As we near the end of this Garo marathon, this special and another special plus a 6 episode mini series. Let us note the rarity of a female leads in Tokusatsu...Okay more elaboration. While Toku's have always female actors who are apart of the main cast, in shows like Kamen rider or even in this show, donning the main armor is either an event for a film, special or if they do appear in the series, their use of them as fighters has...been less than stellar (Cough, Valkyrie, Cough) So when a Toku that comes along that is has the ladies taking center stage, it is always nice (though if it became more common place that would be even better.) But just because it is a rare occurence doesn't automatically make it good, so does this gaiden about the makai priestesses strive on girl power.
Set during the events of Sokoku no Maryu, Tougen no Fue follows Makai Priests Jabi and Rekka who after a training excercise go their seperate ways but are soon pushed towards the northern forest by two other priests Agi and Magi lure them in regards to dealing with Sougen's flute, an ancient artifact used to either seal horrors or release horrors. Anywho the two give differing stories to the respective priest they are traveling with that the other is a fallen priest out to use the flute for evil.
The resulting story see's the new teacher-student relationship pushed to its brink and Rekka... going through kind of the same arc she went through in red reqiuem in regards to her recklessness. This is probably one of the bigger issues is with how the film treats Rekka, having her kind of revert to how she was prior to red requiem, and in that case it made more sense since she had a personal connection to the villain which caused some of her more reckless actions make sense, here she never takes a moment to think that this girl may not be fully honest with as she goes to do what this person telling her. Mind this is a double edged sword as if they did it reverse where Jabi is the victim that needs rescue, that would be another reused plot point from another movie they had done before.
Student and Teacher having to relearn lessons
Despite that, seeing these two center stage is really good seeing as their appearances had been sparse and the two actresses have good chemistry when they are together. That being said I do feel they did make a mistake when it came to their support in the end, so near the beginning of the film Rin shows up and takes over training a group of students makes it seem like she may come help the duo in the climax, keeping with how this is about the girls. But no Shigeto, one of the priests from Red requiem just shows up out of nowhere and spends his remainder time being the butt monkey and punching bag for the villain, it just makes Rin's appearence earlier feel like a bait and switch with how it seems she's stronger. And it's not like I would of minded seeing both be support, but Shigeto feels a bit more thrown in because the actor was there.
The Agi's do make for good villains, conterparting the relationship that Rekka and Jabi having a much closer relationship and their giddy personalities make them unsettling. That being said Magi has some issues acting wise, it feels that they had to re-dub her in post production and that comes with the issue of that sometimes what she is saying and her body language don't feel that they match. Its not completely off putting but it does take you out of it.
Our villains having a wholesome hug of friendship...okay even I can't buy that after seeing this.
It's also nice to have more a focus on makai priest combat and how it differs to makai knights combat with their mixing martial arts and magics, yeah it does end with giant CGI monster they have to fight and they do the thing certain action series do in "foreshadowing" the kill move but it is not the most egregious I have seen.
CONCLUSION
Tougen no Fue is solid, its by no means a ground breaking special, its big issues are how Rekka's arc is handled and the inclusion of Shigeto. But as a one-off adventure giving the girls a chance to shine, it is worth a watch just for what it brings.
FINAL GRADE: B
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