[DreamSword]

Episode #9: Prologue

I'm not surprised that Azami(the Alchemist) ended up being the real big bad.

What I was a little surprised about was that Shosetsu was once like Kuon. Kind, caring, and as valiant as a knight should be.

Unfortunately for him though, all of his struggles ended up being for naught, as in the end, whether it be due to Azami's' manipulation for the Garo Armor's' own distaste in what the Makai Order had become, the suit of gold did not choose him.

This episode cements Versus Road as arguably the darkest of the GARO universes, as it's one where everything that could possibly go wrong, did. The ultimate evil was defeated? Too bad, it possessed the daughter of a high ranking Makai Alchemist, and said Alchemist isn't willing to sacrifice her daughter.

Try to raise the child to be good despite her lineage? No dice, the darkness of the Makai Realm isn't something that's so easy to overcome. And in the end, the utter ignorance of the Order leads to them all dying off over the span of 20 years, leaving only those with a grudge left. And it's all with no other knights, let alone Garo, there to save anyone.

I overall found this one to be rather cool. I typically enjoy whenever a GARO show does a flashback/backstory episode, and this was no real exception. And I assume its placement is here to set us up for the sorts of interactions and actions that Shosetsu will be having with our cast -- namely Kuon -- from here on out. There's alot of ways this could go, and I am very interested in seeing which one the story lands on.