History Series / GaroVersusRoad

* BattleRoyaleGame: Premise of the show. One hundred people fight to the last man for the prize of a single wish.

* HistoryRepeats: The Versus Road BattleRoyaleGame is based on the one [[spoiler: Shousetsu himself]] was forced to participate in.

* IncompetenceInc: Implied. The Makai Order of this world never accounted for [[spoiler: the ''Garo Armor itself'' denying a contestant]], nor do they seem to be able to detect [[spoiler: the flow of dark energies emaning from them and tainting it]]. Their only response to the armor's dormancy is to simply try again with a new batch of bodies. They're [[spoiler: obliterated by Shousetsu before they can]].

* PyrrhicVictory: Episode #9 reveals that [[spoiler: Versus Road was not the first murder game]]. A young [[spoiler: Shousetsu]] was the victor of [[spoiler: the previous game]]...Only for the prize itself to reject him. All he had was a troupe of dead friends and mentors that just [[ViciousCycle wanted to start the whole thing over again]].
** Kuon managed to bring [[spoiler: Shousetsu down and survive the murder-game]]. But his survival came at the cost of [[spoiler: everyone else's death]], he may be stranded in the Makai Realm and [[spoiler: Azami [[KarmaHoudini got the completed Dark Metal she wanted with no consequences]]]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Kuon manages to use the GARO to its fullest extent to defeat Veil/Shoutetsu, but at the end he decides to abandon the sword and leaves for parts unknown, being the Versus Road's SoleSurvivor. Meanwhile Azami is still alive and armed with The Veil, plotting who knows what]].

** The Makai Order in this continuity is the darkest it has ever been. They worship the Garo Armor like a cult and put teens into InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath at the end of the training, then make the survivor attempt to claim Garo. Unsurprisingly, the noble Armor symbolically cries during the process [[spoiler:with Inga spawned from senseless deaths, which is collected by Azami]], and ''outright refuses'' to be wielded by such champion. The Order seems to fail to get the clue, as they just deem the candidate unworthy and do all of that ''again''.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of ''GARO'' in general. The seedier aspects and implications behind how the GARO-verses work are out on full-display. In layman's terms, [[PerspectiveFlip Versus Road is what GARO would probably look like from the average joe's point-of-view]].
** The [[BigGood usually kind]] [[TricksterMentor if antisocial]] wizards are portrayed as a group of reclusive hermits whose [[BlueandOrangeMorality physical/moral disconnect from regular society]] is taken to its logical conclusion; resulting in [[spoiler: a band of murderers with a seemingly non-existent crusade whose single-minded devotion to a hero-figure [[HarmfulToMinors gets their acolytes]] [[BattleRoyaleGame killed on a regular basis]] and morally erodes the ones that survive]], resulting in warped, dangerous people capable of causing events like Versus Road's.
** The protagonists are [[TheEveryman just regular people]] roped into a mystical Lovecraftian conspiracy while the main villain isn't an OmnicidalManiac EldritchAbomination from hell but someone deeply traumatized and lashing out. Even the presence of the ''actual'' EldritchAbomination is downplayed and only tangentially connected to the show's events.
** The mystical elements of GARO step aside to more straightforward and visceral fighting not from trained combatants but from civilians forced to improvise. While magic and mysticism are still there, they're subtle and function more as hooks for world-building.

* MacGuffin: Hoshiai's charm is left behind after [[spoiler: his suicide]]. The charm has some sort of hidden power that allowed Kuon to save himself from a fatal blow near the end of the following round.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Kuon manages to use the GARO to its fullest extent to defeat Veil/Shoutetsu, but at the end he decides to abandoned the sword and leaves for parts unknown, being the Versus Road's SoleSurvivor. Meanwhile Azami is still alive and armed with The Veil, plotting who knows what]].

* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Hoshiai destroys himself]] before he's able to fully become a Horror.

* TheDragon: Azami to Shousetsu.
** DragonWithAnAgenda: She simply [[spoiler: wanted Veil to be built]] and cared nothing for Shousetsu's [[spoiler: scheme to TakeOverTheWorld]].

* PoisonousFriend: In the past, Azami sympathizes with [[spoiler: Shousetsu]] and goads him into [[spoiler: killing the Priests overseeing the first BattleRoyaleGame]] with the Dark Metal.

* KillEmAll: Only [[spoiler: Amou]] makes it to the finale, meanwhile, [[spoiler: Azami continues to lurk in the shadows for some future plot.]]

Versus Road is an experimental installment for the Garo franchise. Themed after video-games, it downplays many of series' HenshinHero and {{Magitek}} elements in favor of a more confined setting, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters larger core cast]] and heavier emphasis on martial arts and choreography.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Azami's plan to get [[spoiler: Kuon and Hoshiai to in-fight]] doesn't work, so she decides to just [[spoiler: turn Hoshiai into a Horror]] instead.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Amou manages to use the GARO to its fullest extent to defeat Veil/Shoutetsu, but at the end he's abandoned the sword and leaves for parts unknown, being the Versus Road's SoleSurvivor. Meanwhile Azami is still alive and armed with The Veil, plotting who knows what]].

* TragicKeepsake: After Hoshiai activates his self-destruct collar, Kuon keeps the charm he left behind. [[spoiler: It saves his life in the following round]].

* {{Yakuza}}: Kanata's got enough of the tattoos, thuggish persona and stereptypical weapon-types to qualify. Bonus points for his ambition being to become a crime boss.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of ''GARO'' in general. [[RealityEnsues The seedier aspects and implications behind how the GARO-verses work are out on full-display]]. In layman's terms, [[PerspectiveFlip Versus Road is what GARO would probably look like from the average joe's point-of-view]].
** The [[BigGood usually kind]] [[TricksterMentor if antisocial]] wizards are portrayed as a group of reclusive hermits whose [[BlueandOrangeMorality physical/moral disconnect from regular society]] is [[RealityEnsues taken to its logical conclusion]]; resulting in [[spoiler: a band of murderers with a seemingly non-existent crusade whose single-minded devotion to a hero-figure [[HarmfulToMinors gets their acolytes]] [[BattleRoyaleGame killed on a regular basis]] and morally erodes the ones that survive]], resulting in warped, dangerous people capable of causing events like Versus Road's.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Amou manages to use the GARO to its fullest extent to defeat Veil/Shoutetsu, but at the end he's abandoned the sword and leaves for parts unknown, being the Versus Road's SoleSurvivor. Meanwhile Azami is still alive, plotting who knows what.]]

* HowWeGotHere: #9 is all about [[spoiler: how this world's version of the Makai Order fell and how Versus Road came about from its remains]].