Saving People, Hunting Things, The Family Business – Garo Mid Year Review (Slightly NSFW)
This fun action movie of an anime kicks it up a notch from last time I wrote about the show. We had the “Dark Knight” come through and murderize the lovely Sister that was charged with watching over Sophie and then the fight begins, with Luke seeing his father. Yes I’m aware of how that sounds and no, he doesn’t say that line thankfully. We find that Luke’s father was once the greatest Silver Makai Knight and was a hero and inspiration for both Luke and Sword. This exposition is put in while we watch Luke get his ass kicked, and I mean this is some Goku fighting the Ginyu force on Namek level of ass kicking. The fight is pretty cliche but the good kind of cliche, that reminds us this is a shonen action anime. In fact the fight in the end with Sword coming in to save Luke and fight the Dark Knight has some amazing action in it, that leaves me thinking that the animator actually watched some real martial arts and MMA for this fight. Its after the destruction of Russel City where we have the show shift gears a bit to Supernatural’s style of monster of the week with an overarching story/plot and Sword and Sophie travel off to find El Dorado and stop the King of El Dorado. We also find an interesting clone/copy/twin of Chiaki from the diner here to fuel up Zaruba.
After this stop off we have some very Supernatural-esque moments, especially with the confusing geography that makes 0 sense, and some strange trip montage music that seems to be surprisingly well received by other viewers. A comical moment for me was when Sophie and Sword decide to stop off to camp as Sophie somehow falls asleep on a motorcycle with a HUMVEE ENGINE (seriously how?) and they find a baby deer. Said random deer was shot and the moment where they “heal” the deer left me screaming “THAT’S NOT HOW FIRST AID AND BULLET WOUNDS WORK.” Road inconsistencies aside (like heading “West” but traveling on an East interstate) the show had a sweet episode with Sophie coming to terms with Sister’s death. The following episode was also finding out more about Luke, his father, and his mother, as well as his father’s fall to evil as well as him getting out of his own ass and going and doing things. Also, Meifang is awesome and has a great technique.
The next couple of episodes bring us to Sophie and Sword rolling up on a small town on the border of “civilization” where the government basically left off to die a la most post-apocalyptic stories. After a creepy line of questioning, we have the realization that these idiots became a hyper militarized town that has a Judge Dredd level of Lawful. After being taught by the newly assigned Sheriff how to fight and utilize weapons they took it upon themselves to become a vigilante militia killing any criminals. Said Sheriff turns out to be a pawn of Bishop and turns the city against Sword, convincing them that Sophie has been kidnapped. What ensues is almost a Benny Hill style chase including rocket launchers, grenades, assault weapons, and more ending with Gina coming to Sword’s aid and them saving the town’s ungrateful population when Bishop takes his ball and goes home, blowing up said town.
The final episode for the season (as this is a 2 cour) has another very Supernatural feel to it. We start with a gentleman in search for someone and ends up murdered brutally in his shower alluding to some Bates Motel style shenanigans going down. I really enjoyed the premise, which had the proprietor who lost his fortune in Russel City and had to move west with his family to manage this motel. Upon finding a Horror in the shower devour someone he effectively sold his soul in exchange for success to feed the Horror more victims. As you can imagine it went as well as anything in this show and he became a Horror who promptly got curbstomped by Sword.
That episode was a bit boring and I felt a little unfulfilled with lots of meaningless talking. The idea is sound and I really enjoy the feel because I LOVE Supernatural. Had they maintained that premise in Russel City then shifted to this road trip/El Dorado for the 2nd half, then I’d be pretty happy. In this case I’m pretty happy with things and looking forward to how it continues onwards, but I’m still a bit wary. I’m less excited for the show than when Kenny brought it up but it’s maintained a good bit of story and action that’ll carry me over this year. How about you guys, are you happy with how Garo is going? Or is the monster of the week style narrative a deal breaker? Let me know in a comment, and please leave a like or subscribe, and make sure you give thanks!
