After the First: Garo Vanishing Line

Synopsis

In this world, there exists monstrous beings known as “Horrors” that roam the night consuming people. Fighting against these monsters is a man named Sword with his partner Zaruba. In one mission he meets a young girl named Sophie, someone who too is looking into the mystery that is “El Dorado”. Though they go different ways their path is the same and thus their story begins.

First Impression

This was a truly refreshing series to find for the season. Usually, when it comes to these types fo supernatural stories, you either get a series/broody veteran or an unfortunate soul that finds themselves dragged themselves into the supernatural. Here we have a completely different twist of a protagonist. He’s built like a mountain, loves a large chested woman, is reckless and also a glutton. In other genres he may seem rather standard of the mill kind of jock character, but here, being a protagonist, it’s a nice change of pace.

Sadly however, the same cannot be said on whom could possibly be one of the main female leads of the series. In the beginning, she seemed interesting enough; she knows how to fight and seems like a rather strong minded girl. But then you see her end up in the damsel in distress role and the impression doesn’t stick all that much in the end, well, slightly at least. She does have the potential to grow.

With the general plot and setting of the series, it brings this interesting, urban kind of feel that only really works in certain series. In terms of the general lore and the role of the protagonist, if the viewer is not familiar with the history of the series, will find themselves somewhat lost, seeing as the first episode didn’t really dive into the exposition of things. Still, for the most part, it left a strong positive impression.

General Impression

As the series went, it still maintained that interesting urban feel and the interesting designs of horrors and even side characters still remained eye-catching. The action could use a tad but of work though, as the motion of things either go too fast or in the personal opinion of this writer, have a slightly odd angle to it. For the most part though, there is a good cinematic feel in most episodes and the way they use certain tones in different scenes adds to it.

The protagonist is still an interesting piece of the series but as the series goes on, it feels as if Sword is stepping into the background and is either made into a comedy piece or the basic muscle backup character, which is somewhat disappointing. At the very least the series is placing some development on Sophie, even though her past seems rather generic in hindsight, it is some progress for what seems to be the quirky heroine of the series.

While the main characters are going through some changes, it seems as if the villains are not. It cannot be denied that the monsters in the series are rather creative yes, but at the same time they are rather predictable as well. With the element of mystery surrounding the characters, it would have been even more interesting if it had extended towards the villains as well. There are still a few episodes left however, so there may just be room for improvement at least.

Conclusion

The series started off strong with its protagonist, but over the course of the series it seems that his presence isn’t holding as much anymore. Luckily the development of the female characters made up for some of that. There is still quite a bit of time to improve the series, especially with how much mystery it is building up, though generic some of it may be. It has its strong points and its weak points but the series is definitely worth a watch.

Rating: 8/10