Garo: Honoo no Kokuin

And a movie that (I think) will conclude the story of León and his epic quest towards becoming a character as colorful and interesting as literally everyone else in the cast. And then a sequel series taking place in the Industrial Age.

Anyway, let's hope Germán survives his battle against not-KIBA next week.

edited 7th Dec '14 2:59:41 PM by Logograph

Next ep is out.

Competently done, but pretty standard, much like the rest of the series

Episode 10, in which there is an absolutely awesome battle.

There's also some bits with León and Alfonso I didn't pay attention to because there's a shitload of Germán. We all know who I'm here for.

Finally! An epic showdown the likes has never been seen before on this an- oh, he's just gonna sit there and demand exposition. Classic Germán.

Not-KIBA (yes, I'm gonna call him that) actually has a really compelling backstory. It's really a fairly standard "lost faith in humanity and went down the dark path because of it". But it was kind of really well-executed, and it managed to actually give him depth and humanizing him.

Also, I don't know if I said this before, but it bears repeating: Anna is so cute. It's no wonder Germán was so infatuated with her.

Holy fucking shit, Germán was pissed. And I completely understand why. Germán's faith in humanity is rather unshakeable, it seems. Or maybe is it that Makai women are rather hard to come by?

And of course, that battle. You know MAPPA spends most of the show's time and budget in the CG department (most of the traditional animation seems to be working at Bahamut), and it shows. Everything in this battle was just so perfectly choreographed, directed and animated. From the very beginning when ZORO used his chained blade to hurl some boulders at not-KIBA, to the rooftop battle with mechanical horses, to not-KIBA's GIGA DRILL BREAKER. It was a truly amazing, over-the-top battle that managed to somehow out-Gurren Lagann Gurren Lagann.

(I'm really not being fair by calling Bernardo "not-KIBA". If I were to mock every expy, we'd have León as not-Kouga, Germán as not-Takeru, and Anna as not-Kaoru).

But wait, there's more! The battle "ends" with some more of Germán being Germán. Not-KIBA is not having any of that, however. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite match up to Germán skillz and ends up with a blade through his back.

Not-KIBA's death was actually quite touching. Nobody will be not-KIBA again, Bernardo. Even Germán's quite silly speech afterwards managed to be a bit poignant.

Did I mention not-KIBA had like 20 minutes of screentime so far and has managed to have some impressive depth? Do not underestimate Kobayashi.

Oh right, León and Alfonso. They're up for some Mendoza killin', I suppose. I guess next week is the end. But who cares? It's all about dat battle.

Pretty much, yeah. Still fun.

The best part has to be German's response to Bernardo's Humans Are Bastards spiel: "Idiot! You idiot!"

The eerie thing is that Bernardo didn't actually need to slip much for Mendoza to get him - he just needed to doubt his mission a little bit, and then he got Horror-fied, at which point he was pretty much dead and replaced with a murderous monster who could easily be brought round to killing all the Makai Knights.

The anime is actually two cour, so it is not the end next week, just eh end of the first half.

This plus a second anime season and a movie, it's no wonder MAPPA is putting in more work on the show then before.

edited 13th Dec '14 6:46:09 AM by Demongodofchaos2

I assumed as much, seeing as Ema, one of the main characters, left before the big showdown without having her arc resolved. Neat that it's two-four and then sequel, though, rather than just being split-cour.

edited 13th Dec '14 7:06:35 AM by Iaculus

I'm expecting for the second half of this show to have that MAPPA-quality animation I grew to expect of them. MAPPA being a new studio, I can see how they'd have problems balancing their scheduling between Bahamut and this show.

And I also expect for more Ema and the epic answer to the question of whether León will get laid.

Ep12 is out:

Pretty unexpected ending,a nd the next episode preview is like Wha?

That shit was dark.

I'd love to see the Uro butcher take a crack at this franchise. It's practically tailor made for him.

As much as I love German I have to admit he did pretty bad raising his son. Should have kept the whole mom was burned to death and Mendoza did it to himself and Alfonso only realized he was too much of a jerk earlier after his mom commits suicide.

I do like how Mendoza is just taken out just like that. Though I doubt he's dead or someone else will take his place.

edited 19th Dec '14 4:06:30 PM by OmegaRadiance

I feel this episode has trolled me. But in a good way.

Alfonso has every right to be pissed.

Leon gone fucked up good.

Leon has been way way WAY worse than useless.

Episode 12, in which...

...I...

...León...

...okay, I can't do this. I can't do the snark-recap I usually do, but instead let me rant a little bit.

Woah this episode was dark. I mean, the show has not been exactly kind to León so far (nor have I), but goddammit Kobayashi. You had some subtlety in the whole "kicking León around" department, but today you kind of just threw away all attempts at subtlety. This infuriated me a little bit. But then I realized, that this is actually a really good twist. It's been pretty clear that León is driven not by his desire to protect humanity, but by petty revenge; this is not the type of person who should be the Golden Knight. This is not the type of person you'd trust your life to. León had every chance to turn around and failed everytime. León only brought this to himself.

So, maybe this is why seeing Alfonso take GARO was so satifying. Well, not satisfying, but bittersweet. Objectively speaking, Alfonso is the better fit for the Golden Knight. He's driven by a genuine desire to protect his kingdom. On the other hand, it ties back into the whole "kick León around" department; GARO really is the only thing León had. Now? He has nothing.

Bringing this contrast into the foreground (well, further into the foreground) is what made this whole episode so good. The plot finally managed to fully tie into its themes and bring some powerful emotional moments. I only realized now how much of a deep character León is. He's only interesting when put in the larger picture of the show's themes. I just thought of GARO as a fun, large dumb anime with extremely good battles, but now I know how brilliant it is. And this is how you theme.

Oh yeah, something something amazing battle. But you know this is some top-notch writing here when I remember the characterization better than the fights.

TL;DR: 10/10 best episode so far. Seriously, Kobayashi just hijacked Urobuchi as my favorite anime writer. This anime is a goddamn masterpiece.

Next episode: Four people are trapped in the Death Trap and are to eat Japanese food until they die.

This ties back to the epsidoe 4 I guess, León was able to tell that kid that revenge wasn't the answer, but in the end, he could not convince himself of it.

What's with people hating Alfonso everywhere? I think what he did was right. Leon going berserk and killing people was unworthy of Garo so it's only natural for Alfonso to clean up the mess himself.

Alfonso is the new Slaine

Hey, I've ALWAYS preferred Alfonso as the main character.

x3 Part of it seems to be that Leon was being Mindraped by Mendoza into doing it. I can see why he would go berserk when being shown his moms charred corpse kissing, who kisses him.

edited 20th Dec '14 7:49:22 AM by OmegaRadiance

x4: He made the comment about Leon being too much of a coward to try to take it back by force. This... rubbed some people the wrong way.

Also, the fact that "THE KID LIVING IN THE CASTLE AND WITH BOTH HIS PARENTS AND A FULLFILLING LIFE GETS THE SHINY TOY WHOLE THE KID WHOSE MOM DIED GETS SHIT" (direct quote from some angry forumgoer) also rubbed some people the wrong way.

edited 20th Dec '14 7:57:09 AM by Logograph

Good news everyone! Officially confirmed for 24 episodes.

I don't recall the events of the episode.

Did Leon ever, like, apologize for fucking up? Or is he just like "No way give it back it's mine nooooooo?"

Leon never seemed upset at his failure, he's just upset that he doesn't get his favorite toy.