Garo: Honoo no Kokuin Episode 22 (Never A Dull Moment..)

After all the intensity and feels and sadness and danger and action of last episode, this is one where things even moreso begin to take their true shape for the climax. And in a way, it feels almost poetic as now the same heroes are facing the main villain, but for realsies this time. And the fact this monster and ultimate threat seems so much bigger, and the stakes raised.

 

First of all, we’ve found out just what Herman’s plan has been all along. Namely, he got close so that he could take down the Horror himself, like a badass, and pretended to pretend to work with Mendoza towards that goal.

Now I’m guessing that, in order to adequately fool Mendoza, who was keeping an eye on him, and the Watchdog Tower, he had to pretend to go along with it, and not tell them from the beginning what he was doing. While simple, its alot better than Garm’s plan.  And, it seems to have paid off, but he also learns some new nasty stuff that will change things. Namely, that the sacrifice to make this Horror arise is made up of the souls of Makai knights and priests.

HOOOOOOOLLLLY   CRAAAAAAP!!!! I knew Mendoza was a villain who meant business, but not just wiping out the makai, he then harvests their twisted, tormented souls as a sacrifice in order to awaken this huge Horror that will destroy everything. Like..damn, that is twisted and messed up on so many levels.  All the Makai we saw being brutalized and taken in th first episode are in there, their screams only heard by Mendoza who smiles. This is beyond vengeance to being truly and utterly diabolical. It gives a darker edge and more meaning to all of his evil plans and makes it even more evil.  Its also how he plans to outwit the Watchdog Center. If Makai are used instead of human sacrifices, the monster will be even more powerful, far more than they could have anticipated. How does Herman respond to Mendoza’s evil pronouncements?

Chopping off his goddamn arm!!! But no, Herman reveals his true intent. and they fight. Mendoza only wins by using Octavia as a human shield, forcing Herman to de-armor and taking a pot shot at him. It’s debatable if he did this sacrificing Octavia, or he knew Leon would never harm a human and so used that against him. Still, he manages to take Mendoza’a arm, and we see its to keep the doors to his lair open. He basically has been getting close soe he could get inside Mendoza’s lair, and then make sure that Leon and the rest can get in too. However, he has to force the door to remain open, even as hordes of those generic horrors come pouring out.  He has to fight and is a total badass fending off so many. The rest of our heroes work to reach him, but are caught by Mendoza’s trap and….this happens……

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT?????!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I..I can believe Mendoza had an illusion set up to snare them, or some weird pocket dimension to trap them in. But WHY IS IT A MODERN CITY? What is th reason or it? It isn’t even inhabited, they don’t spend any real time there,e they don’t even comment on how weird it is…so what’s the point? Its just…what? Other than the surrealness of our fantasy medieval characters in a setting for a few minutes completely alien, what are we supposed to gain from it? How does any of this connect? Why? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?????????????????????

If there’s one character that shines this episode though, its Herman.

So freaking badass. He keeps going, getting the rest of the group the time they need, and its an insane endurance test. He has to use up one of his swords to keep the door open, we see he has a broken arm, his body keeps getting pulverized. But whenever we begin to think he’s done…he only shows how much more of a badass he is.

He keeps fighting, and the crew barrel towards them. Against the countless traps and barriers Mendoza has made, there’s no time to remove them, so Leon and Alfonso decide to just smash through them together. It’s actually realy cool and suspenseful seeing them trying to reach Herman and Herman keeping the door open for them. Between this, Mendoza and Octavia have one last scene. She wants him to succeed, to see the world he makes she’s willing to do anything. SHe wants to fight, even as she is a weak human, so Mendoza gives her the chance to. While we’ve seen other humans become Horrors, one odd thing is that the way she does so looks almost like she’s summoning Makai Armor.

But then instead, needles come out which envelope her entire body in a quite horrifying display.

And she becomes this admittedly cool Horror, which is likely going to be extremely powerful. I like how the design keeps her hair and has a false leg of its own. Its a twisted, but very much in character, arc for our main henchwoman.

So, finally, the rest of the gang get there, encountering the changed Octavia, as Herman’s like..on his last last leg…he goes ahead still, ready to keep fighting. As every things about to go crazy, he smiles, and readies himself. Even now, with half his body not even working, he’s still a Makai knight who won’t stop fighting to protect others.

SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!

This episode was..unbalanced. This was definitely Hermans’ episode, and its interesting seeing him get this serious and this intense. So often he’s had at least elements of the buffoonsh man who can spend an entire episode naked, but no, here we see him at his most epic. Sadly, the rest of the cast did very little, and got trapped in the most WTF thing I’ve seen from this show (and that’s saying a lot). However, I’m still excited for the next episode, to see how it all plays out, and hope that Herman does not die because he’s too cool.