Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf

I would recommend this anime to everybody who enjoys Kengan Ashura or Baki, everybody who enjoys martial arts or hand-to-hand combat in anime should give this series a try.

At times, the animation seems a bit incomplete, but the fights are really well-choreographed, realistic (outside of the main roster of fighter characters being killing machines engineered for carnage), and animated. This may be because the studio wanted quality animated fights in an anime about fighting, which makes total sense. In the name of god, I knew I was gonna see dangerous dudes beating the crap out of each other, so that's where I want the quality ... to be.

Story-wise, It's Okei. It mostly follows the manga drawn by Keisuke Itagaki (Baki's mangaka), with the twist being the main character of this story is not Bunsichi Tanba. It's a story about controlling oneself in a world that wants you to snap, but to know oneself means to also test your limits, a thing which the characters in this anime try in every episode.

NOTE: I read the original manga, as well as the one drawn by Keisuke Itagaki (Baki's mangaka) so I have to admit I was very hyped about this anime. I'm also a Martial Arts practitioner, so the Martial Arts moves in anime really get me. Nevertheless, I tried to be as objective as I could.

Thank you!

When I first saw Garouden announced on the Netflix Anime channel, I will admit, I was interested and looking up to give it a watch, however, after finishing all 8 episodes, I came to a conclusion, one I am not content with, but must voice and accept.
Garouden is not as special as it makes itself to be, especially when it comes to the story it tells. It has a lot of potential, I'd say it has even more potential than the likes of Hajime No Ippo and Megalobox, but the writers failed to put it up that shelf above the two. Except for the main ... character (Makio), no one really has anything going on for their character. No one stands out, and no one has what it takes to stand out, they are only some assets that help Makio elevate in his own story, which is the biggest crime this anime has unknowingly commited and many of us would overlook. The plot is pretty decent, it's enough to grab your attention in the span of the 20 minutes an episode goes on for, but it is offensively innofensive at times, and does not bring much new in the world of anime.
There are many flaws in the writing, but it's still debatable, some people will resonate with it more than I or others will, and I am okay with that, however, there is an argument which I think even the biggest haters of this anime will agree on; the choreography is actually really, REALLY good! The moves demonstrated throughout are actual moves used in actual martial arts, not just anime exaggerations as seen in the likes of Baki or even Hajime No Ippo (except for the first episode when Makio fights a bear, obviously). And the music is just as splendid and memorable, such as the intro, or even better, the ending, I LOVE it! The harmony of the acoustic guitar in the beginning followed by intense drums got me hooked like Walt's blue methamphetamine.
While I could go on and on about the music, animation, voice acting and choreography, it is still not enough to fill in the shoes the story and character development was supposed to fill, I know I'm getting too hung up on this, but if I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the story, and if I don't care about the story, I don't care about the action. Garouden is not bad by any means, I still loved it for what it served, but I was here for the main course, not the side dishes. 6/10

Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf is a series that shares a lot of similarities with others like baki or kengan ashura with the fights being the main spotligh now the thing is to make it short that the choreography of the fights are really good even to standarts of others series in the same nature this one really stands out on that but the fights itself are shorts and end in literally seconds wharever might be the most important ones or not all of them leaves you cold because are so fleeting that feels like you blink and all ended like nothing.

There are ... episodes that starts like out of nowhere feeling like there is a lack of continuation in contrast with the previous episode and doesnt even connects the scenes many times well leaving you expecting some kind of explanation of how ended like that (which never happen btw), the protagonist has so blurry motivations that starts to derail so fast the logic in which they work arriving on the end with a very hollow and overall bad character, the beast thing inside the prota or the boxer guy that was kind a thing the whole series ends up like nothing.
Saeko izumi that serves as one of the reasons for Juuzou fujimaki on the trama on him not wanting to fight is literally one of the worst wirtten character i saw so far, the series literally doesnt know what light to shed on her or if it does it is only for worst trying to glorify a freaking fuck up bitch at the end, most if not all of the cast are just there to fill some kind of stereotype and dont even expect any development because with 8 episodes if does a bad work with the main one the rest of them dont even have an apportunity to ahve one to begin with (which i dont complain given how bad was handle).

The little arc of the whole underground tournament was nonexistent and the few fights due to the aformentioned were dissapointings,
Animation wise was fine thougt nothing oustanding, sound nothing that i can remember to being honest op didint like it and not even mention the ending song.

In general terms it felt cheap and its cheap does not a good job on almost anything and the fights which it supposed to be the forte per say are not great neither, the characters or are just filler for some moment or just confuse you and you dont care because not even the people on charge of the production of this knew where were they going with them.
Not recommended even if you like these kind of genre there are much better series than this one that dont gonna feel like you are wasting your time as this one.