Integration

Fish Sandwich · 02-01-2023, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I probably still won't be watching more than this episode and maybe the second one for a while though.

I decided to avoid making more mistakes instead! GARO is real good so far! I'm all caught up to episode 5 now, and while I don't know if I'll always have something to chime in with, or if I'll avoid falling behind the thread, I am like, 1000% on this train now. Enough to put up with the mediocre GomenRider subs that are giving me traumatic flashbacks to rewatching Faiz, even.

This is absolutely my kind of show. Episode after episode, I've been consistently impressed by how simple each individual story is without at all feeling thin. Partly because the atmosphere is always thicker than molasses, perhaps, but more than just that, I think it goes back to what I said about GARO being so confident in its execution. There's a cleanliness to every episode, where if you boiled it down, so far every installment is nothing more than a monster hunt and exactly one important new factoid about Kouga and/or Kaoru, but the scripts have a way of pulling everything together to make all the elements feel like they connect back to whatever single broader topic is at the center of the plot. I think 3 is the easy gold standard to point to, where it's literally called "Clock", the climax is Kouga fighting an entire clock tower (which, holy s***, what a brilliant escalation), and we learn about how Kaoru is racing against the clock, far more than she already feels like she is throughout the episode.

Again, it doesn't sound like much in theory, especially when reduced to a quick summary, but every little moment along the way is so consistently enjoyable, it becomes so, so much more in practice. It helps that, yeah, it does kinda feel quite a bit like an early Heisei Kamen Rider show in terms of overall tone and pacing (which maybe says more about early Heisei Rider than it does about GARO), but I'm really loving everything I've seen of this series to this point, and can't wait to see more.

02-01-2023, 06:46 PM	#36
Fish Sandwich The Immortal King Tasty Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Every diner you've ever been to. Posts: 4,093	Quote: Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich I probably still won't be watching more than this episode and maybe the second one for a while though. I decided to avoid making more mistakes instead! GARO is real good so far! I'm all caught up to episode 5 now, and while I don't know if I'll always have something to chime in with, or if I'll avoid falling behind the thread, I am like, 1000% on this train now. Enough to put up with the mediocre GomenRider subs that are giving me traumatic flashbacks to rewatching Faiz, even. This is absolutely my kind of show. Episode after episode, I've been consistently impressed by how simple each individual story is without at all feeling thin. Partly because the atmosphere is always thicker than molasses, perhaps, but more than just that, I think it goes back to what I said about GARO being so confident in its execution. There's a cleanliness to every episode, where if you boiled it down, so far every installment is nothing more than a monster hunt and exactly one important new factoid about Kouga and/or Kaoru, but the scripts have a way of pulling everything together to make all the elements feel like they connect back to whatever single broader topic is at the center of the plot. I think 3 is the easy gold standard to point to, where it's literally called "Clock", the climax is Kouga fighting an entire clock tower (which, holy s***, what a brilliant escalation), and we learn about how Kaoru is racing against the clock, far more than she already feels like she is throughout the episode. Again, it doesn't sound like much in theory, especially when reduced to a quick summary, but every little moment along the way is so consistently enjoyable, it becomes so, so much more in practice. It helps that, yeah, it does kinda feel quite a bit like an early Heisei Kamen Rider show in terms of overall tone and pacing (which maybe says more about early Heisei Rider than it does about GARO), but I'm really loving everything I've seen of this series to this point, and can't wait to see more. __________________