2024 is here, and it has blessed us all with a new Garo series. Titled Garo: Hagane o Tsugu Mono, which can be taken as something along the lines of “The One Who Inherits Steel/Inheritor of Steel”, it celebrates the 10th anniversary of Garo: The One Who Shines in the Darkness. Of course, this means we get a new season with Wataru Kuriyama returning as Dougai Ryuga.
The Actual Episode
It’s only episode 1, so obviously not everything has been laid out for us, but this was a solid reintroduction to Ryuga that also didn’t waste time if we already knew him. Ryuga gets to remind us he’d still firmly confident in his abilities by schooling a Horror before getting more serious and letting the exposition happen.
I didn’t realize how much I missed Zaruba until I saw the opening. Zaruba is a mainstay in all the Garo shows(sans Versus Road, which intentionally goes against the grain), and him welcoming me back to the series gave me the biggest smile.
Sadly, Ryuga is not joined by Rian, his partner-in-crime(and all but outright stated to be his girlfriend by the time Gold Storm ended) from his previous outing. I don’t know the specifics of why she wasn’t brought back; I’m just gonna assume life got to lifing and her actor couldn’t commit to the role. Regardless of why, this means Ryuga(and Zaruba, can’t forget the homie) are going at it solo here as the (mandatory) only carryovers from previous entries in the Ryuga-verse. Not the end of the world; Ryuga is a great character even when alone, and the Garo franchise has historically done a good job with its cast, so even though I miss Rian and Ryugas fellow knights, I’m confident Ryuga’s new allies will grow on me quickly.
Speaking of his new allies, we’ve met two of em this episode, Makai Priest Koyori and Makai Knight Souma. Koyori hasn’t shown off much of her personality yet, but she seems like a nice enough girl already. She’s gonna need to level up a bit though if her scuffle with the Horror in this episode was anything to go off of. Souma, on the other hand, lets us know he’s hardass from frame-fucking-1. Big “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us” energy from my man over there.
The fights, as expected of Garo, top-notch. Same for the suits. This is the first Garo series since 2020, and they clearly wanted to make a good impression for both returning fans like myself and anybody new that decided to hop on.
On the note of hopping on, while I would prefer someone start with Ryuga’s original series, this is looking like a good way for someone new to get into Garo. There weren’t any references to past series, and it’s not like the concept of “dudes in armor kill monsters at night” is hard to grasp even if they’re not explaining how the Makai order works for us from the beginning again. This episode is on the official Garo youtube channel with subs for multiple languages. This is great. The catch-22 is the official subs are very questionable in quality. Instead of human translators, they used machine translation. It should still be serviceable, but once I saw some screens of some of the errors, I decided to wait a few days for the T-N to do their thing so I could watch with subs I knew would be fire. Still, if you’re new to Garo and don’t feel like torrenting the older shows or paying for Crunchyroll to watch the anime, this is your best route. There could genuinely be much worse, people.
My Worries/Lack There-Of
SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS RYUGA-VERSE ENTRIES. TURN BACK NOW, NIGGA
So when this series was announced a couple months ago, I mentioned I was most curious about how/if they would acknowledge Fang of God- Jinga, because that series ends with Jinga getting what he wants and the world beginning to go to shit. The thing is, that series takes place at a vague point in the future. Like, bare minimum 18-19 years post the Fang of God movie. Jinga got reincarnated and made it all the way into adulthood before his Horror persona popped back up and took over. We have no idea how far into the future that series took place and where Ryuga and friends were if they were still alive.
Now, because that’s way in the future, which is basically confirmed by this series still having a prime Ryuga, I wonder if they’ll ever acknowledge it. While this series is sure to be godlike, I think it’s a bit weird to know that this universe ends up a shit hole at some unspecified time in the future. This series doesn’t look like it’ll address it, so I hope a movie or something does. Even a “Yeah, someone stopped Jinga” tweet from Keita would do me good. Still, there’s a time and place for everything, and I’m glad Garo’s return to TV isn’t dealing with Jinga right now. I love Inoue, but having another series about him would’ve definitely been too much. Honestly, i felt like FOG- Jinga was too much, but it was still enjoyable.
Signing Off
I’m so glad Garo is back. I’ve been eating, man. Gridman Universe came out and was fire, A new Dogengers season came out was fire, and now this. I’m eating so good; you just don’t understand. I’m not watching Kamen Rider or Sentai at the moment, but this is gonna hold me down. This shit is for me, mane.