GARO: The Carved Seal of Flames

GARO: Honō no Kokuin (GARO: The Carved Seal of Flames aka Garo the Animation) is the fifth installment within the GARO series. Unlike previous entries, it is an animated adaptation that is the start of a new continuity separate from the live action Garo shows & movies. This installment, alongside GARO: The Crimson Moon and GARO: Vanishing Line, are collectively known as Garo: The Animation.

The recurring theme of this installment is flames, as the plot of this series sees León Luís's character development and drive as current bearer of Garo from an avenger to a true noble protector as a Makai Knight prior to events of Divine Flame. He initially only sees the armor as tool to get his revenge on Horrors and Mendoza with his burning rage as the driving force. His burning desire for revenge led to the disaster he unwittingly caused by transformed into Lost Soul Beast Garo as Mendoza planned to keep him and the heroes busy as he summoned Horror Bloodmoon, and after meeting Lara and failed to save her life, Leon found more noble purpose which led him to reclaim Garo once more.

Story

Set in the medieval age of the fictional Kingdom of Valiante, Makai Alchemist Mendoza created a Madōgu called Zirkel's Ring. It is a device of great power as it has the ability to control Horrors and bring back the dead. However, the device is powered by human blood and Mendoza believed it was acceptable for a few lives sacrificed as payment for the protection and benefit for all of humanity. Unfortunately, the Makai Order didn't react well to Mendoza's efforts and had him punished. He was permanently banned from the order, excommunicated, and have been magically branded with a cursed mark as reminder of his misdeeds against humanity and the order.

Posing as traveling monk, Mendoza managed to win a position in the court of King Fernando San Valiante and ended up being married to Angelina Gostilia. Unfortunately, upon the birth of his first child, Mendoza's past returns to haunt him as the cursed mark passes onto his family. Humiliated to the point of rage, he slaughtered his new family and the midwife to conceal his secret and shame. The ordeal motivates Mendoza to take revenge on the Makai Order, recruiting Horrors into his service while placing an illness on King Fernando. With the king weakened to properly rule, Mendoza positioned himself as the most influential man behind the king. Convincing him that the kingdom is under threat by witches and warlocks (the Makai Order), Mendoza uses his knowledge of the order to misinform both knights and alchemists.

Mendoza was once a highly ranked alchemist before his banishment. The order never bothered to erase his memories nor change security measures and kept everything as it was. Mendoza took advantage of the situation to give out falsified orders from Watch Dog Garm. Fooling both alchemists and knights, they were exposed to the military forces of Valiente, charged with treason against the crown by witchcraft. What took generations for the makai order to build, Mendoza nearly destroyed the entire order within a few years. Although the order was severely damaged and some considered it inevitably on its last legs, there were pockets of survivors still carrying on their duties. However, being protectors while evading capture from the same public has been a challenge.

Upon those captured were the Makai Priestess Anna who is the daughter of the Makai Knight who bore the tile of Golden Knight Garo and was with child. As she was being burned at the stake, Anna used her power to protect her newborn from the flames before her husband Germán Luís, the Shadow Cutting Knight Zoro, saved their child yet is forced to abandoned his wife to her death while fleeing the country with their son. However, due to the residual magic his mother cast on him, León Luís would remember the tragic events of his birth. Seventeen years later, having learned that León inherited the Garo armor, Mendoza arranged assassins to attack him and Germán as the two decide to return to Valiante and confront those responsible for Anna's death while dealing with the Horror infestation.

At the same time, Mendoza learns the king's son Alfonso San Valiante is of a Makai Knight bloodline through his mother Esmerelda and accused them of poisoning the king. Alfonso is forced to flee his own kingdom to find the "Knight of Light", only to meet Rafael Banderas, a Makai Knight bearing the title of Gaia who monitored the kingdom's developments from the shadows. Rafael reveals to Alfonso that Esmerelda is the youngest daughter of the previous Garo and agrees to train the prince to help him reclaim his throne, giving Alfonso his Makai Armor upon his death.

Eventually, León and Alfonso cross paths as the cousins work together to confront Mendoza. But when León's hatred towards the man who robbed him of his mother got the best of him, Alfonso is forced to take the Garo armor as his own to defeat the summoned Horror Bloodmoon before attempting to restore his kingdom to how it originally was. León, after attempting to take his own life as he lost his purpose and assumed dead, finds himself living with a family of farmers. After staying with them awhile, Leon finds himself smitten with the youngest girl of the family, Lara. When Alfonso comes to the neighboring lord's castle, he meets up with Leon and they discuss on what has changed. Leon admits that he had nothing to protect while he was a makai knight, and revenge was his only reason to fight. Now Leon wishes to protect Lara, and let her see the world. Unfortunately Lara is killed along with the rest of her family when a horror, Alfonso was tracking, appears. The horror is killed by Alfonso, but it has left Leon in despair at the loss of Lara. He is on the edge of being consumed by revenge, but is able to defeat his inner demons. He now wishes to protect the flowers and light that Lara wasn't able to see (She wants to see the world basically). After Alfonso tests Leon's new motives to make sure he won't live for revenge anymore, he returns the Garo armor to Leon.

By the time Leon reused Garo armor for killing a Horror that threated two children, it's revealed that Mendoza somehow survived and his father, Germán, was tasked to worked for him. Ema stated that since Mendoza is a Makai Alchemist like her, he likely found an unspecified method to teleported himself from Bloodmoon's stomach to prevent himself being digested by the Horror. When we see Mendoza once again, it's revealed that the technique costs an amount of his lifespan as his appearance became elderly.

Cast & Characters

Main Cast of Garo: Carved Seal of Flames

• Daisuke Namikawa as León Luís / Golden Knight Garo (currently)
• Kenyu Horiuchi as Germán Luís / Shadow Cutting Knight Zoro
• Hidetaka Tenjin as Rafael Banderas / Stronghold Knight Gaia (formerly)
• Kazuhiro Yamaji as ???? / Golden Knight Garo (formerly)
• Hiroshi Yanaka as Bernardo Dión / Darkness Knight Zex
• Katsuhito Nomura as Alfonso San Valiante / Stronghold Knight Gaia (currently) / Golden Knight Garo (formerly)
• Romi Park as Ema Guzmán
• Hironobu Kageyama as Zaruba
• Takaya Hashi as Mendoza
• Mari Doki as Octavia
• Mayu Udono as Garm
• Natsumi Tada as Esmeralda

Episodes

1. Hellfire
2. Divine Flame
3. Zaruba
4. Bloodville
5. Gaia
6. Black Knight
7. Sorrow Beast
8. Full Monty
9. New Hope
10. Fallen Blood
11. Shadow Slasher
12. Blood Moon
13. Daybreak
14. Burning Ashes
15. Geste
16. Project G
17. Cure
18. Snow Fall
19. Scar Flame
20. Tempest
21. Double Dealer
22. Knights
23. Deadly Focus
24. Doom
25. Chiastolite

Theme song

• Opening Theme
  • "Hono no Kokuin -DIVINE FLAME-" (炎ノ刻印 -DIVINE FLAME-)
    • Episodes: 1 - 12
    • Lyrics: Masami Okui
    • Composer: Hiroshi Kitadani
    • Arranger: Kenichi Sudō
    • Singer: JAM Project
  • "B.B."
    • Episodes: 14 - 25
    • Lyrics: Hironobu Kageyama 
    • Composer: Yoshiki Fukuyama, Hironobu Kageyama
    • Arranger: Miyake Hirofumi, Kenichi Sudo
    • Singer: JAM Project

• Closing Theme
  • "CHIASTOLITE"
    • Episodes: 1 - 12
    • Lyrics, Singer: Sayaka Sasaki
    • Composer: Takaha Tachibana
    • Arranger: Takaha Tachibana, Yōsei Teikoku
  • "FOCUS"
    • Episodes: 14 - 25
    • Lyrics, Singer: Showtaro Morikubo
    • Composer, Arranger: R.O.N.