GARO - Heir to Steel Armor thread
 

The new GARO show started airing (official name seems to be "Heir to Steel Armor").
The first episode aired yesterday in Japan and they posted in on youtube today.
I don't know if it's just the first or if they plan to upload the whole show.

https://www.youtube.com/@GAROofficial/videos


Episode was okay. It's what you would expect for a Ryuga show start.

Cool opening and ending theme but not quite as epic as i would expect. They associated Yuki Kajiura to JAM Project for this, and while I love both I don't know if I like the mix of them. If the show is 20+ episodes and not 12-ish I suppose we'll have a legit JAM Project song as the opening so I'll wait.

Fight scenes are still cool as usual and I think they decided to have less CGI this time ?
the horrors have a different feel, and I think that's because they are more "human-like" than in other shows. We got a woman with horns and a yeti/bigfoot guy with a hammer instead of the usual black demons or monsters with weird forms, shapes or puppet like designs.

I prefer it that way in terms of fight choreography, with a suit actor inside the horror. But it's true it removes the hell-ish feel the horrors were giving before.

EDIT : completely slipped my mind but seems like Shun Nishime (KR Ghost) is a part of this as well. as a minor role (I guess ?)

Oh man, I have missed this. Cool action sequences, horror (lower case h) stories, Makai Knights and Priests doing cool shit, crazy monster designs. This is the Garo I love and it is so good to have it back.

I like the more grounded Horror suits. I'm sure we'll get more CGI eldritch abominations later, but for now I like the practical costumes and how well they worked in the fight scenes. Being able to see the actors' eyes underneath the masks adds a nice touch that reminds you these used to be humans. Plus they aren't the generic Horror suit, which I've seen enough of by this point.

Hoping we get at least an explanation of where Rian is, even if she doesn't appear in the show. She was a big part of the Ryuga timeline and it would feel weird if they don't even acknowledge her.

Cool that the show is doing at least one episode via YouTube, would not complain if the whole series gets the Ultraman treatment. That said, the translation is a little rough in places and I'm not a fan of capitalizing all of the PROPER NOUNS.

Could see it till now due to work. Episode 1 was neat, kinda typical for Garo but after years of absence, that's 100% the point.

The fight choreography is good, I liked how Ryuga's reintroduction was more "Saejima timeline"-ish with him doing most of it unarmored and really only armoring up for what he intends to be the final blow.

The introduction of Creacity was a little over the top, but they at least immediately explain why, so fair enough.

I don't know if they're gonna release the rest of the Eps on youtube or not, but I'll try to keep up with the series if I can.

Also noticed they apparently subbed the episode in Spanish and Portuguese, cuz people in Brazil and Mexico were thanking them in the comments. So that's cool.

Doesn't surprise me. The translation had a lot of '00s-era TVN jank in it.

Watched it last night. And holy crap was that fun to watch. So far I'm loving the Horror designs hopefully they can keep it up. I'm looking forward to seeing if this new Knight and Ryuga develop a Kouga / Rei type of relationship or if they go somewhere else with it.

On a side note does anybody know if the sub's for this episode was a one time thing or if the entire series is going to be like this. Because if every EP is subtitled then somebody else figured out how large the global fan base better than Toei.

Hopefully, we will get much better subs for this series somewhere down the line.

Hello everyone!

I usually don't post. And more i don't event start to beggining to watch this new series...
But i just saw the cast and where is Rian? I hope they put an explanation during series... She is 2nd most important character like Zero was on Kouga Garo's series. Is she pregnant or any disease?

This is where I'm at too--I got away from GARO for a few series there, where it became goofy CG garbage, and felt like they just kept adding Makai Knights to fill airtime. I'm sure we'll see at least one or two additional knights before this show ends, but it definitely feels like a "return to form" from the earlier years of the franchise.

I'd hardly call the subtitles "unreadable". I've seen worse fan translations and official translations.

I'm glad that we have a real-ass Garo show again. I liked this first episode, it ticks all the boxes of things I want in an episode of Garo so a good start to the show I guess!

The Garo YouTube channel has a premiere time set for episode 2. Looks like we will be getting the full series.

Ep2 nice lore episode with a nice twist

after Ep1 you're thinking Souma is quite skilled as a makai knight and you're wondering why they called Ryuga to help them.
But then Ep2 happens and you realize he is actually terrible and immature.

Usually cocky characters are strong for some time before being brought back to reality.

This was definitely a breather episode focused exclusively on the Knights (and featuring plenty of swordplay).

I'm genuinely surprised those three knights are still around. I guess they're letting the audience get to know them better before they become Horror chow and don't even get to transform.

The sad truth of the Garo franchise...the Makai Knights can hunt Horrors and slay monsters but they can't do anything about the evil of man that also breeds Horrors .

I'm really curious when Ryuga met Godou. I have to think it was after the first season of his show...

Godou must have been an old school Makai Knight, it looked like he had a Madou Tool. Most of the knights in the Ryuga era don't have them, as far as I can tell.

Waited Ep4 to comment on 3 and 4 at the same time but I didn't expect the pace to be that slow. I don't like it too fast but no horror fight in 2 episodes, I think that's a first for a main show ?.

Ep3 was kinda "out-of-suit-combat-gasm" and choreographies were really cool.
But Ep4, didn't dislike it, but it's like there is not much to say.

I can't find the name of the actor playing the leading salaryman turning into horror. I think I saw him somewhere before.

EDIT : NO WAY ! I didn't recognize him. That's Agito's lead/Tsugami Shoichi, Toshiki Kashu !


A few speculation I have so far :

- I expect Obi (Shun Nishime) to be evil somehow. I don't know I kinda expect him to be the archetypal guy who is a klutz/noob/overly polite guy just to hide himself. Not too sure about it but I feel Shun Nishime is kinda overqualified as an actor to end up being the noob of a makai knight trio. And also we lack an evil figure except the lady in red so far.

- Consequently I expect Igusu and Ron (especially Ron) to die by his hands. Ron is presented as an ideal guy way too much (not the strongest but still skilled, lawful and with a perfect mindset) for him to survive imo.

- I expect Godou to not have disappeared because of Horrors or the Gate of Destruction but somehow got inside Souma to stop the darkness corrupting him when he tried to master Senkoken. As the light that fights the darkness Souma can't control. And that's why Souma dreams of him. It's actually Godou for real and not a dream.

- Seems to be a given but Souma will eventually master Senkoken at the end of the show and deliver the final blow. We might even get a double Senkoken with Ryuga.

I've fallen a bit behind on this. The pacing is... bad. I feel like the first two episodes really suckered me into thinking Garo was back in force because the next two episodes were just dull hangouts at Makai HQ and Souma being a pouty asshole. Probably cheaper than doing a Horror fight every episode, but also way less interesting.

Also, I've switched to the TV-Nihon subs. I want to support the official release, but the AI subtitles they're using are only a few steps up from the old HK subs of the '00s.

Well, you can play the episode on YouTube in the background so that Garo Official Chanel gets its views. And then complain in the comments about the subtitles. Maybe they'll listen (although if it's an AI-sub, it's unlikely).

I've been watching this regularly but haven't really had anything much to say.

Episode 8 was alright, nice new suit used by Souma's dad. The flashback sequence was pretty interesting, seeing this sort of midpoint between Ryuga from the earlier shows and now really helps better convey the transition between the two, I kind of wish we got to see it earlier.

Priestess Mitsugi's reveal feels kind of out of nowhere, but I'll wait till the show's over to see if they flesh it out more.

I mean, I think it's fine to mourn the victims being possessed by the Horror rather than the Horror themselves, but I guess it makes sense that it wouldn't sink in for Souma because he just barrels through everything :eyebrow:.

Makai Knight Zango! That armor was a thing of beauty :love:!

Oh hey, they even had a full Horror suit instead of anything remaining of the human like from the older seasons...even if we only saw the Horror for, like, five seconds :eyespin:.

Is Irubua supposed to be Godous Madou Tool? "Yuka Suzumura?" is this all one big Suzumura family reunion production :p?

Okay, so now Ryuga can just flex the a practical suit version of the Yami Wo Terasu Mono Garo armor (which as far as I can remember was all CG in the season it appeared in). Sure, why not :innocent:?

I didn't expect Godou to be living out of a literal man cave. I know most Makai Knights just kind of wander or go wherever they needed and don't have a swanky Saejima mansion, but I don't think most would live in a literal cave with a tent, a desk, and a bookcase :heh:.

Oh, so the Finisher literally forces their armor off to take the recoil. I guess that's one way to justify it :meh:.

Ryuga and Souma are totally going to use the light and dark versions of the attack together :cool:.

Ryuga reflecting on Godou and Souma's relationship felt pertinent knowing his family drama :upset:.

It's almost like Godou knew something was probably going to happen to him the way he asked Ryuga to take care of Godou :(.

Mutsugi finally shows her true colors. Of course it's the classic "we can destroy all Horrors!" plan that ALWAYS turns out well in this franchise :rolleyes:

Was that Lost Soul Zango sealed up like that :eyebrow:?

Yeah when I was watching the latest episode, I had a feeling that particular antagonizing viewpoint would come up again. What I found interesting about the whole drawback with the Flash finisher is that not only is it taxing but that the dark version of it can be just as difficult when explaining about the after effects of letting the darkness consume the user (literally).

So the final episode came out last week (the fact that no-one else has commented on it is rather telling).

This series was... Neat

I like the transition of Ryuga into more of a mentor character for the newer knights. It really adds a new flavor to the franchise, and makes sense with how Ryuga was meant to be a "friendlier" Garo than Kouga.

The suits were great, the physical Hagane(s) were neat to see, and the Zango suit is amazing.

The story itself was alright, and for a 12 episodes series it works. But I feel like it was a pretty typical in that I wasn't really ever surprised by anything as it went on.

The new Characters were also just okay, we get a little understanding of the extra knights before they just get benched onto the city's only walkway for the last 4ish episodes. Souma was decent as essentially the actual main focus character. Mitsugi felt just sorta there until the final arc, but she occasionally had a few spells and tricks I found cool. Koyori I am similarly neutral on.

I'm getting caught up on the show; 3-4 episodes left to go. It's getting a lot better now that it's not about Souma aggressively sulking.

I've been busy, so I held off on talking about this, but I must say, I enjoyed this!

While it's only my second completed Garo Series (I still need to finish the original), I definitely enjoyed this more than Versus Road. I think more suit action made it more interesting to watch, not that I mind the attempt to try something different especially with what was going on when that aired, but this showed all the fancy swordplay and the great suits from Garo, the Hagane, and Zango.

While this is only my first time seeing Ryuuga in action, I did enjoy him here, so that gives me more reason to watch more Garo. Our new kid, Souma, while he started off as the typical "I don't need help, stay out of my way" kind of character (and the actor doing a fantastic job making him look like he's about to bash your face in), I think it was a nice way of showing him grow throughout the series. Koyori honestly surprised me, she didn't seem impressive early on, but her standing up to the villain I thought made me like her more. I kind of wish the other Hagane got shown off more, but they were serviceable enough. Goudou was pretty neat! I almost thought they were going a certain way with him, but I'm glad with how they made him overall. Mutsugi was alright, nothing too special, but not horrible, if anything I liked where they were going with her, even if it wasn't that much in the end.

Action was great, though I could tell it's less dark and mature as its predecessors, which I don't think is a bad thing, but compared to the original and Versus Road, I wonder if they're going a new direction with the series? Regardless, Garo is in a unique place where we don't know if anything new will come or it will just drop on us whenever. Still, I'm down for more Garo!

Finally sat down and finished this. It was pretty decent. Not as good as many of the past series, but I'd definitely put it above something like Black Blood. Mostly, it was just nice to get a proper Garo series again and I hope it's not the last one.

I did enjoy exploring some of the Makai Knights who don't get their own super fancy suits of armor. It's a nice touch, especially as someone who thought they were a cop-out the first time they showed up in Makai Senki. On that topic, I am astonished that Obi made it to the end of the series alive; I was convinced that he was going to get his ass murdered at some point.

It was disappointing.

I hope the next Garo series will be better. And I still wish for the DMC route where the new Golden Knight uses both a sword & guns.