[DreamSword]

Episode 23: Heart Destruction

Say what? I thought that was Zero?

Anyway I called it. It's revealed that Barago is indeed Kaoru's' therapist, and his necklace is how he summons his armor.

And while I could probably spend this post talking about how interesting of an idea that is as well as how this guy fights while dual wielding two dark versions of the Garo Blade despite using a polearm earlier, something else caught my attention.

It's no secret that I got into this franchise from the anime. More specifically, the first one, known in the west as Garo: The Animation but called Carved Sealed of Flames over in its native Japan. And it's due to that that I got experience certain aspects of the lore before they were presented here.

Namely, I'm talking about how during the climax, the butler becomes a Horror+Makai Knight hybrid, and Koga becomes what is known as a Lost Soul, via giving into his dark emotions and allowing his armor to consume him. Minor spoilers for those who haven't seen the anime, but a similar event occurs with one of the characters in the first anime(and the second technically but that's not important right now).

And this all made for an interesting case of comparison to me, because while it's clear this episode served as the baseline for such a plot development in the anime, the surrounding details and way in which the entire thing is utilized in terms of plot and character are very much different, and regardless of which is "better" I really gotta hand it to Kobayashi on that one.

One of the biggest draws of the franchise to me is how every Knight who bears the title of Garo is their own unique character, and in an indirect way, this episode actually helps to highlight that. While sure, I got what they were going for with Koga's' mental state here, and it's not too different from others who I've seen nearly lose their souls to the abyss, again, the circumstances and the people involved are so different that despite if I felt this worked just as well as those other examples or not, I'm glad that it was handled in its own way.

But if you want my personal opinion on the execution of this idea... I wanna wait until the next episode atleast. If this is followed up on in a cool or interesting way, then I'm all for it. But as is, it feels a slight bit rushed and undercooked? Again, I get what they were going for, and I do think that it ultimately works, but I do also feel it coulda be done just a tad bit better for my personal tastes. Really loved the moments we got out of Rei thanks to the entire ordeal though. Him actually talking reason into Koga was a really great moment, and one that really made the whole thing stand out.

Oh, and it's casually revealed that Watchdog Lady is Koga's' mother. As you do. (ADDENDUM: They were actually saying that she's Baritone Butler's' mom, my mistake!)