Once upon a time you could have considered GARO to be an obscure tokusatsu  series, at least when compared to some of the bigger name franchises. But after 15 years, multiple television series and movies, three anime spin-offs simulcast worldwide and several official English-subtitled US Blu-Ray releases it's fair to say that ship has long since sailed. The fact this particular film even had English subtitles for its Japanese home video release just reinforces the fact. Celebrating 15 years of the Golden Knight , GARO: Gekkou No Tabibito ( "Moonbow Traveler")   brings back Raiga Saejima and the cast of The Makai Flower  for their long-overdue movie outing - bringing together the various threads of the Saejima family storyline for potentially the last time. (Review contains minor spoilers)

Release Date:  June 2018 RRP: 9990 yen The 2014 Tamashii Nations Event was notable for announcing the long-awaited return of GARO to the S.H. Figuarts line, but while the releases of both the Ryuga and Leon figures followed fairly swiftly there was one key figure that took much longer to show up again. However after nearly four years of waiting S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Garo (Saejima Kouga) has finally arrived - the first figure in the S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou line that doesn't hail from the Kamen Rider franchise. As the name suggests this is the armour worn by Kouga Saejima , the first Golden Knight from the franchise and lead character of both the original series and Makai Senki . S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Garo (Saejima Kouga) was released as a Tamashii web exclusive , and at 9990 yen is certainly one of the most expensive standard sized Figuarts released thus far.

Can you believe it's been ten whole years since the first GARO series aired? In that time it has transformed from a gritty one-off production that should apart from most of its peers into a full blown franchise - encompassing various generations of the golden knight across multiple  tokusatsu and anime productions. The tenth anniversary has brought about the announcement a number of new shows and movies, but among the ones at the forefront of the celebration is Garo: Makai Retsuden (or Makai Tales ). What's particularly interesting about this offering is that it takes the focus away from those who have bore the title of Garo over the years, and takes a look at the various Makai Priests and Knights who have aided them in their battle against the Horrors .

As those who have been regularly reading this blog probably already know, I love Garo . Granted that all of the other tokusatsu series I tend to watch are made for children and this one isn't, but there's just something that really stands out here compared to the rest. So it's great that over the last couple of years Garo has made the jump from a standalone series to a full on franchise, with a recent spin off last year and another two coming in 2014, along with an anime series too! But before we welcome more new characters to the world of Garo we must first say goodbye to the chapter that started it all - the story of Kouga Saejima . Starting in the original 2005-06 series before carrying on through the Red Requiem movie and Makai Senki  sequel series, Kouga's story ends here with the movie Soukoku no Maryu (which roughly translates as Lament of the Dark Dragon ), released in Japanese cinemas back in February 2013.

First off, anyone reading this blog that hasn't seen Garo really needs to take the time to watch it. Seriously, you won't regret it - it's one of the best tokusatsu series around and definitely worth the time. Now that's been said, after watching Garo myself I've been pining for a poseable version of the titular character for quite some time. While Bandai's Makai Kadou line offers a far wider range of characters, experience with the S.H. Figuarts line swayed me to that version of the character (plus it'll be perfectly in scale with my Sentai and Riders). Figuarts has only released three characters from Garo - the other two being Zero and Taiga (who is almost identical to Garo save different coloured eyes and an extra weapon), both of which were Tamashii web exclusives. Luckily for me, Garo and Zero were really the only two characters I was ever interested in buying. The golden Garo armour is something with quite a lot of detail to it, and than...

Where there is light, shadows lurk and fear reigns. But by the blade of knights, mankind was given hope. While there's so much more to the tokusatsu genre than just Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, its arguable that these two franchises are the ones that come to mind first when you think of it (well, those and Godzilla). While in the West most Sentai and Rider fans may be adults, these shows are still meant for kids. But what if there was a similar style programme on offer for adults that wasn't a comedy or parody? Garo might be exactly what you are looking for. After an initial 25 episode series in 2005-2006 (and a feature length TV special), Garo returned for a feature length movie (entitled Red Requiem) in 2010, a spin-off video release in 2011 and finally a 25-episode sequel series: Garo: Makai Senki, between 2011 and 2012. A final film is also confirmed for release. Kouga: Golden Knight and undisputed badass. Garo focuses on Kouga Saejima, a Makai Knight wh...