[Switchblade]

Best episode of the series by far. Granted, that's not a high bar, but this was definitely the one episode so far that's felt the most like Garo. Even when it looked a little dodgy, it was so nice to have some proper green screen crazy special effects settings.

I was expecting something special for the finale - someone special, if I'm being honest. I was pretty disappointed to see Rekka early on, though. I was afraid this would end on a dud, but then Rian showed up, drawing a pretty loud "WHAT!?" from me.

It was fun seeing the two together, even if I'm really confused now if they're establishing the Ryuga series as an alternate Earth instead of the semi-distant future. It seemed to be the former, but there were still some references to time periods, so I have no idea. I liked seeing them interact, but was still a little disappointed when Mayuri didn't show up to join them.

The best part of the episode, though, was when Garo showed up riding Gouten. The moment I saw the green eyes I knew who it was and I'm glad we actually got to see him without the armor. I was hoping we'd get to see Kouga again and, even it just for a few minutes, it was so great to see him back in action. I wish they'd gotten Kaoru, too, but I'll take this for now, especially with the implications that this story still isn't over. I have no idea what's next for our original characters, but I'm hopeful that we'll be getting something in the near future.

So, in the end, that was Makai Retsuden. Largely disappointing, but occasionally transcendent. A bit surprising that they didn't get any of the TOWSITD cast, but it was still great to see almost every other major character (that doesn't have an upcoming series in 2017, at least) again. The ending, at least, really did succeed in reminding me why I love this franchise so much.