Series / GARO: Kami no Kiba ~Jinga~

Spoilers for preceding entries in the Ryuga-verse continuity of the GARO series, including GARO: Kami no Kiba will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

GARO: Kami no Kiba ~Jinga~ (Can be translated as GARO: Fang of God: JINGA) is a series set in the Ryuga-Verse of the GARO franchise and a continuation of the events of the very similarly named GARO: Kami no Kiba.

After the events of GARO: Kami no Kiba, Jinga was soundly defeated by the Horror progenitor Messiah. His memories purged and his soul reincarnated, Jinga is now a member of the Mikage Family and is now one of his sworn enemies: a Makai Knight. Together with the aloof Makai Priestess Fuusa, his Madou Tool Alva and his younger brother Touma, Jinga executes his sworn duty to defend Japan from monsters known as Horrors; human-eating, body-snatching beings that prey on the malcontent and the desperate. However, despite his incredible combat skills, Jinga suffers from the trauma of a family incident that impedes his ability to fight. Questioning his own future, the dark seeds of the past have yet to wither away.

JINGA began airing on October 4th, 2018 and lasted for 13 episodes. It debuted with the bonus Episode 00, fittingly titled "JINGA."

Beware that potential spoiler elements for the Garo: Kami no Kiba film may remain unmarked. Read at your own risk.

This series includes examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Played With. What initially seemed like the abrupt removal of characters and plot-points throughout the season resulted in Rozan's case against Jinga during the Recap Episode.
  • Played straight with The spell that would analyze Touma's humanity. It never comes up again after Fuusa is interrupted by Jinga's return home in #10.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Deconstructed, then Inverted. Horror!Jinga plants seeds of doubt concerning the validity of Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset in #6. Jinga's response is not to investigate or analyze his ability, but to instead double-down on using it, Slowly Slipping Into Evil as his crusade to exorcise as many Horrors as he can causes him to lash out and murder people trying to calm him down; turning him into a Well-Intentioned Extremist by the end of #11.
• Ambiguous Situation: Horror!Jinga's taunting of his reincarnated self in Episode 6 rose doubts as to whether Touma's been completely liberated of his Horror-dom and Whether Jinga's reincarnated self also has the dormant memories of his life pre-reincarnation. The latter point is never quite addressed completely, but the former was the emotional foundation of #12.
  • Speaking of Jinga, the Watchdog's stance on Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset is left vague; Zig-Zagging between Bad Powers, Good People and Game Changer depending on the episode.
• Ambiguous Time Period: Subverted. The opening-scene in #0 and Rozan's recognition of Amily in Episode 11 make it clear that Jinga takes place some time after GARO: Kami no Kiba, though just how far into the future remains murky.
• Amnesiac Hero: Played With. See Heel–Face Brainwashing below.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Jinga hopes that his father Mizuto was this. He was. Amily ambushed him in his own home and forcibly converted him into a Horror, kick-starting the tragedy that would define Mikage's life.
  • Subverted with Nonloso, the Horror of Episode 00. Their host was betrayed by her husband, who conspired with his new lover to kill off both her and her children. Nonloso meanwhile continues to protect and nurture the children even after taking the woman over. It's ambiguous as to whether it did it out of kindness or just needed convenient cover; It's stated by Alva that said Horror worms their way into desperate mothers' hearts.
  • Jinga himself, ultimately. Desperate to run from the Enemy Within attempting to corrupt him and for personal validation, he put his entire soul into his Unique Protagonist Asset; Slowly Slipping Into Evil as he shunned (and murdered) everyone that attempted to help him. His Asset was fake, he saved nobody and his actions removed every possible obstacle to Horror!Jinga's resurrection.
• Asshole Victim: Nobody will miss the cheating lovebirds from Episode 00.
• Awful Truth: Horror!Jinga tries to convince Jinga that his attempts to help people are his way of running from his own degeneracy.
• Back from the Dead: Horror!Jinga's back and out for blood.
  • Jinga's wife Amily reveals herself to be very much alive and the source of much of the chaos, challenging Rozan at the end of #11.
• The Bad Guy Wins: With the help of his wife Amily, Horror!Jinga's plan to revive himself in Jinga Mikage's body ultimately succeeds, killing off the main cast and creating a huge influx of Horrors, once thought exorcised, to wreak havoc across the city.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Fuusa and Yoya (and for a brief moment potentially Rozan ) attempt to prove to The Watchdog that Jinga's recent actions are the result of this. Then he resists arrest, kills two Knights and murders the only woman that cared about him in front of Touma and Rozan...
• Bait-and-Switch: Meta-example. When the season was initially revealed, it was assumed that JINGA was a Prequel that would further detail Jinga's Start of Darkness. It wasn't until the plot synopsis and side-cast were revealed in full that it was outed as a continuation of the preceding Kami No Kiba film's Stinger.
  • The facial features and initial disdain Subaru shows for Touma when they reach the village in Episode 7 implies he'll be The Bully. He is, in fact, very polite (If somewhat excessive) during his eventual spar with Touma.
  • After receiving a Breaking Speech from Horror!Jinga on how his Unique Protagonist Asset was merely part of the Horror's plans, Mikage readies his weapon as though he's about to attain Heroic Second Wind and fight back...only to try and lop his own head off.
• Battle Discretion Shot: At the end of Episode 5, Jinga goes off to slay the Horror. By the time Fuusa ends up outside to observe, Jinga's already won. And the host isn't saved this time...
  • Happens again in Episode 6. The possessed jewel-thief is liberated off-screen after being cornered by Jinga at a warehouse.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Revealed to be the explanation for Jinga's strange behavior. Jinga's Horror side wants him to fall again and it's all he can do to fight back.
  • By the time of #11, this occurs again. Horror!Jinga invades his Human side's mind after he kills Fuusa. Though this time, it's a case of Evil Versus Evil.
• Blood Knight: Horror!Jinga is still as sadistic as he ever was.
  Horror!Jinga: It's more fun to kill than it is to help, right?
• Bring Him to Me: The Stinger for Episode 3 has one of the many High Priestessess order another Knight to capture Jinga so she can learn more about his Unique Protagonist Asset. (See Below)
• Broken Pedestal: Fuusa's faith in Jinga waivers throughout the show as his behavior becomes increasingly sinister. This tropes plays itself straight when Jinga defies attempts by everyone around him to relax and speak to the Watchdogs, murdering two Knights in cold-blood before her eyes. She's so incensed, she's unable to confront him properly and ends up killed herself.
• Call-Back: Episode 4 sees the return of a butterfly familiar eerily similar to the one used by a certain Fallen Makai Priestess....
• Cannot Spit It Out: Fuusa is visibly distraught at Jinga's sudden personality-change due to the butterfly familiars only he could perceive, but for whatever reason doesn't bring any of it up. This inability to vocalize her concerns nearly gets her cut down by Rozan before she's able to explain herself.
  • Fuusa finally decides to go to someone about Jinga's behavioral issues in Episode 7, receiving a spell that will allow her to Detect Evil if she uses it during one of Jinga's mood-swings. Moot as of #8 due to Retcon.
• Central Theme: The reliance of memory, one's inner evil, the durability of The Power of Trust and the validity of Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!.
• Cliffhanger Copout: In Episode #7, Fuusa receives a spell that allows her to check Jinga for impurities. Episode #8 changes this into a spell that can check Touma for Horror possession instead. She never ends up using it anyway.
• Cradling Your Kill: As Jinga guts Shijo with his Makai Blade, he brings him in for a hug as he sinks it in deeper, sadistically echoing sentiments of working together as Shijo expires.
  • Does this with the young Subaru as well, gutting him with his sword after having already fatally wounded the boy's father.
  • Jinga embraces Fuusa in #11 when she attempts to reason with him, and gets gutted with the sword of the man she valued most.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Touma stands zero chance against Subaru during their sparring match in Episode 7, but he's a Determinator and refuses to admit defeat until the coach steps in and forces him to. Luckily, he's a Graceful Loser and the two kids shake hands peacefully.
  • The possessed Touma is no match for his brother's evil doppelganger in the Finale and is defeated effortlessly.
• Dangerous Deserter: Jinga Mikage from #10 onward. Having decided his own brand of justice supersedes that of the Makai Order, he gets fed up with everyone trying to rein him in and goes rogue, taking Touma with him. The Orders suspicion of Jinga's ability to cure Horrors, Fuusa's inaction, the Knight's unwillingness to explain his issue, his willingness to cut former allies down and his Horror side's growing influence over him becomes the cocktail recipe for the mother of all miscommunications that gets more than half the cast killed and allows Jinga's Horror side to come Back from the Dead.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Roze's splash-screen and combat-movements are associated with black and purple colors typically seen in villains, yet he fights to protect others instead.
  • It Makes Sense in Context given Jinga's forgotten past as a Horror himself.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 5 focuses on Fuusa and her attempts to infiltrate a hostess club.
  • Episode 7 is this for Touma.
• Death of a Child: Episode 7 sees the young Knight trainee Subaru and his father brutally murdered by Horror!Jinga.
  • This is one of the potential outcomes of Rozan's Jinga-retrieval mission, should Touma not submit to authority. Thankfully, it doesn't come to that.
  • Horror!Jinga destroys the Horror-possessed Touma in the Finale, making good on his veiled threats to the boy's life earlier.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Jinga witnessed his fallen father stab his mother through the chest point-blank. She dies in his arms after uttering his name one last time.
  • Shijo expires as Jinga simultaneously guts him and embraces him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Fuusa.
• Death Montage: Reversed. After Ugai reveals his own Detect Evil ability, he and Jinga go on a Horror-curing spree via this trope.
• Downer Ending: All the victims that Jinga has used his Unique Protagonist Asset on throughout the entire series were not saved whatsoever, turning back into Horrors as they kill friends and family en-masse. This includes Touma, whose depair from Fuusa's death and anger toward Jinga return him to a Horror state. Jinga meanwhile loses his will to fight and is left broken from these events, allowing Horror!Jinga to absorb him and revive himself fully. Rozan arrives too late to stop Horror!Jinga's resurrection and is killed by the latter after a fight. After fulfilling his threat to Mikage and eating Touma, Horror!Jinga and Amily reunite and take off for parts unknown. The Watchdogs meanwhile are left completely unprepared for the immediate spike in Horrors and scramble into action. While otherwise a Complete Downer, Fuusa's mentor and Mikage family friend Yoyuu shows up during the credits sequence and picks up Fuusa's Madou brush and Jinga's ring Alva that were left in the cave. The end shot pans to a golden glow emanating in a corner of the cave, leaving some questions unanswered.
• Driven to Suicide: A classmate in Episode 1's clique of high-school girls was subject to this in a Noodle Incident. The bully-victim is blamed for the matter, making her the target of hazing.
  • Mikage is so shell-shocked by Horror!Jinga's thorough manipulation of his life and actions that he allows himself to be destroyed in the finale.
• Drunk with Power: As of Episode #10, Jinga has put his entire being into his Unique Protagonist Asset and has placed it above his duties as a Knight, seeing anyone that doesn't agree with him as a liability.
• Easily Forgiven: After Jinga's new ability allows Touma to be exorcised from Faunce's possession, he shows remarkably little anger toward Jinga for killing his father after receiving his dads pendant and a confession about his father's possession.
  • Rozan and Shijo are quite satisfied with Jinga after he passes a verbal Secret Test of Character. He faked it.
• Elite Mook: Many of the Horrors this season have rather simplistic intent and seem to exist solely to be cut down. Horror!Jinga and his wife Amily are the bigger threats.
• Enemy Within: Jinga's Horror side survived his reincarnation and is trying to get himself to fall once more. To this end, he takes control of Mikage's mind at certain points throughout the story and commits various murders to sabotage the Knight's relationships.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • Jinga Mikage and Horror!Jinga's dynamic as of #10.
  • The show's final battle, between Jinga and Touma's respective Horrors.
• Face–Monster Turn:
  • Jinga's father Mizuto was forcibly converted into a Horror by Amily to instill into Mikage trauma that would stay with him.
  • During #12, every victim Jinga had saved from Horror-possession up to this point is reverted VIA Horror!Jinga disabling Mikage's Unique Protagonist Asset. Mikage gets to watch in real-time as these liberated people eat their friends and family once more.
• Fallen Hero: The Makai Order sees Jinga as a deluded Tautological Templar Drunk with Power as of #10 due to increasingly non-traditional actions, them sending Rozan to arrest him or cut him down.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Justified. Jinga curing Humans of their Horror-dom without regulation is seen as a slight worthy of an arrest, despite slaying Horrors being the mission of the Makai Order. Touma, who is very innocent in this situation, is also given this treatment when he flees with Jinga. However, due to Jinga's complete un-willingness to communicate and the murders of Shijo, Kaname and Subaru resultant of his Enemy Within status, it makes sense that his Unique Protagonist Asset would arouse suspicion.
• Fighting from the Inside: Jinga is trying his best to resist his Horror side's influence, culminating in a Battle in the Center of the Mind.
• Flanderization: Jinga's transition from shy, traumatized hero to a Well-Intentioned Extremist Tautological Templar in #10 is instantaneous and abrupt with no inciting factor.
• Flat Character: Due to a complete lack of character introspection, the entire cast (sans Horror!Jinga) ends up as a set of this.
• Foreshadowing: Horror!Jinga making himself known to Mikage from Kaname's mirror acts as a precursor to his brutal murder of the Master and his young son during The Stinger.
• Forced to Watch:
  • In Episode #10, Fuusa finds Jinga after their argument tracking a Horror that targets a group of extortioners led by a teenage girl. Jinga pins Fuusa down and forces her to witness the Horror eat each of the teens one-by-one.
  • During #12, Mikage is made to see the people he thought he'd saved revert back into monsters and eat their immediate acquaintances all at once when Horror!Jinga disables his new ability. It drives him past the Despair Event Horizon.
• Framing Device: Rozan's report on Jinga Mikage and actions surrounding him is used to set up the Recap Episode.
• Game-Breaking Injury: The cheating fighter in Episode 3 attempts this on the possessed pro-wrestler prior to their match, even burning the mask his son made for him to taunt him. Of course, since Horrors have unnatural durability, the wrestler arrives on the day of the match unscratched and seething with rage. Cue Oh, Crap!.
• Good Costume Switch: The Roze Armor is essentially a shinier, less-organic version of Jinga's Demon Beast Armor from his Horror days.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Shortly after Rika is possessed by the Horror in Episode 5, we're treated to eating sounds as she devours her would-be rapist.
• Greasy Spoon: The Horror of Episode 00 works (and feeds) at one.
• Harmful to Minors: Horror!Jinga guts the very young Subaru in front of his dying dad and tried (and failed) to get Jinga Mikage to consume the very young Touma only one episode prior.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Jinga's memories of his Horror days were purged during his reincarnation into what starts off as a good person. Now that Horror!Jinga's back in the picture, it's wearing off...
• Heel–Face Turn: Episode 3 details the turn of an amoral underground fighter who gains a newfound appreciation for fighting fair after being royally thrashed by a Horror-possessed pro-wrestler Jinga liberates. The latter is now implied to be training the former, Rocky-style.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: The Horror Faunce forces Jinga and Fuusa to confront this side of their hearts, revealing that neither of them think they're good enough for what they do.
• Hero-Worshipper: Priest Ugai practically treats Jinga like the Second Coming from the moment he hears about his Unique Protagonist Asset. He gets eaten by the brick-laying Horror screaming desperately for Jinga to save him.
• Hidden Elf Village: The village in Episode 7 is an area where Knights and Priests are trained from childhood to become Horror-hunters.
• Hidden Villain: Horror!Jinga's wife Amily has been orchestrating much of the show's events in secret: forcing Jinga's father to fall, the creation of the new Horror type and spreading about the butterfly familiars stimulating Jinga Mikage's Horror side. She is revealed to the audience very early on, but only makes her in-show presence known at the end of #11.
• Hope Spot: After the revelation that his Unique Protagonist Asset was useless and merely a tool for Horror!Jinga to gather Inga, Mikage grips his sword with a look of determination on his face... and presses the blade to his throat in a half-hearted attempt to commit suicide. Disgusted by Mikage's loss of drive, Horror!Jinga saves him the trouble and absorbs him outright.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: Near the end of #11, Jinga kills Fuusa for "not believing in his power." When Horror!Jinga invades his mind after Touma's reaction, he (a sadistic Blood Knight with a Lack of Empathy that enjoys murder) points out how weird it is that Mikage killing someone he cared about was a sacrifice for the greater good.
• Idiot Ball: Everybody important grips it at some point this season.
  • The Watchdogs have a direct line of communication with Jinga through which he receives his orders....and never think to use it to actually issue him the Summons Rozan accuses him of ignoring in #10.
  • Jinga takes Touma to an isolated Makai village in #7 to protect him from Horror!Jinga's machinations. Seeing Touma cry after a Determinator demonstration is enough to convince him to change his mind and bring him back home; returning him to the danger he was trying to save him from.
  • Fuusa, a Makai Priestess whose job it is to notice the development of sinister behavior and act on signs of possession in no way, shape or form acts on Jinga's development of sinister behavior or signs of possession until Rozan railroads her into doing so.
  • Jinga Mikage never thinks to tell the Order about the machinations of his Horror-half despite Horror-possession being what forced him to cut his father down.
• I Shall Taunt You: Horror!Jinga makes his presence known to Jinga Mikage during his conversation with Kaname in Episode 7, sporting Slasher Smiles to him from a mirror nearby. Jinga keeps the encounter to himself. Then The Stinger occurs...
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All Episodes after 00 use contrasting themes in their names. #8 for example is subtitled "Faith/Doubt."
• Inciting Incident:
  • The fall of Jinga's father kick-starts Jinga's decline into weakness and the eventual return of his Horror side.
  • Jinga's murder of Shijo cause Fuusa's (and eventually the Order's) faith in him to start waivering.
  • Fuusa's secret meeting with the Watchdogs at the end of #9 causes Jinga to lose all faith in her and flee from his post, sending Rozan after him and Touma.
• Ineffectual Loner: Deconstructed. Jinga becomes more independent and less-willing to work with others as times goes on; a mixture of Amily's tampering and Fuusa's inability to act. At first, it seems like Jinga is actually doing some good; demonstrating how stifling the Makai Order's doctrines and rules can be. Then during the last three episodes, Jinga becomes Drunk On Power and starts attacking a lot of the people he cares about; eventually rushing off on his own to deal with his Enemy Within. The final nail in the coffin? Jinga's unique power was fake and simply a vehicle meant to Resurrect the Villain. The Order was Properly Paranoid the whole time and all Mikage did was aid the enemy in un-doing an entire season's worth of good...all because he insisted on going it alone.
• Informed Flaw: Jinga's lowered fighting ability due to his family-related trauma is used to call Jinga " A Makai Knight that cannot kill Horrors"...as the re-capped first fight of the show depicts him killing Nonloso.
• Interrogated for Nothing: Rozan confronts Fuusa about his apprentice Shijo's whereabouts. He nearly cuts her down, only relenting once he realizes she actually knows nothing and was convinced he had left entirely. This lessens Fuusa's caught tongue somewhat and gets her to ask Jinga if she can trust him.
• Ironic Echo:
  • The Stinger of Episode 7 parallels Touma's view of the death of his possessed father at Jinga's hands prior to the latter's confession. In this case though, Jinga actually IS possessed and nobody is spared this time.
  • The Stinger of Episode 8 sees the return of the Outlaw Couple from Episode 6....Except now the woman is the Horror.
  • The season's final battle is a meta-example. Whereas GARO shows typically end with the noble protagonist Makai Knight defeating a monstrous Horror as they fight to save the world, Jinga's last fight is between a child forced into becoming a monster and the show's Blood Knight Big Bad who has won completely and utterly so he can spread man-eating monsters ForTheEvulz.
• The Infiltration: Fuusa disguises herself as a new hostess to flush out a Horror feeding at one of the local clubs.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Jinga submits to his arrest in #11 after everyone he knows tells him to calm down. Until their backs are turned, whereupon he murders the Knights keeping him chained, abandons his Madou Tool and goes on to kill Fuusa.
• Kill the Host Body: The host of Episode 5 isn't spared this time around. It's implied Jinga ate the Horror this time.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Invoked frequently.
  • Rozan sealed away Touma's memories of the battle between Jinga and his father to protect him. Rendered moot as of Episode 2.
  • Fuusa also removes the memories those associated with eventual Horror hosts.
  • It's implied that those freed of their Horror possession via Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset forget the issues that got them possessed.
• Leave Me Alone!: When Fuusa begs Jinga to submit to the Watchdogs so they may investigate his Unique Protagonist Asset, he claims she "no longer understands him" and sullenly abandons their base.
• Living Relic: Subverted. The Horror Faunce poses as a dark object to lure in onlookers. It then forces those that view them to directly interact with their doubts and fears, reinforcing their negative feelings so they generate enough Inga for Horrors to possess.
• The Load: Subverted with Priest Ugai. He has a Detect Evil spell that makes finding Horrors faster and seems like a Barrier Warrior. He also cannot fight and sits back while Jinga does all the work. The one time he attempts to be proactive, he gets himself eaten very unceremoniously by the possessed brick-worker.
• Man Behind the Man: Jinga's wife Amily has been doing much of her husband's field-work; introducing Jinga to the butterfly that alters his behavior in Episode 4 and monitoring the Knight the rest of the show.
• Masked Luchador: Subverted. While not a luchador in style, the host of Episode 3's Horror was once a pro-wrestler. After his family was killed by a crook, he fell out of the pubic eye and now participates in an underground fighting-ring, wearing the mask his son made for him.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Rozan reveals that the outlaw couple Jinga saved back in #6 retreated back into their murderous thieving ways after being liberated, causing the woman to become the new Horror host. This event is used to convince Jinga that his power is bad...somehow.
• Monster of the Week: While Horrors have always been GARO's MOTW, JINGA's Horrors have simplistic-enough motivations and are frivolously used enough to warrant this entry.
• Mythology Gag: The face of Episode 5's Horror vaguely resembles a Hannya.
• Noodle Incident: An unknown situation in Episode 1 somehow resulted in Driven to Suicide above. The bullied girl Kanae is blamed, turning her entire clique on her.
• Not Himself:
  • Jinga becomes increasingly distant toward Fuusa throughout all of Episode 4, only to get better once Rozan and Shijo make their intent known and Jinga passes a Secret Test of Character. Then he murders Shijo in cold blood while sporting a very familiar Slasher Smile.
  • Episode 5 doesn't get any better. Whether it's borderline-flirting with Fuusa in the morning For the Evulz or taunting her after killing the host he was going to save, things are not alright in Jinga-town; especially now that Split Personality and Enemy Within are at play. See Enemy Within above.
• No Man Should Have This Power: Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset is a potential Game Changer for the Makai Order at-large. It also seems to have instilled within him quite the god complex and may be fueling the return of a major threat to just about everybody.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Jinga's Horror side invokes this for Horrors and humans.
  Horror!Jinga: What exactly is a Horror? How are they any different from Humans? Are Humans who kill Humans still Human? What gives you people the right to exterminate Horrors?
• Parental Abandonment: The Dark and Troubled Past of Episode 5's horror-host Rika begins with her mother running out on her; leaving her to face a lecherous debt-collector on her own.
• Plot Hole: Even at its most straightforward, Jinga's narrative has numerous gaps. The Recap Episode gives most of these a Hand Wave.
  • The spell Fuusa was given during #7 was originally meant to cast Detect Evil on Jinga and assess his mental/physical state, not check on Touma's humanity; which was a concern of Jinga's, not hers.
  • #8 introduces Ugai, a Priest that can detect Horrors faster than the Watchdogs....except Knights usually only discover Horrors via said Watchdogs.
  • In #10, Jinga learns for the first time that it was Horror!Jinga's influence that made him murder Shijo in #4 and the Master-son duo in the village during #7....except that Rozan asks him about it point-blank a minute prior and his eyes imply he already knew.
• Poor Communication Kills: A lot of the tragic events that happened in the series would've been averted or at least mitigated had Jinga told someone exactly what was happening to him, took the time to investigate his new but unknown ability to exorcise Horrors, or submitted to investigation by the Watchdogs. However, Jinga's bizarre stubbornness and insistence on skirting the rules turns everyone against him and keeps them oblivious to Horror!Jinga's plan.
  • Fuusa also applies, as she could have at least confided in Rozan earlier about her suspicions on Jinga's recent odd behavior, only to keep her issues to herself for no logical reason other than loyalty, causing a lot of deaths simply by saying nothing.
• The Power of Trust: Averted. The host of Episode 5 was possessed by a Horror after suffering a number of betrayals in rapid succession.
  • Becoming a Central Theme for the season, as Jinga's bizarre behavior puts Fuusa's faith in him to the test.
• Properly Paranoid: The Watchdog is immediately suspicious of Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset and assigns the Order to spy on (and eventually apprehend) him. Despite the occasional logic-loop, they ultimately made the right call: Jinga eventually gets Drunk On Power and goes rogue; inadvertently contributing to a decades-long agenda to revive Garo's old Horror foe. Unfortunately, the Order ends up acting on this just a little too late; those not directly dealt with ending the show mobilizing for a massive Horror infestation.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: The entire show is a 12-episode case of a Makai Knight becoming the very thing he fights against. Mikage's given a special power to finally save people from Demonic Possession just as his darker side begins exerting its influence to force him into committing acts of evil; all the while trying to goad the Knight into embracing it. The mixture of personal pride and scrutiny from understandably-suspicious superiors alienates him from his colleagues and eventually his loved ones. This convinces the Knight that 'they're to blame,'' and he strikes out on his own as a Tautological Templar that thinks he's above the rules, cutting down many of the heroes sent to stop him (including Love Interest Fuusa). It's only the peak of Mikage's newfound extremism that Horror!Jinga and his wife expose themselves and their plans; revealing that Mikage's special power was All for Nothing and that he didn't change anything. The shock of having sacrificed everything and everyone he loved to become the villain of his own story at the behest of another breaks the Makai Knight completely. Robbed of hope and powerless, Mikage allows his Horror-half to consume him and return to the mortal coil.
• Rape Discretion Shot: The camera pans away to Fuusa's horrified face shortly after the Debt collector in Episode 5's flashback forces himself on Rika.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Episode 5's Troubled Backstory Flashback culminates in the debt-collector forcing himself on the host-to-be.
• Recap Episode: Episode #9.
• Redemption Rejection: In #11, it seems as though Touma and Fuusa briefly convince Jinga to yield to Rozan's enforcement team and turn himself in for questioning and arrest. The moment Rozan's back is turned, he kills his way over the point of redemption at the cost of two Knights, Alva and Fuusa.
• Reformed Bully: The bullied girl in Episode 1 is subtly implied to be this, assuming her driving a classmate to suicide wasn't just justification on the hazers' part.
• Reincarnation: After his defeat at Messiah's hands, Jinga's soul gets reborn into the Makai Knight we know now.
  • Eventually revealed to be a bit more complicated than that. While Jinga himself was reincarnated, his Horror-self survived the transfer and now wants its body back.
• Resurrect the Villain: The motive behind the bizarre circumstances Jinga Mikage encounters throughout the show. Amily and the original Horror Jinga are sabotaging Mikage's life and mental state in the hopes of using the Knight as a medium to bring said Horror back to life. It works.
• Retcon:
  • From Episode 8 onwards, the spell given to Fuusa by the village Priest in Episode 7 is changed from being a spell that could detect the source of Jinga's behavioral issues to one that could see if Touma was still Human or not.
  • The Watchdogs' order for Rozan to bring Jinga to them was changed into spying on Jinga and assessing his Unique Protagonist Asset.
  • Related to the above, Rozan claims Jinga has been refusing official summons in #10....except he's never received one before this point.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Shijo is the main focus of Episode 4 and looks like he's going to join the main cast. Jinga then decides to take him by the lakeside and....stab him brutally through the chest.
  • Poor Priest Ugai. Wanted to save Horrors with Jinga's Unique Protagonist Asset so much he was willing to defy Watchdog borders and subvert the rules. Instead, he ended up food.
• Scare 'Em Straight: Jinga and Fuusa take Touma to Faunce's lair in Episode 2 to instill within him just how terrifying Horrors actually are. When a pack ambushes them inside, Touma's nothing short of a desperate, fearful mess.
• School Bullying Is Harmless: Averted. Episode 1 is nothing but a demonstration of why this is untrue.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Played With. After his defeat at the hands of Messiah, Jinga is reincarnated into a human Makai Knight. However, his original self is hiding within the depths of said reincarnation; the tragedy this season being an elaborate ploy by Amily to bring the original back to life.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As the show goes on, Jinga increasingly prioritizes his own moral compass over that of the Makai Order's. It gets worse in #8 when Priest Ugai peer-pressures Jinga into going rogue and "cure" Horrors en-masse unauthorized. By #11, it's devolved into a full-blown messiah complex; Jinga perfectly willing to slaughter fellow Knights and even Fuusa to enforce his own idea of justice.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Horror!Jinga's current situation, confined inside the body of his current Human iteration, who may be the same.
• Sequel Episode: Jinga as a whole serves as one to the film that immediately precedes it, continuing from that film's post-credits scene.
• Show, Don't Tell: Subverted. Jinga's Informed Flaw according to Rozan's report during the Recap Episode is his inability to cut Horrors down due to his family trauma. While we see Jinga hesitate to kill Nonloso in #00, he actually sees it through and has yet to ever actually let a Horror go scot-free during the show's run.
• Slasher Smile: Jinga's actions at the end of Episode 4 have him sporting one akin to his old self.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Alva.
• Split Personality: While it was teased during the promotional trailers, Episode 6 outright confirms that Horror!Jinga isn't entirely gone and is taking shelter inside of his reincarnated self.
• Status Quo Is God:
  • Episode 7 saw Jinga and Fuusa relocate Touma to a village to protect him from Horrors and Jinga's evil side. They stay there less than a day before Jinga changes his mind After see Touma be a Determinator during a spar and takes the boy back with them, rendering the whole affair completely pointless.
  • The finale of the show enforces this. Due to Horror!Jinga using his good self as a springboard to return to the mortal realm, nearly all events post-Gold Storm Sho are rendered moot.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Episode 7 ends with Jinga accepting Touma back into his fold after trying to get him to settle in the village and protect him from his Horror side. Said side then re-visits the village in secret and murders the Master he'd interacted with earlier and his prepubescent son.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Jinga's fatal flaw as a Makai Knight is his soft heart, which caused him to briefly hesitate in cutting down his father when he fell. It lingers within him to his day, even affecting his battle against Nonloso once he discovered the fate of their host.
  • The friend of the bullied girl in Episode 1 develops a friendship for someone that may or may not have driven a classmate to suicide.
• Talking to Themself: Jinga and his Horror side have extensive morality debates within the confines of Jinga's mind.
• Tautological Templar: Mikage as of #10. He's deluded himself into thinking he can save people more efficiently than the Watchdogs can to justify skirting the rules and murdering Fuusa.
• Transformation of the Possessed: Many of the Horrors this season grow an unnatural amount of muscle-mass, red eyes and fanged teeth instead of having inhuman forms. The amount of monsters with battle-forms can be counted on one hand.
• Trauma Conga Line: How the host of Episode 5 ended up possessed.
  • #12 is a massive one for Jinga Mikage. In order: He is unable to hide his recent murder of Fuusa, forcing his little brother into turmoil. Then, Horror!Jinga reveals that Mikage's Unique Protagonist Asset, the one thing he'd put his heart into due to his crumbling self-worth, nothing more than a whimsy created by him to get Mikage to gather Inga for him. After that, Mikage is Forced to Watch as those he thought he saved kill everyone they know one-by-one. The shock removes him of all drive and hope to live, allowing his darker half to absorb him and revive once more.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: The Horror of Episode 5 allows Fuusa to see the circumstances that got its host possessed.
• Undignified Death: See Hero-Worshipper and The Load above.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: Jinga's bite-wound allows him to un-do Horror possession of a Host if they're cut down with a slash from the infected arm, something only he can apparently do.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Fuusa, due to keeping Jinga's odd behavior from just about everyone until Episode 7 and putting forth too little effort to see Jinga contained afterward; preventing anyone from noticing him Slowly Slipping Into Evil or preparing themselves for what would be Horror!Jinga's return.
• Variable-Length Chain: The Horror Padeena uses these against its foes.
• Vigilante Execution: The Horror from Episode 3 attacks and feeds on criminals, disrupting narcotics rings and killing many untouched by the law.
• We Can Rule Together: Played With. Jinga attempts to convince Fuusa to join him in his crusade in #11. He only said this so she would let her guard down and allow him to get close enough to gut her with his blade.
• We Used to Be Friends: When Fuusa begs Jinga to answer the Watchdogs' summons in #10, he outright rejects her and leaves their household to go on-the-run.
• Wham Line: Fed up with Jinga's odd behavior and complete disregard for Priest Ugais's death, Fuusa finally asks an important question that she probably should've asked earlier on.
  Fuusa: Are you really Jinga?
• Wham Shot: After Jinga cuts Padeena down, not only does it's host survive, (First time in series' history) but it's as though she'd never been possessed at all.
  Fuusa: Did you miss her?
  Jinga: No, I definitely cut her.
  • At the end of Episode 4, Jinga and Rozan's apprentice Shijo track a Horror to the lakeside. They don't find a Horror. Shijo however finds a sword inside of his chest, courtesy of Jinga.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: At the start of Episode 6, Fuusa asks Jinga if he remembers the events of the day before. ( In which he had cut down a Horror, only to devour them instead of liberate them due to Horror!Jinga's influence ) His response is murky at best.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Fuusa knocks Touma out in #10 to cast the spell that would determine his humanity. Jinga enters the room before she can cast it. It's never seen or mentioned again after that point.
  • Speaking of Jinga, cryptic reactions on Jinga's end in #6 imply that Mikage has regained the memories of his Horror life, but that point is never expanded upon.
  • How Amily returned from the Makai Realm with her memories intact is never explained in any form.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Horror!Jinga invokes this.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Fuusa is appalled at Jinga's lack of reaction to Priest Ugai's death and calls him out on it, delivering the Wham Line above.
• What You Are in the Dark: Horror!Jinga thinks that Humans seek to achieve their own desires at the end of day, whether they profess good intent or not.
• Would Hurt a Child: Horror!Jinga apparently thinks kid horrors "are fantastic" and attempts to get Jinga to devour his brother Touma. It doesn't work.
  • Horror!Jinga kills both Master Kaname and his son Subaru during The Stinger of Episode 7.
  • Rozan and his group of enforcers are ordered by the Watchdog to apprehend Jinga and his little brother.... or cut them down. One of said enforcers attempts to Mercy Kill Touma in #11, only to be subdued by Fuusa.
  • Horror!Jinga murders the possessed Touma in the Finale.
• Wretched Hive: The hostesses of the club in Episode 5 are constantly jockeying for the number one spot, one's implied to be a Serial Rapist and one of them caused two suicides. No wonder it took Fuusa six months to deduce which one was possessed.
• You Killed My Father: Touma (pre- memory wipe) believes Jinga to be guilty of this. The truth is considerably more complicated.
  • Episode 2 removes the seal on his memories, bringing this out in full force and getting the poor kid possessed by a Horror spawned from the grief of losing his father. Thanks to Jinga's wound, He gets better.
  • Subaru witnesses Horror!Jinga slash his dads throat open. Unlike Touma however, he isn't spared either and gets brutally gutted; bleeding out as his dying dad watches in despair.
• Zombie Infectee: The bite Jinga receives from the Horror Padeena does...something...to his genes, though the results affect enemies he fights with the arm rather than the man himself.