GARO THE ANIMATION

Episode 15

This episode had one purpose: to teach Alfonso that he doesn't have to fight all of his kingdom's battles. The staff decided to go about this by having the kid from episode six build a Garo-inspired mobile suit to kill a bear. That's… one way of doing it, I guess. It certainly resulted in an entertaining episode, full of dumb jokes and camaraderie and a giant flaming bear.

Most of our time was spent watching the characters – a bunch of craftsmen from Santa Bard – working together to construct the mech. They want to lighten the Prince's burden by protecting themselves, as well as advertising their businesses. Although we hadn't met most of them before, they're immediately characterized by their appearances and respective disciplines, and the enthusiasm they put towards their task carries the episode. They work together night and day to construct the Garobot, and the episode really captures the feeling of people bonding over a labor of love. (The showrunners should know what it's like, working in the anime industry. It's the same feeling I get watching Shirobako.) In the end, they're commissioned to hunt down a demon bear, which turns out to have been a regular bear, so they set it on fire, hit it with a rocket punch, and then kill it by causing the mech to self-destruct. Well okay, then!

The funniest moment was when the butcher came in and solved their hydraulics issue by creating pipes out of the intestines of his pet pig, pictured above. The worst was the episode's opening, wherein Julio explains what he's doing by speaking into the camera, as if he were recording an entry in his video diary. Seriously, it's accompanied by damaged VHS tape effects and everything. I think it was supposed to be a sight gag to introduce the premise, but it raises so many questions. I'm pretty sure that the medieval Garo world doesn't have even dated broadcasting technology.

Past the bizarre premise, there wasn't much to this one. Alfonso learns to let go a bit while León and Lara are getting more comfortable around each other. León takes an important step towards intimacy by letting her get a look at his (literally and metaphorically) scarred back as she scrubs him in the bath. The family's women are already hoping to formally acquire him through marriage. The grandfather, however, recognizes that León is holding onto a lot of unprocessed pain, and that he can't be tied down until it's dealt with.

This scene, wherein the grandfather possesses greater insight into León due to their shared masculinity, highlights something about Garo's treatment of gender: it's a very masculine show, but in a way that doesn't make it unpalatable to other audiences. The women (Ema, Lara, Ximena, Octavia, Anna, and Esmeralda) are only relevant so far as they support or challenge men, but otherwise the show does not degrade them. It's a Dude Story that avoids many of the fetishistic trappings inherent to how Dudeness tends to frame women. Its use of male gaze is tasteful and purposeful, unlike many other anime, ironically aimed at younger audiences.. Instead, Garo employs a different strain of objectification, the type that makes female characters into symbols for men's problems. Lara was crafted as León's perfect partner, Ximena is Germán's, and Ema is a blend of intimidating sexuality and maternal guidance – this show's answer to Misato from Evangelion. I like this show a lot despite it being profoundly Dudely, a quality that usually repulses me. It's not that I'm offended by this kind of storytelling, just very tired of it, and I think that it's important to point out the ways in which narratives (especially those centered around male coming-of-age) tend to make use of women.

We seem to be inching towards León's reintegration into the larger conflict. The show's been spinning its wheels for a while – I appreciate that they're taking it slow to focus on characterization and world building, but it's reaching a point of diminishing returns. There are only eleven episodes left and a bunch of things I'm hoping they'll cover are still completely unexplored. What's Ema's deal, or Octavia's, or even Anna's? The show's been decent towards its female characters so far, but I'm afraid it'll undercut them by leaving their stories untold. This has been a fun lull, but I've reached the point where I'm expecting more than episodic hijinks out of GARO, even if those hijinks are about bear-fighting robots.

Grade: B

Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.

GARO THE ANIMATION is currently streaming on Funimation.