Garo Yami wo Terasu Mono 06 "Rock" Discussion
 

Another great episode. I could swear I've seen the dude that plays this week's Horror before, but I can't quite place him. I'm still loving all the character interaction, but I wouldn't have minded a bit more fighting in the armor. I wonder if the lack of a practical suit is what's driving the limited use of the Garo armor this season.

Um, okay, I am really getting confused here. This show is called Garo right? I ask because all I am seeing is a show about 3 dudes, with one girl and an old man who just sits there and does nothing, arguing with each other and then occasionally fighting some dude with the Las Plagas virus who are not actually monsters. The only episode that had a good fight was the second one, and it was the only one that actually had a fight in armor. This was lame. He used the armor for half a second, and it was all CGI. This show is getting worse with each episode and I am getting tired of it. I don't want to bail on it, as I am remaining hopeful it is going to actually get good, but I am tired of the lack of character development, the lack of a cohesive story, but most of all, I am sick and tired of the lack of an action show that has NO FREAKING ACTION!! Where are all of the cool ass camera angles? Where are the 3 minute long fight sequences with incredible choreography? Where is the badass music to go with the fighting? WHERE IS THE FRIGGIN ARMOR!!!!

Yeah the armour use was so scarce in this episode it barely seemed worth using at all. It was a quite interesting episode though, as it seemed much more like a stock Sentai/Rider plot but done in a Garo manner.

Seems that lost of people use nostalgia filter when it comes to season 1, despite the fact that season 1 has many flaws as well. People like Dr Kain just can't see it. No Dr Kain, male protagonist being a "cool" guy and a jerkass toward the very lame and useless female protagonist for the first few episodes is not good characterization Thank god, you're not a screenwriter. Plot wise, the series is so much better than the very slow season 1, which episodes mostly consist of jerkass guy with sword fighting with scary monsters while useless girl goes around working odd jobs with weird uniforms

I'm not even comparing it to Season 1 anymore. I gave up on that two episodes ago when I realized this show is not going to be even remotely close to being as good. The first season knew what it wanted to be, Kamen Rider meets Devil May Cry. Yes, the first season has its flaws (I hate Kaoru, I wish she would have died), but at least I knew Kouga's character. Plus, the Horrors themselves were uniquely designed and fantastic looking. They looked like something out of gothic horror paintings. Think of the fifth episode that had the two guys and girl waking up in a warehouse, being haunted by the Horror using the butterflies. It was filmed with a horror movie vibe, it was grainy, a gray tone, and was full of suspense. Or you have the bartender who was hot and cold that lost her fiancee, and then later on, her dad tries to kill Kouga out of revenge. The money schemed Horror that was made of chains from the second episode. Everything to it had a horror vibe as if they were little mini horror movies mixed with a super hero show. That is what made it so great.

Makai was lacking, and there was no need for Kouga to be in it, but it had the mystery of who the masked man was. He looked cool, there was some great choreography whenever he fought. the show was only half as good as the first season, but again, it knew what it wanted to be. It lost some of the great stand alone horror vibe that season 1 had, but the episodes with the casino and such still stood out.

The One Who Shines in Darkness has no idea what it wants to be. It is trying to do something new, and I praise it for that, but it is doing it in the most uninteresting way. I do not care who Ryuuga is because they are not giving me any reason to like him. I do not care who glasses and GokaiSilver are because they are not giving me any reason to like them either. Burai is the only character that I want to know about right now and all he does is sit there and do nothing. All I want is some character development and some god damned armor scenes, since that is the main purpose of this show. Oh yeah, and I want some actual Horrors NOT the Las Plagas!! This is supposed to be an action show, but it has been 10% action (without the choreography), 2% armor (and it has been all CGI), and 88% mindless arguing. I expect better from the man behind Onimusha 2. Right now, this show is the Go-Buster version of Garo, just without an interesting villain to keep it going.

A series does not need to be plot driven every episode, but it needs a balance between stand alone episodes and plot episodes and make the stand alone ones interesting.

So how often was the armor used in the original GARO? "Darkness" is my first attempt at watching so I have no basis for comparison.

It was still used sparingly, but it was more like a few minutes as opposed to a few seconds.

Though most of the time, when not using CGI, even those few minutes mostly consist of GARO moving slowly and clunkily because of the heavy weight of the suit and one single strike to finish the enemy. In fact, before the GARO vs ZERO fight in ep 7 of the 1st season, the armor fight was very short and mostly unexciting.

Says you.

Anyway, one of my friends likes the shows because of the armor. No armor means he does not like the show, which is his thoughts right now. They need to either start getting their asses moving or people are going to stop watching.

I was also just informed that Amemiya actually has nothing to do with the show, so I have no reason to hold any loyalty over it.

fubar

I echo Dr. Kain's sentiment regarding the lack of characterization in this show. Aside from the Captain Sports Bras (sorry couldn't resist) I know next to nothing about these people. The lack of armor is troubling as well but I am willing to wait and see if the screen time will increase. For now I am watching but not really enthusiastic about it.

Season 1's characterization was worse in the first half. Lots of people seems to forget the first half of the 1st season and it's lack of anything really good other than the action. Then again, most strawman will complain about anything don't they. "Cool" guy who act like a jerkass toward the very lame and useless female protagonist, oh yeah, that's good characterization.
Kouga and especially Rei wasn't even that sympathetic in the first half. Hell, Takeru's action in ep 7 makes him more sympathetic to me already than Kouga during the first half. Do we know anything about Kouga until late in the series other than that his father is a Makai Knight? We don't even know Kouga's history until ep 12 and Rei's motive until ep 14. Yeah, if characterization is about how much we know about the character, then "good characterization" there. People are already complaining and wanting too much in just 7 episodes.
Whatever Dr Kain, you and I will always disagree whatever the hell you want to comment after this. I really wish this was real life, it would be more challenging facing in you in real life rather than hearing your strawman complaint

Personally, I'm loving this series. For me the best part of Garo isn't the armor or the fighting, it's the world and mythology. I think Makai Senki got deeper into this, but The One Who Shines in the Darkness is offering us a different look at the world and I'm finding it very interesting. I like most of the new characters (especially Takeru and Rian) and while the show is lacking Amemiya's unique visual style, there is still some really cool stuff going on with the cinematography. Not so much in this episode, but episodes 4, 5, and 7 all have some really unique camera work.

Overall, I probably wouldn't say this is the best Garo ever, but it's definitely a worthy addition to the franchise.

And if y'all are wanting something more conventionally Garo, check out episode 7. The armor still isn't used a ton, but it has the kind of dark storyline that the Kouga shows were known for.

Indeed, I like the new style Makoto Yokoyama bring to GARO. Even with Keita Amemiya's minimal involvement in the series, for me the series is still going strongly. For those wo forget or don't know, Makoto Yokoyama is the main showrunner for this season not Keita Amemiya.
The so much better plot than the first season make Yami o Terasu Mono more endearing for me. BTW, Yasuaki Kurata in episode 7, is just pure win. The guy is so vastly underrated IMO, he's one of the best martial arts actor working today. Hopefully it won't be long before he start showing off some awesome martial art skills.

Except I even said I highly enjoyed the stand alone horror nature of the first half of the show. I love the episode with the with the guys and girl in the warehouse being haunted by a Ju-On like ghost. The bartender that was chopping the fingers off pianists because of her dead fiance. The clown who would just go around killing and eating people just for the hell of it. They all gave me vibes of Boogiepop Phantom, but set within a Toku series.

The other aspect is yes, Garo had established itself to be a series about armor, stylish choreography, industrial tribal music, Kubrick-like camera angles. Horrors that were unique and different from each other when they had possessed a human. Like creatures out of Devil May Cry and Onimusha rather than just the generic Las Plagas from Resident Evil 4+. Without that, Garo just isn't Garo.

I do agree though about debating online is nothing compared to real life. People (even me) sound either way too angry or way too whiny in text and I have no idea why it ends up like that. Even when I reread my posts at times I read it in the complete opposite manner from how I meant for them to sound. In fact, I just keep picturing Wufei when he is yelling at Heero in Endless Waltz during their battle. :cool: