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 has its own continuity.

Story

Set in the middle ages of a fictional kingdom of Valiante, an ambitious and arrogant Makai Priest named Mendoza created a Madō Tool called Zirkel's Circle that can control Horrors. But as Zirkel's Circle is powered by human blood, the priest believing it should be acceptable for them to have some normal people sacrificed as payment for the protection of all of humanity, Mendoza is excommunicated from the Makai Order and branded with a cursed mark that would be passed down his line. 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 he is forced to slaughter his new family and the midwife to conceal his secret. This convinces Mendoza to take revenge on the Makai Order, recruiting Horrors into his service while placing an illness on King Fernando so he can target the resident Makai Knights and Makai Priests under the guise of a witch hunt.

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.

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

The kingdom of Valiante is plagued by a witch hunt sanctioned by the royal advisor Mendoza, who condemns a pregnant Makai Priestess named Anna to death for the crime of inflicting the king with an illness that only be cured by her death. As Anna is burned, she gives birth to her son which she protects from the flames as the infant is quickly saved by a man in silver wolf-themed armor who flees Valiante. Seventeen years after Valiante began its systematic witch hunt that wiped out every remaining Makai Knight and Priest, telling his story to a harlot who is actually the human form of the Horror Hanamushi, the silver-armored Makai Knight known as Germán Luis slays her once he finished his story as she attempted to eat him. At Valiante, as the Royal Family celebrate the 20th birthday of prince Alfonso San Valiante, Mendoza learns of Germán's whereabouts and sends a battalion of archers and soldiers to kill him and his son as the latter would be a threat to his agenda. However, allowing them to follow him to the house they have took refuge in, Germán's son León Luis knew of the attempt and reveals himself as the possessor of the title of Garo the Golden Knight as he kills the battalion's leader after he assumed his true form as the Horror Metacrim. After passing his father's test to defeat a Horror on his own, León accompanies his father to Valiante.

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

Theme song

• Opening Theme
  • "Hono no Kokuin -DIVINE FLAME-" (炎ノ刻印 -DIVINE FLAME-)
    • Lyrics: Masami Okui
    • Composer: Hiroshi Kitadani
    • Arranger: Kenichi Sudō
    • Singer: JAM Project

• Closing Theme
  • "CHIASTOLITE"
    • Lyrics, Singer: Sayaka Sasaki
    • Composer: Takaha Tachibana
    • Arranger: Takaha Tachibana, Yōsei Teikoku