List of Garo Characters - Makai Knights - Kouga Saezima/Garo The Golden Knight

Kouga Saezima/Garo The Golden Knight

Kouga Saezima (冴島 鋼牙, Saejima Kōga?)/Garo the Golden Knight (黄金騎士・牙狼（ガロ）, Ōgon Kishi Garo?, ) is the main character of the series and the Golden Makai Knight of the East, armed with the Garoken (牙狼剣, Garōken?, Fanged Wolf Sword) blade. Kouga is a young man who, having been raised almost without friends during his childhood and surrounded almost exclusively by people with Makai backgrounds, apparently thinks little else other than slaying Horrors. His father was the one who started his training at an early age and he still trains on a daily basis to sharpen his skills. Since childhood Kouga was raised by his father Taiga whom he respected him above everything else. Because of Taiga's constant hunts, he didn't allow Kouga to associate with anyone besides Jabi, Amon, and Gonza. Unlike his stoic and focused personality as an adult, Kouga behaved very much like any other children, having a naive worldview as well as liking toys.

On one night, the young Kouga got out of bed after hearing Gonza's concern for Taiga and followed his father into the forest where he witnessed a fierce battle between the previous Garo and what appeared to be a Horror, the Knight dropping his sword in the midst of the fight. Kouga came out of hiding intending to deliver his father's sword, but was unable to lift it and was attacked by the figure. Taiga took the fatal blow in his son's place, leaving the Kouga devastated. Zaruba later helped Taiga convey his final thoughts to Kouga: Take the title of Garo and to be brave, and Zaruba took up the mantle of Kouga's teacher shortly afterwards. Kouga and Gonza at first tried every means to lift the sword out of the ground from brute strength to using a crane, but it would remain stuck in the forest until Kouga mastered the ability to wield Soul Metal. To that end, Kouga undergoes the path of becoming a Makai Knight like his father. Under the mandated alias of Shiro, which was placed so to protect the child's identity should he failed to graduate as a Makai Knight, Kouga befriended three other boys as they are all placed under the guidance of the Makai Knight Wataru. Though Kouga learned the value of friendship, he is forced to watch his friends being devoured by the Horror Raizon, keeping the beads they got from Wataru on his person in memory of them. Though he later trained under the Makai Knight Kengi, it still took over a decade since his father's death for Kouga to not only finally be strong enough to lift the Garoken from its resting place to become the current Golden Knight, but also to reach a conclusion of what he should fight for.

Kouga is not a very sociable person, more so after his father's death and he always keeps his feelings to himself and puts up a deadpan face all the time, but he nonetheless possesses a noble and kind heart behind his emotionless façade. He holds steadfast to 2 beliefs, inherited from 2 of his Makai Knight teachers, one being that every person, good or bad, has the not only the right to live, but also the potential to save many lives on their own in the process; the other being that one should try to his best to save another person, regardless of how slim the chances might be. Eventually, Garo meets Kaoru when he was slaying Anglay where she happened to be stained with Horror blood, a condition that will kill her in 100 days excruciatingly. Though the norm when dealing with any "tainted" human is to cut them down along with the Horror to spare them from dying a painful death, he spared Kaoru's life because she reminded him of his mother, but never told her about her situation and claimed to Zaruba and the Three Priestesses of the Eastern Watchdog, of his intention of using Kaoru as a Horror bait. Eventually, saving Kaoru's life while falling in love with her, Kouga learns the truth of his father's death to be at the hands of the rogue Makai Knight Barago, who later kidnaps Karou to enact his plan to bring Messiah to the living world.

In a desperate bid of fighting a losing fight against Kodama and the time limit of his armor is nearing, Kouga refuses to eject his armor when the time limit was up, with his negative emotions cause him to turn into the mindless Lost Soul Beast Garo (心滅獣身牙狼, Shinmetsu Jūshin Garo?) while killing Kodama in the process. While in darkness, his armor surpassed the time limit and Zaruba asked for Zero's help in deactivating the Garo armor. After Zero managed to get through Kouga's mind to stun him for a brief moment, he struck Kouga's armor in the belly and it hit the triangle armor piece (weak spot) and Kouga's armor was lifted, saving Kouga's body and soul. Eventually, Kouga battles Messiah and not only defeats her but Kiba as well, with the later at the cost of Zaruba. Some time later, Kouga is bidding an emotional farewell to Kaoru, as she would be heading to Italy to further her studies in art. She gave him the final product of her father's book with the last page painted, and Rei handed Kouga a restored Zaruba as a token of their friendship, which was reforged by the Western Watchdog. Though he still has his same old personality, he bears no past memories of his time with Taiga and Kouga, even stating that he didn't like the name Kouga gave him.

In Garo Special: Byakuya no Maju, Kouga was approached by Rin Yamagatana who delivered a message from Priest Amon. Kouga didn't believe her at first, but her mentioning their unfinished bar chess game persuaded him to take her seriously. Amon would return as a spirit to ask for his help to save Jabi's still-living body. Accepting the mission, despite interference from the resident Makai Knight Dan, Kouga enters the Makai Forest and battles the Makai Tree to regain Jabi. Soon after, Kouga receives new orders to contain the threat of the Horror Legules, managing to use the Phosphorus Arrow to destroy the fiend and his extensions. Soon after, Kouga returned home to find Kaoru painting in the backyard. They welcomed each other, clasped hands and walked back home, implying that they had finally confessed their feelings for each other.

In Garo: Red Requiem, on orders to destroy the Apostle Horror Karma, Kouga meets Kengi's daughter Rekka and helps her reach the same conclusion her father pointed him to years ago, as they work together to destroy the Horror. Parting, Rekka gives Kouga one of her young Makai Dragons, which Zaruba names "Kaoru" to Kouga's chagrin, that Kouga uses to search for Horrors while doubling as a messenger. In Garo: Makai Senki, Kouga gets promoted to be a Makai Knight serving the Senate for defeating the Apostle Horrors. But just after fighting the Horror Cigarein, Kouga is attacked by a mysterious red-masked man, who engraves a Seal of Destruction (破滅の刻印, Hametsu no Kokuin?) onto him. As a result, Kouga does not have much time to live and his life shortens every time he dons his armor, as well as suffering chest pains from time to time and his body gradually weakens over time.

He keeps the seal a secret from Kaoru, just like how he did with Kaoru's condition years ago. He resumes his duties seemingly unaffected while continue to investigate on the mysteries surrounding the red-masked man. The man responsible for engraving the deadly seal onto him is later revealed to be Reo's older twin brother, Sigma, who is on his quest of restoring the old order of having only Makai Priests battling the Horror menace, eradicating the Knights along the way. Though Kouga manages to defeat Sigma, revealed to be one of the friends thought to be devoured by Razon, he had to leave to honor the contract he made to Gajari and go to the Promised Ground to retrieve a part of the entity's body.

As Garo, his armor helps protect him from damaging blows, but his armor isn't unbreakable. If a Horror is strong enough, they can damage and injure Kouga. Should the armor be exposed to a very powerful blow the armor will retract before the 99.9-second time limit. With the Garoken, transformed from Kouga's Makai Sword (魔戒剣, Makaiken?), Garo can cut down almost anything and only a rare few Horrors are strong enough to resist its force. Kouga is able to use a technique called Blazing Armament (烈火炎装, Rekka Ensō?). This is when he uses the Madō Fire from his Madō Lighter to encompass his sword and his armor to increase his damage potential. In some episodes, he's able to use Blazing Armament without the use of the Madō Lighter. When riding Gōten, his combat strength is increased with his Garoken transformed into the larger Garo Zanbaken (牙狼斬馬剣, Garōzanbaken?, Fanged-Wolf Horse-Slaying Sword) and the Dai Garo Zanbaken (大牙狼斬馬剣, Dai Garō Zanbaken?, Big Fanged-Wolf Horse-Slaying Sword), the twice-sized Garo Zanbaken. Because his armor is composed of Soul Metal, the armor reacts to his will along with Madō Fire.

Garo also received powered-up forms in many of his epic battles. During the fight with Messiah, the power within Kaoru's positive energy-based painting enabled Garo to become the angelic Winged Garo (翼人牙狼, Tsubasabito Garo?). Then, while fighting Legules, Garo uses the Phosphorus Arrow to negate the Horror's influence while turning into Phosphorus Garo (鷹麟牙狼, Ōrin Garo?). And then, while fighting Karma, Garo becomes Dragon Formation Garo (竜陣牙狼, Ryūjin Garo?) through the souls of the many Makai Knights she devoured over the years.

"Garo" means "hope" in the old Makai language.

Kouga Saezima is portrayed by Ryosei Konishi (小西 遼生, Konishi Ryōsei?). As a child, he is portrayed by Ryusei Sawahata (澤畠 流星, Sawahata Ryūsei?). As a 2 years old child, he is portrayed by Shuhei Jojo (城定 修平, Jōjō Shūhei?).