I mean, I've made that comparison myself twice already, so at the very least, we can be out of line together.

Anyways, I thought this one was pretty great, if that's any surprise. First of all, it gives me a chance to mention how much I like the way GARO has occasionally made room to give us these scenarios where Kouga is prevented from transforming, the kind of dramatic handicap that takes full advantage of being a transforming hero in the first place. It's as cool as ever here; almost as cool as the crazy robot tank dragon thing Kouga has to fight, even! There are quite a few nice things I could single out about this episode, but the moment that most made go "oooooohh I like that!" was definitely how they landed that thematic parallel, where Kouga going up against a literal emotionless machine that exists only to fight Horrors is used to give him a chance to reflect on how he's grown since meeting Kaoru. He even kinda sorta wins the day with the power of friendship, rather than his own brute strength, making it land that much more. Everyone has come a very long way in 20 episodes!

Yeah a very straightforward episode if I'm being honest, but given the content it makes sense.

I was also nicely surprised despite being the very first major plot event, we aren't ending on Kaoru's time limit because of the Horror blood. Especially now that we have a lot more gears turning than that.

Yeah that was nice, and Koga calling the Mado Tank "boring" as a way to dig at his past self gave me a chuckle.

Really glad that the show isn't going to end on Kaoru dying due to running out of time, yeah. And having Koga prioritize healing her over the Dark Knight business shows just how much his priorities have shifted.

Man, OG GARO had everything; Orchid Undead, Dragon Orphenoch, Kamen Rider Saga, Freddie from live action Cromartie High(Which had Ryuki and Gao Red in it), Hironobu Kageyama, and so on and so on.

The GARO formula is back, and with quite the bang!

I won't lie, I absolutely adored this episode from start to finish, and it managed to throw me for a loop in a few different ways!

Remember the bartender lady who collected fingers from early on in the show? Well this episode is all about her father, and the impact that his daughter's' death left in its wake.

And it's through that angle that so many really awesome story details and ideas are brought up. How do the loved ones of those possessed by Horrors deal with them suddenly disappearing without a trace? What about those connected to everyone the Horrors have eaten?

Unfortunately for Koga, he's not exactly properly equipped to handle this sort of emotional aftermath either, especially given that Makai Knights are forbidden from getting involved in human affairs. It's telling that Koga doesn't have a direct answer to all of the questions and accusations getting flung his way. All he knows is that once someone becomes a Horror, there's no turning back, and it's his job to put them out of their misery.

But outside of the philosophical debate on ethics, we're treated to some more slick action with Koga essentially becoming a Yakuza protagonist and slicing through a small army of gunman, with their leader being a Horror with a giant gun barrel for an arm. It's every bit as fun and cool to see play out as it sounds. And it comes with an unexpected comedic bit from Zaruba!

While that was all enough to get me super into the episode, the most unexpected part was that very final shot. What at first just seems like a nice transition from the previous episode to this one is then turned into something to lead everyone into a false sense of security before revealing that Kaoru isn't exactly out of the woods as of yet. Although I'll admit that if it were me in that situation my dumb initial reaction would probably be "Oh hey, sick tattoo" haha. This is why I wouldn't last in the GARO universe.

Anyway, yeah! This episode got a nice, big, emotional reaction out of me, and I couldn't be happier with it. While I don't think it's my favorite episode, it's a rather good one and made for a great time.

And from what little I know of cast in the franchise as a whole, there's only more in store when it comes to future entries!

Well hey, would you look at that?

Finally get to bust this quote of an earlier comment out because yep, this was exactly what I meant. As a singular episode, the bartender lady plot was very alright to me. Then you get this plot 13 episodes later? And wow... I was legitimately not expecting them to come back to a prior story and basically explore the fallout of what a Makai Knight/Priest does when it comes to those possessed by Horrors.

It's such an interesting discussion to have and ponder about really. Because we only see snippets of these people and their lives before they become Horrors. It really fleshes out the world by giving you this big unknown to think about that we usually won't see. Because it's not like your usual purification or your random monster appearing, these are people who are essentially erased from the world.

Really great episode tbh, the gun vs sword fight was a cool way for Kouga to have some nice action, to where it's crazy how the most intense scene is where Kouga is forced into a corner and potential gun fight. Not to mention the part where the father basically becomes the Horror his daughter was and realizes what exactly that entails? Really nice but heartbreaking scene.

Oh and of course, ha ha, you thought Kaoru was out of the woods? Not yet she ain't.

This totally felt like an early episode of the series in the best of ways. You've got a really strong, simple concept (one sword vs. a whole lotta guns), given a suitably dramatic context to make it truly engaging, right down to one of those classic Kouga lines where he just says one sentence about a thing (here with that bit about his armor) that feels like there's probably a monologue worth of weight behind it if you go digging a bit. It's tense, it's exciting, it raises lots of interesting points, and it does an astonishing job getting you to hate the antagonists in this show when you stop to realize they basically twisted this poor guy into throwing his life away hunting down Kouga, pretending like they aren't the ones who were actively pointing him in the direction of most of these Horrors.

It really is the sort of detail that we just kinda ignore or take for granted in other toku shows, isn't it? The fallout of monster attacks and those who respond to them is very rarely explored, and GARO here managed to find a great way of bringing it up without going too deep into it so as to undermine its own weight.

And it really makes me wonder if the Watchdogs have been essentially gunning for Koga to die throughout a majority of the show. Like, obviously they wanted him to keep making the daggers for them, but outside of that? It's little wonder they didn't give much of a crap about whatever Rei had going on, right?

Yes, this episode is interesting not only because it relies on the previous filler, but also because it overtakes Koga at the most vulnerable time. He himself has just felt what it means to be afraid of losing a loved one, and therefore he cannot see in his father who has set foot on a dark path simply an enemy or a hindrance. But the action part is also on top, not inferior to the emotional one. A good episode, which, despite its filler and closeness to the finale, does not seem superfluous or distracting from more important events.

I'm not really sure you could qualify this episode as filler though? It does still move the plot forward ontop of showcasing Koga's' character development.

We're gearing up for the final battle, so naturally there's revelations to be had.

And lemme just say that I have been absolutely loving how so many of the early episodes of GARO have been coming full circle as of late.

It really shows that the writers had a roadmap in mind for the show as a whole, as well as a level of detail that makes it easy to believe that they weren't just making things up as they went.

We also learn the backstory of Barago, the Dark Knight, and most of why he's able to do what he does. He fights like Garo because he was trained by Taiga, and he became a Dark Knight via letting his timer run out, resulting in his armor devouring the light of his soul.

And man, poor Kaoru. This poor girl just cannot catch a break. Marked to be a Gate for the Ultimate Horror known as Messiah at a young age, she's been cursed to be hunted for most of her life; blood of Horrors or not. And the CGI Engraving on her neck allows Barago to keep tabs on her regardless of where she goes or what she does.

But better than all of that is how the kindergarten episode comes back into the picture. While I had my own hangups with that episode, it was atleast good to see Kaoru get rewarded for her kindness, as well as learn exactly why the last page of her father's' picture book was blank: It wasn't unfinished, it was symbolism that went way over the heads of publishers. It's the sort of thing I'm sure many of us saw coming, but it was still nice to see play out.

Koga being alot more honest with his feelings was nice to see too. Him outright telling Kaoru that she's important to him is something that would've been inconceivable for the Koga towards the start of the show. I also liked how he didn't just instantly forgive Rei for all of the trouble that Zero has caused throughout the show either. The two are willing to work together as they have a common enemy, but it's not like there can be a totally clean slate given how Rei did try to kill both Kaoru and Koga.

As an episode that's half prep work, half character reveals/reinforcement, I thought it all came together rather well, and served as a nice breather before we fully hit the climax. Needless to say, I'm excited for what's to come!

I don't really have much to add about why this one was good, but I did particularly like Kaoru's revelation about why the last page of that picture book is blank. There's a certain writer/book store owner/Swordsman of Flames I'm a fan of who would no doubt be all over that kind of symbolism. :p

The final page of the book mystery being found out here was rather nice.

Other than that, we're officially in endgame territory. Also the return of the First ED for this episode was really nice.

GARO and Kamen Rider Saber. The crossover that no one knew they wanted until now!

I really hope it's here to stay.

Just out of curiosity, are you going to watch Kiba: The Dark Knight Side Story movie/special between episodes 23 and 24? That's effectively what I did when I was watching Garo at the time.

Is that when it canonically takes place? I have no idea about the chronological order of the franchise as a whole. If it is, sure, I'll check it out.

If I recall that is when it takes place canonically.

Though I'd say save it for whenever it lands in production order given there's a few details that end up being important for the second full series from what I recall.

Gotcha. I'll save it for when I eventually cover series 2 GARO then.

Say what? I thought that was Zero?

Anyway I called it. It's revealed that Barago is indeed Kaoru's' therapist, and his necklace is how he summons his armor.

And while I could probably spend this post talking about how interesting of an idea that is as well as how this guy fights while dual wielding two dark versions of the Garo Blade despite using a polearm earlier, something else caught my attention.

It's no secret that I got into this franchise from the anime. More specifically, the first one, known in the west as Garo: The Animation but called Carved Sealed of Flames over in its native Japan. And it's due to that that I got experience certain aspects of the lore before they were presented here.

Namely, I'm talking about how during the climax, the butler becomes a Horror+Makai Knight hybrid, and Koga becomes what is known as a Lost Soul, via giving into his dark emotions and allowing his armor to consume him. Minor spoilers for those who haven't seen the anime, but a similar event occurs with one of the characters in the first anime(and the second technically but that's not important right now).

And this all made for an interesting case of comparison to me, because while it's clear this episode served as the baseline for such a plot development in the anime, the surrounding details and way in which the entire thing is utilized in terms of plot and character are very much different, and regardless of which is "better" I really gotta hand it to Kobayashi on that one.

One of the biggest draws of the franchise to me is how every Knight who bears the title of Garo is their own unique character, and in an indirect way, this episode actually helps to highlight that. While sure, I got what they were going for with Koga's' mental state here, and it's not too different from others who I've seen nearly lose their souls to the abyss, again, the circumstances and the people involved are so different that despite if I felt this worked just as well as those other examples or not, I'm glad that it was handled in its own way.

But if you want my personal opinion on the execution of this idea... I wanna wait until the next episode atleast. If this is followed up on in a cool or interesting way, then I'm all for it. But as is, it feels a slight bit rushed and undercooked? Again, I get what they were going for, and I do think that it ultimately works, but I do also feel it coulda be done just a tad bit better for my personal tastes. Really loved the moments we got out of Rei thanks to the entire ordeal though. Him actually talking reason into Koga was a really great moment, and one that really made the whole thing stand out.

Oh, and it's casually revealed that Watchdog Lady is Koga's' mother. As you do. (ADDENDUM: They were actually saying that she's Baritone Butler's' mom, my mistake!)

Okay that might be a mistranslation, because Gulm (That's her name) is not Kouga's mother.

Kodama (The Butler) is like her son though. But yeah this is our first look into the Demon Beast Armor, a similar type of transformation to a Makai Knight's but a lot more grotesque a lot of the time. There's a few different types and we'll be seeing them as we truck along the franchise (or in Dreamsword's case, saw one already)

Also yeah, Lost Soul Beast also makes its debut here in which we basically get a desperate Kouga gunning for everything and not thinking straight. I remember being like "Oh... oh shit, so that's why we've constantly been reminded of the timer."

Because come on, they show the timer and talk about it occasionally in terms of how much time is left. You really think they wouldn't show the consequences?

But yeah in terms of the episode... that's the most I remember it for aside from the sick fight with Barago at the start and his spiel about Light and Darkness from what I recall that made me think "Kingdom Hearts?"

Yeah, we see Kouga's mother at some point (honestly no idea which show or movie that is) and she is emphatically not three Watchdogs in a skintight leotard.

To give TV-N some credit, I actually think the misunderstanding is on me here. Barago and Gulm don't actually say a name when the scene comes up, and the way the scene is framed, I thought they were talking about Koga, but most likely they were talking about Baritone Butler. My bad!

I dunno if I really have much to say about this one.

It's primarily just a storming of the enemy stronghold in lead up to the final battle, and with what's been established so far, it's not hard to guess who the final boss is.

Okay, not entirely true I suppose. I feel like they were really trying to subvert expectations in how rather than Kiba and Messiah becoming one, Messiah instead just straight up eats Kiba whole revealing that the legend is a sham.

But while there isn't exactly much "meat" for me to stuff my face with, I did enjoy what I got. The action as always is fun to watch, the little character moments sprinkled throughout like Rei with Silva and Koga with Kaoru were nice, and hey, the PlayStation FMV Dimension is back for those who like that!

But beyond that... yeah, I don't have much to comment on. I will say though that, with how everything ended up, I can easily see why Kiba got his own side special down the line. Not to say he's a badly done character or anything, but alot more definitely could've been done with him. It gives me similar vibes to Jabi, really, where it's easy to see why other Alchemists get alot more focus when it comes to future entries in the franchise.

But yeah, the final battle is up next, but not the final episode in the show. Which, again, coming from the anime, doesn't surprise me too much given how the first two anime overall flowed. Regardless, looking forward to seeing how Koga absorbing Kaoru's' unfinished painting ends up going, as I think I have a good idea that it's not gonna just simply be symbolism. A shame that Rei likely won't be getting in on the action, though.

Very much a penultimate episode of sorts.

But yeah, remember when I said we wouldn't be seeing the last of Demon Beast Armor? The form that Gulm takes in this episode is also that.

Other than that, some nice ramping up to the finale is all I can say since there's a few things that happen next episode that means I can't properly talk about some scenes in this episode yet.

Anyway, did anyone else get DMC Vibes out of Kouga staring down Messiah in the FMV Dimension? Idk, I just felt very heavy DMC Vibes for some reason, and it won't be the last time either!

If you guys like Kodama, that actor is also on the live action Cutie Honey and he says all kinds of cusses in English. He cusses like he knows nobody else speaks English, haha.

Dude can go in a fight too. I like that guy. Sorry if this info already got brough up.

If you wanna compare GARO to videogames, the franchise is very much like a weird mix of Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts, and despite my issues with the latter, I approve.

I've actually been kinda interested in seeing the live action Cutie Honey, so that's good to know!

Oh hey that term is already sticking! :p

But yeah, there isn't much I've really felt the need to say about these last two episodes, despite enjoying them a ton. It's been a textbook climactic showdown building up, executed with the precision and style you'd expect from this show. I've been hating the bad guys; loving seeing the good guys put their differences aside for great justice; and I'm rooting wholeheartedly for love to triumph over the darkness. Definitely pumped to see where everything ends up landing!

Mark Musashi. He was also the suit actor for Zero.

I meant what I said earlier about it!

Looking up his resume, the most surprising bit to me is how he was in the iCarly movie. It's such a funny disconnect!

He also did a lot of stunt work for Kamen Rider Dragon Knight which I thought is really neat.

Man, they really went all out with this final battle.

It's got practically everything people could want out of a final battle. The hero becoming more powerful than he's ever been, a final opponent being taken down by someone in their weakest state, over the top and impossible acrobatics, obvious greenscreen effects, and an emotional reuniting of various characters.

And, yeah, I'd be lying if I said that none of it at all worked for me. I was practically all in on this from beginning to end. The hype was real, despite certain aspects being outright impossible(where the heck did Kaoru's' parents come from??).

But that being said, I think I still have a couple of small critiques to give when it comes to this whole thing.

I think it would've been much more emotionally satisfying to me had it been Garo and Zero both who took down Kiba at the end, with them striking the pose that Kaoru painted of the two working together earlier in the show. And while I get the idea behind Koga's' "I'm not alone!" speech, rather than citing the legacy of Garo, I think him citing the friends he's made along his journey would've been alot better and a way to symbolize the entire cast coming together to overcome all of the chaos that the past 100 days have brought into their lives.

Again though, these are just small critiques that I think would've made something that was already great that much better for my personal tastes. If you wanna know my personal favorite touch of the finale, it's actually that we never actually get to see the final page of the picture book that Kaoru painted herself. I felt that was a really good move!

All in all it's a really well done payoff in terms of both emotion and action, and you can tell everyone involved gave it their all. Had everything ended here, I'd've been incredibly satisfied overall. We're not quite done with this show yet though, as in usual GARO fashion(unless you're Vanishing Line), we still have an epilogue special and a movie to get through! The extra episodes have been some of the most interesting bits of GARO media to me so far, so I'm very excited to see what's done with the original tomorrow!

This was a nice finale. And you talking about how you wanted Kiba to be the final boss basically had me giggling a bit the entire time cause I'm like "Oh I know something you don't" in regards to how exactly 25 plays out.

I realize now though that the thing I was thinking about to talk about in 24 doesn't come into play until later. But I'll be able to talk about it soon enough. Though I can say, after the scare Silva gave us last time... uh... poor Zaruba! I sorta danced around mentioning this elsewhere I believe, but man... dude really gave all he had to Kouga.

Still though, fantastic final battle with Messiah that includes a nice 11th Hour Power-Up as is the GARO tradition. Though my absolute favorite part of the fight is when Kiba revives and the entire building shatters once the giant ring gate grow massive.

Like, were you wondering how they'd top a fantastical fight like Garo vs. Zero? That's your answer. It's so insane in how clearly handicapped Kouga is at the moment compared to Kiba, but he manages to push through pretty well.

So fun fact! I will be joining you in witnessing the fabled 26th Episode of GARO 2005 as a first time viewer... because Gomen Rider never subbed it and those were my subs when doing my GARO Marathon.

I ended up downloading it a while ago but never ended up watching it. Might as well make you watching it the perfect excuse I need.

I am really glad you enjoyed the first Garo series. This definitely reminds me that I really need to watch the epilogue special and the movie that takes place afterwards at some point plus its sequel series, Makai Senki.

I was so glad to see him pop out of the portal the way he did, you have no idea.

That reveal at the end, that Zaruba translates to "Friend" was really touching. Dude really earned that namesake!

is it bad that all i could think of once the ring started rolling down the highway was this

https://i.imgur.com/tCtTxqv.gif

Yeah, I noticed that alot of GARO Compilation Packs actually exclude that episode for some reason, which made tracking it down slightly annoying. But thankfully TV-N always has our back when it comes to stuff like this.

There's alot to like in this show! I can really easily see why it'd eventually become the Unofficial 4th of the Big Three.

Just one more reason not to watch this show with those subs then!

Also, uh... 26th episode! I straight up didn't know about that until now! Apparently it was a DVD bonus thing, so I guess, to be fair, it actually isn't part of the show's normal run.

I might actually leave a bit of a gap before I get around to that and the special/movie thing, because darn it, that finale was so good I think I owe it to it to let that sit for a bit. Despite going out of its way to assure us the story of GARO is far from over, it's like I said at the start -- best not to treat this series as a mere starter pack for more stuff.

Because, really, it's totally complete, as is, you know? Even if this franchise never did take off the way it obviously deserved to, these 25 episodes alone really feel like they kind of said and did everything they wanted to do, while bringing it all to a suitably satisfying and epic conclusion.

On the action front alone, it's top flight stuff all the way through. You've got two final bosses offering two very different, equally awesome flavors of battle. First in the FMV dimension, as grand in scale as possible, and then just like, the actual final boss of a really sick as heck PS2 action game, where it's this intense swordfight in a memorable confined arena against a bad guy with an awesome design and a similar enough build to the hero to make it some epic mirror match deal. (My mind goes to Metal Gear Solid 2, but I'm sure there are other options here.) It's the emphasis on location that really does it for me throughout the Kiba fight. The shape they're standing on, and the way it's moving through a larger environment directly affect how the fight plays out, which, once again, means it's a fight that has its own little narrative to it, escalating to ever more absurd levels of energy before deliberately bringing it back down to something a lot more still to make the conclusion feel that much weightier.

Narratively, it also does a ton of things I thought were important to get right. I was really glad to see Kaoru was allowed to play an active part in saving the day, and really, the use of the main characters in general doesn't disappoint. Nobody is left out, to the point that even Gonza gets his little chance to shine in there. Everyone's development wraps up nicely, and for Kouga in particular, man, what a journey we've been on with this guy. He's still got that awkwardly stoic exterior, but they really nailed making it clear just how much humanity he's found in himself through his relationship with Kaoru, and everything that's spun out of that fateful decision to spare her life. Zaruba was always Kouga's most reliable partner, and basically his only friend at first, so I think his "death" here is there to sort of underscore how much Kouga has grown, and dang, I mean, seeing Kouga teary eyed? You know, the biggest reason I didn't like the second ED as much as the first is that I felt there was *definitely* going to come a point in the story where the lyrics from the original fit something onscreen perfectly, and that scene with Kouga opening up that picture book is exactly the kind of thing I was imagining.

It's just really really really good stuff, all around, and obviously there are entire characters and things I'm not even mentioning in this post that's already gone on way longer than I've been trying to make these.

Again, I might wait a bit before popping back in here for those last couple of extras, and I'll probably save more detailed overall thoughts until then, but for now, I'm going to make sure I say thank you to DreamSword, because this is twice now I owe you know for giving me that push to watch a show that clicked with me more than I even expected. GARO has been a wonderful ride from start to finish, and I'm very glad to have finally given it the chance I probably should've years ago.

I just want you to know that your potshots at Gomen Rider never cease to amuse me.

Understandable! And yeah, this finale for sure does its best in going all out on basically every front. They absolutely were prepared for the scenario in which this creation of theirs stopped here and never became a franchise. And I really couldn't imagine it ending in much of any other way.

Whenever you do decide to check out episode 26 and the movie, I for sure look forward to reading your thoughts on them.

I'm sure En-chan would list Mundas and Vergil ala Devil May Cry.

That moment where he's briefly able to lift the soul metal due to just his sheer determination to help is not only a good comedic beat, but just a great character moment in general!

You're far too kind. I'm just glad I was able to share stories that I ended up really enjoying, and really, I probably never would've even checked out GARO, let alone Toku outside of Power Rangers and Kamen Rider, to begin with if not for this forum. So really the credit should go to you all. :thumb:

You're right, I would and I shall by quoting this!

I'll also go with the Final Boss of Kingdom Hearts II in which you fight a monstrosity of a dragon-like creature in a world of nothingness through various spectacle based phases before finally facing down against a singular guy at the very end.

But given the similar build and parallels with Kouga and Kiba... Dante vs. Vergil is like the best comparison full stop.

I'd be less aggressive about it if this weren't the same situation as when I told Die to watch Agito with TV-N's subs. I stopped being very thorough about it around halfway in, but I kept checking to see if they made the same mistakes, and like nine times out of ten, in spite of their reputation, TV-N would actually have the meaning of those lines down much more accurately. Which means some of those mistakes still started with TV-N, of course, but also that Gomen-Rider was fixing things that weren't broken, considering it's a scrub of TV-N's work to begin with.

I really hope that official release is both good (if it's what the YouTube uploads used, it should be) and becomes more readily available at some point. I say this about a lot of shows that are stuck with early 2000's fansubs (or their halfhearted clean-up jobs), but GARO deserves better, you know?

Given the first half of 2005 is basically out of print, I am seriously hoping that Discotek (now known for doing Toku stuff more often) grabs ahold of the Garo Franchise.

This series deserves better than a 25 Episode Series being split up into 2 Sets and both being like 50 bucks or so each.