Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: GARO THE ANIMATION
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Sachiko2010
Posts: 68 |
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Great Episode 19 review from Gabriella Ekens. I have to say, the reviews of this series have been very impressive and smart across the board. Always focused on actual technical and plot elements, and showing a real interest in the characters' development, what a concept.
In terms of the episode plot points: what a great moment at the end. Early on in the series I was sure we would land up here, but then in the middle and especially during the Lara arc I thought perhaps the show was leading somewhere else, but here in episode 19 in the final minutes we find ourselves there. 
My only issue with the review was the throwaway Mulvey "male gaze" and objectification theory moment. After reading week after week great critiques grounded in the work itself and then building off that, why toss in that particular film theory cliche? '70s/'80s Lacanianisms... that's running down a rabbit hole. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I don't think Leon will try to resurrect Lara. He's already buried her and moved on. I never would have thought this show would go through Ema/Leon, but mutual trauma sex works.
So Alfonso is the last virgin on the show. Looks like a girl's blushing at him next week, so that may change. Still think German is a jerk and a terrible dad. |
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Ahirue
 Posts: 62 |
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You know... she was praising Garo for not being male gaze-y despite being an incredibly male-oriented show, right? And that commentary about whether or not a work has problems with the male gaze is in fact also grounded in the work itself? Since Garo is so definitively masculine and has focused a fair amount on sexuality, I think it's right on the mark for the reviews to comment on ways it does it better than other series. Given how many boob close-ups and panty shots and general male gaze fanservice there is in anime today, I think the lack of it in a show like Garo is worth commenting on and praising. And you might be tired of having to hear about this particular "film theory cliche," but plenty of people are just as tired (if not more so) of seeing it. If I can live through otherwise enjoyable shows having close-ups of a middle school girl's suggestively positioned, inexplicably shiny breasts, you can live through otherwise good reviews commenting on things you want to pretend don't exist. 
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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You've mentioned this in every review since Lara died, but the show itself has given no indication that this is the direction it's going. Except for the shot of León protecting Lara in his heroic clothes in the ending theme, I have no real clue of where you're getting the idea that Lara wil come back. Like Agent355 said, León mourned her, buried her and moved on. He probably still loves her, but the fact that he didn't think about her at all this episode tells me there are very scarce chances of her being relevant to the story. This was certainly a fantastic episode, GARO had been missing Ema's sass for too long, and I hope she doesn't disappear on us for half a season again. Along with Ema, I kept marveling at seeing how far León has come |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I'm just disappointed that Leon's growth was mostly a consequence of Lara's death. It makes sense narratively, but it's a tired cliche that feels so cheap after the great job they did having him gradually regain his sense of self and protectiveness through bonding with her family. Why couldn't he regain his heroic identity through a positive experience? Why does every superhero have to be sad, angsty and tragic?
But then again, I also don't like the idea that there is absolutely no coming back after becoming a horror, that it's like the character becomes an evil zombie, essentially. This show has a very bleak worldview. |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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Say what? How's that even remotely a possibility? Let's remember that this is the Middle Age royalty, no matter how much gratitude, there's no way a Crown Prince -forget about the convalecent King- would marry a palace servant. I honestly saw no indication that the story is going in that direction, or that Mendoza's plan is aiming for that at all. |
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Ahirue
Posts: 62 |
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I could maybe see it, given the brief nod a vague version of the idea got in the show and the fact that it would indeed be a pretty dastardly plot, plus Octavia just "saved the King" and Alfonso or the King could have some heart-flutters about that, who knows. I don't know if I would call it likely, though. Garo could pull it off, but at this point the idea still seems way more fun-if-stretchy speculation than anything substantially supported by foreshadowing. At the very least, I think it's more likely than the "Leon's going to try and revive Lara" theory that Gabrielle is so thoroughly behind. I think Lara's presence in promotional art and the ending song was more to trick viewers into thinking she was the endgame romance for Leon to increase the shock value of her death than to drop any hints about her potentially coming back. (And mission accomplished, man, damn. At least with me. I'd thought I'd outgrown falling for narrative tricks like that, but apparently not. Ow. 8'D) |
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Animelover12313
Posts: 278 |
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Is it just me or there are a lot of similarities between this show and Your Lie in April? spoiler[Both the main characters' conflict is caused by the mother, both mcs' dads are never around when they suffered, both are changed and developed by meeting a girl, and well, both girls died.]
Now I'm wondering if Yasuko Kobayashi took a lesson of writing under the wing of George R.R. Martin or the writer of Akame ga Kill. Her 2 works last year and this year ended up having making likable characters, have them contributed somewhat to the plot and kill them at the end. Wonders if she'll do the same to Ximena 
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notrogersmith
 Posts: 192 |
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Leon's reaction to Alfonso's question, "How was Ema?", made me laugh, especially the way he got flustered and told Zaruba to shut up. I hope, though, that's not the only consequence to his and Ema's night together, and that the series shows how their relationship evolves, whether it be into romance, awkward tension, or whatnot.
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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'It's a bit sudden for Germán to be an enemy now, but it feels like the upcoming battle will be a more cathartic confrontation of his failures as a father than an execution. Germán did abandon his son during his time of greatest need. León almost killed himself!'
However, what happened to Leon isn't something German could help him with. It was something Leon had to work out on his own or not at all. If German had done anything at all, it would've made things worse -- in fact, it probably would've prevented Leon from *ever* recovering. It has to do with self-confidence and self-esteem. He not only had to recover his belief in himself, he had to *know* that it was something *he* did on his own, or without any help from people like his father. This is also why Alfonso didn't try to help him after they met. Alfonso reached out as far as he could -- almost too far, really, but fortunately after Leon had mostly rebuilt his internal integrity. I'm probably not explaining it very well, but I *do* understand the reasoning why Germain didn't help his son -- something his son understood as well. It wasn't abandonment, but an understanding that this was something that Leon had to do on his own if he ever wanted to be a real knight and a real man. I'm interested in what Garm is thinking regarding Mendoza, but right now we lack any information that would help us figure it out. I think Germain wants to see for himself how his son as changed and maybe will use the results of the fight as a gauge to determine how much more he and Alfonso should be told. Alfonso tends to be pretty black and white, but maybe by now Leon's impulsiveness has been curbed to the point he can grasp whatever it is that has led to Mendoza being given protection instead of being hunted down like a dog. Also, I think Ema will be a stabalizing influence on Leon (and vice versa), so the upcoming fight should be pretty good. |
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Ahirue
Posts: 62 |
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German couldn't help Leon on his personal journey at that specific moment, no, but he displayed little more than mild concern in Leon's well-being after he disappeared. If he had a better grasp of who Leon was as a person, and how Leon felt, he might have covertly followed - or at least made sure someone else had eyes on Leon - to make sure he didn't do anything drastic. But everything Garo's showed us of German's parenting style has shown him to be incredibly hands-off, particularly with teenage Leon. It's not so much that he didn't know how Leon felt, but he underestimated those feelings, and gave them much less weight and significance than Leon deserved. He took too much of a blase attitude towards Leon's problems. He's the kid's father, but we never saw one sign of him trying to be directly supportive. And teenagers need direct support. The "let them sink or swim on their own" parenting/teaching style is ineffective and actually incredibly harmful to children and teenagers. Why didn't Leon feel like he had something to protect before Lara, despite having been shown to be a kind and compassionate young man beneath the surliness and sulks? Did German ever even bother to explain about how Mendoza was deliberately spreading Horrors in Valiante, about how the witch hunts had been specifically constructed to remove the common folk's protection from Horrors so Mendoza could control the country through fear? And even if he did, how was it helping to train Leon as a protector to make him feel like he was alone and couldn't rely on anyone but himself? (Which is what the "sink-or-swim-by-yourself"method teaches.) In order to be invested in protecting people, at a bare minimum, you need positive connections with other people, and between moving them around a lot preventing Leon from making friends and being an unsupportive father, German never gave him the chance to make any. We see Alfonso interacting comfortably with not just his mother, but also the palace guardsmen, the servants, other members of the court - and he's been raised as the future King, taught that he's responsible for the well-being of the entire country. He's been given plenty to protect. As far as we know, German never even tried to give anything like that to Leon, and he knew his son wanted to avenge his mother. Sure, he said "don't fight for revenge" a few times, but you can't just take away someone's reason to fight without giving them something else to fight for, and still, well, expect them to fight. So yes, German couldn't hold Leon's hand through the specific growth hurdles he had to make following his loss of the Garo armor. But it was still abandonment not to keep covert eyes on him, given Leon's mental and emotional state, and it was German's failures as a teacher and a father that led to Leon's downfall in the first place. Which was all a very long way of saying it's completely reasonable for Leon to have some pent-up resentment towards German, and for this upcoming fight between them to be cathartic, for both Leon and the viewers. |
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notrogersmith
Posts: 192 |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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I'd love to be proven wrong, but l'm not convinced this is going to run 48-50 episodes like some here seem to believe.
This site lists episode 24 as being the finale (最終話). It's scheduled to air April 3, and this site lists the live-action "GARO: GOLDSTORM" TV series as starting in April. The GARO anime took over the slot vacated when "GARO: Makai no Hana" ended, so it seems likely to me that GOLDSTORM will take over the slot after the anime ends. I'm not going trying to rain on anyone's parade; I just think there'll be a lot of disappointed people if everyone's expecting #24 to be the midpoint. |
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AtoMan
Posts: 161 |
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Of course it's not the midpoint, it'll be just like any other Garo season. Except this one will be continued later with a new story and probably some new characters. Also isn't the theatrical movie coming first?
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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And what would've happened if Leon had detected his father shadowing him around? Leon would've thought, "Even my father doesn't trust me to figure this out on my own." And that is something I doubt he would've ever recovered from.
We already know that Germain tends to keep his real emotions hidden at nearly all times, especially around Leon. So I wouldn't be too sure that he was unaware of the possible results of letting Leon handle this matter on his own, which is in keeping, as you said, with his basic parenting style.
It may be "harmful", but it ensures that the child doesn't rely on his parent, and that is something Leon must *never* do as a knight. That, at any rate, is what I'm guessing is the reason Germain raised him the way he did. A knight must make his own decisions and accept the consequences of those decisions *on his own*. Alfonso also didn't have to grow up in a foreign land constantly hiding from people who wanted to kill him should they learn who he was; he only had to do that for a little while, and he soon ran into Rafael. IMO, Germain's main "teaching" was in how he held himself as a knight -- that is, his actions and his composure. But Leon couldn't truly follow them while hatred ruled his heart. Really, Mendoza did him a favor by exposing that hatred in a way Leon could no longer deny or run away from. It was something that he had *always* felt, so it was hard to see it for what it is, I would guess. But after destroying half of that city, he finally saw it, and he believed it made him unworthy to be a knight, so he gave up and didn't (initially) try to fight Alfonso to get back his armor, and thought he had nothing to live for since becoming a knight is all he'd known -- or, more accurately, becoming a knight in order to get revenge for his mother is all he'd known, and now Mendoza was apparently dead. I'm sure the spoiler[apparent] loss of his object of revenge was just as devestating to him (since he didn't get to do the deed) as destroying half the town -- probably worse.
The real thing preventing him from becoming a protector is that he was still consumed with rage and revenge -- there was no room in his heart to protect others. And how could Leon make friends when he was constantly moving from town to town? He and his father were targets of powerful kingdom, after all.
Yes, because his mother hadn't been betrayed by Mendoza and burned at the stake, sacrificing herself to give birth to her son. This is something Leon had to grow up knowing, and something Alfonso never had to face until spoiler[his mother killed herself to prevent herself from being used by Mendoza]. And that happened while Alfonso was (basically) fully grown and matured; Alfonso *still* wondered what would've happened if he'd had to grow up with that having happened, and thought that he may have been too harsh to Leon (he wasn't, IMO). Alfonso was raised as a prince, by a whole castle of people who cared for and respected him. He wasn't running around with basically no money to his name, fighting horrors and being targeted a powerful enemy that wanted him dead. Alfonso had the luxury of a princely upbringing -- Leon did not.
What else could he give him? You can't change what's inside a person simply by talking to him. If "protecting the people" doesn't inspire someone, then what else will? He could only show him how *he* lived -- by his actions -- and hope that Leon would come to see the light on his own and *willingly* give up his thrist for revenge. But it didn't work, and I don't think Germain actually thought it *would* work, but rather hoped that some experience or event would help Leon see the way, and had faith that Leon would survive until that happened. Germain didn't have a whole kingdom to turn to to help guide his son. He had no real resources at all: not a home, not a wife, not any other children or family. He had himself and his own training, and that, as you said, wasn't enough. The only other thing he could do was have faith in his son, and make sure that his son *knew* that his father had faith in him, which, IMO, is what he meant when he told Leon that he couldn't help him after Leon fell to the dark knight, and then later why he didn't pursue him: it was his way of showing he still trusted his son to pull out of it on his own, and it was the only thing of value he could give to Leon that Leon would accept. That's my take on it, anyway.
But, in the end, Leon *did* recover and is probably becoming the sort of knight that he both needs to be and ought to be. Of course, the price paid was pretty high, and it's not as if Germain knew what specifically would work to bring that about, either.
Yes, I'll agree with you there. I think we might learn more about what Germain was thinking in the next episode (as opposed to my speculation above). Leon has always been pretty tough on his father (but I think Germain wanted it that way so that Leon's destructive energies would be focused on the person most capable of defending himself against it). I expect this fight and its aftermath should clear the air on many matters and will disappointed if it doesn't do that. This is something that, I think, both men need, though for different reasons. The fact that we both had so much to say about this is, I think, an indication of how well-crafted the storyline has been so far. I hope the series keeps it up. Garo is a lot better than I thought it would be and I'm glad I decided to give it a chance. |
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