Garou

Garou (ガロウ, Garō) is a former disciple of Bang, but was kicked out from his dojo for going on a rampage. The Hero Association also views him as Mysterious Being and gave him the name "Human Monster". He is the primary antagonist of the Human Monster Saga.

Appearance
Garou is a young man with sharp features and long spiky white hair. While not being a particularly large person he is shown to be quite muscular. He wears a tight black shirt and loose fitting white pants, similar to his former master Bang. He's the antagonist in the Hero Hunt arc. His objective is to become the most powerful monster.

Personality
Garou is introduced as an evil character with a hatred for heroes and a confident, vindictive personality. He hates being insulted and will attack anyone who offends him. He thinks highly of himself and uses that assertion to threaten high ranking personnel such as heroes and Shicchi. He does not consider other human villains to be allies, wiping out a large group of them along with the heroes present. He will also attack low ranked hero and hero staff members if he encounters them. A large aspect of his personality seems to be some sort of disdain for his former master, Bang, enough to avoid using the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist he was taught unless seriously cornered.

He has no remorse even for people who aid him, as he smashed License-less Rider's face soon after the latter defended him.

Although Garou is an evil character, he possesses some kind of morality: he lets heroes live so that they can grow stronger and fight him again. He also has a soft spot for children as shown when he conversed with a kid in the park about heroes. When the kid called him Mister although Garou told him not to before, he did not get angry at the child. He even patted the kid's head affectionately.

Garou also doesn't hurt innocent people, and values both morality and honor as seen in his battle against Metal Bat. He accepted Metal Bat's promise of not fighting around his sister.

In some ways, Garou can be considered the opposite to Saitama. Where Saitama wanted to be a hero who fought villains from his childhood, Garou wants to be a monster who defeats heroes. While Garou is a genius fighter, Saitama had to work extremely hard to get his strength.

Despite given the title of "Human Monster" by others and himself, Garou for unknown reasons seems to dislike monster, as he attacked one of the members of the Monster Association and tried to kill him, despite both being in friendly terms.

History
Garou watched the Justice Man TV show as a child and admired villains from the show, rooting for them and becoming especially angry when Justice Man had arrived to stop them. He had asked his father when there would be a villain that could defeat Justice Man, only to hear the negative, which did not make sense, as he reasoned that the monsters always tried their best but were always killed off unfairly in the end. Unwilling to accept the status quo, Garou resolved to become the strongest monster and never lose, and to change the scenario.

As an adult, Garou became Bang's top disciple. Six months prior to the Super Fight martial arts tournament that Saitama attended, he decided to rampage through the dojo and disabled many of the students of the dojo, including Sour Face. He then received a beating from Bang and was expelled from the dojo.

After his expulsion, Garou attended the Super Fight, taking the wolf mask of fighter Wolfman, incapacitating the real Wolfman, and wearing it to the match. Garou won the tournament, although his identity remained unknown.

Hot Pot Side Story
Garou makes his first appearance at the end of a scuffle between Saitama and co with the Harsh Path Style having bumped into them on their way out after being served a harsh beating by the former. They challenged him to a battle after he refused to apologize for bumping into them. He ends up throttling them all. While pining that none of them were any good to help him on his journey to becoming a true monster, one of his beaten quarry asked who he was. A question to which he answers simply, if albeit dramatically, stating he's "The Villain".

Alien Conquerors Arc
After Genos fights and easily defeats Bang's disciple, Charanko, he mentions that he had heard that the dojo was filled with skilled fighters and is surprised at the "best disciple"'s weakness. Bang reveals that the dojo used to be filled with skilled fighters until his best disciple, Garou, went on a rampage and disabled them all for life, scaring the rest away as well. Because of this, Bang expelled Garou after giving him a beating.

Garou Introduction Arc
During a meeting in the hero headquarters in the middle of a coalition between a large group of villains and the Hero Association. He states himself as an extremely powerful individual, able to beat every present person alone even if they gang up on him. He reveals that his presence on the location was merely to find strong opponents and to punish the cowards. After three super heroes agree on taking him down it's revealed that Garou never liked superheroes and always supported monsters because of his sympathy for their ambitions. After the flashback, he promised to become the strongest monster and change the scenario. He attacks three A-Class heroes border-lining S-Class in strength and beats up everyone present with the exception of Shicchi and Sonic as Sonic had left said meeting pre-haste. As he leaves proclaiming this was the epic intro of Garou the Human Monster, he promises to come bursting through the front door of the Heroes Association in three months time after his training journey was over. Musing perhaps he will fight King, the strongest hero in their ranks one day while out on his jaunt.

The Blizzard Group Arc
He's last seen dealing with an upper A-class hero Tanktop Vegetarian in an empty alleyway, as the defeated hero threatens him of the hideous retribution that'll befall those who challenge a hero. Garou simply rebuffs him knocking him out as he states he's no good for his training. Anxious to fight a more monstrous class of Superhero.During his Hero Hunting it's been revealed that Garou has the reputation and the title of "Human Monster" within the Heroes Association, however, no one sees him as threat beside Shicchi.

Hero Hunt Arc
He's later seen at night meeting with The Class-C hero License-less Rider and threatens to attack him, but not before Tanktop Vegetarian, whom Garou has beaten and spares him in last afternoon, calls his brothers exact revenge against Garou. Suddenly, Class S hero Tanktop Master appears and punches Garou, after Garou knocked out Tanktop Vegetarian.

License-less Rider defends Garou from Tanktop Master's attack, but Tanktop Master knows about Garou's evil intents and the possible threat he's posing, and reaches for the finishing blow. Garou counterattacks with his special technique Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist and beats Tanktop Master with ease. Tanktop Master then realizes that Garou was merely holding back. Garou then proceeds to attack all heroes present alongside License-less Rider and Charanko, the bodies of whom are found by Bang and Bomb.

Garou later interrupts the conversation between three C-Class heroes and proceeds to beat them up. Afterwards he finds a kid with a catalogue containing info about the heroes. Garou asks the kid for the catalogue, but the kid refuses. Garou's interest furthers once he learned that the catalogue contained information about monsters as well. Garou ends up reading through the catalogue to find out Golden Ball's location.

Garou finds Golden Ball in a bar and challenges him into a fight. Golden Ball eventually accepts and they head towards the parking lot. It is revealed that Golden Ball was putting up an act and begins the fight in the alley heading towards the parking lot. Garou dodges Golden Ball's first two attacks. Golden Ball initially believes that Garou was able to dodge them because of his hand movements and then shoots a shot that ricochets and pierces Garou's leg.

Golden Ball, believing that he has the advantage now, follows up with Golden Breakout. However Garou effortlessly dodges all of them, thus refuting Golden Ball's initial thought that Garou used Golden Ball's hand movements to dodge his bullets. In a final effort, Golden Ball fires one more shot directly at Garou. Unfortunately, Garou was able to deflect and destroy it and then destroys all of the other bullets. Before Garou can attack Golden Ball, Spring Mustache appears. Spring Mustache then starts swinging in every direction forcing Garou to jump. Spring Mustache then initiates his secret move, Tomboy. Garou dodges the attack, but his left hand got stabbed. Succeeding the dodge, Garou punches Spring Mustache, launching Spring Mustache into several trashcans and crates. Garou reveals that he knew about Spring Mustache's secret technique and that he is now used to armed combatants. After the fight he went on to target Handsomely Masked Sweet Mask, by chance he overheard a corrupt officer of the Heroes association using his station and the heroes name to pick up chicks and proceeded to clobber him out of annoyance. Irked with dissatisfaction at the official he beat up Saitama just happened to be around finding a wig shop, which is directly in front of Garou. Thinking Saitama is a small fry who thinks he can make a big name by arresting him, Garou attacked Saitama, sinking his feet into the ground from the impact. Unfazed, Saitama delivered a chop of his own to Garou's nape, knocking him unconscious as he proceeded to buy a wig. Garou eventually woke up on a pile of garbage bags with a fuzzy memory.

Centipede Arc
Garou is later seen talking with the same kid with a catalog and asks him the whereabouts of the S-class hero Watchdog-man, with the intention of fighting him. However, their conversation is interrupted by S-City's alert about the between two demon level monsters and Metal Bat. Garou then tells the kid to run while he looks forward to fighting Metal Bat.

Garou arrives to the scene just when Metal Bat is launched hundreds of meters across the city. Initially believing Metal Bat got defeated by Elder Centipede, Garou decides to go after Watchdog-man. However, Metal Bat soon gets up and begins heading back to fight Elder Centipede. This causes Garou to attack Metal Bat.

Garou is later seen fighting Metal Bat on a empty city, and comments that he's disappointed that he was being unable to see Metal Bat's true strength due to the exhaustion of his fight against Elder Centipede.

Metal Bat retaliates against Garou's comment with an attack, but Garou manages to dodge it. Garou is surprised by Metal Bat's persistence despite Metal Bat's numerous injuries, but insists that Metal Bat is at his limit. Suddenly, Metal Bat rushes to Garou with incredible speed. Garou still manages to avoid Metal Bat's attacks and attempts to counterattack, but Garou's attack are no longer able to faze Metal Bat either. Garou notes that Metal Bat's speed and attack power have increased drastically. Garou asks Metal Bat for the reason for this sudden increase in physical strength and Metal Bat simply explains that "It's Fightin' Spirit!". Metal Bat tells Garou to hurry up with the fight. Garou replies that he'll play for a little bit to see how long Metal Bat can keep up his fighting spirit.

Garou throws a manhole cover at Metal Bat, but Metal Bat hits it back with his bat. However, Garou already managed to reach Metal Bat by the time Metal Bat followed through. Garou is then tackled by Metal Bat and launched toward the flying manhole cover. Garou manages to catch the cover and quickly launches a barrage of attacks at Metal Bat. Metal Bat tries the take the offensive, but none of his attacks connect. Garou continues to mock Metal Bat, asking him if he's going to persist until he dies. Metal Bat retorts by saying he'll fight until he wins and proceeds to initiate a killing move. Fortunately, Garou manages to fairly easily repel the attack and launch a blow to Metal Bat's chest, leaving Metal Bat laying on the ground. Garou dismisses Metal Bat and Tanktop Master as hot-blooded idiots who lack counters to anti-human martial arts. Nonetheless, Garou notes that, despite being able to repel all of Metal Bat's attacks, his bones are shaking and if Metal Bat had hit him, it would have ended ugly. Abruptly, someone shouts, "Big Brother!".

Metal Bat is about to land a powerful blow on Garou, but stops because he hears his sister's voice. Garou then punches Metal Bat and comments that Metal Bat might have ended the fight if he did not stop the swing midway. Before the two could clash again, Zenko, Metal Bat's sister, jumps in the front of Metal Bat and says to Garou the fight is over because her brother promised to not fight in front of her. Though reluctant, Garou accepts and then leaves the fight to look for Watchdog-man.

While leaving, Garou is being watched over by unknown monsters. They discuss that Garou could be useful. After the monsters decide to enagge Garou in a conversation, one of them is attacked and nearly killed by Garou. Despite getting pissed of Garou's attack, both try to be friendly and invite him to the Monster Association. Garou turns them down and demands them to leave. The Mysterious Beings annoyed by Garou's attitude decided to leave and said to him, that they will contact him later again.

The following section contains Webcomic spoilers. You have been warned manga-only readers.

Monster Association Arc
Sometime later after beating 19 heroes, Garou hunts an A-Class hero named Death Gatling. The Hero Association has been monitoring him and the area is cleared. After blocking bullets from Death Gatling, Garou is blasted by Genos' laser attack. Genos and Garou proceed to battle with Garou dodging Genos' attacks. Then Garou is attacked from behind by his old master Bang and Bomb. The two of them beat Garou to within an inch of his life and Garou remembers why he decided to become a monster. Before he can continue the fight, Garou is rescued by four monsters from the Monster Association.

Abilities & Powers
Garou was Bang's best disciple, but was forced to leave the dojo after crippling the other students for life. Garou is able figure out his opponent's fighting styles by simply observing them.

Despite being kicked out by Bang, Garou started his own personal training and became incredibly powerful, equipped with a powerful range of abilities and physical attributes, Garou is stronger than many S-Class Heroes.

Garou is also able to fight Metal Bat, comparing him to an amateur fighter, who despite injury, is one of the few heroes capable of dealing with Dragon level Mysterious Beings alone.

Physical Abilities
Immense Strength: Garou's strength is superhuman and roughly on par with S Class rank Heroes. He has been shown to easily beat Tanktop Master, an S-Class hero in battle. He single-handedly defeated three of the higher Class-A heroes including Heavy Tank Fundoshi along with dozens of underground bandits with little difficulty.

Immense Speed & Reflexes: Garou also possesses amazing speed. He's able to quickly dodge the vast amount of bullets being fired at him from multiple directions by Golden Ball, as well as dodge extremely powerful and fast bat swings from Metal Bat.

Immense Durability: Garou also possesses inhuman durability. He's able to easily take multiple attacks from Tanktop Master.

Pain Resistance: Garou possesses an inhuman resistance to pain as seen in his battles with Tanktop Master and Golden Ball. He's able to still fight like nothing happened even after taking fatal injuries which would incapacitate or kill normal people. Garou is seen in many instances shrugging off serious injuries.

Enhanced Senses: Garou is able to effortlessly sense where the bullets of Golden Ball's Golden Breakout were going in the dark. He was also able to see the movements of the powerful Metal Bat attack; Savage Tornado. Garou was able to sense, that he was being watched by two monsters despite being engaged in a fight against Metal Bat.

Fast Evolution: Garou's main attribute. Garou is able to become physically stronger just by defeating enemies in combat and gathering combat experience. This ability is seen through the series, when Garou first appears at the Hero Headquarters commenting an S-Class would be too much for him at the moment, only later to become stronger than some S-Class Heroes such as Tanktop Master.
 * Transformation: Much later, after his fight with Superalloy Darkshine, Garou starts to show signs of transformation into a Mysterious Being due to his obsession with being Evil. The Transformation is not instant but instead divided into Phases, with Garou achieving such different stages due to this Adaptational power. The greater the stage, the more demonic Garou will look, with his power being augmented with each stage as he tries to overwhelm Saitama. Despite this, the Caped Baldy notes that Garou seemingly became weaker while diving deeper into his Transformation, in other words, while Garou was gaining much more strength and speed he was losing skill, something which was his forte. Saitama hints that Garou's Second Form is his strongest one. The Hero Hunter declares that he is the personification of evil, being an unfair being himself in order to oppose the Heroes.


 * Psychic Resistance: Upon transforming, Garou receives resistance to any psychic ability.


 * First Form: After being beaten to death once more, Garou uses his evolution to go much further. He also gains some appearance changes, though not much, they are very notable. Garou sports now a scarf around his neck and his hair is much more pointy than before, looking like a pair of horns, hinting at what he is becoming. His power is also enhanced, his speed now surpassing even Golden Sperm's which is a great feat considering that Sperm could surpass a weakened Tatsumaki.


 * Augmented Strength:


 * Augmented Speed & Reflexes:


 * Second Form: Quickly after his physical warfare against Golden Sperm, Garou evolves yet again due to his power and own obsession. His appearance changes drastically in this new form, his hair now absent giving place to sharp devil'ish horns with all of his skin being covered in this new look. Garou uses only his pants and shoes in this form, along with his scarf while his shirt is completely thorn. The difference between the previous form and this one is immense, with Garou's prowess ascending to new levels as he is now capable of besting all of the S-Class heroes. Garou is capable of using his fighting style along with this form's physical prowess, evidenced on how he absorbed all of his fighting styles into a single one called Monster Calamity God Slayer Fist.


 * Augmented Strength: He gained much more strength than before, surpassing even Superalloy's. Garou can punch away large boulders of rumble without much difficult, send someone like Genos and Pig God flying away with one hit each quite a distance and the simple shockwave of his punches can easily shatter the ground. Garou either is too fast or his punches are so strong that they don't need to physically connect to their target in order to damage them. He also lift a giant amount of rumble in order to throw it at Saitama with seemingly little effort. Garou was easily able to one shot Golden Sperm, one of the most powerful Mysterious Beings ever to date and other powerful Dragon-class monsters from the Monster Association with little to no effort. He was also able to easily defeat Tatsumaki in combat.


 * Augmented Speed & Reflexes: Garou has also shown that he can surpass Flashy Flash's speed, casually blocking all of the hero's attacks which only took 2000ths of a second to complete. He would later outspeed the Hero much easier, even earning a comment from him that Garou is too fast. In a much greater scale, Garou has dodged some of Saitama's normal attacks that possess quite some speed behind them, going as far as to even land some hits on the Hero. Unlike anyone else before, Garou managed to counter attack some of Saitama's moves almost instantly. During his fight with Caped Baldy, the Human Monster has shown more feats of speed such as appearing behind and an instant later in front of Saitama, moving so fast that the rumble around them didn't even move.


 * Augmented Durability: Most notably, Garou gains an immense boost in durability, while before he was quickly taken out by one hit of Saitama, he can endure much more now. Garou also seems to be capable of getting past Tatsumaki's, the strongest esper, abilities with little effort, surprising even her. Though moments before, he was physically restrained by the Esper and even struck by several hits of Sweet Mask, although to no effect. Garou was not fazed by being thrown into the air along with a lot of rumble by Saitama's Serious Table Flip. With this great durability, Garou has turned himself in the first enemy, since Boros, to not be defeated by a single punch, putting him on a whole new level. It should be noted he probaly took more hits than the Alien Lord. Garou showed the greatest feats against Saitama in the entire series. He was easily able to take multiple blows from Saitama and even block some of his punches. He also took two Serious Series attacks from Saitama and was still alive: Serious Headbutt & Serious Table Flip.


 * Third Form: During his battle with Saitama, Garou's desire to become evil increases even more after witnessing the unfairness that is the Hero's strength, thus he attains another transformation. His body becomes much more bulk, and his demonic features are much more noticeable, his head horns are now curvy while four other horns grow on his back. His scarf now is seemingly gone and his pants are gone as well or either covered by his monster skin. Garou's teeth become larger and his eyes now give place to a black void, making it look like that's his skull without much skin. With this ascension, the Hero Hunter seems to gain yet another boost in physical prowess, so much that Saitama commented that the wind had changed and something was coming. As noted by the Caped Baldy, this is where Garou started to gain more power but lose more skill. This form also gets a size upgrade after Saitama punches the Hunter, Garou's muscles grow exponentially as well as his horns, towering over the Caped Baldy.


 * Augmented Strength: In this form, Garou's increased powers blows up, making him belive he can defeat Saitama.


 * Augmented Durability: In this form, Garou becomes even more powerful, surviving a blow from Saitama with ease.


 * Augmented Speed & Reflexes:  Garou was able to come from the sky to the earth so fast, even Saitama couldn't see it.


 * Final Form: After receiving a Serious Hit from Saitama, Garou is still motivated and obsessed with evil, finally achieving the final stage of his Mysterious Being transformation. He looks even more demonic in this form, his muscles growing a lot to the point he is several times bigger than Saitama, towering the Hero even when standing in his four. His horns make sharp curves now while the horns on his back mutated into demonic large wings. Garou's face also has become quite demonic, leaving no distinguishable trait from his human form. His power has apparently achieved its maximum power, with Garou himself claiming he had become the perfect monster. According to Saitama, Garou has lost too much skill yet gained too much power, saying this is his weakest form.


 * Augmented Durability: Garou in his monstruous form easily takes Saitama's punches with no visible pain or effort, despite still getting his body parts blown aparts. He is also able to come back from space with no visible injury.


 * Augmented Speed & Reflexes: In this form, Garou's speed is unmatched, becoming one of the fastest characters to date including Lightspeed Flash and even being able to see the immeasurable fast punches from Saitama.


 * Extraordinary Regeneration: In his final form Garou was easily able to regenerate almost instantly his blown apart body parts in his battle against Saitama.

Fighting Styles
Genius Combatant: Garou is an extremely skilled fighter, who adapts to combat and uses the advantage of the opponent's weak spots to give himself the upper advantage in fights. He shows this ability against Tanktop Master, where he attacks his weak spots and quickly turns the table. He also shows this unique ability in his fight with Metal Bat, where he comments Metal Bats attacks are getting predictable and weird. After fighting his opponents, Garou gains access to their fighting styles and techniques, just by witnessing them once.
 * Tanktop Tackle (タンクトップタックル, Tankutoppu Takkuru): Copied from Tanktop Master. He charges at his opponent, bulling them over with folded forearms.

Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist (流水岩砕拳, Ryūsui Gansai-ken): A martial art Garou learned from his former master, Bang. It is composed of a series of super fast and powerful punches that are easily able to take out an S-Class Hero. Garou avoids using this style if possible because it reminds him of Bang. Charanko describes the martial art as "leading enemies around the nose by moving like a calm stream, only to finish them off with a punch strong enough to smash great rocks like a raging river", implying that the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist parallels real-life Tai Chi.

Monster Calamity God Slayer Fist : Garou's God Slayer Fist consists of techniques that he created after achieving his awakening through the absorption of the many fighting styles he had within his arsenal. He first demonstrates this style after entering the Second Stage of his Transformation.
 * God Slayer Ascending Attack : Garou delivers a powerful uppercut punch with either of his arms, so strong and fast that it nearly struck Saitama.
 * God Slayer Instant Attack : Garou throws a volley of quick punches from both hands. These punches were so fast that it encouraged Saitama to use Two Handed Normal Punch Combo.

Quotes

 * "Time to conduct evil. Let's make this a slaughter party!"


 * "The popular will win, the hated will lose, it's such a tragedy. Then I won't lose to anyone. I will become the strongest monster ever and change this scenario"


 * (To Tanktop Master) "Stay right here and watch as the monster Garou goes on to kill off all of your comrades."


 * (Referring to Saitama) "Like a caged insect being played with by a child. Could this guy be... playing with me... This guy is supposed to be a hero...?"


 * (Referring to Saitama) "This strength doesn't make any sense. It's not fair. It's like he's made up of the world's unfairness. As if he's the personification of justice...of course. Didn't I already know? This world is unfair. Justice and Evil are decided by others. That's how the world is. To oppose the unfair power known as justice, I have to obtain the unfair power known as evil. To defeat the unfair beings known as heroes...I HAVE TO BECOME AN UNFAIR BEING MYSELF!!"


 * "All of you...all of you...all of you!! The people! The world! None of you see anything. Anything! You act like heroes even though you can't save one child. You're all insane! Yet people rely on you madmen. They make the mistaken assumption that of course you'll save them. No matter what happens, someone will do something. It's not their problem if a monster appears. It's not as if most people's lives will change. And so, in a small part of their heart, it will have room to grow. Evil will be born. But still, the evil of people will never be judged. That's the difference between them and monsters. The phony peace that heroes create will dye people with evil. That's why I'm doing this. I will be the Count Devil that plunges humanity into terror!! In a world with no room for survival, evil will disappear. And so will bullying, and discrimination, even war! WHAT THIS WORLD NEEDS IS NOT BIASED JUSTICE! BUT UNBIASED ABSOLUTE EVIL! I'm fighting for world peace. No justice will be able to overthrow me. I will be stronger than anyone! I will be...AN ABSOLUTE MONSTER!"


 * (To Saitama) "If you weren't here, I would have become the world's absolute evil. Unbiased terror scattered throughout the world...that can estabilish real peace. Don't think that all children are waiting for heroes. There are even kids around the world waiting for a great monster to take the stage. Can you save them!? Can you follow the ugly kid being picked on in the park!? I can! I can save the whole world with terror! While humanity is fearing Garou the Monster, everyone's hearts will unite to survive. Is there any peace other than this!? Can you create peace? Can you unbiasedly save the world with that flimsy cape? Do you have the means to stop the unseen tragedies? You're strong but so what? You may defeat me, but can you handle it?! THE RESPONSIBILITY!!! WELL!? IF YOU'RE GOING TO DEFEAT ME, THEN ANSWER THE QUESTION! WHAT WILL YOU ACCOMPLISH? Why will you kill me now? Do you have a sense of duty like mine? WHY...ARE YOU...A HERO?!"

Trivia

 * Garou (餓狼, Garō) means "Hungry Wolf", which was seen during his participation in the tournament has him wore a wolf mask for disguising himself from public for some reasons.


 * It is stated by Saitama that Garou evolved only to become weaker. Instead of losing power though, as he had acquired quie a lot, Garou actually lost skill which was his main forte.


 * It is possible that the "worthy opponent" mentioned in the prophecy to Boros was actually Garou. In an interview where ONE is questioned about who would win in a fight between Boros and Garou, ONE says that Boros in a fight against Garou in his perfect form would be "one hell of a battle".