GARO Special - Personal Impressions

Update: December 6th, 2008.

This text contains spoilers, be warned.

The Beast of the White Night. This is the title of the special having two episodes of 50 minutes each one, which finishes Garo. It is an amusing story, tieing what came off loose in the series. Rather two stories, one by chapter, even though the second interweaves since the first episode.

All emblematic characters of the series are present, and there are some new ones. The first, specially clearly in the younger ones, seem to attain the interpretative maturity of their roles. On the new ones, I have read in other reviews that the best among them is the little Rin; I find her exasperating -in original version, at last- and quite farfetched. Certainly, it is quite odd to speak about implausibility in a fantastic show, but for everything there is a boundary: she can do one or other thing, or that she has got a power or another one but, should she make such things without a supervision, and putting on her young shoulders the responsibility of some human lives?

But, on unbelievable things, Jabi’s reappearance is the biggest. Those who saw what happened to her in the series, perhaps we would not find a better explanation than the one suggested by a friend of mine: teleportation, even though it is difficult for me to relate Garo with the series Star Trek. It is not that I complain: Jabi has a justified role in the film, but even fantasy has to have its own logic, and in no moment anybody has said how has she ended up into the trunk of the magical tree.

A pair of things. At the forest of Naraku the trees seem demeanour of a straight line. The second is that, as well as it happened often in the series, there are scenes altered in the time, that is: an image/scene is chronologically posterior to the one coming next. This last one has disconcerted me a bit. In any case, wrongs of every kind have diminished, with respect to the series.

Some review say that it lacks enough epics, but I believe that the special has enough of it and, as well as in the series, the most epic scenes are helped –very much– for the magnificent soundtrack. Had I not say anything of the soundtrack, yet? I think it is brilliant!

Someone also criticized that new character Tsubasa Yamagatana is almost a clon of Kouga... but more talkative. I think that precisely this thing attains to communicate us what sort of work makes a Makai knight, the tremendous pressure upon his soul. Rei’s exception also speaks about how important is environment and individuality, as variables in the formation of personality. Everything say us that a Makai knight is, firstly, a human being.

The armor of the new knight Dan (Tsubasa) is worthy of the other two. White color and with a short red cape, it also has got less animal reminiscences than those of Garo and Zero. And, since we speak about armors, let me say that the last transformation of Garo, in my opinion, is superb and lovely.

In the series it drew my attention how a great spill of blood -a big splash that blurred in the air- was shown. Even though there is not persistence on showing it to us, now it is much more realistic, at least regarding the human blood, and it adds more impact to the scenes needed of it.

There are two things that I have liked especially, Firsty, of course, the conversation -rather a speech- in which Kouga attempts to face Tsubasa with his feelings. And also, how has illustrated the explanation of the relation among Legules and the Phosphore Arrow: the schematic drawings, totally in accordance to the ornamental style of the series, they are a mixture of aesthetics and of brightness or, at least, mute loquacity. I add the pleasant surprise that it has been to see Rei on a motorbike, and Kouga "surfing".

Some lack I find? I miss a little more of romanticism: the final scene is very short. Of course, you can discern a romantic background in some other scenes: Kouga’s anger when Rin spoils the famous picture of the landscape, and the speech of Kouga to Tsubasa.

The special deals mainly about fight, and the remaining things are causes to fight. The characters themselves get little attention. Even Kouga and Rei merely reassert themselves in the trends which already were starting to be seen in the series. I do not know if it will be my imagination, but it seems that the one more careful treated (but always static) was Rin.

And some ones that we did not expect as well: does Rei return Silver’s love?, finally? Jokes aside, there is a disturbing evidence affecting Kouga: he can grasp that Jabi has gone out of the great of curing Rin, in a distance. But in the series it happened to him with Kaoru, too...