The hagane (or metal) armor is a mass-produced armor for title-less Knights within the Makai Order. Makai Knights of lesser pedigree, skill or lacking an armor will be given this type of armor to combat Horrors. The armor is themed after western knight armor in appearance and typically comes in duller colors; brass, nickel, and copper. Due to their simplicity, they lack any special gimmicks and least ornate out of all armors in appearance. Because the Madōba (magical horse) are meant for titled knights, a metal armored knight will have to find other ways to compensate for his limited options (e.g. Madō Bagua Tag, magical skills, and Makai Priest). Much of the metal armor's abilities are unknown, let alone whether they can perform Blazing Armament and adhere to the 99.9 seconds time limit (thus face the risk of assuming Lost Soul Beast form if worn past the time limit). Overall, the metal armor is of lesser quality but a necessary tool to combat the darkness.
Similar to the original universe, steel armors are mass-produced for the untitled knights in the Makai Order. Bearing a mix of European and Japanese influences, the chest, legs, and arms takes after western armor while the head, torso, and rear takes after samurai armor. In the back, it has an armored oni mask backpack with a pair of grappling hook launchers for leaping maneuvers. For weapons, the knight primarily armed with the standard jian-style Makai Blade for combat whose transformed state bears a western longsword. Unlike their original counterparts, the armor doesn't come in different colors; it's a fixed color of silver metal. However, similar to the Garo armor, each user has a different eye color to its facial armor along with other parts of the armors being the color of the eyes (the protrusions from the backpack, the jewel at the base of the neck & the jewels near the faulds). They also seem to be able to perform Blazing Armament or some equivalent of it.
The anime series heavily featured titled armors and never explained the existence of Steel armors. Only one Steel armor appeared and it was featured in The Carved Seal of Flames series. It was summoned by Marcelo to kill Gael before being finally possessed by Onbla. It was never fully clarified, but suggestively, the Steel armor appears to be a proto-armor before taking a permanent form.
Equipment[]
Hagane Sword: Makai Blade paired with Hagane Armor set resembling a western longsword. In normal state, it appeared as a Chinese Jian-styled sword complete with a scabbard.
Grappling Hooks: Exclusive to Ryūga-verse version of the armor is an oni-themed backpack which can fire two grappling hooks for leaping maneuvers.
Raiga's Hagane armor as seen in a video on Sansei's YouTube channel
Raiga donning a golden Hagane armor
Souma Shirahane's Hagane armor
Souma Shirahane in Hagane Armor fighting a horror
Igusu's Hagane
Ron's Hagane (Right) & Obi's Hagane (Left)
Closeup of Igusu's Hagane
Closeup of Ron's Hagane
Closeup of Obi's Hagane
Igusu, Obi and Ron summoning their Hagane armor
Igusu's Hagane being used by Ryūga
Trivia[]
Up until Souma's, Hagane Armors featured in the series have been rendered in CGI like Gai & Zen.
The type of Makai Blades paired with their respective Hagane Armor in Original Series share same design as transformed Garoken. It has been confirmed by Keita Amemiya in his Twitter that Hagane Armors and Swords being meant to be based on Garo's own.
This may also apply in Anime Series universe due to sharing similar design.
Such trend eventually changed as of Ryūga-verse where Ryūga Dōgai-centered continuity depicted Hagane with more distinct design, possibly to set such universe apart from other continuities.
Kiba's possible original appearance while in hands of Barago's father when he slew his corrupted wife while Barago himself forced to watch as seen in KIBA: Dark Knight Side Story. Although Barago's father was one of titled Makai Knights, his Hagane Armor was curiously more ornate and sported a cape not unlike Kiba's own.
It's implied that Makai Armor wielded by Barago's father, a title-less Makai Knight, to be one of Hagane armors, yet the flashback where he donned it to put his wife out of her misery due to merger with a Horror showed it a bit more ornate complete with a cape reminiscent to Kiba's. Assuming said Hagane armor and Kiba being one in the same, it can be inferred that Barago's father made a certain accomplishment to warrant the permanent upgrade which sadly not enough to impress his son who sought Taiga Saejima as his better mentor.
It's unconfirmed but highly likely that the unnamed host of Namless used a set of brass Hagane armor.
Armor differences:
Nobuyoshi's Hagane set has bronze plating.
The Hagane used by Raiga in an alternate time is a shining gold similar to Garo & unlike the standard dull brass.
Marcelo's set is nickel in shade.
Souma's Hagane set sports silver plating and blue eyes.
Igusu's Hagane set sports silver plating and red eyes, when this armor was briefly used by Ryūga the red became orange
Ron's Hagane set sports silver plating and green eyes.
Obi's Hagane set sports silver plating and yellow eyes.
Hagane is the only form of Makai Armor aside from Garo itself to canonical appear in more than one continuity showing up in all of them with a expectation of the VR-verse (as far as we know).
.jpg "Igusu's Hagane (Closeup).jpg (395 KB)")
.jpg "Ron's Hagane (Closeup).jpg (281 KB)")
.jpg "Obi's Hagane (Closeup).jpg (310 KB)")
.jpg "Ryuga Hagane (Temp).jpg (623 KB)")
