Man, why does King have to look so lame? I never expected the master of all Horrors to resemble some fluorescent alien boi. He looks completely different from every Horror we’ve ever seen, which is fine… to a certain extent. My main problem is that King doesn’t even look like he belongs in this anime. Anyways… welcome to another week of Garo – Vanishing Line. I’ve lost hope in this series a long time ago, but since we’re so close to the finish line, I may as well see it to the end.

— King sounds whole lot like Frieza. A whole lot.

— This part looks kinda neat, at least. A lingering remnant of Martin tries to reach out to Sophie, but it’s useless against King. I’ll give credit where credit’s due. I always try to be honest in my reactions to anime. I legitimately do not think King looks good. I’m not just “hating” on the anime because I can.

— I’m now watching King bounce in place like some sort of childish jester. If you want to bring up Kefka, don’t. Kefka at least looked like he belonged in the FF6 universe. Yeah, his character design was unique, but it wasn’t so wild that it stretched credulity. As an aside, I was never a big fan of Kefka as a villain.

— Apparently, everything has gone according plan. King knew that Martin was too pure for him to corrupt, which he is why he wanted Sophie to come to El Dorado. Only the girl’s rejection could break the genius programmer. By dragging Sophie all the way here, Sword unwittingly aided the big, bad villain. What would’ve happened had Sophie stayed behind in Russell City? Well, King’s underlings still would’ve finished ELDO NET, but King himself would still be trapped in that ring.

— The city suddenly turns blood red and begins to fall apart. Sword picks Sophie up and tries to escape with her, but the girl has gone catatonic. Unfortunately, she’s now blaming herself for her brother’s fall. Sure, Martin was tricked into doing bad things, but c’mon, he allowed himself to be tricked. He allowed himself to be blind to what was happening around him. Ignorance is not an excuse.

— Amusingly enough, even Bishop seems surprised at King’s actual appearance.

— Lo and behold, Queen somehow survived that encounter against Luke and Gina.

— Speaking of Luke and Gina, they still have to evacuate any remaining humans from the city. All of a sudden, Gina hears some engine revving up in the distance. Jesus Christ, don’t tell me it’s Zaruba…

— Elsewhere, Sophie tells Sword that it’s all her fault, but he tells her not to blame herself. I thought he would then explain why she shouldn’t blame herself, but we get nothing. Um, okay. That was kinda funny.

— They soon find themselves surrounded by Horrors on all sides. But before anything can happen to them, an old face comes to the rescue:

Goddamn, it is Zaruba. I thought Sword absorbed his ol’ buddy to gain additional strength. I thought that was how he could beat Knight so easily back in episode 17. Plus, what was even the point of the bike sacrificing itself for Sophie’s sake if he’s just going to come back from the dead? Sure, sure, Zaruba can’t truly die. And sure, sure, Gina probably left the party to “resurrect” Zaruba. But my main problem is that this just feels dumb and cheap… like the rest of this series.

— King: “No matter the era, they try to stand against me.” Gee, I wonder why. It’s almost like you’re the baddie or something…

— So where did Zaruba get his new body? Oh, just the Land of Guidance. That’s all the explanation you’ll get. I’m not sure I really want to hear more anyway.

— Zaruba’s also being surprisingly chatty. Bad time for it, too. Sword is sad, Sophie is sad, and they’re all surrounded by people desperately very slowly fleeing El Dorado. They’ll live to see another day, but where can they even go? All the way back to the east where it’s safe? Hah, good luck. It took Sword and Sophie forever just to get here.

— Dude, Zaruba, learn to the read the room.

— So what now? Luke informs the group that their only orders is to eliminate all the Horrors. I imagine it’s too late for them to receive any sort of backup. He also says that there’s no need to drag Sophie around with them anymore. Nah, there is. Just wait, Luke. We’ll find a reason to keep her around.

— Meanwhile, King sends ELDO NET out to the rest of the world. How? Shrug. Magic, probably. We can ask all we want, but we won’t get any answers. Anyways, I guess if you are lucky enough to have neither an internet connection nor a cellphone, you’ll be just fine. For now, anyways.

—  Also, by just staring into the app, your consciousness will be instantly whisked away to true El Dorado! Nice! I mean, we already knew this, but it’s quite funny to see people just faint all across the world. Even those poor suckers backpacking across the Great Wall of China aren’t spared.

— King gloats like a typical 2-bit villain who thinks he’s already won. He tells his henchmen (and henchwomen) to eliminate any remaining threats. Why doesn’t he go and do it, though? He’s the strongest of them all, right? If you want a job done right, you gotta do it yourself. Screw it. These villains never learn.

— Queen’s getting herself all healed up like it’s Dragon Ball Z or something.

— We still have no clue what her backstory is. I guess we don’t care.

— Lizzie suddenly appears on all of the electronics around Sword to warn him that King’s plan has already gone into motion. How can we be sure that it’s really Lizzie and not yet another fiendish trick? Ah well, the heroic music is playing, so just play along with it.

— There just happens to be a special storage unit in ELDO NET, and if you go there, you can release all the trapped souls. One simple trick that King doesn’t want you to know!

— Here’s another simple trick: not only does Martin have admin access, but Sophia does too! Brilliant security system! And there you go! Sophie has a reason to stick around!

— Who ends up giving Sophie a pep talk? Zaruba. He’s had such a small role all series long, so I guess we may as well use him now. The bike even tells the girl that the other three intend to go without her. They don’t want to endanger Sophie anymore! Yeah, I don’t get that. King is literally on the cusp of imprisoning humanity, but gosh, we can’t endanger the one girl we’ve been endangering all goddamn series long. This is where we draw the damn line. Pffffffffffffft.

— All of a sudden, that stone they had gotten from the Land of Guidance starts glowing. Maybe if she makes King swallow the jewel, it’ll make his body eject Martin or something. Anyways, Sophie is ready to rumble.

— Gina assures Lizzie that she’ll protect Sword until the end. Huh? I don’t like where this is going…

— In the end, Sophie convinces Sword to take her with him. She’s gotta do what she can to protect the people she loves! Right before they depart, however, Gina walks up and plants a big fat kiss on Sword’s lips. She’s got feelings for him now? C’mon, man, you can’t just throw in random pairings at the 11th hour! Those two haven’t had shared a single romantic moment all series long! Not only that, is she not going to go with them? B-but you just told Lizzie you’d protect Sword until the end!

— We even get a close-up of the kiss, because that’s totally necessary:

It’s like I said in my Record of Grancrest War post:

“There are only two types of kisses in anime: 1) the innocent type and 2) the sloppy, all-tongue wrestlemania.”

— Suddenly, Knight and Queen show up just as Sword and Sophie are about to leave. Of course. We gotta give Gina and Luke something to do.