S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Silver Fanged Knight Zero Gallery

"You pulled a sword out first."

Once an orphaned child, Ginga Suzumura was taken in by the previous Zero user, and raised in a life of luxury. Ginga lived a happy life until the Dark Knight, Kiba, interceded and took the two most important people in the world away from him. The rage and pain at this loss gave Ginga, now going by the name Rei, the determination needed to master the Zero armor, become a Makai Knight, and begin his mission to hunt Horrors, as well as seek revenge for his loved ones. Mistaking Garo for the murderous Kiba, the two heroes clashed many times before uniting to defeat the dark knight. After the many tragedies and triumphs of his life, Zero has continues to walk a lonely path....

Packaging
The familiar Shinkocchou Seihou slip cover box makes another appearance! Not much can be said about it this time that hasn't been said before. It's gotten a bit stale (to me) over time but it's still a pleasing type of collector's box. This box now features the standard Bandai Spirits blue logo as well as the holofoil Tamashii Nations brand sticker.

Main Figure
Zero joins fellow Makai Knight, Garo, as so far the only figures in the entirety of the Shinkocchou Seihou line which do not hail from a Kamen Rider series. Once again this really speaks to the immense and lasting popularity of the Garo franchise. The series continues to go strong with new shows movies and merchandise every year. So these two characters joining up with the Shinkocchou Seihou premium S.H. Figuarts line is really indicative of continued demand and growth.

As I mentioned in my Garo review, I've never been a massive fan of the franchise personally, but that figure really really floored me. It was just stunning. Honestly that gorgeous chrome paint job went a long way to convincing me of that, but it was an excellent figure in it's own right. Zero doesn't have the same sort of gorgeous (or garish if you like!) paint job, but is just as nicely engineered. And has kept interested to buy any further Knights that Bandai might decided to make for collectors.

As with Garo, Zero is imperfect, there are definitely flaws to the figure's design. However, if you've had any experience with either the original Zero S.H. Figuart or any of the various Makai Kado releases of Zero, the Seihou is a huge upgrade. A step in a much better direction. The first Zero figuart missed the mark not only functionally though, but in all of the details as well. Both fine and broad. One thing you'll immediately see with Zero is that it does not share the same chrome shine as Garo. While Zero's armor has often had a nice gloss or shine to it on screen, it's properly meant to be a more brushed silver color as this figure has turned out. Though in many instances Garo's physical suit did't have quite that reflective chrome look either. There's a few inconsistencies with my Zero's paint apps, particularly some splotchy bits on the right hip, but overall it's got a good shine to it that's accented really well by sharp black detailing.

Like Garo, this knight's armor is pretty bulky, but not quite as restrictive. The ankles have a pretty good side to side tilt for wide angle poses, what few you can get. More on that later. They do leave a bit to be desired for forward & back movement. Surprisingly the knees provide better than usual movement, being able to bend up closer to the back of the leg than Garo. Where the legs don't stack up, is in the hips. Garo wasn't perfect by any means, but Zero has some more pronounced thigh armor that impacts the waist armor. So forward movement isn't as good, and outward movement is much worse on Zero. Wide stances just aren't going to be his thing unfortunately. You'll really have to rotate the thighs to get much additional movement out of the hips, but this rotation will keep them from moving a lot as well. It's a mixed bag.

The upper body however is a vast improvement. Where Garo certainly had some surprising hidden movement in the upper body, he's got nothing on Zero. Thanks to a relatively slim abdominal section Zero can rotate completely sideways. This free range on the lower section leaves the chest portion open to move as needed in all directions. You can hit some pretty sweet and expressive poses with the upper body, but the lack of corresponding movement in the lower body means it's not as easy to make him look dynamic. The upper body's exquisite detailing really draws the eye as well.

The arms are thankfully engineered much better too. Garo has large protruding shoulder armor, that while movable and collapsible, can keep the arms from a number of poses that require forward and back movement. Zero has no such armor, instead having a more traditional shoulder pad-over joint design, thus freeing things up like normal. My only real gripe with the arms is the pointy little blade sticking out on each forearm. They can make exchanging hands difficult, that and the stiffness of the cuff on each fist. These blades are also on the calves and ankles so be careful not to poke yourself too hard or break one. The arms work well enough thanks to the shoulder design, but the elbows only being able to strike a 90 degree angle can be a detriment in some cases.

Like Garo, Zero has a just stunning head. The Zero armor has no pupils, and features some great black detailing on top of those sharp silver details, definitely giving him are far more intense and dangerous look. It's a more savage face that seems to contain less humanity than Garo's. Which honestly feeds back into Rei's tragic backstory that took the joy out of his life. The full package so to speak is that of a really solid and fierce looking figure that goes very well with his fellow Makai Knight.

Please note that the Kiba briefly used in this gallery is the old Makai Kado one and does not scale with these figures very well. The Zero Wings seen near the end of the gallery also came with Makai Kado Zero and don't physically attach to this figure. But they look damn good don't they?

Accessories
Zero comes in a little lite, but I think what he has is mostly appropriate:

4 - alternate hands. 4 is pretty lite no matter how you slice it. We get two open palms for action poses and two for holding the Ginroken, but nothing else. Some relaxed palms or pointing fingers, or really anything else would have been nice to have.

2 - Ginroken. Zero's signature twin blades weapons. Each is far better detailed than the originals that preceded them as well. Thankfully the grip detaches at the base of the blade so you can get them into Zero's hands without fear of breaking them. Which is very good considering how tightly closed the open hands in fact are. You'll need to give the grip of each Ginroken a decent nudge to them all the way through.

1 - combined Ginroken grip. Using this part you can connect the two Ginroken together to create the Ginga Ginroken. This long sword is a pretty dynamic looking weapon, though I generally prefer to display him with the twin blades instead. It's definitely imposing for action shots, though it seems you're more likely to knock the blades off by mistake in this case than with the twin blades.

That's about it! Given Zero's association with blue flames (in contrast to Garo's green ones) I don't think it's unreasonable to have included a pair of flame effects for his arms. Lucky for me I flame effects in basically every officially release color. Zero had the ability to shoot the blades of the Ginroken on wires on occasion as well, so some part to simulate that would have been great. And seeing as Garo didn't come with Madou Lighter either, it would have been nice to finally get one here. Alas.

Final Thoughts
Overall, I continue to be impressed with the direction the Garo Seihou line is moving in. Garo & Zero are both very impressive in unique ways that set them apart from the Kamen Riders of the line. I'd like to imagine Bandai has much much more planned for the Makai Knights right now as well. With Garo & Zero out of the way, what could come next? The Dark Knight Kiba? Maybe Taiga or even another Garo like Raiga or even the supremely popular Jinga? Who knows. I do know however that at this point, they've got me on lock with these figures. Whatever other Shinkocchou Seihou's they want to put out from Garo, I'll be buying them.

Part 2

Goddamn did the original Zero suit really look like that? I didn't even notice the blue when I saw Garo

You can see it with the wonders of higher definition video now

Raiga would be cool, but I'd love to see Sword from Vanishing line get a figure. His armor was so distinct and it'd be a nice contrast from the skinnier anime designs.

Honestly yeah I'm with you there. The couple of anime Garo's we already got feel a bit outdated compared to the Seihou's, so I'd like to see them take a crack at all of them again somwhere down the line. I'd like to see more live action knights first though.

Oh totally, I'd love to see Dan

These are like exactly my colors, love silver and blue. Also I really need watch Garo

This figure looks awesome, looks exactly likr the Zero suit in the show, except not as shiny. Although the suit in show didn't look that shiny either that I recall, so it's a great representation of Zero. Hopehully we get Dan next.

I don't know. I kinda prefer the OG Figuart version, even with its relatively poor articulation. I really don't like the way the head looks on this version.