Garo: Seal of Flames Discussion
 

So the sub for the first episode is up on Funimation's site, with simulcast starting tomorrow. They're offering a 2-week trial if anyone is curious to see the show without signing up for a paid account.

The first episode is... I don't know, kinda generic fantasy. It feels less like Garo and more like any other swords and castles fantasy anime. For me, a big part of Garo is the urban fantasy/horror aspect - that the show takes place in the modern era, but with all of these fantasy elements like the Horrors and the Makai Knights and Priests. Transplanting that into a vaguely European medieval setting really robs it of much of its uniqueness.

The plot isn't that interesting, either. The episode is mostly exposition for the setting, as told by one of the show's Makai Knights: Zoro (who is, to be fair, pretty cool). Garo shows up, too, although he doesn't do much outside of get into a fight. The armor is CGI while the Horrors and humans are traditionally animated. It's kind of a weird mix and some of the more frantic scenes are a little hard to follow. Aside from that, though, the art is pretty generic anime.

It was... okay, I guess. I'll see if I can check out the next couple episodes, but so far it's not doing much for me and I doubt that'll change.

I would rather watch every episode of The One Who Shines in Darkness in one sitting before I watch another episode of this piece of crap anime. I hated everything about it. The opening is pure laziness, especially compared to the openings to the live action counterparts. How come the live action can have better visuals, choreography, and graphics compared to animation? I don't like that the Garo armor has flames burning off of it. I don't care for the story that was ripped right out of Berserk. Leon's dad is the worst Makai Knight ever. The music sucked. The designs are overly complicated while the animation itself was terrible. UGH!! I hated it. I never want to watch another episode of this thing.

I like the little unique additions they've made to Leon's Garo suit, but that's about it so far. Otherwise this show is as generic as they come.

He has an obvious personality. That alone puts him above Crow in my book.

I have very limited exposure to Garo having only seen 10 episodes or so of the first series.

I do agree that if not for Garo terms like Makai Knight and Horror, this series would seem like every other generic midevil Europeon fantasy anime out there.

There's nothing really unique about this series and the plot twists were pretty predictable.

I was never a fan of mixing CGI with tradational animation, I dunno…something about doing that makes the characters feel less like they belong there…which I guess could be the point: to make the Makai Knights feel more otherwordly.

It wasn't terrible, I'd have to continue watching this to see how I really feel about it though.

The weather sucks today and I had nothing to do, so I went ahead and watched the second episode.

It was better.

-ish.

The setting is still really generic and what appears to be the main villain is as cookie cutter as it gets, but there were some more Garo-y elements added in this time, like a Watch Dog and a Makai Priest (or "Alchemist" as these translators call it). I'm at least intrigued enough to try one more episode, especially since the next one is titled "Zaruba."

Episode 2 is certinally better, but there really is no reason for this series to be anime.

Well they are retelling season 1 in the comic starting next month.
Amemiya likes to explore things in all directions.

So apparently stuff from Funimation's website shows up a few days later on Hulu Plus. I guess I have no logistical reason not to keep watching this.

I don't have a Hulu Plus or Funimation accounts and I won't be paying for either.

But I do know a place where I can see the episodes without signing up.

The translations suck in many places. The official name for one is just atrocious. Makai Alchemists instead of Makai Priests is just dumb.

It's the worst Garo I have ever seen but it is a hell of lot better than American Toku adaptations in recent years.

Yeah, that is a really weird choice. I'm not a fan.

I'm still going to give it a few episodes before I call it worse than the Zero miniseries.

im gonna echo everyone else in this, ive already dropped the anime, I was quite hyped for it to premiere but the story is terrible and I dont care for the animation at all

Episode 3 - Zaruba is a Horror? Have I just completely been missing that for years or is this something completely new?

It's old stuff since season 1.

Okay, so episode 3 was actually kinda good. I always enjoyi t when Garo dips into its mythology a little and all the stuff with Zaruba and the jealous knight was good. I liked taht we got to see the generic armor from Makai Senki again, too; it actually gets an explanation even. I liked having very little of the seemingly pointless prince storyline this week, but his one scene at the end was actually intriguing: who is the purple Makai Knight?

Between this week being decent and learning I can use my Hulu Plus subscription to watch it, I think I'm going to stick around for this. At least until it does something stupid enough to drive me off for good.

I've seen the first 3 episodes now and I like it just fine. While I'll admit the first episode is a rough start, it's saved by Germán being a fun character to watch. Also helps that I love that Zoro armor. The second episode sets up the rest of the main story and characters. It's fine. Third has Zaruba, we are officially good to go now. I will admit though that Leon is rather boring at the moment.


PS Capes are cool. I like that all titled Knights have capes in this except for Garo, who normally one of the few in live action to get a cape (and still rarely uses it). Capes are hard to do in live action stunt work, so I'm glad to see them more common here.

Episode 4 - a reasonably enjoyable and inoffensive MotW episode. Nothing really revolutionary here, but I did like the dark bit at the end where the town drags the elder off to be ritually murdered because they ain't learned shit from what happened. I continue to be curious to see what's up with the prince and the purple Makai Knight.

I wonder when Funimation plans on dubbing it? I personally I'm waiting for the dub to come out and maybe Toonami will air next year.

Funimation dubs everything that gets a DVD release. That said, it'll be a year or more before that happens so prepare to wait. And yes, Toonami is an option that I hope happens.




Anyways, I'm enjoying the show. 4 was a fairly strong one off episode.

Puple Makai Knight is Rafael Banderas aka Gaia the Stronghold Knight (Funimation subs refer to it as the Gaia, Knight of Defense).

He was friends with the previous Garo (also known as Valiante's Knight of Light).

Rafael reveals that the previous Garo is the grandfather of León LuÃ*s AND Alfonso San Valiante. León's mother and Alfonso's mother are sisters. As the eldest sister León's mother was responsible for producing an heir that would inherit the title of Garo. As youngest sister Alfonso's mother was adopted by aristocrats so she would grow up away from all the violence.

Rafael promised the previous Garo to watch over Alfonso.

Is all that in episode 5? If so, that answers a lot of my questions up front.

Episode 5 is all about Purple knight and Alfonso. Garo & Zoro are the side story.

It also reveals that once a month Garo is never seen because he is giving his life to Zaruba. It also reveals that the previous Garo's armor is identical to the live action default Garo.

Cool. This actually sounds interesting. I'll have to catch that when it goes up on Hulu.

Okay, so I kinda skipped talking about episode 5, but 6 is worth some discussion. This was the first episode of this show that I would call legitimately excellent. The Horror plot was well done and both the blacksmith and his apprentice were developed nicely; I actually really felt bad for the blacksmith. I think this episode's plot can easily stand up there with some of the better episodic stories of the live action shows. The ending provided a really good hook for the ongoing plot, too; I actually want to see where this is going with these Black Knights.

I'm glad I stuck it out with this show, it has definitely won me over completely this week.

I've fallen a bit behind on this show, but here are my thoughts up through episode 9.

Episode 7 was annoying.

Episode 8 was dumb. Really dumb.

Episode 9, however, was pretty damn amazing. Our two underdeveloped protagonists meet up and take on one of the cooler looking Horrors ever. It's not on par with some of the better final enemies of the series like Ganon, but a Horror who's a giant stone sepulchre slithering along on the upside down corpses of its victims and armed with two giant grim reapers is just damn awesome. The fight against it was also suitably cool and picked in some good pathos with the transition of the Gaia armor to Alfonso. Easily the best episode of the series to date and it's really restored my faith after the hot mess that was German running around naked for 20 minutes (seriously, fuck episode 8).

I saw the first episode at my local anime & manga club for new anime day (Anime that came out in the last 7-9 months) and it was pretty good. Solid animation and it was pretty enjoyable. Most people in the club thought it was cool while one person was like "Meh. Berserk did better".

We did show the first Garo show for live action day last for my anime & manga club and a lot of people like it. I think a Garo anime was a good idea since it made more people check out the live action show. I hope the anime gets dubbed soon and is put on Toonami. With good marketing and the Garo anime is put on a good time slot then I think Garo can be the next Attack on Titan in the US.

The anime is decent and all, but yeah. I don't think it'll ever be anywhere near that popular.

Couldn't have said it any better. :lol

Who knows, if they market it well enough it can be. American anime fans always seem to enjoy darker action shows. Anything is possible.

You seem to be overlooking the fact that Attack on Titan was massively popular with Western fans BEFORE it started on Toonami though. The Garo anime isn't receiving anywhere near that level of buzz.

It would be great for Garo to be more popular, but take it from someone who's seen more than one episode - this show is not going to do it.

This. No one is objecting to the potential of Garo being successful in the West (Personally, I think it will do well if it gets to Tooami). What is being objected to is thinking that that it'll be as popular or more popular than Attack on Titan. It won't be.

Holy Crap, people are commenting here again.

I was not sure where to post this, but a English dub may be coming soon? Vic tweeted this a few of days ago, then deleted it soon after. Take it as you will.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...d3&oe=56BEB2C3

Oh he would be perfect for a GARO Dub. I wouldn't mind seeing a dub of this.

I doubt it. There is a anime series and OVA called The Heroic Legends of Arslan based off the manga of the same name. So it may be an english dub of the recent anime series. But I can't find any mention of someone or something called Garo. Although it could be possible that it meant he was recording for an english dub for HLoA and a potential Garo: The Animation Dub. I don't know, one can hope so.

As I said in the "What anime are you watching?" thread, I've been working on finish this for the last little while and liking more as I go. It seems more strongly serialized than the live-action, and I think that's built my appreciation.

I guess I'll start in on the second season after I finish this.