Ok so…this episode…I don’t even. If the intent was to disorient, confuse, and just have the audience say “Whuuuu?” it succeeded at that. I can’t even describe the character stuff here because…there is none. Ultimately, this episode doesn’t serve a narrative purpose, and besides the huge wtfery, its totally average, even below average. They only way to explain is to go point by point.
First, remember how last episode there’s this evil sword guy who we think is going to show up at some point to threaten our heroes?
Boom, he’s here. We only find out later how it got to this point, because they decided to show a flash forward for no other reason than to continue the episode’s theme of messing with you.
How did this come to be? Because of possibly the dumbest reasons. The inn-keepers he and his brother are staying with thought he was the prince and turned him in.
This baffling reason leads to our fight with unnamed black knight, who transforms into Makai knight armor and thoroughly trounces Leon’s ass.
Just as it looks he’s a goner, Emma decides to spend her 30 seconds of screen time this episode to save him, cuz she’s awesome like that.
Leon’s ‘saved’ but flung somewhere and knocked out and then…
Leon wakes up tied to a chair, a guy stabs him, then angry villagers kill the guy and his wife because they’re ‘werewolves’ and then Leon himself is a werewolf….whaaaaaaaat??
Then, he goes crazy as a werwolf and gotta say…this is one of the lamest werewolf designs I’ve ever seen.
Seriously, look at this. What..what is even the what? This show makes awesome monster designs, and this is the most creative they could do?
Well, then Leon wakes up again to a scene only slightly less frightening…a teenage girl.
Yep apparently, Leon is actually Pepe, the brother to this girl, and he also…HAS AMNESIA!!!!
Now, how do we add more trippiness to this episode? Clown anyone?
Now good enough? How about creepy black priest with fish eyes?
Triple combo. Leon’s “sister” asking to marry him.
Like…what…is even..going on? Was Leon thrown so hard he landed in another show entirely?? Even Leon’s acting weird here.
So, what is the reason for all this craziness? Well, first off, the old man that Agatha, Leon’s ‘sister’ is living with apparently is a makai priest who put him in loopy haze and gave him amnesia. When confronted by Leon (post memory regaining) he’s like “yeah sure I messed with your brain, but she missed her big brother and you lost a fight so its cool.” That’s really messed up, honestly, and not the only thing.
See, apparently the real big brother was taken after their parents were killed for fear of being werewolves (hence the scene earlier) and he was taken into slavery. Then he apparently became a Horror, then worked with the church to trick other kids into being enslaved because…vengeance on the town? Seriously, his entire motivation is glossed over. He feels more like just an excuse to end the episode with a fight.
However…that’s not to say its bad. The fights in Garo are never bad. They always use awesome choreography, use of weapons, animation, color. This fight continues the tradition of being really good, even amongst all the whatthefuckery.
So, what has Herman been doing this entire time? Apparently doing stuff that’d make for a much better episode…like, seriously. He ends up naked and broke and just…why couldn’t we have followed those wacky adventures?
So, other than the beginning, where dark knight met Leon, this episode had really nothing to do with anything. Since about half of it was just confusing warped things that made you question what’s real or not, none of the episode only characters got any development, nor did the main cast. Seriously, I don’t know what the point was for it other than to mess with people. If that was what it was aiming for, it succeeded.