With the movie behind us, its time to talk about the actual series. With a good foundation. Does the series shine like gold, or is it fool's gold.
SYNOPSIS
After the events of the film, Ryuga and Rian have been taking missions from Ryume in dispatching Horrors in the area or Line City. Activity that has been on the rise thanks in part to... Tsukasa? Huh, guess this is his fault truly, Narutaki was right about something. Okay its not Tsukasa, A horror by the name of Jinga and his wife Amily. Who intend to raise a horror superweapon castle known as Radan in hopes of wiping out humanity. Teaming up with the priest in charge of the seal and a fellow knight. They attempt to retrieve the other part of the seal that Jinga has taken.
One way that this season does Yami's attempt at a much more serialized story better than Yami is in the way the season does start out more like a traditional Garo series with one-offs but showing a tie back to Jinga and Amily. It gives people classic stories while also furthering the narrative. That said once the story does get going we do run into a bit of pacing issue, as the show focuses more on fighting Jinga and Amily the pacing does feel a bit slower since it feels like one large battle over multiple weeks. Not as bad thanks to the season being fully released and being able to binge-watch so you don't have to worry about it.
CHARACTERS
While a sequel, unlike Makai Senki, only Ryuga, Rian and Zaruba return for this. Zaruba does talk a bit more here to Ryuga now that he is less of an ass but Ryuga... while better thanks to being less of an angsty teen with a haircut you just want to punch. Does go through some of the same developments he had in the first season, being his lack of maturity and allowing his emotions to overtake him, mind you he actually respects authority figures now and most of his times being emotional are from his berserk buttons being pushed by Jinga and him committing numerous atrocities in killing normal people. But if you were not fond of him in Yami... I can say he's better but you may struggle with him having to learn the exact things as he did before.
Rian meanwhile doesn't really grow much comparatively, acting more like a mentor to the new makai priest we meet this season Gald, showing him that he has a lot to learn. I think the biggest issue, and this goes for most of the other female leads, is that they have way, way too many instances of them needing to be rescued. I know that we need the helpless for rescues, but we have seen her being awesome, so its kind of annoying seeing her having to be the damsel in distress.
Aside from the returning duo we have the new characters, Gald starts the series cocky arrogant and has a chip on his shoulders regarding Makai knights since one massacred his village (Three guesses who that was.) His main development is accepting help from others and being brought down a peg thanks to Rian and when compared to Burai, I liked him a lot more since compared to Burai from last season. Mostly since is not the mentor that is not really good at the mentoring thing.
His sister Haruna acts more as support from the sidelines due to atrophy in her legs so she really doesn't do much, with a lot of her character trying to assist her brother in spite of her fear of horrors and the like.
Garo has had secondary knights before, and Daigo is, decent. Probably not as good as Rei but considering this was coming off... Kiramei Blue (Yes I know he has a name, Crow, but he was such a little character, I more remember his as Kiramei Blue.) Being the only other knight means he is not in the background like Aoki was, and while I do like Takeru more for Ikeda's performance, he does work better as a foil to Ryuga, a more stoic, serious guy who understands the importance of taking care of his equipment. He's introduced and actually dissapears for a bit until he is thrust back into the story thanks to the death of his mentor. Despite that he likewise doesn't really get much development, just a strong ally to stand alongside the heroes. But he does contribute and its better to have one knight rather than two where one may not have nothing to do.
Carry overs in Ryume and the couple of D-ryume and Yukihime don't get more. Kind of setting up the big problem here with the show. It really doesn't do well in focus, characters like Gald and Ryuga get focus, but it does leave some characters lacking, which is a shame in the case of Ryume and Yuki since I would've liked to learn more. Instead they are just like that cool uncle and aunt who do cool things. Though considering the villain-
Garo villains have often been hit or miss, considering how many are swatted away to make room for the latest giant CGI monstrosity. But Goldstorm easily best them all with Jinga, the fallen makai knight played by Masahiro Inoue steals the show with his presence, and enjoying every moment playing the villain and toying with main cast every step of the way in wanting to destroy humanity. His wife Amily is... less memorable, more eye candy and being a good assistant to Jinga, it does offer a good shadow counterpart to Ryuga and Rian. being a knight and priest who work together to fight. Additionally, I like that they do give sympathy to them in a tragic backstory but ultimtately they are now horror's, they really don't care if what they do is evil and what is left of their humanity died on their last mission, leaving their anger and regret to cause problems for the future
AESTHETICS
Amemiya's return which was in Makai no Hana is felt very well in Gold storm. The mix of CG and live action for fight scenes makes each scene looked really good. The new version of Garo that introduced is a bit bulkier than either Yami or the classic look, meaning in motion it doesn't look as good as the original. But it does help Ryuga to stand out more as his own knight. Meanwhile Jinga looks really... really good. A demonic corruption of what makai knights look like while the Giga armor makes better use of the bulkier armor, since he makes use of a big axe so being more armored makes sense. Though while Garo still retains some of the black from yami, becoming fully shined is a moment that really works.
Horror variety is better compared to Yami though they mostly disappear after the show primarily focuses on fighting Jinga and Amily. But the lower amount does let them stand out in regards to their design, and once again there really is not a bad one amongst them.
And the soundtrack is just as good as it ever has and the main themes feel a lot more fitting for the series as a whole, hard rock, blood pumping music that also feels forboding and majestic in what it wants to be.
CONCLUSION
Goldstorm feels like it clearly took the lessons from Yami to make a series that is in all aspects an improvement over Ryuga's first outing. The serialization of the show feels more natural and the story is far more interesting with far improved characters who despite rather mixed amounts of focus, all do something and the return of the real suits is a major benefit. Its not perfect, pacing regarding the later half can be rather bad with how the show mostly is just fighting Jinga and Amily and later Ranga and Ryuga does go through some of the same arcs from the first season. But I can reccomend Goldstorm as a show, it may not be perfect but it is a really, really good season.
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