Garo: Red Requiem

Monday, September 5, 2011

Garo: Red Requiem

Garo: Red Requiem (牙狼＜GARO＞～RED REQUIEM～?) is a 2010 Japanese 3-D film directed by Keita Amemiya, produced by Tohokushinsha Film, and based their tokusatsu series Garo. It was released in theaters on October 30, 2010. Ryosei Konishi reprises his role from the television series, while introducing new characters such as the one portrayed by Mary Matsuyama. Mika Hijii, who portrayed Kaoru in the original series, returns to voice a different character.

The catchphrase for the movie is "" (3Dの魔界を黄金騎士が駆ける! Surī dī no makai o ōgon kishi ga kakeru!?).

Red Requiem is slated to be released on Blu-Ray/DVD on August 2, 2011.

Plot

Kouga Saejima travels to a new city after receiving orders from the Eastern Watch Dog about to hunt down the Horror Karma, an ancient female horror who is one of the infamous Apostle Horrors. By that time, Karma's followers, Kurusu and Shion set up a gothic club named Crime to satisfy their mistress's appetite by bringing her various girls and lure them into her realm with false promises of making their dreams a reality. As Kouga arrives to the city where Karma has based herself in, a pair of Makai Priests named Akaza and Shiguto just rescued a baby from a Horror posing as a mother before the fiend is dispatched by a Makai Priestess named Rekka. Kouga arrives, revealing the "baby" to be a cannibalistic Horror that Zaruba identifies as an Apostle Horror named Bebyl. Though Rekka meddles in the fight, Kouga managed to kept her aside, dons his armor and slays Bebyl. As he leaves, Kouga is approached by the priests as they introduce themselves to him and Zaruba, who reveals his mission to find and destroy Karma. Rekka has a personal vendetta against Karma for killing her father Kengi, an old mentor of Kouga's, refusing to allow anyone to rob her of her revenge.

The following day, Kouga found Rekka playing her Makai Flute and learns how Rekka became a Makai Priestess so she can hunt Horrors. But Kouga reminded her that Horror-hunting are the duties of Makai Knights, not hers; Rekka argued that's only a rule for their convenience since the Makai Priests predated the Knights in their battle. However, Zaruba argued the Makai Knights were created because the priests alone are incapable of handling the Horrors. As Rekka walks off, Kouga remembers his training under Kengi. Deciding to find leads on Karma, Kouga arrives to Akaza's shop for aid. However, the Makai Priests have no clue on Karma's location yet mention Karma being hard to kill and the only way to effectively defeat her is to enter her mirror. But the only way to safely enter Karma's realm and return alive is through the use of Maken of Rubis, which Akaza just so happens to have one.

Later at night, Kouga traveled around the city before Zaruba senses Shion as she was about to deliver Karma another victim. Tracking her down to Crime when Karma devoured another woman, Kouga and Zarba find a barrier erected around the club. As soon as Kouga found the barrier talisman and destroyed it, Rekka appears and confirms that someone betrayed them, as barriers can only be erected by Makai Priests. Once inside, as Kouga looks around, he finds Shion luring Rekka to Karma. But before Rekka could be fed to the Horror, using Kengi's image against her, Kouga shatters the mirror. However, it reforms as Shion spirits it away with Rekka. Kouga is forced to fight Kurusu, who enables Karma to forcefully control some of the dancers into fighting Kouga and Rekka. As Rekka knocks the possessed human unconscious in her pursuit, Kouga broke the mirror again, causing Karma's hold on the humans to be broken. With no one left to hold the pair off, Kurusu assumes his true Horror form to overpower Kouga and Rekka. When Kouga attempts to don his armor, Shion pointed the mirror at him as Karma sucks the Garo armor into her dimension. Without his armor, Kouga had to endure a tough fight which got him injured to keep Rekka from getting killed. However, Akaza and Shiguto arrived with a army of illusionary ninjas to drive the Horrors off.

After the battle, Rekka forces Akaza to admit he betrayed them as Kouga tries to stop her from killing him. After Kouga is brought to the shop to have his wounds treated, Akaza reveals to him that Karma exploited his desire to see his dead wife and daughter and was given a mirror that allowed him to see his loved ones once again, in return for allowing her to feed incognito. Although he knew that was only an illusion, he could not bring himself to toss away the mirror. Taking the Maken of Rubis from Akaza, Kouga intends to regain his armor. With one of Rekka's fishes returning with the location of Karma, she, Kouga, and Shiguto arrive to the building that the Horrors are hiding in without knowledge that they are walking into a trap. The three are joined by Akaza, who wishes to redeem himself. After the Makai Priests seal the building so the Horrors' evil aura would not spill outside, Kouga and the others search for Karma while dealing with numerous phantoms. As Kouga fights for his life against Kurusu, Rekka kills Shion before finding Karma's mirror and alerting the others to her location.

Finding Shion dead, remembering his old life as a human before he sold his soul to Karma and became a Horror, a rage-filled Kurusu arrives to stop them. But Rekka succeeds in using the Maken of Rubis to open a gateway, with all three entering the gateway for a final battle. Once inside, as Kurusu reveals his original form before assuming his Horror form, Kouga dons the Garo armor and got rid of Kurusu with ease. Forced to deal with Garo personally, Karma changes the battle field as she turns into the revived Mother of all Horrors, Messiah. The odds of the battle was stacked heavily against Garo until an astral projection of Akaza delivers Rekka's flute which she had dropped earlier, and told her to play it to summon the spirits of the fallen Makai warriors. By doing so, it galvanized the spirits and they merged with Garo to give him the power to finally defeat Messiah. Returning to their world, Kouga and Rekka learned that Akaza sacrificed his life for his spirit to enter Karma's realm. Soon after, Kouga prepares to depart when Rekka gives him a Makai fish if he ever needs to contact her for help. It also enables her to call him should she ever need assistance. Kouga then leaves to continue his hunt for Horrors.