GARO THE ANIMATION

Episode 22

Last episode, we learned that Germán was just pretending to play along with both Garm and Mendoza. He plans to eliminate both Mendoza and Anima at the first opportunity to save Valiante from the swarm of Horrors. We also learn that Mendoza's been storing the souls of defeated Makai knights and alchemists to feed the nascent Anima. This'll make the Horror stronger than what the Watchdog Center can deal with, foiling their part of the plan. (The most interesting part of this was how it was depicted visually - Mendoza plays Tetris with the souls of his enemies.) As Mendoza exposits, Germán takes the opportunity to cut off his arm. He absconds with it, and spends the rest of the episode guarding the propped-open front door against swarms of shadow mooks so that León and co. can join him.

It'd be nice to revisit Mendoza's motivations at some point. They did a good job at characterizing him as more interesting than the usual evil wizard a dozen episodes or so ago, but it's been a long time since then. His desire to become immortal makes sense – GARO is a show preoccupied with the importance of continuing a male lineage, and Mendoza, having had that ability stunted in him, needs to find some other way to pass himself on.

I'm not really sure why Mendoza let Germán hang out with him in the first place. The Makai Knight never seemed like anything but a liability to the alchemist. He was one of the people who foiled his initial plan, and he didn't really do anything to help besides keep León away for a while. Even then, our heroes only knew that Mendoza was back because Germán told them. The plotting is still spotty, and there are fewer character revelations to disguise that this week. Its emotional impetus was a continuation of last week's – Leon's faith in his father's heroism and rush to support him – but it's all fueling an underwhelming fight scene. Germán eliminating waves of Mendoza's minions is more engaging as a reaffirmation of his heroism than as a visual setpiece, but I'm sure that better visual setpieces are on their way. We're heading into the last two episodes now, and MAPPA has proved itself deft at realizing climactic episodes.

So Mendoza doesn't give a damn about Octavia after all. He readily used her as a human shield against Germán, and it's a bit disappointing that Mendoza doesn't have even that meager human connection, but it enhances Octavia's tragedy. She committed herself to a monster out of nihilism and pasty old man thirst, and the more this is revealed to have been a terrible idea, the more she clings. She's as infatuated with Mendoza as ever, and the episode ends with her becoming a bizarre Horror/Makai Knight hybrid in a last-ditch effort to remain useful to him. It looks like she'll be the penultimate boss fight, although she was also kind enough to leave a severely injured Germán alive.

The strangest part of this episode was when León and co. were teleported to present-day Japan (?!) by Mendoza's guard spell. They didn't do anything particularly modern, just run around on some rooftops until they could take down the magical objects keeping them there, but it was so jarring and out of place. A friend of mine suggested that MAPPA was recycling some Terror in Resonance backgrounds to save time, and I'm inclined to agree. We got to see Ema using a sniper rifle though! She's still the best character.

GARO's conclusion looks like it's going to be a doozy. How will they take down Mendoza? Will Germán survive? (If he doesn't, I'm betting that Ximena is pregnant, and the next season will involve León training his half-brother to be a Makai Knight.) What will happen to Octavia? And will Alfonso ever get laid?

Probably not.

Grade: B

GARO THE ANIMATION is currently streaming on Funimation.

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