[DreamSword]

Episode 8: Ring

I was initially feeling disappointed in this episode.

One thing that the anime(namely Crimson Moon) touched upon, albeit briefly, was that not everyone who does bad things ends up as a Horror.

And I was initially thinking that this episode was going to really dive into that, to the point that I was actually incredibly disappointed and felt as if the Horror coming in was incredibly obligatory.

But then the episode managed to turn me around with its wonderfully strong sense of thematic storytelling, ontop of some wonderful character development for Kaoru which ties into it. The cinematography was pretty top notch in this one too, making the visual aspect of the storytelling all the stronger.

This is the episode that essentially spells out what the entire overarching theme of the show is for those who hadn't been getting it up to now(like me!). That theme being time. How we all have limited time on this Earth, what specific moments in time do in terms of shaping our lives and our beliefs, and how people go about spending the precious time they have left.

While I turned her obsession with hands into a bit of a joke with that screencap edit, I really did feel for the bartender here. Does it justify what she does? No, but it's easy to see how much one traumatic event shaped the rest of her life and threw her off the deep end. And using fire and ice as visual metaphors for her desire to turn back and be stuck in the time she was happy for eternity really warmed me to the Horror being at all a part of the plot.

And like I noted earlier, it helps with developing Kaoru as a character too, with her taking the advice she gets to heart, and realizing just how important her art can actually be. Her laying her hand upon the drawing of Koga's' at the end? I felt like that was not only her dedicating the girl who got possessed to her memory, but also her symbolically trying to reach out to Koga, of whom she's had trouble connecting with despite them living together, not to mention the spat they got into within this episode alone.

Though I wouldn't call this the best episode in the show, it is one that managed to impress me despite my own initial first impression, and really, that might make it the most impressive episode so far? But then I could easily see other people reading my observations and going "Well yeah dummy, alot of this stuff was so obvious from like, episodes 1 and 2!" But hey, I eventually got it in the end, right? Yeah? Maybe? Whatever. Here's to looking forward to how Rei's' relationship with Kaoru develops, given she's chosen to keep her alive(for now). And Zaruba is taking a liking to her now too!

GARO has yet to fully disappoint, and I hope it doesn't anytime soon.