So continuing this little Garo marathon I decided to brings us to year of 2014, the year of fruit Jesus and imagination, and in Garo's case...well, they were coming off a rather divisive show. Garo: Yami o terasu Mono or The One who Shines in the Darkness was not to some not the best start to a new era for the franchise, to many the flat characters, decision to make all of the in suit fights CG and story felt like it was not playing to the strengths of the first two seasons, the fact that series creator Keita Amemiya had almost no involvement with this entry outside of being credited as the creator may have lead some to believe that the series was only good under his tenure. I will give more of my thoughts on this entry soon enough but for now, let's talk about the follow up. Rather than a new entry in the Ryoga era, the team decided to head backwards on the timeline closer to the Saejima timeline. In this case following the son of Kouga Saejima and Kaoru Mitsuki, Raiga Saejima. The result was Garo: Makai no hana, in English known as the Flower of Hell. So after the division of Ryoga's debut, was this a welcome return to form, or should this flower have wilted.
SYNOPSIS
After his father and mother disappeared (yeah even after their story had ended, the world continues to crap all over these two) Raiga has taken his father's mantle as the Golden Knight Garo alongside Zaruba and the Saejima butler Gonza. While he is attending to his duties elsewhere, a shrouded individual breaks into a museum and destroys a large monolith slab that is on display, said display actually holds a legendary horror Eyrith, with the slab destroyed the 9 horror that held her are released and Raiga is now teamed up with a mysterious girl Mayuri who can seal the horror's to find the 9 horrors and seal Eyrith before she can cause any harm...Oh yeah there is also this other Knight named Crow who just shows up and proceeds to assist the duo, he's kind of just there.
Really that is the plot, the trio fights a bunch of horrors until they find the one holding Eyrith's core so they can reseal it, now you may notice, huh, there are only 9 horror's related to Eyrith, yeah not every episode has them fighting one of the monolith and it can be draining that nothing is moving the main plot along, yes Chapter of the black wolf also was not very story heavy and anything of a main plot was shoved into the final 1/6th of the show but that was a problem I had then and its now more noticeable since its the main objective. If Eyrith say jumped from monolith horror to monolith horror rather than just being in the last one they fight, I would probably be a lot nicer and it would give her more presence, but it is what it is. Makai no hana is clearly trying to go back to what people like about the original and Makai senki after Yami o Terasu mono, so their is the actual suited fights, a heavier focus on one-offs rather than the serialized nature of Yami. It feels like a "okay, we are sorry if you didn't like the previous entry that much, here we are going back to basics with this heck we even brought back real suits rather than CG." And yes while I do have issues with Yami o Terasu mono which I will get into, there were some steps forward I did like about, but of course it did take steps backwards in certain instances, and its the same here, a few steps forward
and a few steps back.
CHARACTERS
The next in line of the Saejima line, now with 100% more smiling than his predecessor
When stacked against his father and...Far future successor but predecessor series wise, I really like Raiga, he strikes a nice balance of having his father's serious dedication to his mission with Ryoga's more laid back personality with a slight hint of his mothers kindness and having a much more straight heroic Garo is a refreshing experience. There is also a good bit of depth with how he feels about his duties and we are shown his past where he actually was trained by Rei as a nice little cameo. Unlike his father he doesn't really have a major character arc with exception to revelations about how he feels but Raiga overall is a pretty swell guy.
Crow...Crow...ummmmm..., yeah I really have nothing to say about him, he is probably one of the most forgettable characters I have ever witnessed in my life. He doesn't have any character arc, he really doesn't do much, about the only thing that is really interesting about him is that his actor would go on to play Kiramei Blue in 2020-2021's Kiramager. Outside of that, yeah I got nothing, he is bland, uninteresting and forgettable.
Meanwhile Mayuri does serve as a solid foil to Raiga, with her more emotionless personality to contrast with the more upbeat Raiga (To a point I wonder if this was going to be a duo but it was decided to make a trio to more capture the original series.) Mayuri gets the main character arc of the series, going from the tool of the order to becoming a real girl is the biggest character development any of the main cast (probably the only) and her curiosity of the human world is.
The story's heart
But in terms of characters, that is kind of it for the important ones, yeah Zaruba and Gonza are back and are good in their own way, that is the main cast, yeah their are some really good one-off characters, but there is very little characterization for our villains, Eyrinth has very little character whatsoever like with Messiah, and our mysterious person who broke the slab has a bit of backstory for why he is doing this, but like with Barago, it is too late into the series for you to care and a part of me belives that the big revelation was done because they realized that Crow had so little going for him, so they give him some things to make him a little more interesting, but it doesn't help him in any sense.
An expression more blank than my opinions of this guy
AESTHETICS and MUSIC
Okay getting back to positives, I can say aesthetically of the three series we are talking about here that Makai no hana is the best looking of the bunch, not only for the fact that it is a series that came out years after the original and actually makes use of real suits rather than primarily CGI, the fight scenes are also a step above what Yami o Terasu mono had to offer thanks to better staging, camera shots and the big one, the suits actually be real and remembering the time limit.
Crow, Wolf, I am both
In terms of new armors, I like the Crow armor, its more subtle and it does stand out and its gimmick of trading flight for time is interesting, as for giru, not much to say its another good looking armor, it does give a feeling of being on fire with its bronze look and likewise the horror designs are spot on being a balance of cool and terrifying.
Our main horror in her seed state, because her other forms will likely get me in trouble
The two opening pieces are also really solid, the first is a very foreboding and dark tune denoting the serious situation of what is going on and Tusk of Thunder is a good throwback of toku themes about how great our hero is in fighting the monsters to save the world. I wouldn't say they are better than the original but they are really good in their own way.
EPISODES
Favorite: Episode 4 Film: Arguably the episode that is the most memorable as it sees numerous horror movie references through its runtime, but also delves into how the horror movie is not what it use to be with the rise of CGI, its easily the highlight of the series and while it may seem that everything afterwards is down but don't worry, their are some really good solid
Favorite: Episode 10 Dinner Table: Gonza had always been a supporting character so seeing him getting the spotlight for an episode is nice as we get to see a more personal side to the man who had been watching over the Saejima family.
Favorite: Episode 18 Crimson Lotus, A slab horror possesses a knight, I am always one for a good old sword fight and seeing a more natural looking knight on demonic knight fight is one of my highlights.
Their are a lot more episodes that I can place here but we would be talking about a good chunk of them, as for one offs, Makai no hana is not lacking in great ones, but its story leaves a lot to desire
CONCLUSION
Garo Makai no Hana is... odd, it does a lot to improve on its predecessor, better balance of live action and CGI for fights, a protaginist who I don't want to throttle whenever he talks and one off episodes that are easily some of the best adventures I have seen from this franchise. On the other hand, it repeats the some of the issues of chapter of the black wolf, in the case of the villains are not that strong and shoving most of the plot into the last little bit, alongside some weaker characterization like with Crow and of course, the final villain. I am not saying Makai no hana is bad in that way, but it feels like, hey you want more of the classic Garo, well here it is in all of its imperfection. I still would say it is absolutely worth a watch for some of those episodes, but for those looking for an evolution outside of the effects, it may disappoint them a tad bit.
FINAL GRADE: C+
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