Garo (live action)

[Kanon]

With a movie being released recently and a brand new series that just started airing, I thought I'd try creating a thread to see if anybody is interested in discussing this awesome franchise.

Spoiler for Over the Moonbow:

I liked this movie a lot, but I have to admit it was mostly fanservice, with them bringing back characters from the very first season (was not expecting Barago, I admit) and nothing much happening. I was hoping it'd be more conclusive, by bringing back Kouga and Kaoru for good but nope.

As for the Versus Road series, I came into it blind so I was pretty surprised by the premise.

Spoiler for Versus Road:

VR death game meets Garo. I'm not sure how to feel about it, it will depend on where they go with it. One thing I did like was the new look of the Garo armor. They took a page out of Vanishing Line's book.

[B214]

Garo one of my favorite tokusatsu. I still think Kouga is the best Garo for the live action series. Or maybe it's because i enjoy seeing Garo vs Zero.

I haven't watch the Over the Rainbow movie and Versus Road yet, i may want to wait a few more episodes before watching Versus Road. I usually suffer from waiting 1 week for next episode.

[Kanon]

I think most people would agree on Kouga being the best, including me. I like Raiga as well, especially how he takes more after his mother than his father when it comes to his personality.

Best boy is Gonza though.

It may not be a bad idea to wait a few episodes before watching Versus Road. I'm not really feeling it, to be honest.

[B214]

Gonza the 3 generations butler.

will take your advise on the versus road.

[iko_uwais]

Still waiting for my Gekko no Tabibito blu ray to arrive, because of Corona, what usually takes 3 days of delivery becomes 3 weeks

[justavisitor]

I like ryuga better than raiga tho. Yes Kouga is the "best", but ryuga's journey is pretty interesting also. He has come a long way since the first tv series. Even Jinga (Decade XD) considers ryuga as the only one worthy to be his opponent.

[B214]

Ryuga had a nice character development with his mum and Burai.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

I like ryuga better than raiga tho. Yes Kouga is the "best", but ryuga's journey is pretty interesting also. He has come a long way since the first tv series. Even Jinga (Decade XD) considers ryuga as the only one worthy to be his opponent.

That's because Jinga never met another Garo
Ryuga did improve a lot over the course of his series, but he doesn't do much for me.

Speaking of Jinga, I wonder if they've got anything planned for him next. Was kinda shocked with how his series ended.

[justavisitor]

Originally Posted by B214

Ryuga had a nice character development with his mum and Burai.

Yeah, I think Ryuga has the best character development (he has 2 tv and 2 movies, so it does helps ) that garo dark form he obtains due to the fact that he admits his own weakness is pretty good (imo it's slightly better than how kouga got his gouken)

But imo, garo after the third series (ryuga 1st tv series) seems to be lacking something:
Ryuga second TV series, Raiga, Zero Tv series, and Jinga all could be better, or maybe I have too high of the expectation after kouga

And speaking of Jinga...the suit doesn't even show up regularly. (I know it's the plot that matters, but I am a superficial person at the same time )

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

Yeah, I think Ryuga has the best character development (he has 2 tv and 2 movies, so it does helps ) that garo dark form he obtains due to the fact that he admits his own weakness is pretty good (imo it's slightly better than how kouga got his gouken)

But imo, garo after the third series (ryuga 1st tv series) seems to be lacking something:
Ryuga second TV series, Raiga, Zero Tv series, and Jinga all could be better, or maybe I have too high of the expectation after kouga

And speaking of Jinga...the suit doesn't even show up regularly. (I know it's the plot that matters, but I am a superficial person at the same time )

I liked Makai no Hana which to me was a huge improvement over Yami wo terasu mono. I liked Zero's series too, but maybe it's because I love the character (why must he suffer so much?). The others were definitely subpar.

[justavisitor]

oh, Makai no Hana is the only garo series that I dropped...I like the continuation of the plot so I really liked Yami wo terasu mono, because that is one of the few garo series that has the main plot moving throughout the show (The other one is the first garo series ?).

Makai no Hana was at the other end of the spectrum. Has good standalone stories, but the main plot was not moving much when I dropped (around ep 12 I think)

Zero Tv series...I really liked Zero but feel a bit of disappointed at the end. Zero was still awesome, but...(actually I don't quite remember now, but I feel zero tv series suffers the same fate of other garo series after Yami wo terasu mono)

[B214]

The first Zero series was okay. The 2nd one felt slightly long/dragging.

[Kanon]

I watched the second episode of Versus Road, and I think this is going to suck hard. The twist at the end was totally obvious, I hope there's another one. Although...

Spoiler for spoilers:

I actually thought the Garo armor seen was just a copy made by horrors and the goal was to create a dark knight that could rival/surpass Garo, but apparently this is the real Garo armor, which makes you wonder how horrors got their hands on it.

I was hoping the real Garo (one of the existing one or a new one) would bust in in the middle of the series but I guess that won't happen.

Originally Posted by justavisitor

oh, Makai no Hana is the only garo series that I dropped...I like the continuation of the plot so I really liked Yami wo terasu mono, because that is one of the few garo series that has the main plot moving throughout the show (The other one is the first garo series ?).

Makai no Hana was at the other end of the spectrum. Has good standalone stories, but the main plot was not moving much when I dropped (around ep 12 I think)

Zero Tv series...I really liked Zero but feel a bit of disappointed at the end. Zero was still awesome, but...(actually I don't quite remember now, but I feel zero tv series suffers the same fate of other garo series after Yami wo terasu mono)

I'm still not sure what you mean when you say Garo series have been lacking something since YamiTera. YamiTera is in fact the series that made the most mistakes for me: CGI only armors, armors only used for finishing blows, no Zarubro, no Watchdogs, no good stand alone stories, the knights being all immature jerks (they improved, thankfully). Makai no Hana fixed all of that and was way closer to the spirit of the first series.

[justavisitor]

Yami has Zaruba, and it is a big part of the story that Zaruba finally acknowledges Ryuga as the true protector and successor of the title of Garo

I guess, what I mean by lacking in most Garo series (my memory is pretty vague so sorry if I say something that is wrong) is the lack of a good plot movement in most of them

Yami has all the flaw you mention but it has a good plot from beginning till the end. You will feel like it is actually trying to tell a story

The second series of kouga is actually pretty stretchy. The bad guy manages to pull a death spell on EVERY single knight (or the most powerful one). We find out in the second series that actually knights have a hangout place to meet (The senate?) but they never warn the others in advance. "Oh you got a death spell, haha me too!! but I just don't wanna to warn you guys in advance."
and then the bad guy does every little , and meanwhile kouga and zero accomplish the mission as usual until the death spell time limit is up (thus, standalone stories) until the later part of the show

Makai no Hana-->at least , until the part that I drop (ep 12?) the story is like, some horror have the item to be collected, some don't, meanwhile, Raiga continues the routine (thus, standalone stories), and at the end of each episode, Raiga would a)collect an item b)no item this time

Ryuga second tv series does not have that many standalone stories (I think it is Ryuga series' characteristic that they don't want that many standalone stories in the Ryuga timeline) but the plot is so thin and I think like they drag on too much.

Zero Tv series-->You would think that, for only 13 episodes, it would be much more story-packed. But from my memory, they still drag on. (Can't remember exactly but that's my impression)

Jinga Tv series-->They don't even bother showing the armor anymore

So at the end, I guess I prefer the continuation of the plot over the standalone stories, don't like the plot to be dragged on, and I like armor battle (who don't?) (cgi is ok for me, but at least make it happen at least one per episode, unlike Jinga XD)

It is really a matter of personal preference. Hope I did not offend anyone's favourite show. It is just my impression.

[Kanon]

No worries, I'm just trying to understand. Thing is, the very first Garo had plenty of standalone stories too, so it's a bit weird to say series after YamiTera lack something because they don't focus fully on the main storyline. In many ways, YamiTera is actually an exception.

But I get your preferences now.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I'm still not sure what you mean when you say Garo series have been lacking something since YamiTera. YamiTera is in fact the series that made the most mistakes for me: CGI only armors, armors only used for finishing blows, no Zarubro, no Watchdogs, no good stand alone stories, the knights being all immature jerks (they improved, thankfully). Makai no Hana fixed all of that and was way closer to the spirit of the first series.

The best parts about YamiTera were Rian and some of the Horror designs if I remember correctly. The whole conspiracy with the Horrors was also kind of an interesting take.

I did love that scene in the first episode where Ryuga apologizes to Zaruba for using him to deflect a bullet and you can tell how Zaruba is so done with him .

Originally Posted by Kanon

No worries, I'm just trying to understand. Thing is, the very first Garo had plenty of standalone stories too, so it's a bit weird to say series after YamiTera lack something because they don't focus fully on the main storyline. In many ways, YamiTera is actually an exception.

But I get your preferences now.

Yeah, it's kind of a Garo thing to have a lot of standalone episodes until the main plot finally kicks in .

[justavisitor]

I would try to argue that the first kouga series handles the conspiracy/suspense pretty well. It is still the routine hunting until the endgame, but the producer masks it pretty well. (so the watchdog is the bad guys, who are they working for, and the dark knight actually has a human counterpart)

but since then, they don't bother hiding the format anymore, with Makai no Hana as the most obvious example. And like what Kanon said, Yami is probably the sole exception. (maybe that's why I like it)

[Kanon]

In case anyone is wondering, Versus Road still sucks. Next episode actually looks interesting though, since it will explore the mysterious antagonist's past.

[justavisitor]

Has Garo shown up yet? (Or anyone has used Garo's power so far??)

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by justavisitor

Has Garo shown up yet? (Or anyone has used Garo's power so far??)

Nope. Only the armor has been seen.