[DreamSword]

Episode XII: Blood Moon

Real quick tangent. I decided that, what with the whole waxing red moon and all, I should note something that's been in the back of my mind the entire time I've been watching this anime, and I kinda hinted at it before with my whole joke about this being an anime of a JRPG.

GARO The Animation is straight up the closest we'll ever get to having an animated adaptation of The Legend of Dragoon. If you've never heard of or played it, and you like JRPGs, I highly recommend that you do, as it's one of my favorite games of all time, and trust me when I say that any comparisons I can make between this show and that game is only a compliment.

With that out of the way, it's the final fight against Mendosa, and man was I surprised at seeing that he could throw down. Granted it makes sense, him being an ex-Makai Alchemist and all.

It also, given everything we've grown to know about the characters so far, made total sense that this episode went the way that it did.

Mendosa triggering Leon with horrific images of his mother, to the point that he basically becomes a Horror himself? Leon fully giving into his desire for revenge, given that his mother's' murderer is right infront of him? Alfonso putting his duties as a Prince above all else? This entire episode played out in an entirely logical and well thought out way, and I really appreciated it for that. The great action sequences really helped too.

Darkness Moonbreak

It also makes sense that Leon in the end wasn't strong enough to take down Mendosa or the Horror. Not only due to his own personal demons, but also because he's not the one who dealt the killing blow on the Chimera, Alfonso was. Alfonso, being royalty as well as growing to become a JRPG hero in his own right, also shows the right to become the hero of legend, with or without Zaruba. By the way, showing Zaruba getting outright overloaded? Nice touch there. Alfonso also has a nice cape. Case in point:



From what I'm told, Alfonso's' version of the GARO armor is actually a direct reference to one of the heroes from the live-action series, though I don't really know any specifics, having not seen that yet.

By the end, the group has now split apart in a way that I imagine none of them are happy with, most especially Leon, and I'm very interested in seeing where the show goes from here.