GARO Special: Byakuya no Maju.

Now to tackle the two part TV movie which functioned as a direct sequel to GARO!

 So Kouga is wandering around fighting Horrors, duh, and along the way he meets a Makai Priestess in training who was sent by Priest Amon. Thanks to Rin, Amon is able to bring a request from beyond the grave, he wants Kouga to save someone for him. He wants him to save Jabi. Once Jabi is back, we have a villain to defeat, and this time around it's the ancient and deadly Legules family! Long story short, this special is an unfocused mess that barely makes any sense and much like the TV show, uses magic MacGuffin's or made up terminology to stand in for real explanations.

Unlike the TV show however, a weak story isn't balanced by strong characters. Kouga, Zero and the rest of our established characters are as enjoyable as ever, but everyone new is completely forgettable. Rin is a child character and for some reason the universe decreed that ever child character must be annoying enough that you'd love to see them step in front of a bus. Tsubasa has a damn cool suit of armour, even if he looks oddly like the main villain of Kamen Rider Kuuga, but his actual character is lacking, feeling more like a straight faced parody of early Kouga than anything else - this at times seems to be done deliberately, but it never makes his character more engaging. The new villains are just as uninteresting, functioning more as plot devices of false tension, rather than being actual characters or adding much to what little story we have.

Thankfully then, Jabi's return is a great one. Not only is she looking sexier than ever, she is presented as a lot more badass and resourceful than she really got a chance to be in the main series, as she died almost as soon as she was introduced. She left a good impression in that brief time though, and doesn't let us down here. Things like Jabi's return and the new stuff we get to learn about Kouga, and the like, certainly make this special feel more worthwhile than the Kiba Gaiden even if this is a weaker film overall.

This two part special aired pretty much directly after GARO finished, as such, it's pretty damn dated. GARO has always had great visuals, and I love its use of horror, but the shows reliance on cheap CGI probably made it look dated at the end of 2006, let alone at the end of 2013 where it looks downright goofy at times. And I understand the purpose, and use, of CGI but GARO proves it can do things practically brilliantly, so I have no idea why it replaces so many easy to do practical stunts with cheap and awful looking CGI.

Still, the action isn't bad, even with those awful special effects. It's the little things, that make a fight in GARO so enjoyable. Like the fact they actually film in urban environments, which adds to the illusion that the war against Horrors is real and happening around us, something I felt Super Sentai always failed to do when it presented the war against good and evil in a rock quarry. Or the fact that for in story reasons, Kouga fights the majority of his fights out of suit, and so when he finally does transform we can really believe it is him in the suit. Or that the fights usually take more pointers from American comics, than anime, with fights playing out like much smaller versions of the kind of stuff Marvel has been doing on the big screen lately, full of epic set pieces and memorable moments.

The fantasy aspects of this special are as fun as the comicbook parts as well, with the first half of the special focusing on Kouga getting Jabi's body back proving to be the much more interesting part. There is nothing particularly original about Kouga's quest but this is a show with a lot of imagination which creates some very creative visuals and couples that with strong emotional investment, after the show proved how well it can handle its characters. I just wish the scene of Kouga facing his father was longer.

So do I recommend it? Speaking purely of it as a film, Byakuya no Maju is....pretty bad, truth be told. The villains are uninteresting, the plot lacks focus, and even when it is focused it barely makes any sense and despite not even being ten years old yet, it looks insanely dated. Although the practical action and wirework is as impressive as ever.

That said, as a sequel to GARO this is where the film shines. It may not have quite as much fun with the GARO world as the Kiba Gaiden did, but each new addition here is a crucial, worthwhile and lasting one which makes it a great sequel to the TV show, even if it isn't that great a film. And in turn then becomes a worthwhile watch, at least to a GARO fan.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate 'GARO Special: Byakuya no Maju'?