Comments on Garo: The Moonbow Traveler

[Black Fang]

I just finished The Moonbow Traveler. Some brief thoughts:

- While the movie is good, I'm starting to think the series is purposely keeping Kouga and Kaoru in a state of perpetual limbo to avoid just killing them off, as that would upset too many people.

- The P Garo side story shows Kouga has already found Kaoru and sends Zaruba back to Earth for Raiga. But in the movie both he and Taiga have copies of Zaruba on them somehow.

- Outside of one vision, Kaoru never appears with Kouga in the movie. She only appears with Mayuri, and later in a post-credits scene.

- The trailers for the movie implied the Black Train would feature more prominently, but it only plays a role in the first half. Nevertheless I did enjoy it. It's like a 19th century railroad where the last vestiges of Oriental feudalism clash with Western modernity. Something out of a Pearl S. Buck novel.

Unless I missed something, the implication seems to be that the dead ride this train and those without tickets are sent to the jail coach. But Taiga (in another guise) is on this train, apparently ticketless himself, and he's dead.

- I'm not sure what to think about the movie's implication via "prophesy" that Raiga and Mayuri will marry and have a son. It never seemed that Raiga ever viewed Mayuri in a romantic way, or vice versa, though the movie kinda-sorta hints at the vice versa.

- Crow sadly appear in the epilogue.

- Raiga says he will start searching for his parents himself at the end, and Mayuri agrees to come with. I don't know what the Senate or the Watchdogs would think of that, much less Gonza.

Masaki Kyomoto (Barago) reprises his role from season 1 and Satoshi Matsuda (Ren/Knight from Ryuki) appears as a dead Knight, Shiroku. Both were fun to see, though Shiroku's backstory is just an afterthought in the story.

I wonder if Raiga and Co. will get a second season. The other casts (Kouga cast and Ryuga cast) have had two each. or will the show continue on with this new Versus Road universe?

 

[scikaiju]

I don't the P Garo stuff actually "counts" as part of the Kouga time line. Those shortsd had Kouga and Karou staying in that fantasy land from his last movie. In moonbow traveler he's going through time, which I'm pretty sure we say in the last episode of Makai Retsuden. And most ofthe Raiga Mayuri "love story" took place in Makai ni Hana.

 

[Black Fang]

What's the point of P Garo, then?

I rewatched Makai Flower before seeing the movie. There's nothing romantic that goes on between Raiga and Mayuri; Raiga is just open and friendly with her, where most others aren't due to her nature. At least with Kouga and Kaoru it was more obvious that they'd become a couple.

By the way, is Mayuri losing her sealing ability something that was added for Moonbow? The show never said that this happened.

 

[scikaiju]

I don't know what the point o P GHaro was. From what I was able to discover, it was done by a pinball company, I think. So it's own thing and not connected to the regular Garo universe, just think of it as an alternate universe explaation to what happened to Kouga and Kouro

She lost her ability to seal was a effect of Raiga cutting it away from her in order to save her at the end of Makai no Hana. And Raiga was standing over her every day if I recall correctly, waiting for her to wake up. That's a little more than being friendly. At least that was my take on it.

 

[Toku Prime]

To start with your last question, I'd be surprised if Raiga comes back. There has not been any kind of official announcement, but to me that movie felt like it was intended to be the final outing for the Saijima family. I'd be surprised if they made anything else starring them again. Depending on whether there's any more Zero mini-series, it could be the end for the original continuity altogether.

Having said that, I hope they don't do any kind of sequel to Versus Road because IMO it was terrible (frankly the live action side of the franchise has been for a while, but Vanishing Line gives me hope that it can continue as an anime franchise).

I agree with scikaiju that Raiga/Mayuri is from the TV series. It always seemed incredibly obvious to me that they were being paired up as romantic interests.

You can see lots of Crow whenever you like; He's in Kirameiger every week!

In general, I wouldn't worry about the logic too much. Keita Amemiya is a man who is very much all about the visuals. I highly recommend a mini-series he did called Tekkōki Mikazuki, but it is a show where the first monster is a giant flying watermelon slice!