Garou/Relationships

Bang
His former teacher Bang taught Garou everything he knows about fighting. After Garou went on a rampage and attacked his fellow students, Bang kicked him out of his dojo. After he heard Garou started hero hunting, Bang recruited his brother, Bomb, and went out to stop Garou.

After being rescued by Phoenix Man from his battle with Bang and waking up in the Monster Association Headquarters, Garou was indifferent to whether or not his former master had survived the battle with Elder Centipede. However, when Phoenix Man announced that Elder Centipede was defeated and Bang survived, Garou was relieved.

Despite his resentment towards his former teacher, Garou respects Bang to an extent, recognizing him as a great martial artist in the world as well as noting that Demon-level Mysterious Beings like Bug God and Royal Ripper are nothing compared to the martial arts master. Furthermore, Garou has shown that he does harbor some form of sentiment towards his master: when Bang is nearly killed by Fuhrer Ugly, Garou remembers his masters words of listening to the voice inside his heart. This causes Garou's mind to reawaken and save his master, and once he regains consciousness, he looks at Bang defeated on the ground with a somber expression. Later on, when he's nearly defeated by Saitama, he sees a vision of "God" disguised as his master in the sky. When the mysterious entity offers him the power to defeat Saitama and reaches out its hand to him, Garou, realizing its fake facade, slaps its hand away, stating that Bang would not act like such a softie.

Garou does not respect Bang as a person, but he admires Bang's martial arts, even copying a combined technique of Bang and Bomb as his own. Despite the villainous acts he has committed, Bang ultimately still cares for Garou, making their relationship very one-sided. Garou recognizes Bang's lingering affection for him from how different his punches were when he was expelled. It is unknown what Garou now thinks of his former mentor after his defeat.

Saitama
Saitama is always on the lookout for Garou, expecting to have a fun and exciting battle. Garou, despite not recognizing him in their encounters, is outraged by Saitama's loose attitude with heroism. This is especially distinct in an interaction when Garou dine and dashed, expecting Saitama to attack him for being a monster.

Much later, after defeating Sage Centipede, Garou once again confronted Saitama. Like before he did not recognize the hero at all. But soon after falling an attempt to attack Saitama and taking a punch from him, Garou managed to recall the Caped Baldy, realizing he had run into him several times and lamenting on how he has forgotten a target that should be prioritized above all. This leads to Garou deciding to defeat Saitama, considering him the one getting in his way to become "Absolute Evil". Despite his efforts against Saitama, Garou was infuriated throughout their fight and shocked by the hero's immense power. As he is getting overpowered, Garou sees Saitama as the embodiment of unfairness and soon desires to overcome the hero no matter what.

However, in the "ominous future" timeline, Garou was defeated by Saitama and saw the error of his ways and how foolish he was. He had gained respect for the hero realizing that beings as powerful as they needed someone to hold on to and people to help them stay sane. He completely surrendered after Saitama defeated him. He also believed in and trusted Saitama enough to teach Saitama how to turn back time and go back so he could defeat Garou's past-self and stop the ominous future. Even as "God" was killing Garou and taking the power back, Garou showed no fear and had faith Saitama would set things right.

Garou displays hatred toward Saitama during their fight, seeing Saitama as the collective unfairness of the world. Adding to that, Saitama was a hero, representing everything that Garou hated and was fighting against. Saitama is responsible for defeating Garou both physically and mentally, realizing that Garou wanted to be a hero instead of a villain. Saitama shows mercy towards Garou, refusing to kill him and acknowledging his flaws.

Metal Bat
Garou encountered Metal Bat on his way to fight Watchdog Man. At first, Garou did not think highly of Metal Bat but later admitted that Metal Bat's attacks could be fatal for him if the hero landed a blow. Metal Bat fought Garou and believed that the Hero Hunter was some punk that interrupted his real hero work such as dealing with Elder Centipede. He was annoyed and angered by Garou for interrupting with his fight against Elder Centipede and was focused on putting him down.

The encounter left an impact on Garou, and may have lead to him having a respect for Metal Bat's resilience, as he referenced his fighting spirit when breaking free of Gyoro Gyoro's telekinetic paralysis.

They later team up against Sage Centipede with both of them often arguing. Garou and Metal Bat seem to have a rivalry relationship as they're both delinquents with a bad attitude and are shown trying to compete for strength between the two. Some of Garou's respect to Metal Bat's fighting spirit is seen when he speaks to himself "he hasn't changed" with a smirk.

Tanktop Master
Garou fought Tanktop Master as his first S-Class opponent. While the hero did manage to significantly wound him, Garou was able to defeat him fairly easily after deciding to utilize his techniques and skills in combat, and considered Tanktop Master lacking hand-to-hand martial arts skills, much like Metal Bat, only having brute strength.

Genos
While their initial encounter was short, the friction between the cyborg hero and the human monster became great as Garou internally voiced his assessment of his adversary. Said hero hunter became particularly incensed by the confidence and sense of disdain Genos showed towards him, especially after the latter called him insignificant in the eyes of the Hero Association.

During the climactic battle between the Hero Association and the Monster Association, Genos was stunned to see how much the Hero Hunter had changed in the midst of the conflict. Despite their animosity, the broken bionic man was the only S Ranked hero looking to respect his sensei's choice to spare Garou.

Watchdog Man
Like the other heroes, Garou attempted to hunt him. When meeting him thanks to Tarou's information, he was interrupted by 30 monsters from the Monster Association that attacked the hero. After observing the hero easily defeat those monsters in a cruel way. Garou admitted that the S-Class hero had immense speed, strength, and was uncertain who the real monster was. He then attacked Watchdog Man believing he could still win, but, due to Watchdog Man having a fighting style that was incompatible to Garou's own martial arts, he was beaten back and forced to retreat.

Despite his miserable defeat against Watchdog Man and admitting that he was too optimistic, Garou was pleased as he realised that he could still grow much stronger and claimed that he will get his revenge one day.

King
Garou considered King to be an extremely powerful opponent and sought him as one of his hero hunting activities.

After escaping Watchdog Man, he ran into King and Saitama. While injured and tired due to his fight with Watchdog Man, Garou still decided to fight King as he believed that he would never run into him like that again. He then charged at King and focused solely on him while predicting and readying to counter all of King's moves. This allowed Saitama, who was next to his prey, to kick him into a wall, as Garou never noticed the bald hero, and became knocked out. After waking up, because of his blurred memories, he believed that King was the one who beat him.

Superalloy Darkshine
Garou despised Superalloy Darkshine, mostly due to his cocky attitude and S-Class hero ranking. When Darkshine told him to "stop his monster play", Garou immediately pointed out the hypocrisy in the statement, explaining that Darkshine himself was only doing a "hero play" instead. Garou then used his hatred for Darkshine to power through his injuries and eventually incapacitate the S-Class hero. Despite this, when he attacked Darkshine with his Double Ear Strikes, he sees the look of horror on the hero's face and recalls when he and Tareo were bullied in a similar fashion, so he jumps away, demonstrating a small level of sympathy and decency towards the hero.

After being awakened, Darkshine confronts Garou, declaring he will put his life on the line to beat him. This disgusts Garou, believing that anyone can fight with the determination to be killed. Their battle incident would damage Darkshine's entire hero career, as Garou's observation secretly rang true in his mind and broke his spirit.

Psykos/Gyoro Gyoro
Although Gyoro Gyoro took great interest in Garou, wishing for him to become his next monstrous creation like Orochi, Garou himself was less than excited. Their ideas of what being a monster means clashed: Garou believed it involved striking fear into the hearts of many, while Gyoro Gyoro, and by extension, the entire Monster Association, believed it was just about killing heroes and causing chaos. He didn't want to play along with Gyoro Gyoro's plans at all.

Once Garou was attacked by Royal Ripper and Bug God, he furiously returned to the headquarters to get revenge on Gyoro Gyoro. He expressed his hatred of people like Gyoro Gyoro who think of themselves as high and mighty, and tried to kill him. However, Orochi intervened before Garou could attack.

Orochi
Garou sees Orochi as a symbol of Gyoro Gyoro's philosophy on monsters, something that Garou disagrees with. At first, Garou thought Orochi was a mindless beast but was surprised to learn of his intelligence. Orochi is what Garou could become if he joined forces with Gyoro Gyoro, and Garou fights back against him out of spite. Garou's defeat at the hands of Orochi greatly bothered him, as he wanted to go get a rematch against the Monster King as soon as he woke back up.

Royal Ripper
Garou hated Royal Ripper for his needlessly sadistic and brutal nature. His mindless sadism contrasted with Garou's more psychological ideas of what a monster should be. When Royal Ripper captured Tareo and was torturing him, Garou quickly and efficiently killed the monster with little thought.

Tareo
Tareo is a young boy Garou met during his hero hunt. Garou uses Tareo's Hero Association Catalog to help him in his fights. Garou sees himself in Tareo, having been bullied in his childhood as well, and inspires Tareo to become better. Garou is in turn inspired by Tareo when he said it's obvious to become strong so others won't mock or boss you around, reinforcing Garou's conviction to become stronger. Garou saves Tareo from Royal Ripper, and tries to pretend that he doesn't care about the child. In reality, Tareo is Garou's main connection to his humanity, and as long as he cares about Tareo he cannot truly become a monster. It is safe to assume Tareo is Garou's only true friend. Tareo is the only person to see Garou as a hero despite his actions.

It goes to the point where even the influence of God is removed when Garou realized his powers had killed Tareo. The one person he admitted to wanting to save while crying at what he had done to Tareo. Tareo's death being the catalyst to trust Saitama a technique to go back in time and save Tareo from his actions, in spite the fact of his death.

When Garou openly accepted death, and many of the remaining heroes were urging Saitama to kill Garou, Tareo was the only one who stepped up and defended him. He yelled at Garou to run away and save himself, and the young boy's words of support were enough to bring life back into Garou's eyes and give him a reason to remain alive, causing the teenager to retreat.

Zenko
Zenko interferes between Metal Bat and Garou's fight. Zenko demands Garou and Bat to not fight in front of her because Bat promised her not to show her violence. Garou is initially against her outburst but finally decides to accept her proclamation. Similar to Tareo, Garou seems to have a level of care for Zenko because she's a child.

He stops Sludge Jellyfish from attempting to kidnap Zenko. While his motivations in engaging the monster were because he was being observed and wanted to confront his observers, he only engages Sludge Jellyfish after he was about to kidnap Zenko. Further, despite how he was in a rush to find Watchdog Man, he stays behind to watch the monsters leave the area and away from the unconscious Metal Bat and Zenko.

Suiryu
While they have never met, Suiryu has wanted to fight Garou since his victory in the Super Fight tournament.

Suiryu finally met Garou when he was sent to track him as a Neo Hero. Garou, still soul-searching after his defeat, was unimpressed by Suiryu's martial arts and enthusiasm for battle. He called him an asshole for destroying the delivery truck he was helping unload. However, he left their confrontation peacefully.

Tacchan
Tacchan is the very reason behind Garou's miserable outlook on life. His old childhood bully can be considered the driving force behind the Human Monster's idealism and persona. In his own words, Garou describes him as an asshole. Given as he would use his popularity to get away with accosting less popular kids, even getting the faculty to denounce those Tacchan bullied even when he was the one at fault.

In Garou's eyes, well-liked people like Tacchan represent what's wrong with society. Hateful, cowardly individuals who hide behind social status and abuse it without reprimand. Worse still is that other people put them on such a high pedestal despite their despicable personalities, preferring them over other, lesser people who aren't considered praiseworthy.

The bullying led to Garou's philosophy where all heroes are in it for themselves and as long as the majority favors the hero, then justice is what they decide. Garou believes that, he has taken on the role of a monster to fight this biased justice. Ultimately, it has also led Garou to hold an image of an ideal hero of someone who can save everyone.

God
During his fight with Saitama, Garou unknowingly caused the dimensional seal that held "God" to weaken, allowing the latter to meet with him, with the mysterious entity having heard his wish to become "Absolute Evil". While "God" takes the form of Bang to offer Garou powers, Garou refuses as he sees through God's facade. Even so, due to Garou briefly touching the hand of "God", he ended up being influenced by the mysterious figure and gaining an immense amount of power from it. Despite Garou not wanting to be God's puppet, he does seemingly thank the entity for giving him the power to become "Absolute Evil".