[Locke]

GARO is my favourite toku show ever, but it's also about the only part of the GARO franchise I can honestly say I love with very few reservations. The second, and third, season made some much needed and necessary changes to the original season while making general improvements here and there but the problem with those was, that the general fixes usually came at the price of breaking something that was crucial to my utter adoration of that first season.

Meanwhile the films were really the worst of the bunch, often being artistic experiments more than actual cohesive stories - I think I stomached three films? Maybe two and a half? Which were also so utterly superfluous they made the Rider crossover films seem like essential viewing.

I bring all of this up, because I honestly tried my best to AVOID everything about this show going in, in the hope that I could go in with a fresh pallet in the vague hope I wouldn't end up disappointed all over again. Either this is a really great show, or that helped a lot, because I LOVED this opening episode and only had a few minor issues with it.

Firstly it kept the trend of fixing whatever was broken before it, in this case we return back to the original horrors and practical suits, weapons and action (well for the most part). In terms of general production values, this episode was fantastic.

Mio is one of my favourite of the ToQ and seeing her all sexy legged, sword wavering badassery here, yum yum. Plus, best introduction ever for a guy rocking a bad moustache and fighting with an umbrella? Who knew they could make that cool! Shame his actual character seems annoying as all fuck. They would have entirely overshadowed Zero this episode if we didn't get that scene of him fending off an entire gang of Horror while munching on chocolate.

My problems with the episode? Firstly, the pacing. Generally opening episodes of toku are always the best ones until the final run of the season, as they have to be the tightest and most focused in order to introduce everything and give the world context. Here however...I guess not so much.

During the four minute long cold open, a man coughed up some blood, Zero complained about his drink and a man dramatically looked at the camera and said 'HORROR'. If you include the credits, that was six minutes of the episode right there. It picked up a LOT after that, but considering these episodes are only twenty five minutes long - and there is only going to be six of them, that is quite the chunk of time to waste.

The second disappointment was our new major villain. I mean really, you bring back the gorgeous practical suits and introduce your new main villain shooting poorly realised CGI feathers? Come the fuck ON!