Toku Review: Garo Red Requiem

While in the 2010's Garo has become one of the major tokusatsu production alongside Toei's Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series and Tsuburaya's Ultraman. Following the end of the Original Chapter of the black wolf in the mid 2000's things did not explode per se, with the exception of a 2 part epilogue released in December of 2006, the next 4 years saw no new Garo material. While it had its fans, the ratings (this is the people who are watching it and not like the R or PG-13 ratings) Weren't high enough to get a sequel series. That was until 2010 when after 4 years of no new material, Keita Amemiya and his team brought Garo back in theatrical form with Garo Red requiem, bringing back Ryosei Konishi and Hironobu Kageyama as Kouga and Zaruba respectively, the film sparked enough interest to finally give fans the sequel they had been asking for in Makai Senki, of course since this was also the early 2010's the film was also filmed with then new 3D technology. You remember that, 3D, every film for some reason had even if it didn't or that fake 3D that some films were processed into... look I really don't have much outside of that opening crawl about how Garo didn't have material for 4 years and needed to fill out this opening so let's just move on.

---

Garo, now in higher picture quality

Some time after the events of Chapter of the Black wolf and its epilogue Demon Beast of the Midnight Sun. Kouga has been sent by not evil watch dogs to a city where a new Horror threat is on the horizon, Karma, the Demon Mirror Horror. During this mission he is assisted by some Makai priest, their leader Akaza, and assistants Shiguto and Rekka. While the former 2 are happy for his help, Rekka is less than enthused as she wants vengence against Karma for her Father's death and to beat him to the punch.

I will state this that Red Requiem is good...that's it, its good, its solid, what else do you want me to say here, its like with the opening. Red Requiem is a solid one-off story that has a great beginning, middle and end. Rekka's character arc is solid and comes full circle and gives a tidbit into Kouga's past which is nice. With its biggest issue being that it can be a bit cliched at times. I could truthfully end it here and say if you haven't watched the film yet, you should go watch it now but let's delve into some of the aspects about the film.

While he is not the main focus of the film, it is nice to see Kouga once more, not only how far he has come from his initial appearance in chapter of the black wolf. Here his role as the primo knight works well as he also tries to mentor Rekka nd help her seeing as how he knew her father, he may be the title character but he is not the main focus.

Rekka Unsheathed

Instead the main focus is the new girl Rekka, she gets the main character arc, has a connection with Karma, and plays an active role. Really the only issue I have with her character is the revenge aspect of her character, its just done too much and it makes her look a lot more stupid than she really is and the film could've done without. But outside of that, I liked Rekka, she was a solid addition to the world. Akaza and Shiguto are fine, they serve the purpose to the story and are never really annoying but also offer some neat looks into makai priest and their technology like the little suitcase dog that is used a few times. That being said, the writers could've held off on revealing who their traitor was for a bit instead of just doing it immediately, it removes any kind of drama that may have come from such a fact, even if this is a movie and not a full tv show it's still annoying.

While Karma may not have the most unique of personalities, she does come off as quite smart, making the most of her abilities to hinder or weaken our heroes so they can't beat her, and not drawing major attention to her. That's what I like in a villain, when they know what they are doing and can use it. Her servants are also lacking in major personality, being straight generals for the heroes to fight, but like Akaza and Shiguto they do their job, be warm-ups to the main boss of the film.

Well... this can be considered good Karma based on who you are.

Action wise, the film does benefit from an increase in budget and the advent of HD filming, though it does read like a bigger budgeted episode of the TV show, but in a way, since Garo has always been pretty looking, it just stands out a lot more here.

---

CONCLUSION

As I have Stated, Red Reqiuem is good, its nothing outstanding and it can be a bit cliched for some people, but it does its job well, Reintroducing Japan to the golden Knight and his world. As a one-off story, it is satisfying without leaving any major cliffhangers outside of a possible return for Rekka. If you haven't seen it, it is a good watch from time to time in my opinion and of course got Garo back on the televison. If anything it should at least get a bit more credit for it.

FINAL GRADE: A