Garo – Vanishing Line: Season 1/ Episode 2 “Luke” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

Outside of Luke being properly introduced, and it being established we’ll have episodic horror stories, nothing noteworthy happens.

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Previous Recap: Garo – Vanishing Line: Season 1/ Episode 1 “Sword” [Series Premiere] 

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Still Searching: Sophie

Sophie’s search continues for her brother. Even after Luke may have possibly wiped out her memories, with some sort of rain spell, she hasn’t forgotten her main goal. Of which, the only thing seemingly holding her back now is a curfew set by her sister. That is, sister in the Catholic nun sense.

The Unlikely Duo: Sword, Luke

While keeping us abreast with Sword, we get to see a lot of Luke, his peer, this episode. Leading us to learn the way Sword is, very in your face, interacting with people and what not, isn’t necessarily their employer’s way of doing things. In fact, it seems they are supposed to be more stealthy. Hence why, likely more than he wishes he had to, Luke fires a bullet into the air which rains something that makes people forget what happened within the last, let’s estimate, 24 hours.

But while stealth, long-range weapons, and avoiding interacting with people is how Luke does his work, Sword shows that can’t always work. Such as with this week’s horror who possesses a man named Hardy. An Olympic gold-winning runner who, to save his girlfriend, Enith, from being crushed by a big metal sign, pushes her out of the way and takes the hit. Of which he surprisingly survives.

But, as I’m sure you could imagine dear reader, going from one of the fastest people in the world to wheelchair bound, even if you still have your girlfriend, is depressing. So when a demon calls out to him saying he can run, at first he is against it. Yet, with demons not being a well-known thing, and depression driving people insane, he calls out to the demon and gets the ability to run.

Unfortunately though, with it seeming the horror, like the one we met in the first episode, eating people, Hardy has to be slain. Which, so it seems, means killing the horror and the person they possessed.

Highlights

Black People/ Decent Horror Story

I think I could dig these weekly horror stories. They aren’t on the level of Touch, Believe, or anything like that, but they are good enough. But what I really loved is that, unlike the majority of anime, likely because the location is Japan which is very homogenous, there is some diversity in the world of Garo –Vanishing Line-.

I mean, Luke, in my mind, is Black. Hardy and Enith were Black with locks and African features. Which may not be a big deal for other people but considering there aren’t a huge amount of animated Black characters, it means something to us. Especially those who spend a good portion of their time consuming animated media.

On The Fence

So, Should We Just Expect, For All 24 Episodes, There Is Going To Be Some Woman Abused Or Objectified?

I can tolerate Sword being a breast man and thanking the heavens whenever a well-endowed woman is in his presence. However, I found it weird that we saw some dude slap around a woman, as part of the episode, and he wasn’t handled the way Sophie handled her situation or how Sword would have handled it. Which leaves me on the fence for the following reasons:

1. Luke isn’t the social type so expecting him to do something would have been a waste of time.
2. This could very well be some kind of social commentary about the prevalent issue of misogyny within the world. I doubt it but you never know.
3. It could just be that the people behind Garo –Vanishing Line- get some twisted kick out of girls and women being assaulted. Which, I know, is unlikely, but there is just this vibe that something is off in such a way that shouldn’t be overlooked as just world building.