GARO 1: Picture Book

There are demonic beasts known as "Horrors" lurking in the darkness of the world. This is the story of a Makai Knight who hunts the Horrors. Do not avert your eyes from it.Episode One: PICTURE BOOK

At an art gallery the proprietor is unpacking boxes when he hears a woman's laugh coming from within his warehouse. Looking around the laugh leads him to a box containing a painting of a beautiful nude woman. He is lustfully taken with her image. Then literally he is taken as the image comes to life and grabs him from the canvas. "Do you like young ones? Young women?" she asks. "Then you're the same as me," she says as she disintegrates into ribbons of black plasma and solid shadow. It invades the proprietor's body, taking possession of him.Somewhere in a darkened castle room we see Kouga fighting off giant swinging blades.

Lost in a dream, Mitsuki thinks back to her earliest memories as a child, which are of looking through a picture book about a knight in golden armor striking down terrifying monsters one after the other. But when she turns to the last page of the book, it is blank. Suddenly her vision turns dark as monsters of shadow crawl out of the ground. As they are about to engulf her they are struck down by a glowing figure.

Mitsuki wakes up in her apartment. She is an artist with her paintings hanging around and paint tools everywhere. Rapidly she starts sketching on a piece of paper. These sketches turn up at the art gallery as posters. She tells the possessed proprietor that she is in his debt for letting her hang them. He suddenly grabs her arm dragging her towards the warehouse, saying he has forgotten to clean back there. She breaks free of him because of a sudden vision of her childhood shadow monsters. She runs out of the building, visibly shaken.

Back at Kouga's "danger room" he staves off all manner of swinging blades.

Mitsuki is at Dr Ryuuzaki's house talking about her dreams of the monsters and the golden knight. It was her father who made the book. She wonders why he made it and why the last page is blank. Dr Ryuuzaki asks if she still has the book, thinking it is the key to solving the puzzle to her dreams. She doesn't have the book and he wonders if it was just an illusion in her mind. She says that she is nervous about how her new artwork is being received at the gallery. He says she is being "tormented by a monster called 'anxiety'".

At the art gallery a young woman asks indignantly about the weird paintings by Mitsuki. "You've laid your hands on her too, haven't you?" she accuses him. He smiles back, "If you want to go that far, then perhaps we should talk about this... over dinner". He grabs her by the wrists and starts to drag her towards the warehouse. She resists and he turns towards her. His face flashes, showing the Horror within him. "I've grown hungry" he says and grabs her as she starts to "unravel" ... her body becomes liquid and streams into his mouth.

Kouga ends his training session as his "butler" arrives. He says there is a new assignment. He hands Kouga an envelope, which he burns with a special lighter with a green flame. The envelope burst into flame and becomes a type of runic symbols floating in the air. The message reads: SIGNS OF CALAMITY ABOUND. A HORROR CREATED BY MAN'S INSOLENCE. SHOULD BE CUT DOWN AT ONCE.

Kouga stands outside of the art gallery, talking to his ring, Salva. It tells Kouga that they are close as it senses a strong aura of evil. Kouga steps confidently forward into the gallery.

Inside the gallery Mitsuki has also just shown up. She looks around for the proprietor but instead encounters Kouga. He roughly grabs her by the throat and braces her against a column as he brings out his lighter. He scans her with its green flame, finding nothing but a human girl. Just then the proprietor shows up, calling to her. She runs frightened from Kouga's grasp, hiding behind the proprietor.

"Do you need something, sir?" the owner asks. Kouga says he's looking for someone, but it looks like he mistook her for somebody else. The proprietor asks him to leave but Kouga says he is thinking of buying a painting. Excited by the prospect of selling her work Mitsuki hopes the owner will go ahead and sell now instead of waiting until tomorrow when the exhibit is to open.

Kouga steps up to a painting and says he wants this one. He wants to hang it in his house tonight and asks if she can deliver it right now. Then Kouga turns his attention to the proprietor stating it seems he has more interesting paintings. The proprietor leads him to the warehouse. Kouga asks about the box which had contained the painting of the nude. The proprietor says there's nothing in it. Kouga states, "you ate it... or, it ate you".

Surprised, the proprietor turns to face the green flame of Kouga's lighter. He is the one. The proprietor leaps away in a flash as a barrier goes up around the gallery.

Mitsuki tries to take the painting off of the wall but it wont budge. She tries the exit but the door won't budge either.

Kouga's ring Salva tells him that this is the Horror known as "Anglais". "The woman-eating type I hate..." he replies. There are paintings in this room, all of which are red figures, looking almost like different Kanji. Suddenly two of the paintings spring to life and a fight ensues between Kouga and these two red demonoids. He dispatches both with his sword and they explode like a water-splash.

Mitsuki is waiting in the main gallery when the owner shows up. He says Kouga is a degenerate and he has called the police. He says he'll take her home and then grabs Mitsuki and starts to walk away with her. They are stopped by Kouga who says he enjoyed the trap.

The Horror/proprietor finally realizes who Kouga is... "You're a Makai Knight, aren't you?" He grabs Mitsuki by the neck as a shield and then shoots green/black goo out of his mouth at Kouga. He easily dodges it, running for the Horror. The proprietor throws Mitsuki at him and she glances off of him, hitting the wall, knocked unconscious.

A viscous fight erupts as Kouga and the proprietor go hand to hand, hitting and kicking each other across the gallery. It ends with a hard strike of Kougas sword hilt in the owner's neck. He goes down. But suddenly he is jerked up as if a marionette on strings. His back expands like a balloon and then he bursts, showing the true form of "Anglais".

The demon jumps around the room and then becomes shadow, sliding around at super speed across the floor in order to lose Kouga's tracking of him. Then the shadow disappears into a painting, successfully losing Kouga's notice.

Kouga brings out his lighter and scans the room through its green flame. As it crosses one painting the flame flares up. This is the one. He blows the flame at the painting and on impact it starts to morph into the shape of the Horror Anglais. Kouga tells Mitsuki to run, but the doors still won't budge, so she hides behind a column. Kouga pulls his sword and whirls it above his head creating a dimensional rift from which his GARO armor forms around him.

Anglais tries to charge Kouga as the armor forms, but is blocked by GARO's sword. Anglais flies backwards across the room in a mess of tar-like shadow material. When GARO's transformation is complete Mitsuki has a flashback to the golden warrior of her picture book.

Anglais shoots stream after stream of tar-like material at GARO with no effect at all, the black goo vaporizing on contact. Anglais tries another attack by growing wings, but as he flies up in the air GARO jumps at him and uses his finishing blow to cut the Horror in half. Anglais explodes. The tarry shadow substance hits Mitsuki.

Mitsuki asks who GARO is. But instead of answering he raises his sword to her, asking why she didn't escape. "Those who touch the blood of Horrors shall be killed. That is the law." As he raises his sword to strike her down Mitsuki faints, the world goes dark.

Salva asks why he hesitates, the smell of blood on her will attract more Horrors. Kouga answers that the Horrors will appear close to her. If she lives the hunt will be easier. She is now bait.

Mitsuki wakes up in her apartment, thinking it was a dream. But Kouga is there, he tells her it's not a dream, but he will not kill her. She asks again who he is. He says he saved her and that's all the thanks he gets? "You carried me" she asks. "You are heavier than I thought" he responds. As she gets up in anger he says "You seem to be alright" and turns to leave. She is angry because she was about to have her first exhibit but now it's ruined. How can he just mess up people's lives and then leave?

He says he's sorry for deceiving her but he really does like the painting. He says it reminds him of his hometown. He will still buy it. Kouga walks off with it and Mitsuki suddenly realizes he didn't pay her.

"The Golden Knight that was painted in a picture book in my memories had suddenly appeared before me. But it was just the beginning to a new legend about to start."