.

IIRC Crimson moon was initially supposed to get one, but it got cancelled either due to Crimson moon having lower ratings, or due to Crimson moon not being nearly as popular as seal of flames was (while it's not the worst entry in the franchise- its usually towards the bottom of people's lists) it did get an OVA though- much like seal of flames did

Crimson Moon actually does have a sequel movie that came out in 2018. It's called "Usuzumizakura: Garo" or "The Fleeting Cherry Blossoms: Garo." It sadly has not been dubbed yet. And I hope it does soon so that way I can purchase the whole series on DVD in one fell swoop.

Well you learn something new everyday, any idea where I can find it though? I think that might be the only piece of garo media I haven't seen

https://i.imgur.com/9YztYOo.png

Here we are, the grand finale of the first GARO anime!

And between the first theme song of the show, to the title of its second episode, to now this movie, "Divine Flame" is a term this show likes alot, huh?

First off, let's get all the technicals out of the way. The movie's' increased budget from the show definitely shows. Not just from an animation standpoint, but also its art style and CG quality.

While I still don't like the Makai Armors being CG, the suits themselves now atleast not only have a style to them that matches the art style of the show more, but the models themselves are now much easier to make out details on. The new outfits for all of the returning cast were pretty well done too, I felt.

Adding to that, the action sequences were already fantastic in the anime, and they're done even BETTER here. Every fight scene is smooth and swift, with the viewer being able to easily tell what's happening even with alot of things flying every which way at once. And to make those sequences even better, Garo and Gaia finally got their horses! And they function like motorcycles!

As for the plot and character aspects, all of the returning cast were done well for the most part. I liked that Roberto was named after German, and while small, the arcs that Roberto, German, and Leon got were all pretty well done. While Alfonso and Emma are definitely relegated to supporting cast here, they at the very least don't feel like wasted space. Though it was a shame that the very start of the film seemed to suggest that Alfonso was going to play a bigger role.

I wish I could give the same compliments to the Obsidian Knight and the Big Bad though(and I already forgot her name). I didn't dislike their stories per se, but I couldn't tell if the film wanted the viewer to feel sorry for them or not. Because even before becoming Horrors, Dario and his love interest were already pretty crazy. Though I will say that I do like that the very design of the Obsidian Suit shows that not all Makai Knights have to be swordsmen and have capes. Should allow for even more fighting styles to be displayed down the line, I hope.

I also kinda wish Garm had kept their mission to simply "preserving the laws of nature" and not elaborating much further. Dropping the bit of lore that if someone were fully revived, it'd start distorting all of time and space? Well let's just say that sounds like a really awesome plot hook that I kinda now wish there was a whole separate movie about. Ended up being sorta disappointed that the film wasn't really about any aspects of that(except maybe the final sequence? Arguably?) Like, maybe have a future version of Roberto show up, or something. Maybe some other time.

Also, I just got ask. What even was those last like six minutes of the movie? Like, legit, can someone explain the final sequence to me? Things got really trippy and I feel like there was alot of symbolism that went way over my head. It also really surprised me that they pulled a totally new super mode out of nowhere for Leon at the end. I figured he'd just pull out the same form he used at the end of the anime again. I atleast would've liked to have seen it in better CGI. Oh, and speaking of the final bit, I loved Roberto standing up to defend his mom. That was awesome and you can tell he's gonna make a great Knight in the future.

But yeah, overall, I liked the movie, and I feel it does serve as a proper finale to the anime. Much better than what its actual final episode did. Will do a post on my final thoughts on the show overall tomorrow!

As it was already mentioned in one of the earlier comments, movie/finale exclusive super forms are kinda a staple for the garo franchise

Yeah single use, Miracle Hour Super Forms are basically a staple, they show up once due to the circumstances and that's about it.

The original Garo armor from the main series has about like... 5 or so super forms that only appear once off the top of my head.

I know you guys warned me about it, but I didn't think it was gonna be a thing that was that frequent, you know? Especially considering it was born out of the total acid trip that was the final sequence, I almost out loud said "what the heck am I looking at?"

Seriously. The last thing I ever expected the movie to do was give me a sequence straight out of a psychological thriller, haha.

Overall thoughts on Garo: the Animation

I honestly never know how to properly start things like this, so I'mma just start babbling and we'll see where this goes, I guess.

The Garo franchise is one that I kinda didn't know what to expect, honestly.

Before the anime premiered a few years back, I had never even heard of Garo despite having interacted in other Toku circles for a good many years. And even when the anime was going on, other things kept getting in the way of me seeing it.

Fast forward to now and yeah, despite being a(in my experience atleast) less known and talked about franchise... if this anime is anything to go by? I can definitely see why alot of more hardcore Toku fans love GARO so much(by the way, is GARO meant to be all caps or not? I see conflicting things).

Rather than simply doing my usual beige prose(seriously, you have no idea how much alot of those Kikaider posts took out of me to type), I'm going to try and give full overview on what I thought in this show worked, what I felt didn't, and also give a list of some of my favorite aspects of the show. Hopefully I can also give some advice to those who wanna get into this show but are unsure.

In the interest of ending things on a positive note, let's start off with the bad, and then the good, and then the final word.

THE BAD

-Episode 7. No really, just the entirety of episode 7. That's not to say it's unwatchable by any stretch, but it's a complete waste of an episode. Nothing important happens in terms of the plot, Leon's' character arc doesn't progress in any meaningful way, and despite it feeling like two separate episodes glued together, both aspects of the episode are done way better in other episodes. The "Previously On" segment of episode 8 tells you all you need. Skip it.

-Plot elements that are never elaborated on. There's alot of little things that are brought up only to never be elaborated on or that simply go nowhere. The most blatant one being German's' promise to find Bernardo a successor for Zex never getting followed up on. But there's other small things like the mysterious video camera in episode 15, Garo and Gaia not having mounts, and just various little details that you'd never piece together without having already seen the live-action show. It's nothing deal breaking, but it is definitely distracting.

(By the way thank you all for filling me in on alot of those gaps!)

-The CG Suits. Look, I'm sure the animation staff had their reasons for making the Makai Armors being almost the only CGI in the show, and while it did grow on me over the course of the anime, I still don't like it, ya dig? The model quality and general art style of those models often make seeing details really difficult, especially given alot of fights take place at night or in dark areas. I do really wish the Armors had been drawn, because I do rather like them from purely a character design standpoint. Maybe hiding details was the point? But if so, if you're basing yourself on a Toku and you're afraid to show off your suits, well... I think that says alot, personally.

-The absolutely forced romance between Emma and Leon. If you want the full details on my big hang up with this, go read my breakdown of episode 23. But in an attempt to keep it short: The relationship was absolutely forced, and I hate when stories pair two characters up solely because of the idea that men and women can't simply just be friends. Don't get me wrong, there is validity in representation via properly written romantic relationships(LGBT representation, to give the most obvious example), but friendships are every bit as important, and I feel that the idea that people of different genders can just be friends needs to be reinforced. To give the writers some credit though, they did atleast seem to realize the romance came out of nowhere and had the two break up at the end. Even if they brought it up again in the movie.

Aaannd that's about all I can think of for the bad. Onto...

THE GOOD

-The music. I was informed that the team who did the soundtrack for this anime also did the music for Yoko Taro's' games(Drakkengard, NieR). And MAN does it show! Just like those games, I absolutely loved the music this show had to offer, and I definitely wanna track the official soundtrack down to buy, if it exists. If you need an example of how the soundtrack not only sounds great but fits absolutely perfectly to anything going on in a given episode, watch(or rather, listen to) episode 9, which is when the soundtrack REALLY popped out at me for the first time.

-The action sequences. One thing this show never once skimped on was just how intense and creative every fight scene was. Especially once the endgame hits, well, to give a comparison every "anime normie" would make, stuff almost gets to Dragon Ball Classic levels to stuff flying all over the place. The biggest compliment I can give being that not once did I ever lose track of anything going on during a given fight. The choreography was swift, meaningful, and easy to follow. And really, crazy stuff like having a battle ontop of spinning girder that's free-falling from miles high in the sky not only embraces how ridiculous Toku can get, but really shows the advantage that animation can have over live action, and I loved every second of it.

-The character writing. Man, this is what I would consider Garo's' biggest strength. Some relationship fumbling aside, I absolutely loved nearly every character that GARO sent my way. From Leon learning to let go of hatred, to German learning to properly love again, to Bernardo learning that you can't punish the whole for the actions of the few, basically every character arc was done extremely well, ontop of the characters themselves being extremely likeable thanks to their personalities, actions, and actors. There were very few moments where I felt any given character acted out of character, and many of their actions and responses towards given situations were totally logical or meshed well with their established personalities. Characters more than anything are what make or break stories for me, and GARO most certainly delivered on what I probably value most in terms of storytelling.

MY FAVORITE THINGS

Favorite Character: Alfonso. This is my purely guessing here, but I imagine most people's' favorite characters from this show are either Leon or German. But for me, the Prince himself ended up being the character I liked most. Not only is his personality extremely likable given that'd pretty much be the main character in any given JRPG, but his arc never actually fumbles unlike everyone else in the main cast. Is he an especially deep character? No, but he doesn't need to be, nor does any other character for that matter. His arc is simple and straight-forward, certainly, but the execution is what counts, and it's executed extremely well. I personally just felt it was a shame that he sorta fell to the wayside by the end, despite early signs pointing to him being the deuteragonist. Aside from that, he's strong, he's kind, he has multiple aspects to his personality, and he's all around just a swell dude.

Favorite Episode: Episode 18(Scar Flame). This was all around a perfect episode. Great visuals, great music, wonderful atmosphere, fantastic character interaction, a great turning point for Leon and German, and probably the best fight scene in the entire show. It felt like a humongous step up in terms of the story, and I loved every second of it. I won't go into any more detail here, but if you wanna know more, well, kinda did a whole post on it earlier.

With all that, let's get to the wrap up.

OVERALL RATING AND FINAL THOUGHTS

I overall give GARO: The Animation a rating of 5/6. It's a really well done show! It has a few things that hold it down just that little bit from being one of my favorites, but man if I didn't have a great time watching it. A friend of mine used it as his introduction to the franchise, and I gotta say, it most definitely worked for me too! Whether it be the other seasons of the anime, or getting started on the live-action show, I'll definitely be trying to catch up on the franchise now. If the other entries into the franchise offer even half of what this anime did, I think I'm in for a good time.

And that's about all I can think to say! What did you all think of the show as a whole? And as always, if you have any suggestions on what I should check out next, feel free to suggest! I will be taking a break for a bit though; There's some other stuff I wanna focus on for right now.

Still, if you have any further thoughts on the Garo or Kikaider anime in the meantime, feel free to voice them!

https://scontent.fdet3-1.fna.fbcdn.n...3f&oe=5FA3E50A

In celebration of my newfound love, I got this. There's sadly no figures of Gaia(to my knowledge), so I went with what I felt was the next best thing. I know that this is actually the second Garo of the live-action show, but the design is so close to Alfonso's' Garo Armor that I'm just gonna headcanon it as him. Unless I end up liking the dude this actually is better than Alfonso later on. Then we're at an impasse. But that's something for Future DS to worry about.

Speaking of the future, SSSS.Dynazenon is coming out soon, and as such, I feel like I next show I should highlight is SSSS.Gridman! It's a soft reboot of both the original Gridman as well as its American counterpart, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad! I've only ever seen the latter, but lemme tell ya, SSSS.Gridman does a fantastic job at appealing to both sides of the ocean, and I love it too!

Again, it's gonna be a bit though, since I'm taking a break to catch up on other things, but yeah, next up is Gridman. Hope you all will join me whenever that happens! In the meantime, feel free to say whatever you want about Kikaider and Garo.

Good to hear about your next choice. It’s one I’ve seen myself and I can share some opinions.

And just like I did with the Undead on KRD’s watch thread for Kamen Rider Blade, I’ll be explaining the Gridman references, based on information from TVTropes, the Ultraman Wiki and my experience of having watched 8/13s of the show on YouTube.

Ooh Gridman's next huh? That'll be fun since I've also seen it. So I'll chime in when I can.

That'd be a big help! The only references I'll be able to point out are the ones to Syber-Squad, as I grew up watching that, and even rewatched it before watching the anime. Good times.

Looking forward to it!

Gridman hah? Just like the garo anime its a really good series even to those who aren't familiar with the original series, and I remember really enjoying it

Sooo I kinda ended up lying about SSSS.Gridman being next. With the recent announcement of "Godzilla: Singular Point" it reminded me of something I never bothered to check out a couple years back: The Netflix Godzilla anime films.

So! I spent all of today checking them out! Alot of people warned me not to(including some of the users on this board), but hey, I'm now the Toku Anime Guy of these parts, so I gotta, right?

And lemme tell ya, it was an almost total waste of my time!

Don't get me wrong, the movies are by no means the worst things I've ever seen or anything like that, but yeah, I can definitely see why these movies don't have many fans.

For me personally though, it's not how every movie is mostly exposition with all the action only being at the very end. It's not that they're slow-paced. Its not even that I'm the type of Godzilla fan who only shows up to see Godzilla blow stuff up. I like a bunch of other movies and shows that are all like that!

No, the main issue I had was the characters. I gave literally not a single damn about any of them! No one is likeable in these movies! They all spend alot of time praising the lead, Haruo, but there's nothing likeable or special about the guy! Like, yeah, he wants to kill Godzilla, but like... so does everyone else in these films? Not exactly a reason to treat him special.

Heck, what little characterization there even is isn't even consistent. Alot of the "reveals" about certain characters being selfish, bad, or corrupt is done solely to create forced drama. Drama which I straight don't care about because I have no one to root for. It's not even like that's the point the movies are trying to make either; We are clearly meant to root for Haruo, but again, we're never given a good reason to do so.

Speaking of that, I got a personal kick(in that I didn't like it) how the entire third movie spent trying really hard to say that the Death Cult is wrong and humans are better than what they claim... only for the last five minutes to come in and say "Actually no, they were totally right. End all of civilization for the greater good." Like, dude, even "Kill-Em-All" Tomino wouldn't go that far. I understand that these movies were written by the same guy who wrote Kamen Rider Gaim. Someone PLEASE tell me that show is atleast a bit better than this?

By the way, if you're a fan of Mothra and/or King Ghidorah, well, let's just say their "involvement" in these films will most likely come across as an insult.

In the end, I give the movies an overall score of 2/6. They aren't out and out horrible, but why watch them when you could watch... almost any other Godzilla movie? Hopefully Singular Point will end up alot better than these.

The way they animated Godzilla's' Atomic Breath was cool though.

So yeah, I'll start covering SSSS.Gridman either next week or the week after.

I’m almost at the end of the OG Gridman (two more episodes), so this will be a good chance to rewatch this series.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the USA!

I know I'm way late in starting this, but in my defense, Memory of Heroez is a surprisingly fun game that I highly recommend you all check out.

(real life stuff like my job getting more hectic as we enter the holiday season also happened but that's clearly far less important and way less of an excuse i mean really how dare i)

So without further ado, let's start covering...


SSSS.Gridman is a rather unique production in that it serves as not only a soft reboot to the original Hyper Agent Gridman, but also its American counterpart, Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. The show essentially combines elements of both in order to create something to appeal to both sides of the pacific.

And full disclosure, while I do know a few scant details about Gridman due to internet osmosis, the one I am far more familiar with is Syber-Squad, and I even made sure to rewatch it in its entirety back when this anime was first announced. It's total 90s cheese, but I love it, and I recommend checking out the show on YouTube if you're curious.

As such, I'll be sure to point out every reference this anime makes to Syber-Squad that I can. Unfortunately I can't do the same for Gridman, having never seen it. I'll probably also drop some comparisons here and there.

Oh, and like always, I'll be specifically talking about the dub of this anime. Not only because I think it's really good, but due to one specific choice that the dub made that I really appreciate. But I'll go more into that in the future.

With that, let's begin.

Episode 1: Awakening

Our story begins with Yuta, a boy who's lost his memory. Upon waking up, he begins to realize that there's alot of things that only he can see: Giant Kaiju standing at the borders of the city, a thick fog out of Silent Hill, and a mysterious entity known as Gridman who keeps telling Yuta that he needs to "remember his calling." Rikka, the girl who found Yuta passed out infront of her house, isn't buying any of it, and chalks what Yuta sees up to brain damage. She is atleast nice to enough to help him find his way to both the hospital and his home though, even if she is cryptic about what exactly her connection to Yuta is.


Back at school, Yuta meets a boy who he apparently recently became friends with named Sho, who is a huge nerd and fan of the Ultra Series. He also runs into Akane(the girl in the first screenshot). And it's at this point that we run into the first reference that pretty much anyone is sure to recognize:


This hybrid between a sandwich and a hotdog was invented by the Lunchlady(best character) from Syber-Squad, and is also the very thing that Tanker used as inspiration when designing Servo(US Gridman)'s' sword and shield weapon.

Speaking of which, it becomes clear pretty quick who our main trio are meant to mirror: Yuta is the new Sam, Rikka is the new Syd, and Sho is the new Tanker. Granted, their personalities are way different, but the dynamic is there. Maybe the personalities match more in the original Gridman? Either way there's no new stand-ins for Amp or Lucky, unfortunately.

One thing that I feel definitely makes this episode stand out, especially in terms of introductory episodes, is its atmosphere and general air of mystery. There's almost no music throughout the entire thing! The animation and the character's' manners of speech are more slow-paced, minor events(like the sandwich getting smashed) are played with the same sort of levity that a bullet going off would, and it just in general has a much more... I guess "grounded" would be the word? Sort of feel than most shows of this ilk tend to have.

AND THEN THINGS KICK INTO HIGH GEAR!


I love how the Kaiji are in terms of both design and animation in this show; They're made to look like people in rubber suits! The action itself is even more slow-paced in order to mimic that of the sort of fights you'd see in say, Megazord battles or other giant monster fights from the early days of Toku. It's a great attention to detail that helps show that the people behind this project certainly cared about it.

Oh, and the show makes sure to emphasize how one specific character in particular gets blown up by the Kaiju, but I'm sure that's not important.

Overall it's a great first impression, and I got just as excited rewatching this episode as I had when I first saw it about a year ago. This is gonna be a fun ride.

Well, we’re onto this. I’ve been saving this list for a few months, so let’s talk about the Gridman elements in this episode for the crowd that aren’t in with that series.

* Yuta was treated at Inoue Hospital, which also made an appearance in the original Denkou Choujin Gridman as the workplace of Yuka Inoue's parents, hence its name. It was where Naoto Sho's brother, Daichi was being treated back in episode 1 until an attack by Gilarus caused all surgical instruments to go haywire.
* Akane gives Yuta a Special Dog (a type of hot dog). This food appeared in episode 5 of the original series and was Ippei's inspiration for designing Barrier Shield.
* The monsters repairing the city are based on Venora, the Kaiju from the “Showdown! Hero’s End” two-parter.
* In Katakana, Ghoulghilas (グールギラス) can be rearranged into Gilarus (ギラルス Girarusu), the first Kaiju from the original series, with extra letters left.
* And as a bonus, one of the comments on the video depicting Gridman compares him to Ultraman Orb’s Lightning Attacker Fusion Up form. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20200111205641
* When Utsumi says that "Yuta has been eaten by Junk", its the same dialogue said by Ippei when Naoto gets fused with Gridman in episode 1 of the original series.
* When fighting Ghoulghilas, Gridman does the same flying kick motion as his live-action counterpart's Neo Superconductivity Kick.
* The TV Network ECN made its cameo appearance. For those who watched the original series, that was the same TV Network that Naoto's dad Soichiro Sho worked at.
* Several elements are lifted from the unproduced Gridman F concept
* Yuta Hibiki, the new host of Gridman is also one in this scrapped series. Had Gridman F were given the greenlight, he would be assisted by Ippei Baba, who went to a different high school from Naoto Sho and Yuka Inoue after failing his entrance exam.
* Alexis Kerib, the main villain from Makai World and leader of five monsters is reused as this anime's Big Bad.
* Yuta's classmate Akane was meant to be Takeshi Todo's expy from the scrapped planning.
* The show takes place in the high school of Tsutsujidai. The original planning, however, said that the high school is an industrial high school, whereas the anime counterpart is just a normal high school.
* So the name of the shop that Rikka's mother operated is Junk Shop AYA? Well in the original series, Junk is obviously referring to the computer that Naoto and his friends made and the AYA suffix refers to INTERIOR SHOP Aya, Hiroshi Baba (Ippei's father)'s workplace.

That aside, I also rewatched this recently and thought it was a pretty good start for a series.

A nice fun and mysterious start, it's a good way to hook people in with a nice mystery.

Also always nice to have all these fun trivia tidbits to look at. Speaking of Gridman I need to catch up before Episode 3 goes away.

I remember reading about Gridman F awhile back. Had it been made, the people behind Syber-Squad did actually plan to adapt it, with the main hero being Malcolm. That would've actually been really cool, given Malcolm's' character development during what was the original finale of SSSS.

I'll be sure to provide what trivia and I can, and it looks like Androzani has Gridman trivia covered.

Hope you enjoy watching the OG Gridman too!

Episode 2: Restoration

This is the first time we get to see the show's opening sequence, and it's one that I really only grew to truly appreciate after having seen the entire show once already. It's designed in a way that, while it might not seem like much is happening in it, once you know the story in full, it serves as a summation of a majority of the events in the anime proper. I love it!

I decided to screencap this moment in the OP in particular, because it's a shot that you really have no idea who's in it or what it signifies until you reach the final bits of the anime. Heck, this entire episode is chock full of foreshadowing, to the point that I won't dare give all of it away, and will try my best to only focus on the few moments that I find especially memorable or notable. But hey, if any of you wanna point out some specific instances in particular, go for it. Just be mindful of spoilers for the newbies.

So what exactly is this episode about? A few things! But the biggest thing, atleast that I got out of it, was the idea of subverting and asking questions about many of the various tropes that we just sort of take for granted, especially in terms of classic Toku. Like how none of the civilians seem to acknowledge that an evil force is at work(this is especially notable me right now, seeing as I'm watching Kamen Rider Super-1 at the same time), how despite tons of collateral damage, everything is back to normal the next day, how the victims of the week are never acknowledged after their episode, as well as a small touch on how our heroes grow the nerve to rise above themselves and fight for the good of others. And it's all done in a way that you can tell it's not meant to be mocking the genre in any form, and is infact treating it with tons of respect. Major points!

One mystery solved right away though is who exactly is behind the Kaiju attacks, although episode 1 wasn't exactly subtle about it. It's Akane, and her partner that lives inside of her computer monitor, Alexis.


It's also here it's made clear who exactly Akane is a counterpart to; Malcolm from Syber-Squad.

For those not in the know, Malcolm was an anti-social artist in the US show, who vented his frustrations by designing "Virus Monsters" (Kaiju) which were then brought to life by a sentient computer virus, Kilokahn(Alexis). And no joke, if Syber-Squad were even slightly more realistic, Akane is straight up what Malcom would be like; Someone willing to kill over petty inconveniences. No joke, for a majority of the show, if Malcolm hadn't met Kilokahn, the dude straight up would've brought a gun to school.

Speaking of Kilokahn, I LOVE the extra step the dub took with Alexis here; Making the active decision to have his voice actor do a Tim Curry impression(he was the voice for Kilokahn), and they went even further with it in a later episode, but I'll be sure to point that out when it happens. Heck, Alexis' background that we see in later shots is the exact same one used for Kilokahn whenever he would talk to Malcolm. Nice touch there!

Shifting gears a bit now, I wanna talk a little about the new character introduced: Samurai Calibur. This dude is awesome. Not only is he super cool all throughout the show, but the comedic timing on him getting his swords caught on door frames is hilarious to me.

I suppose all the leaves now is the action bits, along with a couple other references to SSSS. One moment I especially wanna point out is how, when the Kaiju attack starts, and Yuta goes to rush off to help, Sho remarks "This is really out of character for you!" Which might be odd, given what the audience has seen about Yuta so far.


This is the Primal Acceptor, a brace that Yuta can use to synchronize with Gridman whenever he's near JUNK. While not exact, it is very similar to the Samuraizer, which Sam would use to transform into Servo in Syber-Squad. And taking that one step further, when Calibur enters JUNK to give Gridman a new weapon to fight with, that is also directly out of SSSS, as Sam's' friends would need to enter the digital world in order to pilot Servo's' various armaments.


Oh that classic Masami Obari sword pose. (That's a famous mecha designer, if you didn't know.)

But yeah, overall, this episode continues what the first episode set up: A great balance between mystery, action, and character development. Oh, and before I totally forget to note it, Gridman simply saying "Yo." when he first shows up made me laugh way harder than what it should've. So this show has comedic timing going for it too!

Yeah, Gridman had a similar antisocial loner making the monsters for petty reasons (case in point: he once reprogrammed a hairdryer to turn anyone using it into a punk purely because the girl he was crushing on was nice to people other than him). The main thing that sets him apart is that he had some moments wherein he’d reconsider his plans, only to go through them with brainwashing.

And today’s notes section.

* Rikka theorises that Gridman was responsible for repairing the city. While the real cause turns out to be different, that’s exactly what happened in the old series, wherein Gridman would repair the damage following every battle with his Fixer Beam.
* Something I missed last time, but Gridman’s blue colour scheme within Junk calls to mind the jumpsuit Naoto wore during the original series’ transformation stock footage.
* Samurai Calibur is based off Gridman Sword, a weapon that was created by Compoid and Anosillus after saving the latter monster from Takeshi Todo's brainwashing. His Axe Mode is a throwback to the Gridman Sword's alternate mode, Thunder Axe.
* His name is based off the Samurai Sword, the name for the Gridman Sword in Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
* Since the rest of his teammates references both Team Samurai and their Assist Weapons, Samurai・Calibur's name sounds similar to Sam Collins.
* The actor voicing him in Japanese, Ryosuke Takahashi, is better known as the lead character Takuto Ando/Lio-Sazer in Chousei Kantai Sazer-X, a Tokusatsu series from 2006 by Konami and Toho Studios meant to cash in on the success of Super Sentai. It was the third in a trilogy after Chouseishin Gransazer and Genseishin Justirisers and included Gokaiger’s Gaku Shindo (Barizorg) and Kamen Rider OOO’s Ryosuke Miura (Ankh/Shingo) in supporting roles.
* So how did Samurai become Gridman Calibur? He shouts the Access Code. In the original series, Gridman cannot exit Junk unless the trio enters the Access Code "GRIDMAN". In episode 31, entering the wrong code (GRIDOMAN) would be ineffective.
* And Yuta does his predecessor’s pose and declaration of “Access Flash!” Comparison here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RUriKGV4-68