[Enchilada645]

Oh wasn't expecting this, anyway

ahem

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Originally Posted by DreamSword

And I gotta give a big shout out to the head nun at the home Sophie stays at. She went out like a total badass.

Hail Mary full of grace punch that demon in the face!

That aside, yep. We've hit the turning point episode and dear God what a way to do it. Things can only escalate higher and higher in the immediate future. I was admittedly surprised we were doing this at Episode 7 of all places since I would've assumed it would've been saved for like Episode 10 or later, closer to the halfway point.

[DreamSword]

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

That aside, yep. We've hit the turning point episode and dear God what a way to do it. Things can only escalate higher and higher in the immediate future. I was admittedly surprised we were doing this at Episode 7 of all places since I would've assumed it would've been saved for like Episode 10 or later, closer to the halfway point.

Oh for sure. It makes me wonder if the story is gonna be handled similar to Crimson Moon, where despite being one continuous show it essentially had two "seasons" worth of storylines.

[DreamSword]

Episode 8: Knight

Sadly not the Knight from Dynazenon.

However I'm not all that broken up about it because frankly this episode was hype as hell!

This was essentially an entire action movie in the span of 20 minutes, and damn near every aspect of that was pulled off extremely well. The personal vendettas of the character involved, the choreography, and tone, all of it.

Turns out that the Dark Knight here actually used to be the Silver Knight, which, given we've had two different Silver Knights across this little sub-franchise now could mean anything in terms of his original armor. And ontop of that, something tells me this ain't some new version of Zex either.

But yeah, this episode was nonstop action from start to finish and I was totally into every second of it. The choreography especially was incredibly stylish ontop of being bombastic, and while the shakey-cam is present, it's kept to a minimum so as to be able to still let the viewer easily take in everything that's going on. All of this only further enhanced by the absolutely kickin' soundtrack!

That really doesn't leave much to say in terms of the plot, but, man. If you're lookin' for a pure adrenaline rush, this episode is definitely a way to get one.

[Enchilada645]

Yeah there really isn't much to say in regards to the plot as this was basically all hell breaking loose from the prior episode.

Vanishing Line definitely knows how to hold its budget because there's definitely a sense of "huh, the fights are kinda quick these past few episodes..." since they aren't like too flashy and such and I'm pretty sure Sword doesn't don his armor for long or at all in some of them.

Then you've got this just no holds barred brawl between him and Knight in their armor for like an extremely long period of time, with some Luke in there and man... poor Luke. If I recall he gets rather messed up in this episode as a result of this fight. But yeah, it's insane and this might just be the most collateral damage caused in the franchise too given how many city blocks were just being smashed into because of this fight.

Also yeah, I believe Knight's armor in this is once again, original. Just like how each era of Garo has their own exclusive Knights, each anime in their particular era has their own exclusive Knights as well. The one constant is Garo.

[DreamSword]

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

man... poor Luke. If I recall he gets rather messed up in this episode as a result of this fight.

He put up a valiant fight, but yeah, dude got destroyed. I was rooting for him too.

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But yeah, it's insane and this might just be the most collateral damage caused in the franchise too given how many city blocks were just being smashed into because of this fight.

The advantage of anime over live-action! But yeah, not only was the massive collateral quite the spectacle, but it was cool to see the story acknowledge that, with this taking place in more modern times, the entire event was damn near impossible to keep quiet unlike your average Horror attack.

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Also yeah, I believe Knight's armor in this is once again, original. Just like how each era of Garo has their own exclusive Knights, each anime in their particular era has their own exclusive Knights as well. The one constant is Garo.

It does make me wonder if all of the GARO anime are meant to be in the same continuity or not, given that they never really directly reference eachother. Highly doubt they're canon to the live-action shows though.

[DreamSword]

Episode 9: Setting Off

With the city in utter disarray, Sword and Sophie head out west to find El Dorado.

A big part of this episode involves the two leaving their old lives behind in order to further their missions and their bond, and I dug it.

Now, granted, stuff like this is usually best saved for a halfway mark of a story, but in the case of Vanishing Line, I do feel that they offered just enough to get me to buy into it, especially since I've been liking these characters so far.

While unexpected, the musical montage at the halfway point was rather nice, and general tone and atmosphere of the episode in general was rather well done. The bit at the end with the deer, while sure, a bit on the nose in regards to symbolism of Sophie and the head Sister, was rather effective.

It's the sort of episode that so easily could've had me rolling my eyes throughout the entire thing had I not been liking the cast; Heck, another show I finished recently trying to pull something like this at episode 9 would've made me incredibly annoyed. But here? While not the best example of something like this I've seen, still overall worked for me.

I don't exactly have a good way of ending this off other than saying that the episode was nice, so instead, have a random tidbit: I realized earlier today that Knight really reminded me of someone. And who is that someone?

He's literally just the Vanguard class from Dungeon Fighter Online.

[Enchilada645]

Yeah, it was definitely surprising to see the series take this turn into a more... direct storyline per say. Since we now have a very big end goal laid out for us and it's only Episode 9. There are still plenty of mysteries and character arc's to go through, but they really aren't hiding what we'll be doing alongside those.

That being said, good breather episode for after what happened.

looks at video

From what little I remember of Knight's fights... oh God you're right.

[DreamSword]

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Originally Posted by Enchilada645

There are still plenty of mysteries and character arc's to go through, but they really aren't hiding what we'll be doing alongside those.

It really does make me curious as to how things are gonna play out with Luke, given the state that he's currently in. Especially since Knight is far more interested in fighting Garo again.

[DreamSword]

Episode 10: Rebirth

This episode was a really nice surprise all around.

Like, I didn't actually expect an episode that focused so heavily on the relief efforts put forth after Knight tore the city apart.

But it makes sense, given that it provides a vehicle for Luke, the center character of the episode, to reflect upon his past as well as what exactly it is that motivates him to fight Horrors.

And really helping with that is how both the A plot and the B plot are equally engaging, especially given they both help to develop Luke's' character. Even his interactions with Mei Fong were rather nice, although I would liked to have seen more of them as kids, given Mei Fong's' claim of them being childhood friends.

Knight being Luke's' father makes alot of sense, and the reveal of just how exactly the murder of Luke's' mother played out adds a totally new layer to Luke's' behavior; mixing in an element of self-loathing to his rather seclusive attitude. And really, him learning to have more empathy through how good it feels to do good deeds was a nice arc to watch.

It's also in this episode that we finally learn the name of the city that the show has taken place in so far: Russell City. Which I suspect is in Texas? It's about all I can think of in terms of where exactly Vanishing Line is supposed to take place. If anyone has any definitives on that lemme know.

With all of that out of the way, Luke now also heads out west. Very curious to see if he meets up with Sword or if he ends up on his own adventure.

[Enchilada645]

Okay here we go.

Like I was pretty alright on Luke during my first watch of this, and I was really curious as to where they'd go with him. But it's definitely the episode before last and this episode that really sold me on him.

The dude trying his hardest to fight Knight and getting the worst out of the two who directly fought him and then seeing how that fight and the situation surrounding that fight shapes him for his future as a Makai Alchemist. Like I said, there's a reason why Luke's probably the top of my list in terms of the four main characters in this show and this is one of the episodes why, just an all around good one.

It's also good world building in a sense, having us take time away from the "main mission" to catch up on an ally and how the major fight that pivoted the story was big for not only the main cast but all of the minor civilians around them.

Like I said before, the fight in Russel City is quite possibly the largest collateral damage we see in GARO just from the sheer scale of it. So it's also nice to see what exactly occurs after something of that scale impacts every day life.