Garo Makai no Hana Discussion
 

A mod can change this if they like, but based on how the last series went, I don't feel the need to start a new 5-10 post thread for each episode. So general Garo season 4 thread.

The raw of episode 1, Fossil, is currently up. Over-Time and TV-Nihon will both be subbing it.

Having watched the raw, I can say this without any doubt and with minimal understanding of the plot:

Garo is back.

I liked TOWSITD, for what it's worth, and Black Blood was... totally a thing that happened. But Makai no Hana is legit Garo. From the second the (really awesome) opening ends, there is no doubt that this year we've got Keita Amemiya back in the driver's seat again. This isn't going to be another Garo project that's being farmed out to a different production team. This one really feels like proper Garo in the vein of the original series and Makai Senki.

I'm going to want to see this subbed to get a better sense of what all is going on, but so far I'm liking Raiga. He's got the skills to be Garo, but his fighting style is very different from the other Garos we've seen and he seems to be a much more outgoing and friendly character, even more so than Ryuga. Mayuri's in this episode, too, but I really need subs to know what her deal is.

All in all, it's a very promising start.

Amemiya's disclaimer for the show.

1) There will be no Kouga and Kaoru in the show.
2) Raiga shares the same name with the kid from the short stories. It wasn't clearly stated that he is Kouga and Kaoru's son. It could be a parallel world but viewers are welcome to connect the 2 series they way they want.
3) Raiga's origin will not be the focus of the show.

His last name is Saejima, Gonza is working for him, he has Zaruba and a very Kouga-ish coat - it's pretty obvious who his parents are. :lol

I'm fine if we don't get any more than this. I'm not sure I want to have Kouga and Kaoru's ultimate fates locked down.

This first ep definitely seemed weaker than TOWSID to me.

Don't get me wrong, I liked it & I can understand why they aren't exploring much of Raiga's background (it would probably just get bogged down with people wanting more of Kouga) but I think TOWSID at the start gave Ryuga more of a chance to stand on his own and appear as a deeper character.

Still, I'll keep watching.

It is the same template used for Garo season 1 episode 1.

Raiga is cool and it's nice to see how far the franchise has come. The original season was still trying to work out the suit and as it's almost ten years old so the CG is really dated. Honestly minus key battles, the GARO part of the original GARO season was probably the worst part :lol So to see such a great introduction to the GARO armour right off the bat in the first episode was really nice.

The Horror was nothing to write home about, but the actor and special effects team both appeared to be having a lot of fun and man that suit was GORGEOUS, but I guess it can be when it doesn't even move and as in the show for like ten seconds.

If I was to have any real complaints, I'd say maybe it was trying a little too hard to ride the original GARO's wheel. There were some scenes that felt less like 'oh this is a new GARO TV series' and more 'oh this is first season GARO...light' and that is disappointing. I may not much care for anything other than the original season but they at least all tried to do their own thing while keeping within the universe set by the show.

Maybe this show just needs to find its feet, then it'll find its own identity.

Classic intro speech? Check.
Saejima? Check.
Gonza? Check.
Kouga's dress sense? Check.
Physical suits? Check.
Gratuitious training montages in empty rooms? You better believe it :lol

Yeah, original style Garo is definitely back - and I'm loving it. Don't get me wrong I liked TOWSITD, but after seeing this I remembered what drew me to the franchise in the first place. Raiga seems like a great protagonist - the actor does a really good job of seemingly encompassing both Kouga and Kaouru's attributes.

I will agree that Ryuga had a more interesting introduction than him however, simply because he was so different to what we establish Makai Knights as being like. Raiga is much more in line with that, but at the same time being a lot lighter than Kouga.

Just watched the first first episode and man I loved evry thing I loved from original garo here Nd the horror are like the horror from the first seris. Also I like Raiga has look of his farther but I think the light harted feel of his mother and I'm really looking. Forward to next week.

That doesn't make sense. Wasn't that an older Kouga in the trailer?

A good start to the series. Feels very classic Garo and the characters have me wanting to know more about them. I wonder if this series will end with the armor losing its light as a lead in to TOWSITD.

In the interview on HyperHobby Amemiya said again.
"The team wasn't going to make Raiga the son of Kouga and Kaoru. If not he would have written tons of writings in each episode to point that out."

Wow, what a great start. Raiga seems to have Kouga's badassery mixed with Kaoru's charming personality. I loved the jokes he made to the Horror of the Week. The fight was really nice, especially since it was a real suit and not a CGI one again. Another fantastic thing about the episode was how much it felt like a Garo episode. It had that horror suspense feel to it while being a hero show. THis is what I have been waiting to see since the first season. I really hope the entire show stays on this path and gets better as it goes along.

I agree on all counts.

I just joined this site. Garo and Kouga are my favorite show and character of all time.

May I ask where you got this interview? A source please. I think its pretty obvious he is the heir of Kouga. They have it posted in multiple places online with references backing it up.

Also you wouldn't happen to have inside knowledge on why the original cast is no longer apart of Garo? If you have anything you can PM me if you don't want to share publicly. I reallyneed to know the reason behind why my favorite and epic original cast is not in Garo anymore. Thank you.

Episode two is out on Over-Time by the way guys.

Sorry I can't provide you with any scans and stuff.
Latest interview with Nakayama (Raiga) can be found in this magazine.
http://hyperhobby.jp/wp-content/uplo.../03/hh1405.jpg
Interviews with Amemiya and others can be found in other issues of Hyper Hobby, Hobby Japan, and Uchusen.

For other information watch streams from Niconico Garo Channel,
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/garo
http://com.res.nimg.jp/material/1619..._nico_main.jpg

and Family Gekijou's Garo staff talk corner "Makai Bar" and similiar programs.
http://www.fami-geki.com/detail/index.php?fami_id=00823
Konishi (Kouga) talked about why he left Garo in one of the episodes. Don't remember which one.

Most important part is to follow Amemiya's own blog, and also staff's blogs and tweets.

Aren't all of these are in Japanese? Anything in English or at least subbed?

And you say Konishi wanted to leave? If you know the details could you be so kind to tell me. I don't speak or understand Japanese. Maybe pm me if you want.

Good second episode. We got a bit more of the overstory, met a new character, and found out what this season's hundred days timer is. Pretty cool Horror this week, too - the sunglasses trick was cool and creepy.

I'm really liking Raiga. He's got a good balance between seriousness and friendliness - very much a cross between his parents, canonical or otherwise. Crow I'm a little less sold on. He's suspiciously obsequent. I don't trust him and I don't like what an asshole he was towards Mayuri. Speaking of Mayuri, every second she's not wearing that hat makes me sad.

Flower 02.

It just sorta felt like a poor man's GARO again, the kind of remake where someone understands the look of a the thing but not really the feel or the message. Maybe it's unnecessary to complain about good visuals, but at times it also feels like the show has budget to burn and is just adding effects for the sake of adding effects. For all of GARO's flash, it was a series that knew how to use it's effects to tell a story, and set a mood, it was high concept, but not at the expense of anything else... this, this isn't that clever.

Raiga was pretty fun in the first episode but the longer he was on screen for in this episode the worst an actor he came across. He's no Kouga, and at least Kouga was intentionally stiff, this guy is like a plank with a bad haircut. He is more enjoyable in the fight sequences, but only because I'm always amazed by how badass someone who looks like that much of a dork can be. He's like Alata on crack.

And I certainly like him better than "Oh God the effects on my eyes make me look so distractingly weird why is my magic armour like a goth prostitutes uniform oh yeah this is GARO and Japan lol women" or "Lispy McWell it's GARO so we need at least one character who is an utter dick so it may as well be me, fuck it." Eurgh.

Not a bad episode but nothing extraordinary. I'm getting a better sense of Raiga's personality and I'm interested to see Mayuri's story arc play out.

Another great episode. It's been hard letting go of Kouga the last year, but I think Raiga is the person I'm content to let it happen with.

The only issue I have with Raiga is that I hate the checkerboard lining on his coat.

Yeah, I thought that seemed to clash with the whole look he had going on too.

Crow is not the character's real name.
It is his title. Makai Kishi Crow (魔戒騎士 吼狼）.

I'm using my imagination and thinking Kaoru had a lot of say in Raigas jacket design. The design on the bottom of his coat resembles her style of drawing or painting. So I wouldn't be surprised if the checkers underneath was her doing as well. If of course she is allowed or qualified to construct it.

The lining of his coat (like the red material inside Kouga's coat in MAKAISENKI) is connected to the horror world, which allowｓ him to pull his sword from nowhere. I don't remember what it was like in the first series.
Different pattern seems to have different functions.

Still looks dumb.

Edit: Episode 3 is up now. No Crow this time, and honestly not a lot of Raiga, even. It was mostly the Horror of the week and Mayuri (sans hat, sadly). It was still a good one, though, with some awesomely creepy imagery. In a lot of ways, this one reminded me of the finger collector episode from the original series.

I realized something this week, too. Back in the early '00s there was an anime called Big O. One of the characters was a very dry and emotionless robot girl named Dorothy. Mayuri is pretty much the exact same character, right down to body language. She lacks the same dry wit, but everything else feels like an echo of that robot character.

Anyone get real BioShock vibes during the opening ten minutes?

Another pretty generic riding the wheel of season one episode again, but unlike the last episode the gratuitous effects actually served a purpose - the suits in this season are just incredible, even if they are in it oh so briefly.

The worst part about this episode is the forced relationship between Raiga and Mayuri. Mayuri looks old enough to be his Mum and the two of them have zero on screen chemistry. Maybe deliberately given the way Mayuri is, but it's hardly been a relationship worth getting invested in so far.

The show hasn't been bad so far, but I do kinda hope it gets some of its own personality eventually rather than just constantly trying to recapture the first seasons magic - which it'll never truly be able to do.

Raiga and Mayuri switches places and you get Kouga and Kaoru again. :)

I thought Kouga and Kaoru's relationship was much more engaging this.

Not quite. Kouga was stoic; Mayuri is straight up emotionless. I kind of get the sense that, when she's not hunting Horrors, she just stands in the corner and stares at the wall for hours without blinking.

^Agree

Kouga only need to learn how to express his emotion more. Mayuri need to learn what emotion is first, considering she's not even human.

And about Raiga's checkerboard motif, honestly, even if they have a reason for it in-universe, design wise, it's just doesn't mesh well with his coat

Long story short, Amemiya wanted to continue the franchise but a lot of the cast was ready to move on. By this point there had been a few books that featured different Knights and gave an expanded view of the universe these shows take place in, so it was decided to expand upon the show by introducing a new cast. Season 3 itself feels so different because the creator of the franchise only worked on it in a very hands off capacity.

Yeah Drillbit was kind enough to inform me. I'm good now.

I just wish they could agree to at least show a little more on how Kougas and Kaorus life was with each other when he got back. Really hope they can somehow close the gap between maryuu and season 4. Are they dead or off somewhere else enjoying retirement? One more season with that cast concluding everything and I would be satisfied. I do feel better now though now that I know what really happened behind the scenes.

While episode 3 did feel like it was channeling season 1 stand alone episodes of Garo it didn't really do much for me. Guess I've just seen better Horrors (though the design was awesome as always).

Konishi and Hijii are showing up as guests in Makai Bar corner.
http://www.fami-geki.com/garo-makai/

Konishi showed up during filming.
http://ameblo.jp/garo-project/theme-10080619211.html

I didn't know they were going to have an Undead in this show. :p

Seriously though, episode 3 was not the greatest episode, but it was still an interesting one. Would have been nice to have more than 10 seconds of armor though.

So Crow's title is "Phantom Knight Crow (幻影騎士クロウ)".
Hopfully his suit comes in next week.

https://twitter.com/keita_amemiya/st...37026737090560

There'll be big fights that make use of it later. Garo has always used it as more of a finishing move, though, than shows like Sentai or Rider where it's the default action form. According to Mark Musashi, this is mostly because the stunt suits for the original series clearly lacked the mirrored finish of the main fiberglass suit.

Who is Mark Musashi?