Changes made to content
... EST. ⏎ How was the first episode? ⏎Nick Creamer ⏎ Rating: 3 ⏎ Garo: Vanishing Line's opening sequence focuses on an impossibly muscular man named Sword, who fights with a monster mostly composed of boobs under a blood-red moon as a helpless naked woman runs for cover. Having dispatched that monster in a giant explosion, he then rides his skull-faced motorcycle to pick up a hot date. Sword then rides off with the date on his bike, her big breasts pressed against his face. ⏎ Your reaction to that opening scene will likely be your reaction to the entirety of this first episode. Vanishing Line is tightly paced, dynamically directed, and beautifully animated, but it's also one hundred percent dedicated to an extremely Heavy Metal boy's club fantasy. The girls have big breasts meant to be ogled, the guys have loud motorcycles and weapons for names, and everything ends in fiery explosions. There is no subtlety here, and if macho stuff isn't your bag, there's no other levity or tenderness to temper the tone. ⏎ As you might have guessed, this sort of thing is basically everything I dislike in media, but I can't deny that it's a very well-constructed episode. The character designs are detailed and expressive, backgrounds richly constructed, and the animation plentiful. Director Sunghoo Park has leveled up from an excellent animator into a highly talented director, and these action scenes are consistently elevated through dynamic perspective shifts, rapid cuts, and a great eye for visual momentum. The show's preference for quick cuts actually felt a little distracting at times, as did the heavy use of shaky cam, but the combination of active direction and consistently excellent animation makes Vanishing Line one of the most technically accomplished premieres of the season. ⏎ On the writing front, the show's overbearing emphasis on machismo somewhat undercut its characterization and dramatic stakes, but things at least moved quickly enough. Sword feels more like a specific ideal than a real person, and his companion Sophie hasn't really had time to develop a personality, but the show moves quickly between dynamic action scenes with just enough narrative threading to keep things coherent. The show is essentially a gleefully excessive action movie, and the writing is in keeping with that style. ⏎ Overall, Vanishing Line is an extremely well-executed and tonally cohesive guitar solo. The writing is just okay, but a show like this doesn't necessarily need that to be a strong genre entry. If you're hungry for strong action and either enjoy or don't mind the show's very specific tone, it's absolutely worth a watch. ⏎ James Beckett ⏎ Rating: 4 ⏎ As is tradition...