[Locke]

So I thought I finally got a chance to sit down and watch Red Requiem, when I was pulled into work... But here are my thoughts so far, I have roughly forty minutes of the movie left, for any one who is interested.

From most of the toku I have watched, they want to present the heroes as unwaveringly good, choosing to simply ignore how similar the heroes and villains often are, and the generally huge piles of moral grey that come with the toku superheroes. I appreciate that GARO doesn't bother with any pretense, it is true that GARO's mythology is garbled and barely comprehensible but we know enough that although our protagonist, is our hero, he works for a faction that the show and movies pull no punches for, when it comes to highlighting how corrupt, broken and archaic they are. And the fact that Kouga shares their views, not out of nastiness, but simply because of what he holds as truths as they are all he knows, makes him feel more layered and human, as he does have failings and flaws.

All in all, Red Requiem is just more thought provoking in general, featuring aspects of betrayal, tragedy and the overlying question that has always surrounded GARO, what separates man from the monsters in the first place? It's just a shame that a slightly more thought out narrative seems to come at the expense of the action sequences.

It's funny as well, because despite placing our hero into this fucked up faction, GARO features some of the most badass female characters in all of toku, who don't just feel like a cheap novelty while they are at it. I may have missed Jabi, but the Mary Elizabeth Winstead lookalike Rekka proved that there is room for one more badass female Makai Priest.

Red Requiem features perhaps the worst action GARO has ever created. Maybe it's because it was intended to be shown in 3D, and I'm watching the 2D conversion, or something but I dunno, just something doesn't feel right. It feels sluggish, it lacks impact and just generally feels cheap and unpolished as they balance limp wristed fist fights, and awful wirework, with gratuitous effects shots that both largely look terrible and rarely serve any purpose, I guess other than blowing wads of cash. Of course I want my movie spin off to feel bigger than what I got in the show, but I don't want it at the expense of purpose.

About the only saving grace, as always with GARO, is it's full of imagery that is so imaginative, it surpasses the modest budgets and sticks in your head for long after viewing.

So I just watched the first episode of Makai Senki. I wasn't even sure I was watching GARO. I mean there were visual trademarks in there, but I dunno, something about the tone and execution felt different.

And you know what? I LOVED it, the action felt extremely polished and was just awesome. And I remember very few of the Horrors from the first season, so it was nice that they seem to have really put a lot of effort into making Cigarein cool as hell. Shame he only lasted a single episode.

Who are these seven Apostle Horrors Kouga was meant to have defeated?