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Is there a difference between the Garu of jetix series and love’s recipe?
Oh absolutely Nony!! TLDR: Jetix!Garu and LR!Garu and fundamentally different. The portrayal of pucca and garu’s relationship is one of the key factors in Garu’s characterization.
Jetix emphasizes the physical humor of the chase, and as a result, heightens the bad qualities of the two. Pucca is more obsessive, which drives Garu to become cold towards her and the villagers. He values his honor to a selfish degree and his fixation on being the best ninja makes him estranged to the village. He’s sassy, prideful, moody (like watch the episode y’all, he’s just a bomb waiting to go off holy-), and surprisingly, outspoken. He’s a lot more expressive, which I do miss when I watch LR.
LR is more endearing, there’s a childish innocence to the chase. Pucca is more considerate of Garu’s boundaries and Garu is more receptive to Pucca’s affections. Garu in this version is polite, reserved, poised, gentlemanly, boyish, and regards his honor with dignity instead of pride.
so for the long version: Jetix!Garu is so selfish. Like… he’s fixated on his honor and duty as a ninja that he comes across as cold, rude and uncaring towards the villagers, especially pucca. Jetix!Garu is completely uninterested in pucca and truly just wants to be left alone. Even if it comes at the expense of others, like in Feud Fight, Garu values being kept to himself. It kinda makes me wonder how he became friends with ching and abyo in the first place.
Garu never seems to do good for the sake of doing good, or because he cares for the village. He’s always motivated to go on a laborious quest because it will give him great “honor”, and it doesn’t help that this great honor is so vague and elusive in the show. uhhh winning the valley ping pong competition will bring honor! Dragging a wet noodle around the world will bring honor! Buying a moon night light inside a volcano can only be done by a great warrior because…. the story needs a serious try-hard character for Pucca to outshine and bounce off of. That’s the real oof in Garu’s character. His genuine efforts at greatness are constantly undermined by outside forces ( he takes Tobe way too seriously… like. Garu. He’s hopelessly incompetent, chill.) and especially Pucca. It makes his motivation seem desperate to the audience and harder to sympathize with. Speaking of pucca….
Jetix!Garu really doesn’t like Pucca. Not as a friend, and especially not as a crush. When she pursues him, his face is either red in embarrassment, blue-tinted in anxiousness, or he violently struggles against her hugs, yet the supporting characters treat this cat and mouse chase as endearing. It shocks me when I rewatch my favorite episodes; I end up feeling so sorry for Garu and a bit creeped out how normalized pucca’s obsession is. I get frustrated that Pucca is never aware of Garu’s discomfort, and everyone enables her by assuring that Garu is just shy! He’ll come around one day. Maybe. I mean, there are a few bones the writers throw us here and there, but Garu’s reciprocation is just too inconsistent to validate.
I think the worst their depiction has ever gotten is the intro to Season 1x19 “Oh the Bells!” Garu visibly shakes, his eyes shrink, he sweats in disgust after Pucca kisses him and leaves. Abyo literally says right after, “How can you let her do that to you?”Like bruh. This is not the relationship 8 yr old me should have been rooting for.
Anyways, Garu’s more extreme reactions to Pucca’s antics are a direct consequence of their cat and mouse chase being depicted as humorous instead of endearing, as the original flash shorts intended. buuuuut Love’s Recipe thankfully decided to go back to the flash’s roots and bring out the best in the chase.
I commented on LR’s dynamic when things get pushed too far, and I’m so happy that Pucca is now just a young girl filled with infatuation and innocent young love that she just wants to express it all in the open, and poor Garu is so overwhelmed but never too exasperated. He willingly hangs out with Pucca, he values his time with her and knows he doesn’t need to protect her because she can take care of herself. The strongest Garu ever reacts at pucca’s antics are small sighs or nervous sweat and blush.
Garu is incredibly polite and poised towards everyone. I thought it smart that Garu’s residency in the outskirts of Sooga forest made him knowledgable about the fauna, and as a result gave him a reason to stay close to the village; He’s the produce runner for the Village’s most esteemed restaurant. It’s a humble yet important job. Garu wants to be a warrior because he truly wants to be good (maybe also because he wants to live up to his lost heritage?? the season finale kinda touched on that?? LR writers give us the forbidden Garu family lore) and his importance in the village validates his need for honor. He just wants to uphold the image everyone has of him and deliver justice.
Fittingly, Garu finds Tobe out of place and obnoxious bc he doesn’t fit in w/ his priorities. Tobe doesn’t threaten Garu’s way of life, he’s just some random laky Don-King restaurant’s manager hired. Garu never wants to deal with him and never takes him seriously, he realizes how weak of a rival Tobe is. I’m gonna miss the super serious and over the top clash Jetix! Garu and Tobe had, ngl. It made for great banter on Jetix’s end. Garu can still be pretty sassy towards him, and others. I appreciate the writers left that in.
If I didn’t make sense y’all are free to drag me bc my dudes it is 3 am my time I am only functioning on 1 braincell rn. goodnight