It's the sort of thing I love to see too. The "friends who don't hang out" trope is fairly common amongst shows with more sizable casts, and while it doesn't typically outright ruin a show for me, it is a bit disappointing when it occurs given the whole "What if these two characters were left alone with eachother?" is just a great premise for a story in and of itself. Great to see that the GARO franchise acknowledges that.

An episode wherein Zanki from Kamen Rider Hibiki gets possessed.

While that in and of itself is an already interesting premise to go by, the real meat here is that Tsubasa from Beast of the Demon Knight makes a comeback.

And, man, the poor guy just cannot catch a break, can he? First there's the movie he showed up in like, in general, and now he's the one most visibly suffering from the Seal of Destruction.

But outside of that, it was nice to see that Koga did some actual investigating into Baron's' behavior before simply killing him like what everyone else wanted him to do. And the Baron suit in and of itself is a nice one, even if I feel it leans slightly more into a Horror aesthetic than a Knight one.

It's just some nice action from start to finish, and it was fun.

...But on that note, what in God's' name IS Gajari!?

Gajari is Gajari and I think that scares me the most.

But yeah, we've got a new Knight introduced this season in Baron. Always fun to see more Knights show up since it is a fairly decently sized organization. I also loved the little bit at the end where it's shown Kouga does know him and it was because of that meeting, however it went, that drove Kouga to choosing the route that'd cause the least bloodshed.

Even Zaruba is afraid!

This episode legit jumpscared me.

It's a backstory episode for Koga, detailing when he started out training to be a Makai Knight as a kid and the friends he made along the way.

All through the episode is a wholesome, welcoming atmosphere that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Kamen Rider Hibiki. But then that ending hits.

Sure, the very beginning of the episode is a bit of a giveaway, but I won't lie, I was so sucked up in "The Adventures of Koga & Friends" that I forgot all about it. I was too busy thinking about stuff like "Huh, does Purple grow up to be Leo?" and "Oh wow, a surprise Rekka cameo."

So when the tragedy at the end hits, it really did effectively catch me off guard. In the good way! And it's a great attention to detail too, because I went and checked, and yeah, Koga's' coat did infact have that charm on it since all the way back in the very first episode of the franchise. Wasn't aware I'd ever want an origin story for it, but I'm glad I got it!

If I had to nitpick one negative though? I wasn't really a fan of it being established that Garo is the strongest Knight in universe. I dunno, it just feels weird to me. I mean, I guess one could interpret that as simply meaning that Koga's' dad, specifically, was the strongest Knight, but still. I like the angle of Garo just being one of many, and not inherently special alot more than it being some sort of special title or suit.

This might actually be my favorite episode so far. But there've been a few solid bangers recently, so I don't wanna call it just yet.

This is a fun episode, purely because we get an immediate followup on Baron and the conversation Kouga had with him by showing when exactly they met. It also helps that the montage of Kouga training in the first season is very vague, stylized, and basic so it allows us to easily fill the gaps with episodes like this.

Overall it's a real solid focus episode for Kouga and does some fun stuff to show us a bit more of the Makai Order lifestyle. It's always fun to just see what happens during downtime or when individuals are preparing to enter the hellish world that awaits them.

About the whole Garo is the strongest though, it is an odd beat to hit. Admittedly I do think the franchise tries to hold back on that a bit. At least recently the idea of a Knight and their Armor and what it really means was tackled nicely by Inheritor of Steel that just aired.

I'll be sure to give my thoughts on that whenever I watch the show in like... five years.

Yeah, I still don't buy it.

The big takeaway from this one is that it's "revealed" that Leo is infact Red Mask. And despite that, I'm sticking to what I said earlier.

I just refuse to believe that the writing on this "twist" would be so obvious, because otherwise it's like it might as well not even be a twist in the first place, you know? This has to be a body double of some kind.

In more important aspects of the story though, Kaoru finds new inspiration for her book, and promises to show it to Leo when it's done. And ya know, I wouldn't mind these two getting together. They have alot of solid chemistry as-is, which could easily be added to with more focus episodes.

The only other thing I really have to comment on is that the mecha that Red pilots during the fight in the climax is so impractical that it's kinda awesome.

This credits sequence was also probably my favorite so far.

Yeah, that's it. It's a relatively thin episode. But still enjoyable all the same.

Yeah this is an episode that very much is kind of reliant on the "twist" of sorts, though I'll agree and say it is less a twist. And even I was wondering at this point if they'd be this obvious about it. But we'll just have to see.

That said, having consumed most of GARO in a vacuum with no real fan interaction for about a month back in the day, I don't think I've ever seen a LeoxKaoru advocate, so I appreciate getting to witness the vouching being done during this thread lol

I'm glad that my views continue to be unique. Being good is optional, but unique? Heck yeah.

For those of you who don't like GARO, you'll be elated to know I didn't like this episode.

It's not the first episode of the franchise I out and out didn't like(that can be found way back when I first started with The Animation), but I do believe it's the first for the live-action stuff.

If I had to sum it up, pretty much everything about it feels phoned in.

Rekka returns, but the fact that her first fish got crushed is never addressed. Rekka and Kaoru have a spat that amounts to literally nothing. The Horror exists for no reason other than to exposit to Kaoru. And the lack of any sort of real fallout to the entire scenario implies that Koga and Kaoru learned literally nothing from the first season's' Fish Tank episode.

And even if I'm to try and ignore any of the plot or character stuff, this is probably the weakest directing I've seen out of Amemiya. Tons of shakey-cam, the fight choreography is lame ontop of being very obviously telegraphed, and the editing is very minimal(and not in any sort of good way).

Just, man was this entire thing really disappointing. It had an interesting setup, but the payoff was out and out lacking on all accounts.

I'll be real I forgot about this episode entirely and only via this review that I remember "oh right before the episode I was thinking of, there was one where Rekka returns and we get a kinda repeat of Fish Tank". Definitely one of the weaker ones if I somehow forgot it, though perhaps I'm just excited about the next episode that I thought we'd be getting to today. lol

Sounds like I'm in for a treat.

Called it.

And I don't just mean the twist about Red and Leo. I mean that I called pretty much this entire episode as it played out.

That's not to say it was bad. It's a very fun building up to a high octane climax. It's just that, well, the attempts at misdirection didn't work on me. For example, I knew not to put any stock in the framing that Red was an underling.

All that said, it feels to me that maybe the biggest twist that they were going for was the idea that an Alchemist could also be a Knight. Which, yeah, I could see that being a bit of a surprise to viewers at the time. But for someone like me who started with the anime, such a thing isn't exactly uncommon.

Honestly the biggest surprise in all of this for me just how on the up and up Grace(the Watchdog lady) seems to be. She helps out Koga and spots the obviously evil big bad from Harry Potter right away. Very refreshing given the Watchdog's' current track record. And that's counting both anime and live-action from my perspective.

The only other thing I can think to note is how I at first thought that Leo donned the Baron armor, given both suits look pretty similar at first glance. Leo being an apprentice of Zanki wouldn't exactly surprise me any. But hey, it's whatever.

Looking forward to how Leo throws down with his armor on!

Having only seen the original series before this, and only having Gulm as a first impression... it was honestly surprising to see how straightforward and alright Grace was. I wasn't sure if she was hiding anything, but this episode definitely confirmed to me that she was on the up and up.

That said yeah, we're starting to ramp up in this back half, and the first is addressing that our twist had another layer to it. I'll admit I did think something was off when I first watched too, because while I'm one for expected twists, the one they were doing with Leo and Red was too blatant for it to be true.

Now Leo being the titular Flash Knight, Lord, that was the twist that got me. And I will admit, someone in the Order being both a Priest and a Knight was pretty novel at the time when I first went through GARO. Though in Leo's case, it seemed like he preferred being a Priest and bringing out his armor is clearly a last resort now that red is rampaging around.

Yeah, and I honestly prefer it this way too. As blatant as the "Leo is totally Red!" misdirection is, it is nice that alot of those moments can also be easily recontextualized as "He's a Makai Knight but prefers being an Alchemist." Such as Kaoru noting his swordplay and him telling her not to dwell on it.

Carved Seal of Flames did it better.

Between this, the Kiba movie, and what little backstory we got on Rei in the first season, I'm starting to think that Amemiya just doesn't do exposition well.

Because really that's what this episode amounts to: Explaining the origins of Leo and his twin brother, Sigma. And while I didn't think it was awful or anything, I was very unengaged throughout most of it.

It didn't help that certain details didn't make sense to me, just as the situation surrounding Mio's' death. If destroying Ganon's' corpse was always an option, why not just do that to begin with? Alternatively, if the idea was to stop Sigma directly, why not just attack him? Why wait for him in the cave?

Mio's' internal logic really isn't at all clear to me because she's barely a character. The girl doesn't even speak! She's basically just a plot device like how Cross-Z's' girlfriend was in Kamen Rider Build. Combine that with how little I give a crap about Red and you have an episode that I just really couldn't get into. Atleast it's only a standard length episode, unlike with Kiba.

I also didn't really see the point in adding in the bit about Rei essentially giving up, as it felt rather out of character ontop of being unfulfilling to the narrative.

So, yeah. I didn't care for this one. Sigma is so lackluster compared to Kiba and Mendoza. I'd have to think about if I find him the most lackluster GARO antagonist in general, actually.

I feel like Sigma has his own charms to him, but there's definitely a lot better antagonists than him. Though I'd say there are a few that end up fairly lower on the totem pole, but that's just me.

Dude's theatrical though I'll give him that.

He certainly is! As seen in the nest episode with all the full moon stuff.

Not great, but not bad either.

There's alot of cool stuff going on in this one. Mainly everything having to do with the Mado Train. The fights, the idea itself, etc.

Whenever it came to stuff concerning the story though I just kinda rolled my eyes. The Knights being ready to literally kill eachother rubbed me the wrong way, and the firm establishment that Garo is the title bestowed upon the strongest Knight is just unfortunate for my personal tastes, as I've said before.

I also feel that Leo should have been the one to take Red down, but if there's one thing that seems to hold true with this franchise, it's that Garo must always be the leading man by the end. For better or worse.

The only other thing I wanna note is how the show got away with using "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania II during this episode's' climax. Which, I mean, plagiarism or no, that's some good musical taste atleast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY5A45xEBUE

And so we're at the final stretch, who knows how this'll end. Well I do, but I ain't saying anything.

I also find it neat that Sigma's little, 'Armor Copy' technique that he uses to form Jaaku can basically mimic any armor. Like I figured it was possible given how it worked on Garo the first time. But seeing it copy Lord for a few moments was actually neat.

That said I feel as though we're forgetting the big floating extra-dimensional head in the room. That is to say, did you enjoy the return of Gajari? I know you had pleasant things to say about him last time.

Funny fact: TV-N translates the name of Leo's' suit as "Road."

I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION AS TO WHAT THAT THING EVEN IS.

The Seals of Destruction are gone, but the battle isn't over yet.

As Koga begins to be slowly devoured by the corpse of Ganon, it's now up to our heroes to save the man who saved all of them.

And I gotta say, I rather like that angle. It helps to show that every main character we've gotten to know so far is just as important as Koga is, even if Garo might be the strongest.

But yeah, this is very much just the prelude to the final battle, and even if history repeats and Koga ends being the one to take on and defeat the final boss, I think that, with the addition of this extra focus that everyone else is getting, that I'll be ultimately okay with it.

And so the final battle draws near, and we finally fully kick off one of my favorite endgames in the GARO franchise to date.

And while last episode definitely kicked off everything, this episode sets the stage for a different kind of finale. I like that they decide to take full advantage of the cast they've been building up for this. Having this ragtag group of people band together to save a friend they all hold dearly.

Also this is one of my favorite usages of the 2nd ED, the slow pan across Kaoru's room before landing on the picture of her, Kouga, and Gonza just fits with the flow of the song.

For sure. It was a nice surprise too, as I had no idea what they planned to do with the credits this time around.

Very cool idea, but the execution was not to my liking.

On paper, this all sounds really cool: A big battle wherein characters other than Koga are center stage, and Kaoru and Koga's' bond being what breaks Koga free.

Except there were alot of things that took me out of the experience. The green screening was pretty spotty in places. Rei has also been massively nerfed: Having been equal to Koga in the first season only to now not even hold a candle to him.

And worst of all, they revealed what Kaoru drew on the last page of the picture book at the end of the first season. Not knowing what she drew was one of, if not my favorite aspect of the first season's' finale, as not only did it provide some degree of interpretation, it made it feel as though whatever she drew was incredibly personal to Koga himself.

It's not a complete wash, as there are certain aspects I did like, mainly in terms of the action and how much a grand scale almost everything felt. Especially once Idea is fully activated and transforms into GARO's' version of a super robot. There was also that small callback to the Kid Koga episode that I liked.

But yeah, I really felt this whole thing could've been handled alot better. Or at the very least they could've brought Tsubasa back. Where the heck is he? Did he die offscreen? You got back Jabi and Zanki! BRING BACK TSUBASA!

You know what they say, play with fire and you're going to get burned. I think the funniest part about Sigma is the pure hubris on his part to think that he could control Ganon while constantly feeding it which was bound to wake it up.

Not much else to say here, though it is nice to see that we're this deep into the finale and we've got this huge gathering of folks already. Things are only going to keep ramping up from here!

He really does share the same energy as this guy:

https://i.imgur.com/iMGh3NP.jpg

Life comes at ya fast, and so does alot of things in this war sequence!

It's funny though. Me, being a viewer from the future who came in via the anime, probably had a bit of a different reaction to this one than viewers at the time did.

Like, the entire plan of Ganon; to rip open a hole between Earth and Makai, and in turn flood the world with Horrors, was literally the exact plan that Mendosa was gunning for in Carved Seal of Flames.

And really it makes me appreciate the anime more, as it took a similar premise yet showcased it from a totally different angle. But, hey, I'm a sucker for some good action too, and this episode sure as heck ain't short on that! It's nonstop battle from start to end, and if you love CGI models then boy is this for you!

But yeah, like I opened this with, alot of info is thrown our way in very quick succession. Rei's' horse is named Ginga! Mado Rings can work like Walkie-Talkies! Knights and Alchemists have a super duper powerful team attack that we've never heard about until now! Amemiya really likes both Legend of Zelda and Castlevania! It's alot being thrown every which way.

However, the most important detail, other than Tsubasa being alive and still kicking ass, is probably that Steel Knights exist. I could see this being a big surprise to viewers at the time, but given I come from the timeframe where Inheritor of Steel is a thing, I just sorta figured we'd see them eventually. And given what very little I know about that show, I must wonder if the existence of "Generic" Knights was hotly contested back in the day.

Because thinking about it, I can see why they might be: Up to now, every Makai Knight has been something unique, and there was no real reason to figure otherwise. But on the other hand, I don't think even Amemeiya had the kinda cash to design and create like 100 unique suits, and since the story really wanted to lean into Garo being something special, having "Standard" suits of armor helps lend credibility to that idea. And on a personal note, I'm a fan of Knights of the Zodiac. The concept of Steel Knights are nothing new to me.

Regardless, I had fun with this one, and am looking forward to seeing how this fight ends tomorrow.

I think what makes me appreciate this finale a lot is how much of a team effort it is. You've got the Priests all providing support and stalling Ganon, you have multiple notable Knights all charging in to use that stalling to their advantage. And beyond that you've got an army of Makai Knights willing to duke it out alongside everyone else.

Really goes to show that despite all the issues that had been popping up all season with Knights and Priests, that they are able to band together when the call to action is heard.

But yeah the Hagane armor makes its first official appearance here and uh... I'll be real I kinda chuckled at seeing all the different plain CGI armors. I wouldn't say it's the best first impression but I did kind of push that aside due to the sheer scale of what Amemiya was going for here. That said I do think the Hagane get their due once we get to the series that actually focuses on them. But that's way down the line...

That said, another instance of ED2 having a really nice sequence to pair with it and that transition of GARO punching that transitions to the ink painting, that then transitions to the series title was a really cool way to end this off.

At the time, it felt really disappointing. I was excited by the prospect of seeing a lot of new Makai Knights and the reveal of three different colors of generic suits was a major letdown. It was incredibly understandable, but it was still a letdown. I think Heir to Steel Armor really helped change my position here, it just took twelve years and an alternate timeline to add more character to the generic knights.

Horse missile.

Man, the latest season must've been really cool with all the nice things I've been hearing about it. A shame most of the episodes got pirvated.

I get what this finale wanted to do, but it very much didn't work for me.

Even ignoring the (literal) handwave of Sigma living after Ganon gets blown up, the final reveals the episode does with him more confuse me than anything.

Like, if he was Purple the entire time, why was it never mentioned until now? I get Sigma not saying anything; he has no real reason to. But Koga? For all the importance those friends of his allegedly had, why wouldn't he say anything?

Heck, if Koga knew that Sigma was that kid the whole time, he should've been flabbergasted to see Leo at the very least. I guess you could say Koga only pieced it together later on, but I dunno, that just seems like a rather loose excuse, since he wouldn't have too much to go off of in that case.

Plus, just to nitpick, the promise the two made was if they fell to darkness as Knights. And Sigma isn't one, so like.

But that all aside, the way Ganon gets defeated is the best way it could've happened, and the final battle between Koga and Sigma, with the Saejima Mansion getting blown to Hell and the fight going anti-gravity makes for a really awesome sequence with cool visuals.

I just wish I were way more emotionally invested in like, any of the major players involved, is all.

And while Makai Senki might be done, this stretch I'm doing for the thread isn't over quite yet. There's still a bonus episode and two moves left to go.

Shame that the Sigma revelation didn't hit for you, but I'm still glad you enjoyed some of the parts around it.

That said oh man, the finale with Ganon was great to see. Leo landing the first deciding blow before the other arrows rain in to blow up everything. Then Kouga landing the finishing shot on what's left of Ganon with Kaoru's brush all the way back from her and Leo's episode? Really great.

I'd use the TV-Nihon subs anyway. The official subs were done by AI and are only one or two steps above the old HK subs from the '00s.

I'm just going to assume they didn't have the money to pay actual translators but wanted to do something for international fans. Which is a shame but considering how scaled back GARO's gotten in recent years it does make sense.

But yeah those Subs while you could get the gist of what was going on uh, were not that great in the end. So yeah, go for the TV-N subs. While I tried following along after a while I eventually just stopped and waited for TV-N to finish subbing the show before finishing it up.

And here I will take this opportunity to brag that Hagane o Tsugu Mono received an amateur dub in my native language. Single-voiced and female, but for a tokusatsu this is very good.

I'd've been disappointed if it had ended any other way.

Ya know, for the reputation that TV-N used to have(and still kinda does), it is funny how they've remained the one consistently "best" source for GARO subs over the decades.

Wait, are you saying that every character was voiced by one woman? If so that's hilarious.

A quick look back at everything that the franchise had been up to this point.

So, yeah, it's a recap episode with some minor new footage thrown in. And I never really know what to say about these sorts of things.

Because outside of a handful of exceptions, recap episodes tend to just be what they are, ya know? And unfortunately, having recap episodes with a narrative framing tends to be the exception rather than the norm.

I can atleast say this though: Just as I gave major props to the sound design team in the first season of GARO, I now wish to give a major shout out to the makeup department in Makai Senki; Because they did a really good job at making it seem like all of the returning actors hadn't aged much.

Maybe I'm just not at all keen on details(because I'm not), but I honestly hadn't noticed anything different about anyone until this episode played clips from season 1 and MS back to back. The most notable being how much Koga's' voice had deepened in the gap between the two seasons. His actor wasn't kidding about how young he used to be in that bonus material!

So... yeah. Not the ideal thing I'd want for a bonus episode, but for what it is, it works.

Yeah considering we didn't have a recap in the middle of the series, it was inevitable that our bonus episode was likely going to be this. Since most GARO Series do have recaps in the middle, though this is one of the few exceptions to that.

That said, rather nice to get a bit of an extended scene and the Credits MV set to the Second OP was nice to witness.