The Horror, The Horror: An Introspective Midshow Review of Garo the Animation

Disclaimer: This post spoils events from Garo the Animation from Episodes 1-12.
Garo the Animation is MAPPA's rendition of the longstanding Garo series, which has had multiple live action series. Unlike some of these live-action series, however, Garo the Animation is a dark fantasy  tale set in medieval-ish times. The show opens with flames streaking across (from out of the frying pan and into the --) a screen depicting a gargantuan castle. Cue a cut to a woman tied to a large wooden stake, head dropped, with kindling scarcely below her. From a large balcony, King Fernando, his wife, and his young son Alfonso (depicted to the right) curiously overlook this scene. Alfonso grows fearful and hides behind his mother, as little children are bound to do, and he is escorted back from the dreadful site. A fire is lit, and the supposed witch, bound to a stake, is incinerated -- but not before leaving behind a wailing child, for this witch was pregnant. Garo, on the surface, is a tale about witches -- at least symbolically -- and other supernatural apparitions causing epidemics and mayhem in the land of Valiante, where this story takes place. This tale about witches however soon gives way to a full-fledged conflict that sweeps the country -- Alfonso's hiding behind his mother is surely a hint that the worst is yet to come.



Apparent head of this witch-hunt for the nation of Valiante is Mendoza (left), a man overlooking the witch-burning along with King Fernando. As King Fernando, depicted in frail condition, gets sicker, Mendoza grows more and more powerful. He drives a fight between "witches" and "not-witches", which sets the stage for a greater conflict sweeping across the land .


Moments later, a Makai Knight appears, clad in silver armor, and whisks away the baby left behind by the witch -- undeterred by the flames, the Makai Knight jumps out of the bonfire, onto the castle rooftop, and escapes.

Though episode 1 apparently focuses on witches, it sets the stage for the rest of the show -- which takes place years later. Mendoza, in later scenes, reveals his quest against witches to truly be a fight against the society of Makai, which spurned him because of his creation of the Horrors. "The Horrors" essentially are spirits that take over when humans turn into their evilest desires. As creatures, Horrors represent the most heinous of experimentation, allowing for the subjugation and harming of humanity. As a spurned ex-Makai member, Mendoza has turned his views against the Makai values of protecting all of Valiante. Naturally that means his witch-hunt and his creation of Horrors are set to  revenge against the Knights. And so the Knights became cast explicitly as those who fight the Horrors

Though some knots are unexpected, such as Horrors representing evil experimentation for the sake of "progress", this tale falls pretty naturally into fantasy structure: the good guy versus the bad guy. Mendoza, though he is given backstory, has this doggedly bad aura. But, hold up. The story does not simply call that the conflict.

Through the character of Emma Guzman (above), the tale of Garo takes one a much greater complexity than good versus evil. (Yes, the characters of Leon, Herman, and Alfonso do play a greater role, but from a thematic standpoint: Emma is a convenient lens.) She is expected to play a little bit of every role by the circumstances she ends up in. The viewer first meets her in the second episode, where she is being held in not-the-most-spectacular captivity on the grounds that she is a witch. Once broken free by Herman and Leon -- a father and son team, both of whom are Makai Knights -- Emma reveals that she is a Makai Priest. In theory, that puts them on the same side, but Emma insists that she hates Makai Knights, portraying a schism in Makai society. There are Knights, and Priests; but not Knights and Priests together.

However, in addition to her duties as a Priest, Emma also assists the Makai Knights -- namely Leon and Herman - considerably, allowing the viewer to question if she truly hates the Knights. Through Emma Guzman, we can see hints of the Witch-hunt victim, the lone Horror-fighter, and the Makai Priest, tying the entire conflict together. Her involvement in this conflict, which seems to be driven by both personal gain and morality, highlights the moral complexity of the situation.

Now where does this lead? As the situation builds, the moral complexity with it, we suddenly see Leon (shown to the left, but without his golden Garo armor), fighting against Mendoza, lose control and go berserk, despite being the famous Knight of Light. Mendoza dies, destroying the farce of a witch-hunt that occurs, but everything is cast into ruin. At the hands of Leon, and not Mendoza, so we can see, in some respects, Leon as much more of a villain than Mendoza. Because of his failure to control his temper -- and because of the situation -- Leon is stripped of being a Makai Knight through the most basic way: he loses his weapon. With the collapse of the witch-hunt, and the role of the Makai Knight being thrown up in the air -- it is not simply a weapon to fight evil -- the basic conflict transforms. Though such a maneuver is inherently risky, it allows for a leap in moral imagination because the different factions can suddenly be seen in a new light.

And from a moral standpoint, Leon, the one who has lost his most cherished gift - the Garo armor from his mother Anna - becomes the one with the most potential. At rock bottom, he can choose to give up, or to keep moving on, pushing the story forward.

Only time can tell what's next, but the latter half of the show will probably be completely different from the first half.