[Switchblade]

Okay, I did not see this coming: this week's episode of Makai Retsuden was actually two separate stories. It never occurred to me that the show might do that. Using spoiler tags if you're like me and you want to be surprised when you see who the returning characters are.

The first, and slightly longer, story is... really weird. It's told largely from the perspective of a group of Horrors who are hanging out in some kind of demonic biker bar. I assume that a lot of what we saw was more metaphorical instead of what things would literally look like. In any case, it ended with possibly the most comedic fight scene we've ever had in Garo and the first use of armor in this year's show. I'm actually sad at how long it took me to recognize Kenji freakin' Matsuda, but it was definitely him back as Wataru/Baron. Short story, but fun.

The second episode was all character interaction and no action. That alone probably narrows down which era you'd guess it is and you'd probably be right: this one is based off of Makai no Hana. Specifically, Mayuri briefly meeting with Gonza's friend, the former Makai Priest who runs a restaurant. It's honestly a pretty throwaway little story, but if you like the characters it's still fun to see them again.