[Switchblade]

Another Garo series over. There won't be another one for... well, a week, I guess.

I liked the ending. The last fight wasn't one of the most epic brawls in the history of the franchise, but it had some very nice visuals and I love the ridiculousness of Hulked out Raiga and his massive wolf sword. The stuff at the end with Mayuri wasn't that bad, but it still suffered a bit because of the show's general ineptness in handling character development.

Overall, I'd say I rank Makai no Hana about on par with TOWSITD.Both are good, enjoyable shows, but both also have some pretty glaring flaws. TOWSITD did a good job of developing its ongoing storyline and characters, but had pretty subpar visual effects and action sequences for a Garo series. Makai no Hana is kind of the opposite: the show is frequently gorgeous and had some great individual Horror episodes, but the overarching story was incredibly weak and the character development was awful. I still like Raiga and Mayuri a lot; they both have a good amount of charisma that they bring to their roles. Crow was a disaster, though. Hands down the most boring character in the entire franchise. He makes freaking Aguri look dynamic and deep.

I assume we'll get another live action Garo series after the anime and TOWSITD movie. Hopefully it will keep the old school Garo feel that this series had in so many places, but bring back the stronger characterization that this show was so severely lacking.