YMMV / GARO: The Animation

• Adaptation Displacement: The original series was obscure in the west even by toku standards, so it's more likely The Animation will be someone's first (and only) experience with the franchise.
• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Episode 22, León, Alfonso and Ema all get trapped in what appears to be modern day Japan. However, they barely react to it, not much happens and they leave as quickly as they arrived. Making the viewer question what the point of it was.
• Broken Base: To say the events of Episode 12 have divided the fandom would be an understatement. Some fans hated how León was brought so low after following his struggles for twelve episodes, and hated Alphonso for taking his Golden Armor (his only real connection to his dead mother), and proceeded to call him out on his destruction of Santa Bard and for putting his anger and lust for vengeance above stopping Mendoza and saving the townsfolk. On the other hand other viewers have sided with Alfonso, pointing out that León was warned constantly about keeping his anger in check and to put duty over personal problems, and because of that Alfonso did deserve the Golden Armor .
  • The end of episode 19 has divided the base further, believe it or not, thanks to the Ema/León sex scene. León/Lara fans were not happy.
• Complete Monster: Priest Mendoza is the mastermind behind the misfortunes befalling the kingdom of Valiante. A former Alchemist of the Makai Order, Mendoza was expelled from the Order for sacrificing humans to enable himself to control the monsters known as Horrors. After marrying, Mendoza's child was born with the same curse the Order had placed on him, and in response, Mendoza murdered both his wife and baby, swearing vengeance on the Makai Order in the process. Using the Horrors to murder numerous innocents, Mendoza blames the Horrors' appearance on the heroic Makai Knights, who are forbidden from taking human life, and, under this pretense, leads purges against the knights resulting in them being tortured, killed, or, in the cases of the Priestesses, raped, while Mendoza has one of the most powerful members burned at the stake in public view. When confronted by hero León Luis, Mendoza mentally forces him to relieve his own mother's burning at the stake, causing the boy to go on a rampage that decimates a nearby village. Having survived his near-death, Mendoza uses the tormented souls of hundreds of Makai Knights and Alchemists to summon an ancient Horror that, after consuming numerous innocents, Mendoza uses to give himself incredible power, at which point he proclaims himself the new god of humanity. Spiteful, cruel, egotistical, and petty, Mendoza aimed at nothing less than utter domination and destruction to avenge his wounded pride.
• Creator's Pet : Germán. He is a terrible father to León, often spending their money on prostitutes and throwing his son into danger. His hand-off parenting attitude has made his son's life harder as he has to deal with his psychological issues by himself. Germán is lazy and hedonistic yet is somehow a better fighter than both his more dedicated son and the Black Knight, an infamous commander of Mendoza's forces. He even irresponsibly impregnates a girl that is practically the same age as his son and lives with her parents, yet somehow everyone regards him with respect.
• Die for Our Ship: After their controversial sex scene in episode 19, Ema has been hit hard by this.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Horrors certainly live up to their name.
  • The fate of Lara and her family.
  • In the penultimate episode, Octavia literally groping herself with Mendoza's severed hand. The sounds she makes, and the fact that the hand has, at this point, become worn and withered shows just how far Octavia has fallen.
  • Octavia's death itself is pretty gruesome.
  • Anima. Everything about it!
  • Mendoza absolutely deserved his final fate, but that doesn't make him being burned down to the skeleton, regenerating, and repeating the process any less disturbing.
• Ron the Death Eater: Alfonso has gotten this treatment from some fans after the events of episode 12, where He takes León's Golden Armor, saves the day, and then berates and coldly disown León for destroying Santa Bard and putting his vengeance for his mother above saving the people. Some fans have painted him as a thief and a heartless bastard who let his own mother die "for the greater good," and all but insulted León's quest to avenge his mother.
• Squick: The ending of episode 19 when Ema and León have sex, mainly because the latter was explicitly stated earlier in the show to be underaged.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A small one in regards to the translation. The Makai Hōshi characters (法師 referring to a type of priest or mage) were referred to as "Makai Priests" among the english-speaking fandom (and in fansubs of the live-action shows) for around ten years. Funimation instead translating the term as "Makai Alchemists" was seen as a small point of contention with long-time fans, though this has mostly subsided.
• Tough Act to Follow: Most seem to agree that the sequel, GARO: Crimson Moon, did not hold up to this.
• Values Dissonance: Germán's relatively hands-off parenting of León tends to garner conflicting responses from the fandom. In the setting, despite only being 17 and still recovering from the trauma of his mother's death, León is treated with the agency as an adult not just by his father, but everyone else as well. Because of that, even with Germán's laxed approach to disciplining him, it's León held fully accountable for his actions.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The CGI suits are not only incredibly elaborate, but also have extremely well-done mechanical designs. Goes further with The ZORO-GARO hybrid in the finale; it is simply gorgeous.
• The Woobie: León after episode 12. Mendoza forces him to relive his mother's painful execution and causes him to go berserk and attack the town. After that Alfonso takes his Golden Armor away (his only real gift from and connection to his mother), proceeds to kill Mendoza while he lays helpless, and then gets a cold and harsh "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Alfonso for putting vengeance above his Makai Code. And then his own father sides with Alfonso, hitting him and telling him he has to deal with he fact that Garo is no longer his, and that he's lost the right to be a Makai Knight. He simply stumbles off in a daze. He has no armor, no family no connection to his mother, and after all that, he wasn't even the one to avenge her murder. The last scene of Episode 12 has him seemingly killing himself by jumping off a cliff. Seriously, someone give this kid a hug!
  • And just when things were starting to look up for him, he lost the one person that he wanted to protect, only there when she was on the verge of dying. At this point he becomes the most ill-fated Makai Knight in the whole franchise. Poor guy.