Garou

Garou
	; Garou, as he appears in the anime.
Name in Kanji	ガロウ
Name in Romaji	Garō
Fighting Style	Taizan-ryū Zanjin Battō Jutsu
Allegiance(s)	Ryuga
Position(s)	Ryuga's lieutenant
Appearances	Anime (ep. 73-76)
Voice actor(s)	Masato Hirano

Garou (ガロウ, Garō) is Ryuga's loyal lieutenant and serve in his master quest to both restore Raoh empire and to test the Hokuto brothers worthiness to restore order to the wasteland.

He is an anime only character and master of Taizan-ryū Zanjin Battōjutsu (泰山流斬刃抜刀術 Taishan-style Man-Slicing Sword-Drawing Technique).

TV Series

At first he wishes for Ryuga to overthrow Raoh and seize power, but falls in line with Ryuga's quest to decide if Raoh or Kenshiro will bring peace to the chaotic era. Garou faces Kenshiro at a recently captured village and declares that if Kenshiro wants to find Ryuga he will need to kill him first. After losing the fight, Garou keeps his word and tells Kenshiro that Ryuga is headed to Toki's village before exploding.

Appearance

He is a darker-skinned, dark-haired man with a bushy mustache and a somewhat broad nose, whose hair is also styled into a mullet.

He wears a metal helmet that resembles a samurai's helmet, which also has four spikes, a crest, and a visor on it, he also wears a yellow cuirass with a leather strap over it, and a pair of pants underneath a protective plating that covers his groin as well as a pair of long boots.

Personality

Garou stands out among most minor antagonist by being explicitly far less villainous and sadistic, even without being compared to them, as he is shown to be fair, loyal, graceful, courageous, respectful, dignified, and honorable, befitting of his samurai-like appearance, and even notably cares about his own subordinates to the point where he genuinely values their lives.

He is the type of a person to uphold promises, as he told Kenshiro that he'd tell him where to find his master Ryuga if he could defeat him in battle, and kept his word and informed him of Ryuga's wherabouts when Ken eventually won.

He holds his master Ryuga in high esteem, as he wanted to kill Kenshiro for his master's sake, and felt shame and disappointment in himself for failing his master by losing to Kenshiro.

He is humble, as he quickly earns respect for Kenshiro's superior strength and martial arts prowess in his battle against him, and being defeated by him only caused him to respect him even more, and in his last moments, he warned a henchman that he couldn't defeat Kenshiro, and he even let Ken know that he believes Kenshiro will be the one to bring peace and order to the world.

Abilities

He is shown to be a competent swordsman, and wields a Katana and a hidden knife in battle, both of which he is capable of attacking with at incredible speeds. He is also competent enough that he was able to genuinely hold his ground against Kenshiro for a while.

He is strong enough that he was able to cut cleanly through a metal shutter and stone wall at the same time, and also create a large hole when hitting it again.

Trivia

Garō (餓狼) is Japanese for "hungry wolf".
Garo is one of the few anime only characters to appear in the montage of Kenshiro's opponents in episode 152, the finale of the series.
Even though he is non-canon, he is one of the few enemies faced by Kenshiro to face their deaths with dignity and acceptance.