Garo: Flower of Makai, Ep #11 - "Manga"

[Toku Prime]

This week Raiga battles tanks, attack choppers and something that for copyright reasons is absolutely not a Sailor Scout.
Don't blink at any point, or you might miss Crow's cameo appearance (is he actually in this series?).
Oh, and the end credits scene switches from the usual comedy skit to what could well be the most important part of the episode, so don't go switching off too soon.​

 

[ooo5]

I thought this was a really fun and stylistic episode, much in the same way that the film episode was .

Having watched the Bakuman anime, which is basically about Manga artists and the whole process of it, and having read a lot of manga, also made me appreciate the content of this episode a lot :anime:.

I'd totally read that Makai King manga if it were real :shakefist.

Though I really have to wonder how a dark-action manga lost to what I assume is a Magical Girl manga. I thought it was anime that was Otaku-driven, not manga .

Well, at least the assistant still has a promising Manga career to look forward to :sweat:.

The fight with the Horror was pretty cool, especially with all the manga imagery, and Raiga's method of defeating the Horror was also quite neat :coolshades:.

I also really liked that Kaoru reference :thumbs:.

I was expecting another comedic ending with Mayuri and Gonza, as per usual, and then it suddenly took a turn for the dramatic :O_O:.

I think this is the first Garo ending to have something really plot relevant happen in it :eyebrow:.

It looks like Mayuri is maintaining her body through those things she's eating, but I wonder why she has to? Is it because of the seeds or because of what makes her basically a Madou Tool?

 

[Japaneseseriesfan]

Well... to be honest, I've been thinking that Mayuri is Elis herself, or at least the tool used to seal her. An empty shell, just taking back the parts that were taken from it. She's a vessel.

Once she takes in all the seeds, she's probably gonna start turning into a real Horror, i.e. Non-human, the exact opposite of what Raiga's stated she was.

She's a tool, used to contain all the fragments, and it's Garo's job to take down the Horror if she can't control the seeds inside her and if Elis herself manifests from her. Or maybe someone at the Watchdogs planned this out again, just like the first series.

 

[Ryuutaros]

These Horror designs are absolutely stunning and very creative. It's a shame because we only see them for a few minutes.

 

[Mirage_Frost]

So how is this series anyways? Watched the 1st episode and wasn't really gripped, now that there's 11 episodes, maybe it might be more gripping and compelling?

 

[King Gainer]

So how is this series anyways? Watched the 1st episode and wasn't really gripped, now that there's 11 episodes, maybe it might be more gripping and compelling?

It's been mostly monster of the week episodes with little in the way of plot progression or character development for the leads, at least so far, which is admittedly normal for Garo. Some of the the monsters and fights have been high quality, like the ones in this episode, but most of them have been fairly forgettable.

Personally, I think that if the first episode didn't really catch your interest than the rest of the episodes so far probably won't do much to change your opinion. I do recommend checking out this episode at least, if only for the fight scene, given that it displayed some cool and creative techniques.

 

[Toku Prime]

Every Garo series has been really backloaded for the actual story. I didn't mind that in the first series, but the way that the second and third series would constantly remind you about the plot point they'd set up at the start yet still not actually do anything about it really got on my nerves. Luckily this series hasn't done that so much yet.

Personally I think this series has managed to re-capture the vibe of series 1 in a way that 2 and 3 didn't. Going off the top of my head episodes 4, 5, 7 and 9 were really interesting. In particular 4 and 9 rank amongst the best Garo episodes ever IMO. We're less than halfway through, but so far I feel that Garo is back on form (at least for now, we'll see how the anime goes).

 

[OKexperience]

Just watched episode 8 (I'm gonna watch 9-11 today). But I think this season is really lacking in everything. Even the fight scenes (the fist fight this episode... lol), and there are a surprising amount of cheesy episodes this time. Nothing happens, it's lazy and Raiga is a really boring, uncool guy. I know people hated on YamiTera but so far it is superior.

And I don't really mind the episodic structure, just... drop a little something about an overarching plot once in a while. Not like this episode where 10 or so minutes where devoted to the horror and its victims that we don't care about (even Wizard... did this better. I'm sorry.) Just wasted time that could be used on telling us more about Raiga.

Now I know, since this is Garo, it will probably pick up sooner or later. But it won't justify the kind of boring season we've had.

Well, that's my opinion anyway.