Garo: Guren no Tsuki

Monsters known as "Horrors" have invaded the world, entering through gates from the Makai Realm of Darkness. These corrupt, demonic creatures have the ability to seize human bodies and feed on their souls. Citizens who are out past sunset will likely never see the sun rise again, but those who live in the capital city have no need to worry—they are protected by a spiritual force field created by the sorcerer group Onmyouji.

In possession of legendary armor, the Golden Knight Raikou proclaims that he will protect everyone from the Horrors. Accompanied by his attendant Kintoki and the mysterious Makai Alchemist Seimei, he strives to become a formidable Makai Knight, but Raikou is ill-prepared to handle the side effects of the armor. Disappointed by his own shortcomings, he sets out on a journey of self-discovery to master his weaknesses and prove his worth.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Seimei Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Fujiwara no, Yasusuke Main

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Kintoki Main

Uechi, Aki Japanese

Raikou Main

Nakayama, Masei Japanese

Zaruba Supporting

Kageyama, Hironobu Japanese

Ashiya, Douman Supporting

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

Fujiwara no, Michinaga Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Inari Supporting

Udono, Mayu Japanese

Shomin no Musume Supporting

Oka, Junko Japanese

Minamoto no, Yorinobu Supporting

Nomura, Katsuhito Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Takagi, Junichi Producer

Wakabayashi, Atsushi Director

Reviews

Jul 17, 2021

Shiniya

Recommended

"Light is always alongside darkness..."

My review will probably be one of the most positive ones over here. I still don't get it why most of reviews got so low rating as well as the series itself. I read few of them and to be honest, it looked to me like they weren't even justified. I mean, people with Chuunibyou or School Days in favourites writing review on something they have 0 experience with, i find it rather amusing.
Anyway...

Story: 10
Story development in what looked like medieval age was well set. First few episodes in, it was kinda random and chaotic but as the ... anime continued, story basically developed itself. It's basically about people's lust and desires. How everyone can get consumed by those negative feelings. Side by side with demons aspect and superpowers, oldschool-like anime and animation itself made a great combo.

Art: 9
Not 10, simply because of lack of the side characters some kind of difference. Almost every side character... like side, side, side character, was almost the same if not same. The features of faces if it wasn't someone really important was awful. Other than that, I like the old style of art and animation as well. If someone like Funimation gave it a go, it pays off to watch almost everytime.

Sound: 10
Surprisingly I loved both opening and ending. Alongside with a soundtracks while basically some scene happend, marvelous.

Character: 7
Lowest of my ratings on this anime. Hear me out tho. It has something to do with side characters art being same as i mentioned up there but also I was freaking lost in that city or wharever this anime was happening. I have 0 clue whenever some character spoke about something there, I have no idea where they are situated or something. Why am I saying it in "character" rating? Simply because I couldn't match the places with some of the character's story which was somehow annoying.

Enjoyment: 10
Of course, 10, easily. The "bad" sides of the anime that I named wasn't that major for me that I couldn't enjoy it to full extension. Would probably rewatch it as well!

Overall: 10
Obviously, it's one of the masterpiece-like anime. Don't get me wrong, if you are not used to or not enjoy old looking anime, even tho it's not that old, you better stay away from this because this won't satisfy you, not a bit. But don't forget to have open mind and don't get swallowed by those irellevant negative reviews and make your own opinion AFTER watching it!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 1, 2016

Tpfang56

Mixed Feelings

Ahh, I see there are no reviews for this yet. Yeah, this anime does not have great ratings and it has a pretty low viewership. Well, whatever, I'll pitch in my opinion for what it's worth. Garo: Guren no Tsuki is the sequel to Garo: Honoo no Kokuin except it's not really a direct sequel. It's actually an anthology series, where the characters, plot, setting and everything else are different except for the common mythology revolving around the Makai Knights and Makai Alchemists and most of the seiyuu return for new roles. Watching the first season is not at all necessary to view this one, ... but it does give a little more depth on the lore. (It's kind of like the live action tv show, American Horror Story.)

So. Frankly. Having seen Honoo no Kokuin, it's almost impossible for me to not draw comparisons between the two. I'm also sure most of the people who are curious about this season are probably people who've seen the last season and liked it. Instead of doing a traditional review, I'm going to be doing a compare and contrast with the previous season.

---

Garo: Guren no Tsuki (GnT) is pretty much the polar opposite of Honoo no Kokuin (HnK) to me in many different aspects. I thought HnK's main strong point was its plot - decently written, if a little cliche, but overall well executed. I also liked the CGI integration because it blended in almost seamlessly with the art style, and the action scenes were also pretty damn good. On the other hand, I couldn't bring myself to like the characters with one or two notable exceptions, the art style itself (so pointy) did not look attractive to me, Daisuke Namikawa felt miscast as the main character and finally, the setting (medieval fantasy Europe) was too familiar and boring, but maybe that's just me speaking from a Western perspective.

Comparatively, GnT has lovable characters that I easily got attached to, beautiful art/animation (not just the art style but color palette, shot compositions, etc), interesting setting (medieval Japan this time), and Daisuke Namikawa was /not/ miscast. I only had two complaints, one small and one big. The big one was that the plot was kind of a huge mess. It's not like HnK, which has an overarching plot that never really lets up. In HnK, with the exception of maybe three or four episodes, every episode contributes to the plot.

Contrary to that, GnT is more like a "monster of the week" type show up until the last 1/3rd. The earlier episodes have small bits that set up a plot, but it doesn't come to fruition until episode 16 or so. This may sound weird, but I actually enjoyed the "monster of the week" episodes way more. It wasn't until the actual plot came in that I felt the show got weaker. Yes, look, I really enjoyed spending time with all the characters just bouncing off each other. Their interactions alone and the fantastic fight scenes were enough for this series. But the plot thread just felt... shoehorned in, and more damning than that, it was just not as well written as HnK. It was almost like the writer didn't want there to be a plot, but was pressured to include one as an imitation of HnK's formula. Not to mention, it ends up being pretty similar to the end of HnK's plot but without all the prior set-up.

I think I would've easily given this 7/10 if it didn't even bother with a plot; that's how much I liked those early episodes. Even Douman, the series villain (played rather hamtastically by Tomokazu Seki) being more of a nuisance than an actual threat just ended up amusing me because of how unintentionally hilarious he was.

My other small complaint was that they didn't do the CGI integration as well. Instead of making it blend in as closely as possible to the original art style, they decided to make it stand out with a sort of grainy texture. It still looks great, but I don't like how it stands out from the rest of the animation.

One more thing I wanna bring up is praise for the newbie actor Masei Nakayama who played Raikou, the main character (MY SON). Unlike some other newbie actors (*coughsSatorufromErasedcoughs*), he has shown some incredible potential. I'll be keeping an eye on him from now on. Well, I think that's pretty much all I have to say.

TL:DR; Animation/characters/action = good. Plot = bad. Result = slightly better than average, but quite enjoyable up until the plot kicks in.

- Overall [5.8/10 rounded up to 6/10] -

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 10, 2016

Agil-san

Not Recommended

This was really a disgrace, I honestly do not want to make a review for this but considering the previous version of Garo made my top 10 anime the season it aired I felt the excessive need to write a review on this horrible alternate version of Garo. This will honestly be a slight comparison of how this anime failed to compared to it's previous version.

Garo: Honoo no Kokuin is the first story told, Garo: Guren no Tsuki is an alternate universe with completely different characters with the only similarities being the casual villains and the means of defeating them.

Story - 1
The setting ... is similar to that of the previous Garo an old medieval fantasy type setting where there are monsters called Horrors that manifest from the darkness in a humans heart. There are Makai Knights and Makai Alchemists who have the power to defeat these horros and are heavily relied upon to protect humans from this threat.

Our Protagonist is one of the many Makai Knights but the armor he wears is a legendary armor that has been passed down for generations, the Golden Knight Garo. The story follows our lead Raikou, his assistant, and his mentor as they protect the city from various threats.

Although the setting and idea of the show is great and almost identically matches the setting of the previous version, this series didn't have a plot until the very last episodes. Over half of the series is focused on "The Horror of the Week" having the Protagonist defeat them time and time again with no real progression. Near the end the anime made a decent attempt at creating a likable story but ruined it completely with asspulls to save characters with no reason. Not only did this not help the show at all but it severely brings the show lower than it was prior.

Art - 2

The character designs were actually good, nothing too fancy but there were times in the show when I couldn't see a thing due to the overwhelming darkness. They would attempt to have fights in the dark and you couldn't see a thing other than the subtitles that were provided. If I can't see anything at night how can I enjoy the art let alone the characters or story.

Sound - 5

Nothing special, the ED was pretty good to get you pumped up. Too bad the show wasn't just as satisfying

Character - 1

Just as painful as the Story the characters have no development. The Protagonist suddenly and randomly gains the ability to control his power but there is no change in how he fights, it felt like it was forced in there to try and show that this character has changed but he doesn't. To nobody's surprise this Protagonist doesn't have a strong personality at all, if everyone wasn't always looking to him to save them he wouldn't even be a worthy side character to mention.

Our female lead is the mentor of the Protagonist but as the story progresses she ends up being reduced to a damsel in distress. Everybody knows that this is probably the worst thing you can do to a strong female lead.

Only decent character is another Makai Knight who is out for revenge due to the one who killed his brother. Unfortunately he is shoved aside to make room for the horrible main characters and eventually loses his motivation to get revenge.

Overall - 1

This show really hurt me man, I only respected it and watched all 24 episodes out of love for its previous version. This anime was a pain to watch and I wish it was never made. They should have took the time to refine the upcoming movie that is a sequel to the previous Garo. Please do not watch this show and if you do, make sure you watch the Previous Garo prior.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Garo: Guren no Tsuki Episode 4 Discussion Stark700 - Oct 30, 2015	39 replies	by LaranJOOJ »» Jul 6, 4:50 PM
	Poll: Garo: Guren no Tsuki Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Dec 4, 2015	17 replies	by Baoyeuconpo9999 »» Jan 24, 2023 12:07 AM
	Can someone pm me if the show ever gets good? dissipated - Nov 29, 2015	2 replies	by dragynfaerie »» Jul 3, 2022 10:32 PM
	Poll: Garo: Guren no Tsuki Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 6, 2015	27 replies	by dragynfaerie »» Jul 3, 2022 10:22 PM
	Poll: Garo: Guren no Tsuki Episode 6 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 13, 2015	27 replies	by dragynfaerie »» Jul 3, 2022 10:16 PM