Series REVIEW: Garo: The Makai Flower

2014 has proved to be quite the year for Garo, as its rise from adult tokusatsu oddity to full-blown franchise reaches new heights with a number of iterations hitting throughout the year. It started with the six-part Zero: Black Blood  miniseries and will next be jumping into its own anime adaptation as well as a follow-up movie for the cast of spin-off/side story The One Who Shines in the Darkness. But before those Zero was followed up by a proper 25-episode series named Garo: Makai no Hana ("The Makai Flower") which saw Garo creator Keita Amemiya return to the helm after a brief absence.

First Impressions: Garo: The Makai Flower

2014 is undoubtedly the year of Garo. This once small toku production has progressively grown into a full-blown franchise over the past few years, with this year giving us the widest variety of new productions yet. On top of the recently completed Zero spin-off (look forward to a review of that hitting the blog soon), we also still have a The One Who Shines in the Darkness movie to look forward to and even a Garo anime. But before then we have Garo: Makai no Hana ("The Makai Flower"), which sees original creator/writer/director Keita Amemiya return to the fold after a brief absence. And that's not the only exciting thing the show has up its sleeve either.