Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Garo: Crimson Moon
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Themaster20000
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It's still painfully generic so far. I wouldn't mind the terrible animation if it had some decent writing. It's handling of exposition this episode was just terrible;just a bunch of "tell,don't show". Raikou,is still in desperate need of some characterization;he is so one-note right now. The fights are hurt severely by the animation,and more importantly they're pointless and don't advance anything.
Then the tonally issues,which the show seems unsure if it wants to be light-hearted or dark(would really help if it had a consistent tone). The plot does seem to be going somewhere so maybe it will;it's going to need some more characters other than Seimei,getting some type of characterization though. |
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Darkmagick
 SubscriberPosts: 463 |
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Wasn't that the leader of the guards that came to arrest Seimei? At least, that sounded like Namikawa Daisuke to me...And the promotional material did say the character was supposed to be serving as a peacekeeper...I don't think that character's name has been said out loud yet, though, so I guess I can't be 100% sure.
He's even voiced by Alfonso's voice actor... With this, the voices of all four leads from season 1 are voicing central characters in this season too... (At least, I assume Namikawa Daisuke's character will be important, since he's in the key art and all.) I'm going to be spending this entire season squint-eyed trying to figure out if the repeat casting has some sort of significance, or if it was just because. ...Is anyone else spending significant energy wondering about this, or is it just me and my seiyuu obsession? 
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XerBlade
 SubscriberExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 162 Location: Depletion Garden, Nashville, TN |
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No, definitely not. In the tokusatsu series, which have had a grand total of three protagonists/Garos over the years (two have had two series each and one only one so far), the main characters have been traditionally for all intents and purposes orphans with no parental figures at all (and much older than the protagonists in the animated series as well, all three of them have been fully-fledged adults who are already mature and completely trained heroes). Series 1 and 2 has the first protagonist, who we learn in flashbacks (early on) had his father killed in front of him by the big bad when he was still a child, and his mother is never mentioned. He also seems to have basically raised and trained himself from that point. Series 3 and 5 (totally skipped one because this is not a conventional franchise) has a completely unrelated protagonist in the not-to-distant future (Note 1 and 2 took place in present day in basically real time) whose father is never mentioned and his mother went missing when he was little. He trained for years by himself except for a robot puppet dog thing (that was totally only there for the Kingsman training conclusion only played completely straight at the end) on an island until he became an adult, because yeah, that's a thing I guess. He's also most fans' least favorite Garo, btw. Series 4's protagonist is the son of the protagonist of 1 and 2, where we are told that both of his parents were sucked into some strange portal when he was just a child (still unexplained, I'm totally expecting a return of his story in a later series), and they didn't even get their actors from series 1 and 2 back to show us a lengthy flashback for that, lol.... Anyway, he was briefly trained in swordsmanship by the secondary Makai Knight friend character from series 1 and 2 because he was his godfather or something until he went off to find out what happened to the parents and was never seen again. The MC, STILL a child, raised himself from then on apparently. Also, let me just say this, there literally isn't a single element of the actual plot of the first series of Garo The Animation that is also an element in the tokusatsu. The background about the Makai Knights and all that, sure (and the tradition of always using JAM Project opening themes), but the story itself is a completely different sort of thing. Different themes, a different feel, all of it. It's kinda why I didn't like the first The Animation at first. It felt like it was aping the franchise background of Garo in a paint-by-numbers way trying to catch existing fans but it totally missed any of the actual heart and soul of the franchise. I got over that, though. |
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bobob101
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So I have only seen a small part of the original Tokusatsu series. The whole parental issue/bonds theme is still there, but nearly as strong. The romance angle is also really played up compared to how it is in the original anime.
I don't want to tip my hand too much since I write about Garo on another blog. I really do feel that the first Garo was trying to present itself as a franchise that had something to prove. This time Garo knows some people will watch it, some people won't, and is just going along with that knowledge. It makes for less ambitious watching, but fun nonetheless. |
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AtoMan
Posts: 161 |
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...and he's VA of Raiko in this anime. It's his first role in the animation and it shows; his delivery would suit Raiga, but don't exactly work well in the animation.
The first anime did have several similarities to both first and third seasons, though. The dual-wielding silver knight (Zoro/Zero), the damaged armor angle with negative effect on its user (Leon/Ryuga; also the second opening songs of their respective series havong certain similarities). Sure, each series tends to ignore some details while focusing on another (like the time limit that was never touched upon in Ryuga and Leon seasons), but the creators never elaborated if the stories are connected in any way or not. I totally expect some crossover at some point. Not to mention the traditional Deus Ex Machina Upgrade every Garo grts in the finale to never use it again. |
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notrogersmith
 Posts: 192 |
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Personally, I found this episode to be the most disappointing. Much of the dialogue not only was exposition but the worst kind -- where characters tell each other what they already know.
I'm also not sold on the "Sex Mom" aspect of Seimei's character. If I compare her to German, I notice that (1) German was a horndog with other consenting adults, and (2) the more problematic aspects of what he was doing were lampshaded within the story and led to German being the butt of much of the show's humor. What have we seen with Seimei so far? She teases one teenage boy by asking her to wash her back while she's bathing, and teases another teenage boy by pressing his face in her breasts (as if that weren't already an overused cliche  ). It seems like the writers were trying to create a dynamic similar to that of Ema and Leon in the previous Garo anime, only to Flanderize the Ema stand-in horribly and forget the nuances that kept the relationship between Ema and Leon from getting straight-up creepy.
Luckily, there are several episodes to go, and I hope they get the problems with Seimei's character worked out. Last edited by notrogersmith on Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:33 am; edited 2 times in total |
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AtoMan
Posts: 161 |
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Still waiting for explanation how is Raiko able to transform without Garo Ken. Heh, his sword isn't even made from Soul Metal!
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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My response was kind of the opposite, in that I viewed everything we hadn't seen before as expansion of the Garo world overall, and really enjoyed that. It's been clear through the live action shows and spinoffs that the Makai Knights' and Makai Priests' war with horrors has been going on for a long, long time, but for obvious budgetary reasons, present-day and near-future stories are the easiest kind to tell on TV. The first animated season, however, with its medeival Spanish setting and completely non-Japanese cast of characters, would have been nearly impossible to pull off on a TV budget, so I felt like they really used the opportunity to its fullest to do something they couldn't have ordinarily done. This new show, OTOH, could probably have been done in live action. Except for Raiko's hair, which would probably blow the budget 
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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mark musashi was the stunt actor who did the most amazing/fun fighting scenes in garo (anda few other tokusatsu series) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+musashi ideally they would replicate some of his stunts, but well, they don't have enough budget to: as for ep03 the quality was really bad , like it's an action scene and they just move some characters around like I am watching a poorly animated trigger show; then when people get attacked by horrors after being unfailry trapped, instead of being indignant of that I just laugh because they just fly like bowling pins :/ that and the complains about poorly drawn characters to the opint where they look unemotional while talking or, they are draw so bad you wonder why they/their hats are not falling down. the only professional (in an ethic sense) artist working in this show is whoever is drawing seimei's butt, that one is alwasy nicely draw regardless of how teh rest of the episode looks. |
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vanfanel
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Well, it's nice to know they have their priorities straight, at least. 
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Desa
 Posts: 285 |
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OOOOOHH I finally remember! I just knew I heard the name "Ashiya Douman" somewhere before but it didn't click until just now. It was in Tokyo Ravens. TOKYO GODDAMN RAVENS!!!!
As much as it pains me to dwell on Tokyo Ravens, I have to admit some of the characters could totally pass for Makai Alchemists. |
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Themaster20000
Posts: 863 |
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Animation was much better this episode,but it was still largergly unimpressive. Raikou,still has no character( with the most interesting thing about him being his hair). Lot of flat direction moments,such as the whole "let's focus on this flat poorly animation and drawn shot for a minute, while the characters deliver a bunch of boring exposition". I don't know why they even bother having a fight scene,since no effort made to make them any pointless,boring,and one-sided. In it's in rinse and repeat territory now.
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Gina Szanboti
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Episode 4
I'll say with the pipe, just because it sounds slightly less rapey.
This felt like a pretty useless episode, but I guess it's necessary if Kaguya is going to be a recurring character. I had to groan when he whisks her away to the edge of a cliff, so he can conveniently fall off of it. There was no other place outside the city to take her? He couldn't set her down 5 feet from the edge? I was actually expecting her to be the one to fall off. 
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Themaster20000
Posts: 863 |
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This one was watchable. It at least had a point in setting up this character. Ad stated in the review,it was a pretty bland class difference romance, mixed with a hilarious black and white portrayal of the rich and poor. Seimei, was extremely obnoxious this episode(why does the show continue to kill it's tone with it's humor?). The fight at least made me laugh this week,"look out,that monster is throwing rags at us!".
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2862 |
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this shows reminde me of il sole penetra la ilusione, the premise is nice and dark and stuff adn if you just tell someone what happens it sounds like a really good show; but the execution is kind of atrocious and detracts a lot from the actual show.
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