List of Garo characters
This is a list of the various characters throughout the Japanese tokusatsu series Garo, not including the Horrors, a breed of demonic beings that make for most of the series antagonists.
Garo the Golden Knight
The various holders of the title Garo the Golden Knight are the main characters of the franchise, armed with the Garouken blade. The Garo title, based on the word for "hope" in the old Makai language, is traditionally associated with the Saejima family. Garo's Madō Horse, a horse-like Makai Beast familiar, is Gōten.The bearer of the Garo title is regarded to be the strongest Knight and is expected to be a role model for his peers. However, being the Golden Knight is not a formal ranking in itself and does not grant any preferential treatment or special privileges. For example, despite being from the prestigious Saejima family and being the Golden Knight, Kouga served for several years before being promoted to the Senate. Regardless, the title commands respect and reverence among most Makai practitioners. To be in the presence of the Golden Knight is often considered to be an honor and other Makai Knights tend to defer to him. The title's notoriety also extends to Horrors, especially those that are ancient enough to have faced Garo in the past. The title's prestige means that the Makai community generally has high expectations for the Golden Knight, and as such he is often summoned whenever unusually powerful Horrors or those of legendary status appear. The symbols of Garo, a golden circle containing a red triangle and the use of a red scabbard, are instantly recognizable to Makai practitioners.
Another Garo existed in an alternate universe where the last knight who donned it fought an impressive battle that forced him to release the armor's golden light, blackening and weakening it. After this battle, the armor was put on display in that world's Tower of Heroic Spirits by Makai Priests. The armor eventually calls out to the priestess Hakana to restore its power. Hakana tries to perform a ritual to restore its radiance, only for the spell to be disrupted, creating the Madō Horrors that only her son Ryuga Dogai can kill as the new Golden Knight. Once the Madō Horrors are destroyed, the armor is fully restored and Ryuga is recognized as the true successor of the title of Garo.
In another alternate universe, the Garo armor has been without a holder for at least 20 years. Its most recent owner sacrificed his life to avert a dark calamity that strikes the world every 500 years. The armor ends up suspended high in the sky above the floating island of the Shidōin training school for Makai Knights and Priests in the Demon World with the Garouken embedded in stone below. Makai practitioners in this era once pit 100 Knights-to-be in a ritualistic fight to the death, with the last man standing being given the right to attempt to draw the Garouken and claim the armor. The Garo armor from this timeline appears more technologically advanced, featuring glowing blue accents and a more futuristic appearance. It is also able to absorb the inner darkness of humans around it, converting the energy into a substance known as Dark Metal. Once it has fully absorbed enough darkness, the Dark Metal stored within the Garo armor becomes the powerful dark armor known as Veil.
Kouga Saejima
Kouga Saejima is the Garo of the first two seasons, a very unsociable person who always keeps his feelings to himself and puts up a deadpan face all the time, yet possesses a noble and kind heart. Kouga was raised almost without friends during his childhood and surrounded almost exclusively by people with Makai backgrounds, as such brought up to think little else other than slaying Horrors. His father was the one who started his training at an early age and he still trains on a daily basis to sharpen his skills. Since childhood, originally having a naive view of the world, Kouga was raised by his father Taiga whom he respected despite him not to associate with anyone besides Jabi, Amon, and Gonza while hunting Horrors. But after causing his father's death by who he thought was a Horror, a devastated Kouga is assured by Zaruba as he convey Taiga's final thoughts: Take the title of Garo and to be brave. He is assigned to the Eastern Region at the start of the series.To that end, wanting to master use of Soul Metal, Kouga undergoes the path of becoming a Makai Knight like his father. Under the mandated alias of "Shiro", which was placed so to protect the child's identity should he failed to graduate as a Makai Knight, Kouga befriended three other boys as they are all placed under the guidance of the Makai Knight Wataru. Though Kouga learned the value of friendship, he is forced to watch his friends being devoured by the Horror Raizon, keeping the beads they got from Wataru on his person in memory of them. Though he later trained under the Makai Knight Kengi, it still took over a decade since his father's death for Kouga to finally be strong enough to lift the Garouken from its resting place to become the current Golden Knight. By that time, Kouga reaches a conclusion of what he should fight for from his two teachers' ideal: one being that any person, good or bad, has not only the right to live, but also the potential to save many lives on their own in the process; the other being that one should try to his best to save another person, regardless of how slim the chances might be.
During the events of the first season, Garo meets Kaoru when he was slaying the Horror Anglay where she happened to be stained with Horror blood, a condition that will kill her in 100 days in an excruciatingly painful manner. Though expected to kill her to spare her a painful death, Kouga spared Kaoru's life because she reminded him of his mother. However, Kouga never told Kaoru about her situation and claimed to Zaruba and the Three Priestesses of the Eastern Watchdog that he kept her alive to be of use as a Horror bait. Eventually, saving Kaoru's life while falling in love with her, Kouga learns the truth of his father's death to be at the hands of the rogue Makai Knight Barago, who later kidnaps Kaoru to enact his plan to bring Messiah to the living world. While fighting a losing battle against he Priestesses' servant Kodama, who seemingly murdered Jabi, Kouga's refusal to discard his armor when the time limit was up caused his negative emotions to turn him into mindless Lost Soul Beast Garo while killing his opponent. After Zero saves him, Kouga battles Messiah and not only defeats her but Kiba as well, with the later at the cost of Zaruba. Some time later, Kouga is bidding an emotional farewell to Kaoru, as she would be heading to Italy to further her studies in art. She gave him the final product of her father's book with the last page painted, and Rei handed Kouga a restored Zaruba as a token of their friendship, which was reforged by the Western Watchdog. Though he still has his same old personality, he bears no past memories of his time with Taiga and Kouga, even stating that he didn't like the name Kouga gave him.
In Garo Special: Byakuya no Maju, Kouga was approached by Rin Yamagatana who delivered a message from Priest Amon. Kouga didn't believe her at first, but her mentioning their unfinished Barchess game persuaded him to take her seriously. Amon would return as a spirit to ask for his help to save Jabi's still-living body. Accepting the mission, despite interference from the resident Makai Knight Dan, Kouga enters the Makai Forest and battles the Makai Tree to regain Jabi. Soon after, Kouga receives new orders to contain the threat of the Horror Legules, managing to use the Phosphorus Arrow to destroy the fiend and his extensions. Soon after, Kouga returned home to find Kaoru painting in the backyard. They welcomed each other, clasped hands and walked back home, implying that they had finally confessed their feelings for each other. In Garo: Red Requiem, on orders to destroy the Apostle Horror Karma, Kouga meets Kengi's daughter Rekka and helps her reach the same conclusion her father pointed him to years ago, as they work together to destroy the Horror. Parting, Rekka gives Kouga one of her young Demon World Dragons, which Zaruba names "Kaoru" to Kouga's chagrin, that Kouga uses to search for Horrors while doubling as a messenger.
In Garo: Makai Senki, Kouga gets promoted from his post in the northern region to serve the Senate for defeating the Apostle Horrors. But just after fighting the Horror Cigarein, Kouga is attacked by a mysterious red-masked man, who engraves a Seal of Destruction onto him. As a result, Kouga does not have much time to live and his life shortens every time he dons his armor, as well as suffering chest pains from time to time and his body gradually weakens over time. Hiding his condition from Kaoru, Kouga continues his duties as he investigate red-masked man before learning of his identity as Sigma Fudō whose plan to end the Horror menace with the power of Gyanon nearly sends the world into chaos. Though he defeats Sigma, revealed to be one of the friends thought to be devoured by Raizon, Kouga had to leave to honor the contract he made to Gajari to achieve his victory by traveling to the Promised Land to retrieve the Fang of Sorrow during the events of Garo: Soukoku no Maryu.
Prior of the events of Garo: Makai no Hana, Kouga marries Kaoru and fathers a son, Raiga, but presumed dead after pursuing Kaoru into a vortex. However, during Raiga's inheritance ceremony, it is revealed that Kouga is still alive, fighting elsewhere in another world, and has relinquished his title as the Golden Knight so that his son may take up the role in his absence.
Kouga returns in Garo: Makai Retsuden where he saves the time displaced Rekka and Rian and defeats Zaji once again. He heals Rekka's wounds and reveals to Rian that he is currently lost between dimensions and isn't physically with the two. Before he departs, he asks Rian to tell Rekka that he'll be back.
By the time of Garo: Gekkou no Tabibito and its mini-series prequel, Kaoru and Kouga finally reunite somewhere at Promised Land, but the-then animated Kiba Armor unexpectedly appears, possessed by Barago's surviving evil qi. It was after seemingly defeated Kiba she and her husband discovered that not only Eyrith being the one who separated her from her family, but also their son fight a losing battle against the legendary Horror, thus necessitating Kouga to send Zaruba to his son to aide him to become the next Garo. Kouga also revealed to have visited Tower of Heroic Spirits prior to his departure during which he learned that Raiga will form a deal with Gajari where the price would be carrying out the quest to mend all cracks of time and space Eyrith created one day, a quest he willingly take on his son's stead as well as how be found Kaoru to begin with. Upon learning that the recovered Kiba is after his son and possessed the late Shiroku to do so, he enlists aid from Taiga who soon assumed his pre-teenager form and alter-ego Baderu to prevent him from falling into their enemy's trap. Though the endeavor failed, the father and son reunited nevertheless shortly after Raiga overcomes Shiroku's trap in which Kouga tells the latter about his situation before being separated once again. Continuing their battle at Shiroku's fortress above the Tower of Heroic Spirits, Kouga is shocked to see his enemy's true identity and about to lose his ground until Raiga and Taiga appears to even the odds. Even so, Kiba soon turned the tide of the battle by combining his armor with Ouga that stored in the Tower by channeling heroic spirits he defeated only for the three generations of Garo bearers undo the upgrade and defeated him once and for all thanks to Mayuri and Kaoru sending them Garo Armor purified with their feelings of love and support. After the battle, Kouga departed to continue his mission, but not before reassuring his son that he will be back as he did 20 years prior.
As Garo, his armor helps protect him from damaging blows, but his armor isn't unbreakable. If a Horror is strong enough, they can damage and injure Kouga. Should the armor be exposed to a very powerful blow the armor will retract before the 99.9-second time limit. With the Garouken, transformed from Kouga's Makai Sword, Garo can cut down almost anything and only a rare few Horrors are strong enough to resist its force. Kouga is able to use a technique called Blazing Armament. This is when he uses the Madō Fire from his Madō Lighter to encompass his sword and his armor to increase his damage potential. In some episodes, he's able to use Blazing Armament without the use of the Madō Lighter. When riding Gōten, his combat strength is increased with his Garouken transformed into the larger Garou Zanbaken and the Dai Garou Zanbaken, the twice-sized Garou Zanbaken. Because his armor is composed of Soul Metal, the armor reacts to his will along with Madō Fire. The eyes of Kouga's Garo armor are green.
Kouga also received numerous powered-up forms in his many epic battles as Garo. During the fight with Messiah, the power within Kaoru's positive energy-based painting enabled Garo to become the angelic Winged Garo. Then, while fighting Legules, Garo uses the Phosphorus Arrow to negate the Horror's influence while turning into Phosphorus Garo. And then, while fighting Karma, Garo becomes Dragon Formation Garo through the souls of the many Makai Knights she devoured over the years. While fighting Judam, Garo becomes Blue Dragon Garo through the energies within Kakashi's heart.
Kouga Saejima is portrayed by Ryosei Konishi. As a child, he is portrayed by Ryusei Sawahata. As a 2-year-old, he is portrayed by Shuhei Jojo.