Line #89 Anime/GaroTheAnimation


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/63667l_9271.jpg]]
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3	''GARO: The Animation'' (known in Japanese as ''GARO: Honoo no Kokuin'' lit. GARO: The Carved Seal of Flames) is a 2014 dark fantasy anime series and the first animated entry in the Series/{{GARO}} franchise, animated by Creator/{{MAPPA}} and written by Creator/YasukoKobayashi.
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5	In a medieval European kingdom called Variante, a woman accused of witchcraft is burnt at the stake, but not before she can give birth to a child mysteriously shielded from the flames. A man clad in silver armor emerges from the palace and whisks the child to safety before the magic protecting it can wear off. The High Priest and Royal Adviser, [[BigBad Mendoza]], who blames the witch and her people for the king's poor health, launches an extermination war against her people: The Makai Knights and Makai Priests. These magic wielders are all systematically hunted down, captured, tortured and killed. The people of the Church claim that this was a righteous extermination of demons. What the people do not know is that the people who were killed were a clan of warriors dedicated to sealing the true demons known as Horrors.
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7	Over a decade later, virtually all of the Makai have been eliminated; the few who remain have secluded themselves from society and live in hiding. Two of them, however, still actively follow their duty of eliminating Horrors: GARO and ZORO. Every Makai Knight wields magical suits of armor and immense power. One of whom is Germán Luís, who holds the title of ZORO, the knight who rescued the baby from the flames. The infant turns out to be his son. The baby, now a young man and the current holder of GARO, is León Luís. León and his father embark on a journey to seek out their surviving allies, eliminate the Horrors, and exact revenge on those who hunted them to near-extinction.
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9	A movie sequel ''GARO: Divine Flame'' with the same characters has been released.
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11	!!This work contains examples of:
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13	* ActionGirl: Emma kicks ass with the boys at their level, enhanced by her devil-may-care attitude.
14	* AlliterativeName: León Luis.
15	* AndIMustScream: After [[spoiler: Mendoza becomes Immortal, he is trapped ''forever'' in flames, cursed to burn eternally and never allowed release.]]
16	* AnimatedAdaptation
17	* AnimationBump: The animation quality is pretty lackluster in most low-key scenes. But like [[Anime/RageOfBahamutGenesis another series made by the same studio in the same season]], the animation quality goes through the roof during the battle sequences. In particular, the duel between [[spoiler:Alfonso and León]], the battle between Ema and [[spoiler:Luciano]] and the final battle between Mendoza and [[spoiler:León as GARO and ZORO]] stand out as the most gorgeously animated scenes in the show.
18	* AnimeHair: Count the amount of people with hair that seems remotely physically possible in the real world. It's doubtful you'll need more than one hand. Germán shouldn't even be able to ''stand up'' with that.
19	* BadassCape: Germán has one when wearing the ZORO armor.
20	* BadassLongcoat: Being a franchise staple, León wears one like all the holder of GARO. [[spoiler:Though he doesn't wear the iconic white longcoat until Episode 18.]]
21	* BaitAndSwitch: Episode 9 talks about a chimaera. [[spoiler:And by chimaera they mean a gigantic hearse filled with skeletons, corpses, and the souls of the damned.]]
22	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted, even for the female Makai, Emma. The bad guys don't hesitate to rough her up, and she's left with a black eye and quite a few bruises.
23	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Par for the ''Garo'' course, making deals with the dark forces will result in a nasty twist. And at the series' end, Mendoza [[spoiler: wanted immortality. It just means he'll have no respite from being trapped in eternal fire.]]
24	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: León's mother dies moments after she gave birth to him.
25	* BloodMagic: [[spoiler: Mendoza's Horror-controlling Madougu, which is powered by the blood of humans. It was for this reason that the Makai excommunicated him.]]
26	* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: German is injured, pretty much exhausted and is unable to move when he is surrounded by a horde of Horrors in the climax of Episode 22. The scene is abruptly cut just as a Horror is about to assault him]].
27	* BoomerangBigot: Mendoza, the mastermind behind the genocide of the Makai people is one himself, and used to be one of the highest ranking members of their community.
28	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Mendoza uses Bernardo, a former Makai Knight that he has under his magical control, as a personal attack dog and enforcer.
29	* BrokenPedestal: Alfonso witnessing [[spoiler: Leon being consumed as LOST SOUL GARO and putting Santa Bard to the torch shatters his respect for the man (or at least deems him unworthy of the Knight of Light myth associated with GARO), forcing him to take up GARO himself, put down the rampaging Horror and kill Mendoza in the process - things which Leon should have been doing in the first place]].
30	* BurnTheWitch: How León's mother is killed.
31	* TheCasanova: Much like [[Series/GAROTheOneWhoShinesInTheDarkness Takeru/ZEN]], Germán sleeps around a lot. He justifies this based on the fact that León inherited GARO from his mother, so Germán needs to have another kid to inherit ZORO.
32	* CentralTheme: Grief and loss.
33	* CorruptChurch: Subverted. Their leader, Mendoza, clearly has his own agenda and arranged the murders of countless innocent people. But it seems that outside of Mendoza's witch hunt and the officials who take advantage of their positions, the Church is a benevolent entity. For instance, in episode 4 we find out that [[spoiler: villages holding ceremonies that involve human sacrifices]] is outlawed by them and that people can report such actions to them, and possibly even get asylum.
34	* DarkActionGirl: Octavia becomes a deadly opponent to the heroes as the series goes.
35	* DarkestHour: [[spoiler:German is dead, Ema and Alfonso are badly wounded, Valiante faces imminent destruction and Anima has been resurrected.]]
36	* DarkIsNotEvil:
37	** The Makai Knights' armors are even more menacing than usual, due partly to the CG letting it behave in a disturbingly organic manner.
38	** León prefers to dress in [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red and black]], in addition to his generally grim personality. Subverted [[spoiler:after he earned back his GARO armour in Episode 18, when he starts to wear a white longcoat like Saejima family]].
39	** Ema, the gang's resident Alchemist, has the looks and mannerisms of a particularly sinister FemmeFatale.
40	* {{Deconstruction}}: Leon is one of the traditional edgy ''GARO'' AntiHero. Being a revenge obsessed EmoTeen is shown to be a very bad thing and is one of the main factors that leads to him self-destructing. In contrast, the noble KnightInShiningArmor Alfonso is shown to be a much better GARO than Leon, [[spoiler: and Leon only becomes worthy of being GARO again when he drops revenge and becomes a straight up hero.]]
41	* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Leon losing GARO to Alfonso and failing to commit suicide]] gives off this vibe, if the story will not develop into a different direction. Later slowly subverted.
42	* DidntThinkThisThrough: When Lara's house is attacked by the MonsterOfTheWeek, Leon advices her and her family to run away to a certain tree where a barrier against Horrors is. However, [[spoiler:Lara's grandfather disobeys the orders because he wants to save his harvest first, so he and his family returns to the burning house. This only suceeds in getting Lara and all her family killed.]]
43	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:After losing GARO to Alfonso, León loses all will to live and throws himself off a cliff]]. He survives and was taken in by a farming family.
44	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Mendoza's quite-abrupt death by [[HoistByHisOwnPetard being swallowed by a Horror he himself summoned]]]], which was then swiftly dispatched by Alfonso [[spoiler: wearing GARO]]. Even German [[LampshadeHanging notes how underwhelming an end it was for him]]. [[spoiler:However, it turns out that Mendoza is NotQuiteDead.]]
45	* DualWielding: ZORO wields two short swords in battle.
46	* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler: Bernardo, introduced as a traitorous Makai Knight, was under the influence of Mendoza's Maka Artifact. When he's about to die, he forgets everything that happened after coming into contact with it and passes on as he was before turning to the dark side.]]
47	* DysfunctionalFamily: Germán and León rarely talk without arguing, usually over the former's lecherous habits.
48	* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The chimaera]].
49	* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Germán loves the ladies, and the ladies love Germán.
50	* EvilChancellor: The royal adviser Mendoza, who later takes the throne and forces the prince and his mother into hiding.
51	* {{Expy}}: Many characters are arguably based off other characters in the franchise.
52	** Germán is a Spanish and older version of [[Series/GAROTheOneWhoShinesInTheDarkness Takeru Jakuzure]] with [[Series/{{GARO}} Rei Suzumura's]] armor.
53	** León is heavily reminiscent of [[Series/{{GARO}} Kouga Saejima]] with a mix of [[Series/GAROTheOneWhoShinesInTheDarkness Ryuga Dougai's]] status as beginner.
54	** Alfonso's personality resembles Raiga Saejima a lot, which makes further sense when [[spoiler: he becomes GARO himself]].
55	** Bernardo is pretty much KIBA/Barago, down to the armor and, to a lesser extent, backstory. His being a Makai Knight unwittingly corrupted, however, borrows more from [[Series/GAROTheOneWhoShinesInTheDarkness Sonshi]].
56	* FallenHero:
57	** The Black Knight, [[spoiler:Bernardo Dión, was a Makai Knight and a personal friend of Germán and Anna. He turned to evil after he lost faith in humanity during ThePurge that killed most Makai Alchemists and Knights]].
58	** Mendoza. See FreudianExcuse below.
59	** [[spoiler: León himself became this in episode 12. After Mendoza's MindRape, he went ''absolutely berserk'' and destroyed half of Santa Bard.]]
60	* FanDisservice: When we find out the prostitute with Germán is a Horror, she's got shadowy tendrils emerging from all of her private parts and face.
61	* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Variante is this to Inquisition-era Spain.
62	* FreudianExcuse: It's implied that something was done to Mendoza to make him hate the Makai so much. When Germán tries to find out what in episode two, he's shoo'd away by his informant.
63	** Episode 10 finally explains: [[spoiler: He was a Makai Alchemist who used blood experiments (it's shown that several people were bled dry for those) to create a way to control horrors, which he believed the Knights should have used to seize power. For this, he was excommunicated, and given a MarkOfShame that would be passed down his bloodline, to prevent future knights or alchemists from ever going near his descendants. He befriended the king of Variante and made a new life for himself, but when his wife gave birth to a marked child, he killed them both and swore to wipe out the Makai bloodlines in revenge.]]
64	** All of the main antagonists have one but they are all also deconstructions. Their {{FreudianExcuse}}s are used to explain why they are evil but it does not justify ''any'' of the evil acts they perform and they're treated as complete villains instead of tragic or {{AntiVillain}}s.
65	* FullFrontalAssault: Germán to the bandit-turned-Horror.
66	* GagPenis: In [[NakedPeopleAreFunny episode 8]], just about every lady who catches a glimpse of Germán's family jewels is struck by a mix of embarrassment and awe.
67	* GratuitousSpanish: To go with the [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition setting]].
68	* AHeroIsBorn: The story starts at the moment of his birth... and when his mother is about to be [[BurnTheWitch burned in a witch trial.]]
69	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Rafael sacrifices himself during the battle against the chimaera.]]
70	* HesBack: [[spoiler:Leon regains GARO in Episode 18]]
71	* ImperiledInPregnancy: Anna, León's mother, was sentenced to burn at the stake while pregnant with him. [[HeroicSacrifice She was able to give birth to him at the cost of her life.]]
72	* KnightErrant: Germán and León.
73	* KnightInShiningArmor: Played Straight. Being one of these is shown to be a ''very'' good thing. They are shown to be far more psychologically stable that most Makai Knights and very good at resisting the darkness. Alfonso obtains great success because of his gallantry [[spoiler: and once Leon becomes one he becomes worthy of being GARO again and his power increases.]]
74	* LetsGetDangerous: Germán takes it upon himself to put down the blacksmith that turned to a Horror. [[CurbStompBattle He does not fuck around.]]
75	* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the live-action source material ''The Animation'' is based on, very much so. There are several [[BreatherEpisode Breather Episodes]], TheMentor is also the ButtMonkey at the end of various slapstick, and there's an entire episode dedicated solely to [[spoiler: Germán being naked]].
76	* LikesOlderWomen: León usually reacts to Ema's teasing as one might expect, but [[spoiler: episode 19 ends with the two locked in a passionate kiss on Ema's bed.]]
77	* LovableSexManiac:
78	** Again, just like Takeru/ZEN, Germán spends quite a lot of screentime sleeping around with prostitutes, and is quite cheerful about it. It's PlayedForLaughs.
79	** LadykillerInLove: However, similar to [[Series/GAROTheOneWhoShinesInTheDarkness Takeru/ZEN with Rui]], Germán finds himself falling for Ximena.
80	* MeaningfulName: León is "lion" in spanish, a fitting name for the wielder of GARO, the Makai Knight with the reputation for being the strongest.
81	* MindRape: [[spoiler:Mendoza makes León relive his mother's burning at the stake.]]
82	* MissingMom: Take a guess.
83	* MonsterOfTheWeek: As typical for this franchise.
84	* MoreThanMindControl: [[spoiler: Bernardo, a traitorous Makai Knight working for Mendoza was under the influence of one of his dark Makai Artifacts, which amplified his doubts about protecting humans.]]
85	* NakedPeopleAreFunny:
86	** Germán spends 95% of episode 8 naked. It's also the most lighthearted episode.
87	** He reappears in episode 10, naked again, and running from an angry husband. It's used as comedy relief.
88	* NoFlowInCGI: Averted. The CGI Makai Knight armors generally act as an organic part of their user's body.
89	* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:Upon learning that his mother was DrivenToSuicide, Alfonso wonders this about himself and Leon. Note that this is ''after'' he had furiously branded Leon a traitor for destroying half the city.]]
90	* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Much more so than in the live-action series: despite Makai Knight armor being supposedly passed down by bloodline, the Makai Knight may also will it to be passed down to another person if they deem this person worthy, which is what happens when [[spoiler: Rafael passes on GAIA to Alfonso before being killed]]. This is PlayedForDrama in Ep. 12, where [[spoiler: after Leon goes berserk and becomes "unworthy" of holding GARO, Alfonso, sharing the same bloodline with him, unlocks the full power of GARO after being forced to wield it]].
91	* PassingTheTorch:
92	** [[spoiler:Rafael passes down GAIA to Alfonso after his HeroicSacrifice.]]
93	** Furthermore: [[spoiler: Alfonso is forced to take up GARO himself after Leon goes berserk and turns into LOST SOUL GARO]]. Notably, the GARO armor becomes similar to [[MythologyGag the classic caped one we know of the franchise]], compared to the light, seemingly-incomplete SleepModeSize it has when Leon was using it.
94	* ThePurge: The Makai Knights and Priests in Variante where killed [[RapeAsDrama (or worse for the Priestesses)]] under the pretext of a witch hunt. Only a fraction of the once-thriving community survived, and they all live in hiding. With Mendoza [[spoiler: (supposedly) killed in the aftermath of the Santa Bard fire in Episode 12 and his crimes exposed to the people of Variante]], this seems to have stoped altogether.
95	* RapidFireFisticuffs: Done by Alfonso as a finishing move to the horror of the week in Episode 17.
96	* RebelPrince: Prince Alfonso becomes a variant when the High Priest takes control of the kingdom.
97	* RedOniBlueOni: Germán and León, respectively.
98	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: While Alfonso was too young to realize what Mendoza was doing or stop him, when he grows up it becomes clear that he cares more for his people than he does maintaining absolute power. As of Episode 13, this is further expanded with him being a hands-on Prince Regent by day in rehabilitating Santa Bard fire, while [[spoiler: walking the streets at night with German as GARO]].
99	* RunningGag: León punching his father in the face for his ChivalrousPervert tendencies, often from a very high place. Once Alfonso joins the party, it's usually followed by his staring down in shock as Germán plummets to the ground.
100	* SuperpoweredEvilSide: As always, [[spoiler:LOST SOUL GARO]].
101	* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: At the series' end, [[spoiler: Ximena is pregnant by her night with German.]]
102	* StakingTheLovedOne: It turns out that Ema's husband Luciano had become a horror years ago. Ema has been hunting him to destroy him and spare him that fate.
103	* ThouShaltNotKill: The people of Makai are forbidden to take human lives, as they are their protectors against the Horrors. This is one of the main reasons for why ThePurge against them was so effective.
104	* TitleTheAdaptation: Creator/FUNimation's official English title is ''GARO: The Animation''. Even though no other ''GARO'' series were licensed in the US until later.
105	* WhamEpisode: Episode 12, especially for all those who knew the universe well: [[spoiler:Alfonso ''took over the GARO armour'' after León unwitfully decimated half of Santa Bard]]. This is the first time even for the franchise as a whole.
106	** Episode 17 as well. [[spoiler:While we could anticipate Lara's family dying, ''her'' death was far more unexpected.]] And again, because [[spoiler:the death of a main female lead (or that supposed to-be)]] was completely unheard in the franchise.
107	** Episode 18. [[spoiler:Mendoza is still alive, and German has been ordered by the Watchdogs to help him. "Plus, as a protector, it's something that's worth doing."]]
108	* WithOurSwordsScene: [[spoiler:In the finale, León grabs his recently deceased father's sword and uses it to summon both GARO and ZORO.]]

Context Anime / GaroTheAnimation