Event Recap: Garo Film Captivates Audience at Fantasia International Film Festival

Team TokuNet’s Editor-in-Chief Nicole Amber attended Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival which premiered Garo: Gekko no Tabibito to an international audience for the first time.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Garo: Gekko no Tabibito.

On July 30th, Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, showcased the latest film in the Garo franchise, Garo: Gekko no Tabibito, with Director Keita Amemiya as a featured guest of the festival. The streets of Montreal near Concordia University, which hosted the festival, were filled with enthusiastic movie fans. Attending the Garo: Gekko no Tabibito film premiere, many express how they were not fans of the franchise, but very curious about the film due to it’s unique style. Some attendees were fans of the franchise and Amemiya’s work, which made them look forward to seeing the continuation of the series with the cast of Garo: Makai no Hana.

Fans of the franchise will highly enjoy the film with original Garo cast members returning in cameos and larger roles. In true Garo fashion, the fight choreography awed the audience and kept everyone on the edge of their seats, watching each strike. The story introduced new concepts into the Garo storyline, which was a delight for returning fans to see the lore expand. Though much of the film was very enjoyable for fans of the franchise, newcomers to Garo will find themselves enjoying the movie without feeling lost in the large world that is Garo. Many concepts of the lore are explained and it becomes a good first film for those interested in Garo.

The next day, Amemiya hosted a Master Class workshop where he discussed his works over the years. Highlighting his character designs from Zeiram to the newest Garo film, including sharing characters not featured in the film. He answered many questions about his work and included interesting insights into his work over the years. For instance, he explained how the design for Zero was suppose to be Garo’s design, but he felt the design was not strong enough to be the main protagonist. He also mentioned that the mask worn by the main villian of Garo: Gekko no Tabibito was sculpted with silver. Lastly, he talked about the process of designing the villian of the original season of Garo, Messiah, and how he painstakingly drew on her design during the filming of her scenes instead of relying on CG. After the workshop, he allowed fans to purchase custom artboards featuring his signature style. Many fans lined up, excited to get a custom piece.

As the first movie premiere of Garo internationally, fans had a unique experience to learn about Amemiya himself and the Garo franchise. New fans learned a great deal about the tokusatsu genre and existing fans found interest in the insights the director shared.