[SengalBoy]

Episode 1

Ahhh you know, the first time I watched Garo, everything was so weird. No toy gimmicks, emphasis on out of suit fight scenes, and rather short suit fight scenes with CGI as the majority. But now? It's the staple of Garo, and what is best for Tokusatsu: over the top martial arts and the usage of CGI to enhance the special effects.

Funny thing to note that Garo was always marketed as a horror show and people general public who knows about it would say it is an R-rated Power Rangers, but ever since Makai Senki, the franchise emphasizes more on high fantasy rather than horror. And it helps that due to being a Tokusatsu, the cheesiness (in a good way) helps define the show.

I always saw Makai Flower as Amemiya wanting to course correct Garo thanks to The One Who Shines in the Darkness felt so different. And it really shows. This feels exactly like the first two Garo series, just with new cast (except Zaruba and Gonza). This is what a Garo without Kouga should have been.

Now for the characters. Raiga has a lot to live up for. Kouga was a certified stoic badass, and Raiga is his direct successor. But from his first scene, he easily wins you over. He feels exactly what happened if Kouga and Kaoru fused together (which is, you know, what a an offspring technically is). He has his father's skills, and his mother's personality. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty amazing for them to make an offspring protagonist who feels exactly like their parents.

Next is Mayuri, the main heroine of the show. Right of the bad you know she's not any normal human, even from her introduction. But what surprised me the most is that, she is pretty talkative! From promotional images and even the intro, she gives you the vibe that she doesn't speak much. So it is a surprise that she actually talks a lot, for someone who looks cold and silent.

For the action scenes, it's the classic Garo fight scenes. For sone reason I loved it when Raiga first fights the Horror using his bare hands. It makes me wonder if one day we'll get a Makai Knight who specializes in hand-to-hand combat.

The biggest highlight of the fight scene in the first episode is that suit Garo has more screen time than CGI Garo. They know that we watch the show for the suits, and it's pretty awesome that as the franchise grows bigger, they are more confident to use the suit as much and long as possible.

Honestly it always bothered me for years as to why the suit fights are rather short and mostly done through CGI, but then I found out, because technically Garo was funded fully by Keita Amemiya, so it is an indie Tokusatsu, and the suits are expensive to make, they don't want to damage it, because it is proven that the suits are capable of performing in stunts (as evidenced by the original series).

But here, they are more confident to let the suit perform as much stunt as possible. And kudos to them. Overall, first episode started out very strong, as we are introduced that some Horrors are now unable to be sealed by Makai Swords, thus that's where Mayuri comes in, as she is a Madou Tool that is necessary to seal these Eilith Horrors. I can only imagine how refreshing it would be to watch Garo return to form right after The One Who Shines in the Darkness, back when it first aired.