Film / GARO: Kami no Kiba

Spoilers for preceding entries in the Ryuga-verse continuity of the GARO series, including GARO: Gold Storm Sho will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

GARO: Kami no Kiba (Can be translated as GARO: Fang of God) is a tokusatsu film that's part of the GARO franchise; as well as a Season Finale to GARO: Gold Storm Sho.

The events of Gold Storm Sho has resulted in the cast going their separate ways, returning to their Horror-hunting duties. However, things take a turn for the odd when a mysterious Makai Priestess known as Banbi approaches Aguri for a favor. Next thing they know, Takeru and Ryuga both have their Makai Knight Armors seized by Banbi and a possibly-fallen Aguri. At the same time, a group of Horrors seek to utilize an artifact known as the God's Fang to travel to the moon and gain power.

Little does everyone know that these events are connected, and will reunite the Makai Knights with an enemy thought dead....

Not to be confused with the similarly named Garo: Kami No Kiba ~Jinga~, which is a continuation of Jinga's story following The Stinger.

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GARO: Kami no Kiba provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Rian and Ryume reprise these roles again.
  • Newcomers include the Horror Rinza and the Makai Priestess Banbi.
• Aesop Amnesia: The characters espouse repeatedly the importance of Makai Armor-sets to their wielders; The reverse of the typically individualistic messages GARO goes for.
• Anti-Villain: Banbi only wanted the Knights' armors so she could activate a ritual that would allow her to see her lover that once fell to darkness form one more night. She didn't expect Rinza to sabotage the ritual and allow Jinga's revival instead....
• Bewarethe Silly Ones: Boel might look like Uncle Fester and have the brain of a child, but he's also a massive behemoth that can pelt you with Frickin' Laser Beams.
• Big Bad: Jinga. Heck, he's on the Blu-Ray box!
• Big Bad Wannabe: The presumed-dead Rinza interferes in Jinga and Garo's Duel Tothe Death in an attempt to turn the God's Fang into a portal to re-summon Messiah. Jinga reveals that he was already privvy to her plans and Kills her Off For Real before resuming his fight with Ryuga.
• Blood Knight: Jinga enjoys every bit of conflict he participates in the whole film through. He's adamant that Ryuga has these tendencies too.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: If Rinza had bothered to kill Jinga and Garo off while they were cornered instead of explaining WHY she needed Jinga in the first place, she might've managed to actually revive her master.
• Broken Aesop: Ryuga repeatedly espouses The Power of Friendship and Light Is Good when dealing with Jinga. However, not only does Ryuga not react at all to most of Jinga's taunting but the film goes out of it's way to keep Rian and company out of the fray while Ryuga just keeps fighting. By the time either aesop could come into play and Ryuga's friends make it to his side, not only has the Mirror Character angle transitioned to a Space Whale Aesop but Garo's already dealt the finishing blow to Jinga and the conflict's over.
• Canon Welding: Rinza's scheme to resurrect Messiah establishes the latter as a multiversal threat previously assumed to be limited to the Kouga (and by extension, Raiga) timeline. ^note  The Ryuga-verse's original Big Bad was assumed to be Zedom due to him being the source of this timeline's Makai Armors.
• Cast from Hit Points: Jinga states that the magic he used to convert Banbi into an Amily-clone marionette is cast from his life-force. But, it doesn't matter to him since he only gets to stay alive for one night anyway.
• Characterization Marches On: Subverted. Aguri's Defrosting Ice King routine during GARO: The One Who Shines In The Darkness is completely ignored during the film; his inability to, or ignorance of being able to explain himself making him look like a traitor; Though unlike Takeru, Ryuga figures that must be a reason behind Aguri's actions. He's right.
• Combat Stilettos: Rinza sports a pair against the Makai Knights; scraping their points against nearby objects to fire solidified sparks at her foes.
• Continuity Nod: Priest Burai and Vol City are mentioned by the cast frequently. Jinga also regains the memory of his defeat at the hands of the Knights during Gold Storm Sho and Messiah is re-established as the Horror to end all Horrors.
  • Rian and Ryuga's blossoming romance established during Gold Storm Sho is once more cemented at the end of the film.
• Dark Action Girl: Rinza.
• Enemy Mine: Makai Priestess Banbi and the Horror Rinza join forces to extract the Makai Armors for Banbi's Summoning Ritual. Rinza had very different plans for the ritual than Banbi did, However...
• Evil Versus Evil: The Stinger shows Jinga and Amily preparing to attack Messiah directly in the Makai Realm. As shown in GARO: Kami No Kiba ~Jinga~, it was a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Framing Device: Banbi's ritual to re-summon her fallen lover back from the dead for one night is the cornerstone of the events of the movie.
• High-Pressure Emotion: Boel is very expressive and doesn't take pain very well. Being attacked causes steam to erupt from all over his body.
• I Know You Know I Know: Level 2. Jinga is supposedly amnesiac upon his revival and learns about the Horrors' plans VIA Transferable Memory. In the process, he learned of Rinza's true motivations to resurrect Messiah, but kept his knowledge and his true strength to himself until Rinza acted and used her surprise to kill her off.
• Informed Flaw: Jinga implies that Horrors sent to Makai lose their memories before their next revival. This has never been elaborated on before throughout the series.
  • Ryuga mentions not having to "quit being Garo" a couple of times throughout the film's later scenes. It also never came up at any time before those points, either.
• Interface Spoiler: It is impossible to look at the cover of the DVD and not know going in that Jinga returns.
• Kick Chick: See Combat Stilettos above.
• Killed Off for Real: See Big Bad Wannabe above.
• Large Ham: Jinga is every bit as Affably Evil as he was before.
• Light Is Good: Ryuga reinforces this repeatedly during his fight with Jinga.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Ignoring The Fang of God itself, one would think that trying to resurrect a Fallen Knight^note A Makai Knight Drunk Onthe Dark Side; that may or may not come with a side of Horror possession, too. for one night would be, in and of itself, a dangerous and possibly fatal idea.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Banbi is kidnapped by Jinga upon his revival, who corrupts her into an emotionless golem-variant of his dead wife Amily.
• Mood Dissonance: The attack on the Horror Compound is treated as a serious, tension-fuel affair. Foggy lighting, scared civilians, a massive fight; Everything that spells out a scene of pure adrenaline. Then, one of the enemies cranks out the dog-bark launcher while female High-Schooler Horrors are doing the Mannequin Challenge next to two whimpering victims-to-be.
  • Boel is the Plucky Comic Relief in a group of Horrors meant to be taken seriously.
  • Ryuga makes mention of The Power of Friendship.... Only to finish Jinga off himself right as his allies clumsily stumble into the arena and in no way do anything to help.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Rinza's Horror form.
• Plucky Comic Relief: The Horror Boel is an extremely expressive blubbering buffoon compared to Rinza and her intimidating army.
• Poor Communication Kills: There's little explanation as to why Aguri couldn't have just explained to Ryuga and Takeru why their armors would've been needed for Banbi's one-night reunion ritual instead of turning on them.^note Neither of them have been above bending the rules before. In fact, with the trio guarding them Rinza wouldn't've been able to sabotage the ritual at all! Then again, Tropes Are Not Bad.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Fang of God is supposedly an ark designed to bring Horrors to the moon so they may gain immortality by leeching off of it's light. It can also apparently summon the Legendary Horror Messiah.
• Shoo Outthe Clowns: Boel suffers a Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of Jinga, who uses the Horror's energies to both craft his personal throne-chair and activate the Fang of God's launch-sequence.
• Slasher Smile: Jinga relishes nearly every action he performs and is never seen without his trademark smile. Fighting Garo really shows us his pearly-whites.
• Space Whale Aesop: Sure, being a Makai Knight is a thankless job that won't actually eradicate Horrors and instead contributes to an Vicious Cycle, but hey...As long as Ryuga doesn't quit being Garo, he has light?^note The actual message appears to be "Being Good Sucks, but I Gave My Word and with My Word Comes Great Responsibility." though the framed events don't quite make that clear.
• Summoning Ritual: Banbi's stake in retrieving the Makai armor-sets, which would allow her to see her former lover for one last night. Shame then that Rinza erased the lover's name and replaced it with Jinga's.
• "Super Sentai" Stance: During their aerial battle in space, Jinga and Garo briefly sport helmet-less variants of their Knight-title splash-screens.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: Ryuga, Aguri, Takeru and Rian go their separate ways once more at the end of the movie.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Despite the film doing it's best to give Rian and the others reasons to be involved, Ryuga is the only one allowed to fight Jinga in any real capacity ^note  Despite him being an Arch-Enemy of Rian, too! When the cast attempts to gang up on him en masse before the Arc launches, a Time Dilation renders everyone other than Ryuga and Jinga useless and while Ryuga's fighting Jinga across the expanse of the Fang of God, Rian, Takeru and Aguri spend all of that time spectating the fight while making the long manual trek up the structure themselves.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Jinga reveals that he never cared about sending the Horrors to the moon or reviving Messiah. All he wanted was another chance to battle Ryuga.
• The Stinger: A post-credits scene sees Jinga and the real Amily in the Makai Realm preparing to battle Messiah herself. The outcome of the encounter leads directly into GARO: Kami No Kiba ~Jinga~.
• Turncoat: Aguri's presented as one. He's still good, he just forgot that Poor Communication Kills and didn't bother explaining his actual motivations (helping Banbi begin her reunion ritual) to the others.
• Unexplained Recovery: We never find out how Rinza survived her very telegraphed death sequence against the Makai Knights to interfere in Jinga and Garo's duel later on.
• Unwitting Pawn: Subverted. Rinza strikes up a deal with Banbi to lure the Knights into combat so their armor can be extracted for her one-night reunion ritual; under the pretense of eating the Knights in exchange. She only helped Banbi so she could discreetly sabotage the ritual and revive Jinga (and hopefully Messiah) instead.
  • Averted with Jinga, who discovered Rinza's plans to revive Messiah well-in-advance and killed her the moment she announced it publically.
• Weaponized Animal: One of the Horrors in Rinza's troupe weaponizes a dog's bark as machine-gun fire. The dog is distracted by a pair of bones nearby, leaving the Horror defenseless against Ryuga.