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GARO THE ANIMATION
Episode 21

by Gabriella Ekens,

GARO THE ANIMATION has always had a weakness in assuming prior familiarity with the GARO franchise. If this anime is your first contact with the GARO universe, it's up to you to go out and research how the Makai Order works in any capacity other than their commitment to protecting the innocent. For a non-Japanese audience, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that very little GARO is available. I'm already vague on what the Watchdog Centers even are, and now we're facing some scheming between them and Mendoza? It's as if Attack on Titan never went into detail about the Titans before embarking on the war against them. Fortunately, this episode's emotional through-line is strong enough to overcome the vague plotting.

Mendoza's looking to revive Anima, a super-Horror that's held in stasis beneath Santa Bard castle. Anima's revival will open a portal to the Horror Dimension, unleashing a plague of them upon Valiante. The Watchdog Center will take advantage of this. They'll kill Mendoza and Anima before they can do too much damage, and then use the open portal as an opportunity to hunt down lots of Horrors. They're sacrificing Valiante's population to make the world as a whole a little bit safer (maybe). Obviously, this goes against their apparent charge of protecting innocents. León is incensed, not only at the Watchdog Center but at his father's seeming participation in the scheme. Germán refuses to explain himself and impedes his son's involvement at every turn. Their battle this episode is about faith – does León trust his father, who has deeply wronged him before, enough to believe that he's doing the right thing?

Germán is a nonstandard Bad Anime Dad. He wasn't an absentee, just bad at parenting. Germán loves his son, but he offered little guidance beyond platitudes and then berated him when something went wrong. From an early age, León was pushed into the role of Germán's caretaker in many respects, managing finances and making sure that his father didn't do anything too embarrassing. It's as if Jack Sparrow were a single father – probably loving, but also exploitative and ignorant about his child's needs. Germán needs a babysitter himself, and that's not something you should force your kid into. Give him a hug, dude. Also, lay off the prostitutes just a little bit. They're bothering the ten-year-old.

So despite Germán's copious flaws as a human being, is he still a good person? This episode arrives at a yes, revealing that he's been playing both the Watchdog Center and Mendoza for an opportunity to foil both of their plans. Personally, Germán is a mess, and he's at fault for most of León's struggles. However, he is a true Makai Knight, and has the people's interests at heart. León chooses to have faith in his father and it pays off. The Watchdogs' scheme will likely fail, and Mendoza has to be taken out from the inside.

After a string of gorgeous episodes, GARO's production has finally taken a hit. The animation this episode isn't terrible, but it's certainly more restrained. The confrontation between León and Germán relies on stills and speedlines, but they're usually on model, and the animators do manage to realize a few nice moments of choreography with their limited motion. When it comes to low budget fight scenes, I prefer a well-shot lack of motion to freewheeling squiggly abstraction, and GARO sides with my tastes. It's a step down from the last couple of weeks, but that was going to happen eventually, and GARO handles the transition with relative grace. Otherwise, the rest of the episode is filled by another gross-looking CGI suit battle. Those are as unfortunate as ever. Blegh.

GARO THE ANIMATION is gearing up for its midpoint as a much more solid production than I ever expected. As of this point, GARO THE ANIMATION is a good series, but another season could make it a great one. I'm holding out hope.

Grade: B

GARO THE ANIMATION is currently streaming on Funimation.

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.


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