Garo - The Fanged Wolf

This past weekend I finally sat down and watched Garo, a Tokusatsu, with a slightly different flavor. It aired from October through December 2005 (I think...) And the first episode made me say "hmm..." The main reason for this was the title character Saejima Kouga (His rank is Garo)played by Hiroki Konishi

His eyes and mouth and even his demeanor remind me of Rion from the first Galerians game. So I spent most of the series just looking at him. He's the kind of guy who's got a hot body (it's usually completely covered in the show, so only a few a few scant glimpses on those extremely rare moments he's knocked unconscious and bandaged up.) but not the normal definition of bishi.. mainly because his character is fustratingly sexless.


Enter... Kaoru played by Mika Hiji
She's the Plain Jane - Damsel in Distress of the series. Kouga obviously falls for her, but he's so emotionally detached from the world he doesn't realize it until late in the series (like all clueless heroes). What's worse is that when he finally admits that he likes her, he doesn't tell her. Not ever really. Other people in the series have to tell her that he's in love with her. The guy risks his soul for a girl, and doesn't tell her... yeah... real smart that one. When Kouga wants to take her somewhere, he usually just grabs her and drags her along without asking first. This is what you get for letting an enchanted ring, and a butler raise you for 10 years.


Enter Zero/Ginga played by Fujita Rei

He's the young upstart and wears the silver wolf armor... his territory is the West District where Kouga's District is the East. It's upon his introduction that you really get the sense that the sense that the Makai Knights are mostly solitary and extremely territorial... Almost as if each district is controlled by ONE alpha male and all others must leave. Zero's motives for intruding upon Kouga's territory is at first ambigouous (because it has to be you see... why give a full exposition in the intro for your motives when it's so much fun to guess?)

Kouga and Zero duke it out (the characters seriously try to kill each other while taking out a bad guy... it's very awesome stunt/wire work.

All in all this series is actually quite interesting, and worth the watch... Kaoru's scream makes me think of chimps, but that could just be me. Next time I'll actually talk about the plot... ^_^