Zero: Dragon Blood

[Dr Kain]

We watched episodes 7 and 8 tonight and I'm starting to be less impress with this show as it goes on. Most of it has to do with Alice because seriously, what the hell girl?! All she cares about are her own selfish needs and desires without giving a damn if it effects everyone else and the world or not. Not to mention she is so freaking ugly looking. She has no emotional range. WHen the bar tender opened the door up to talk to her she just gave a blank stare. HOW ABOUT ACTING FOR A CHANGE!! That's what you are there for you stupid moron!

Now the battle in episode 7 was really badass. I really loved the slow motion-like scenes for the end there. Too bad they only killed off Kagome though because Alice's character shield was only full blast. It's a shame that she was buried deeper than her development. Of course, at least she had development compared to the Dragon Knight, who is hands down the most useless Garo villain to date. Even the villains the TOWSID had better development than this dumbass. I'm not saying he had to have a tragic backstory but come on people.

I did enjoy the Horror in episode 8, but once again, half of the episode was wasted for that stupid little brat. UGH!! I would have rather watched 10 minutes of her killing different people than suffered 10 minutes of "Alice's Adventures of Picturing Taking with Bad Settings Turned On."

So far Zero, its music, and cinematography are the things carrying this show because the narrative sure as hell ain't doing it.

I just hope things turn around for the remaining 5 episodes.

 

[Dr Kain]

Watched episode 9 tonight and good god, seriously? This is beating a dead horse, but good god does Alice suck. First off, Khaleesi she is not. Secondly, all I wanted to hear someone say when she was "staring" at the baby dragon was, "There is no dragon," because holy **** she wasn't even staring at it, but off into the distance with her blank stare. Also, good god, seriously, stop smiling girl!! You should never smile until you see a dentist!! UGH!

Also, when Zero was trying to decide whether or not to search for Alice or go after the Horror I said, "Just go after the Horror as Alice will end up stumbling onto it and then you will have solved both problems." And then about 10 minutes later, BOOM!, she's there. WTF?!

Anyway, the stuff that dealt with the Horror itself was quite interesting. Never expected to see a woman with crabs. :lol Her main form looked like something pulled out of Dark Souls. Watching Zero untransform to get rid of the crabs was interesting and it answers the question as to whether or not the timer resets every time they transform.

I know this show only has like 4 episodes left, but I cannot wait for it to be over. This has to be by far the most polarizing series ever. There are so many good ideas ruined by idiotic stuff like Alice and the utterly pointless Dragon Knight. Once again, why couldn't they develop him?

 

[Toku Prime]

Hmm, I'm not sure that Alice's change from accidental main villain to actual one makes up for what an exasperating experience some of the earlier episodes were. I hope that's not the end of Rekka though. The character does deserve better than being taken out by a character who looks like she'd snap in half in a stiff breeze.

 

[Dr Kain]

First off, good god the acting of the dragon knight in episode 11 was down right terrible. We finally get his backstory, which is way too late in the series for me to even care, especially when it seems like this was his end for good. And then the plot twist in episode 12 might have actually been a good twist if I actually gave a **** about Alice. I don't, so the whole betrayal is lost on me. I'm pretty much just watching this series now because it's over this weekend. Thank the gods for that. Also, is it just me or did Alice's armor and make-up look like it was green screened onto her? Good god this character sucks though. "I was made fun of when I was a kid so I became entitled." That ***** slap she received from Rekka was awesome.

 

[lazycoconut]

I don't think Alice is ugly but do think she's a horrible actress. (Ryuga and Rian were also cast off the basis of them being models rather than actors but neither of them is as bad as this.) I don't think it's just because she's young, either; Ray Fujita was 17 during the first series and gave a better performance than hers. The girl playing Haruna in Gold Storm is about the same age or younger than Alice's actress but was also better.

The "twist", while poorly choreographed was at least welcome for me, because otherwise Alice just comes across as a poor imitation of Kaoru. Furthermore, this has been the franchise's THIRD attempt to do Kouga/Kaoru - which is one of the few tokusatsu romances I enjoy, but once was enough. (I also find it kinda creepy that after the way Rei acted towards Kaoru in the original series he is now going after someone just like her; like how Jabi didn't get Kouga, now apparently she is going to get with Tsubasa whose personality is similar to Kouga's. Move on already!) I think that if anything this show has taken Rei backwards as a character, he had more depth in the original and Makai Senki. IIRC around the time of Makai no Hana's debut it was announced that Kouga and Kaoru would never feature as series protagonists again because the franchise wanted to do new things, but so far, only the stuff focused on Ryuga is attempting that. Everything set in the original 'verse, including Makai no Hana, is just going over old ground again.

I know Rekka can be a divisive character but she is one of my favourites, so I will not be happy if she has been killed off. Rekka was the first character introduced who wanted to be both Knight and Priest, and from Makai Retsuden it seemed like that was a theme that might be explored further in future so getting rid of her would be a waste. (Yuna is terribly written and we already saw a lot of Leo's feelings on the subject in Makai Retsuden/Makai Senki)

 

[lazycoconut]

Initial thoughts on the finale:

[HIDE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js

Finally the show has done something right!! Alice is dead, and Rekka is not, so I'm happy.

The whole Alice thing just leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. And seeing Japanese and English-speaking fans alike sob over her on Twitter and make out she was the only love of Rei's life is just annoying - apparently Shizuka's existence is now null and void. Still, Alice is gone, and Rei and Rekka survive to what I hope will be at least one more outing in the franchise for them because this is the worst possible one to be their last. The final battle was pretty damn good but, yeah. That's all it's got going for it.[/HIDE]

 

[Dr Kain]

Honestly, I feel like Garo has never been as good as the first season. The second season was not bad, but it fell apart in its last few episodes. The third season was a total train wreck while the fourth had some truly outstanding episodes (like the horror movie one and the music one), but it ultimately fell to pieces as there was little in the way of plot. Both Zero series have been pretty terrible, which is a shame because both of them started out strong. I kind of wrote off Garo after Hana though, so I was really hoping this show would pull me back into this franchise, but instead, it's just made me realize that everything this show had to tell had been done in its first two seasons and movies/specials, which is a real shame.

 

[lazycoconut]

Gold Storm, I think, was decent but not outstanding (it was certainly an improvement on its predecessor though.) Makai no Hana's main issue IMO was that it was supposed to show Kouga's future legacy and distinguish his son as a different person ... But basically went over a lot of the same themes from the first series and tried to repeat Kouga/Kaoru with the genders reversed (and a big dose of "woman as MacGuffin".)

I also get the suspicion that all future series will be shorter like this one - OK, the reason it's shorter was because it was intended to air after Makai Retsuden meaning that together they'd be the length of 25 eps, but shorter series are cheaper to make so they'll probably run with that. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but does mean there's less time to develop story and characters.

 

[Dr Kain]

I actually liked Raiga as I felt he had Kouga's strength and Kaoru's pesonality.

 

[lazycoconut]

I like him too, just wish his show had developed more in its own right so to speak and gone over less from the first two series