GARO

Garo is so peak, the first half of the series plays almost like a horror anthology, with a new demon possessing someone every episode, with the only through line being Kouga killing them at the end. The first half is great when it leans in to the episodic nature, but for a majority of the series I found the serialised plot to be very bland, the romance felt forced and Kouga was pretty unlikeable, at least until he had some growth towards the end of the series. Zero was a great rival character, and Kiba was a good twist villain. In the second half the serialised story improves, with genuine unexpected twists and some emotional beats that land, and it focusses far more on the action which is great (when it’s not just a barely comprehensible glob of dated cgi). The designs for the knights and horrors were great, courtesy of the legendary Keita Amemiya, and overall this is just a great horror action series.