Garou

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

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 views him as Mysterious Being and gave him the name "Human Monster". He is the titular antagonist of the Human Monster Saga.

Appearance
Garou is a young man with sharp features, yellow eyes, 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.

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 those who offend him. He thinks highly of himself and uses that assertion to threaten high ranking personnel such as heroes and Sitch. He will also attack low ranked heroes and Hero Association 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. The following section contains Webcomic spoilers. You have been warned manga-only readers. Garou hates the popular as he believes they always win in the end. As a child, he had no friends and everyone hated him: the popular, especially a boy named Tacchan, liked to pick on him and force him to play heroes where Tacchan beats him up as Justice Man while he is the monster; he saw how everyone liked Tacchan but hated him. After watching his life repeat over and over again on the Justice Man TV show, he grew a distaste of heroes in general and believed that in the end, the majority will always want him ("the monster") dead.

Garou wants to become a monster, as explored through his title the "Human Monster", but unlike common crooks or the monsters in the Monster Association (whom he views are no different from the heroes), he wants to change the world through absolute evil. He views justice as being biased and unfair, as it is simply people doing evil things to others they deem to be "evil" but instead get praised for doing them; whereas absolute evil is unbiased and fair, affecting everyone the same way. Instead of the hero who selectively loves and hates, but is loved no matter what, he wants to become the fairy tale–like monster that everyone fears so that they must unite to survive. Although Garou is a villain and considered evil by most, he possesses a high sense of morality: he fights heroes in a way without killing them, but he is okay with others killing heroes. He also has a soft spot for children as shown when he conversed with Busaiku in the park about heroes or when he refused to fight while Zenko is around. When Busaiku called him "Mister" after Garou told him not to, he did not get angry at the child. Later, he rescues and protects the kid from members of the Monster Association, even risking his own life to do so.

Garou also doesn't hurt innocent people, and values, to a degree, 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 and a prodigy, Saitama is a ordinary person with no technique.

Abilities and Powers
Garou was Bang's best disciple, but was forced to leave the dojo after crippling the other students for life. Garou is able to 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 A-Class and S-Class Heroes.

He was able to over power the entire Tank Topper Army including Tanktop Vegetarian the former 9th ranked in A-Class and Tanktop Master who is ranked 15 in S-Class and one of the physically strongest men in the world.

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. Though he later recognizes Metal Bat's power and is surprised that he can keep fighting with his injuries and admits that if he was hit by his bat even once he would lose.

Garou stated that if he were to fight Flashy Flash in his pre-monster form he would lose.

Garou possesses one of the strongest auras in the series incarnated as fear. This aura is able to make his opponents lose confidence in themselves and sometimes even make them pass out. However this aura seems to not affect opponents who have strong auras themselves such as Metal Bat and Saitama.

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 A-Class heroes including Heavy Tank Fundoshi along with dozens of underground bandits with little difficulty. He is later able to defeat even Superalloy Darkshine and Black Sperm's Golden Sperm in only a few hits.

Immense Speed and 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. His speed eventually becomes fast enough to rival casual Saitama.

Immense Durability: Garou also possesses inhuman durability. He's able to easily take multiple attacks from Tanktop Master without getting a major injury. Later on, Garou's durability becomes strong enough to not receive almost any damage from Saitama's normal punches.

Immense Endurance and Stamina: 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 can continue on fighting opponent after opponent even taking on members from both the Monster Association and the Hero Association on the same night. Even after being beaten to submission by Saitama, he was still able to escape from them at high speeds without exhausting himself much, although it should be noted that Garou's stamina is not on the same level as Saitama's.

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. His incredible senses allow him to remain competitive in a fight against opponents who are superior to him, such as when he fought Metal Bat and Superalloy Darkshine.

Advanced Growth Rate: Garou's main attribute. Garou is able to become physically stronger with each battle, regardless of whether he won or lost, gathering combat experience and gaining stronger physical characteristics. This ability is seen through the series, when Garou first appears at the Hero Headquarters, commenting that 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.

Awakened Garou
Much later, during and after his fight with Superalloy Darkshine, Garou starts to show signs of transformation into a Mysterious Being due to his obsession with being evil. Black Sperm calls this "Awakened Garou". His Limiter starts to break, similar to Saitama, and he notes how he feels like his "spirit" is released from his body. The transformation is not instant but is instead divided into stages. With each stage Garou becomes more demonic and his power is augmented. Once fully transformed, ONE says Garou basically became the "perfect monster". However, his transformations were short-lived, as Garou reverted to normal after he accepted his defeat to Saitama.


 * Psychic Resistance: Upon transforming, Garou receives resistance to psychic abilities. He was shown to be able to easily adapt to and overcome Tatsumaki's Psychic Binding very quickly, albeit her brain was already heavily injured at the time.


 * First Form: After being beaten to death by members of the Monster Association, Garou's evolution initiated. He gains some notable appearance changes. Garou now sports 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.


 * Augmented Strength: Garou in this state was able to defeat Puri-Puri-Prisoner and Royal Ripper with one punch each. At this stage of his evolution, Garou could even do some damage to Superalloy Darkshine.


 * Augmented Speed and Reflexes: Garou was able to move faster than the rate at which Overgrown Rover could fire its beams. He was faster than even Golden Sperm.


 * Augmented Durability: In this form, Garou's durability was so great that he was able to take on the artificially increased gravity attacks from Psykos with no damage.


 * 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 devilish 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 many 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 able to attain victory over Golden Sperm, one of the most powerful Mysterious Beings ever to date and other powerful Dragon-level monsters from the Monster Association with little to no effort. He was also able to easily defeat a weakened Tatsumaki in combat and one-shot Atomic Samurai with his Monster Calamity God Slayer Fist while breaking his sword with two fingers. He was also able to send Flashy Flash flying with a single kick. However, he was still unsuccessful in harming Saitama.


 * Augmented Speed and Reflexes: Garou has also shown that he can surpass Flashy Flash's speed, casually blocking all of the hero's attacks which took less than 1 centisecond to complete. Even after the hero increased his speed, Garou commented that chasing him down would be no problem and would later prove it, 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 rubble 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 a weakened Tatsumaki's abilities, surprising even her. While he was temporarily restrained by the esper, he endured a multitude of hits from Sweet Mask, although to no effect. Garou was not fazed when thrown into the air by Saitama's Serious Table Flip. With this great durability, Garou has turned himself to the first enemy, since Boros, to not be defeated by a single punch, putting him on a whole new level. On top of that, he took far more hits than Boros without sustaining too much injury. 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 a Serious Series attack from Saitama and was still alive.


 * Third Form: During his battle with Saitama, Garou's desire to become evil incarnate increases even more after witnessing the unfairness that is the Saitama's strength, thus he attains another transformation. His body becomes much more bulky, 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. Garou's teeth become larger and his eyes now give place to a black void. With this ascension, Garou seems to gain yet another boost in physical prowess, so much that Saitama commented that the wind had changed and something was coming. This form also gets a size upgrade after Saitama punches the Human Monster, Garou's muscles grow exponentially as well as his horns, towering over the Caped Baldy.


 * Augmented Strength: In this form, Garou's power skyrockets. His punches were so strong that each of them shook the ground in his confrontation with Saitama.


 * Augmented Durability: Garou, in his monstrous form, easily took on Saitama's punches with little to no visible pain or effort, despite still getting his body parts blown apart by Saitama's Serious Headbutt.


 * Augmented Speed and Reflexes: In this form, Garou was able to rush Saitama much like how Boros did when Boros first entered Meteoric Burst.


 * Final Form: After receiving a Serious Headbutt from Saitama, Garou finally achieves 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 larger than Saitama, towering the hero even when standing on all fours. His horns make sharp curves now while the horns on his back mutated into large wings. Garou's face also has become quite demonic, leaving no distinguishable traits from his human form. It is implied that this form increases Garou's power but the battle was skipped after he transformed. Unlike the other transformations, this one started crumbling after Garou's defeat and Garou started losing power.
 * Extraordinary Regeneration: When entering his final form, Garou regenerated the damage he sustained from Saitama's Serious Headbutt.


 * Augmented Strength: In this form, Garou gained a more frightening and muscular look. However, he was still unable to even scratch Saitama in this form.


 * Augmented Speed and Reflexes: In this form, Garou was now on par with Saitama's usual speed.

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. His learning ability (超学習能力, Chō Gakushū Nōryoku) allows him to learn countermeasures for other people's fighting spirit, while making their fighting styles his own. 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 Bat's attacks are getting predictable and weird. While fighting his opponents, Garou gains access to their fighting styles and techniques, just by witnessing them once. He also commented he eventually got used to telekinetic attacks and mind control abilities.


 * 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. He used this against Flashy Flash.


 * Tanktop Blow (タンクトップブロー, Tankutoppu Burō): Copied from Tanktop Master. Garou unbalances and distracts his opponent by striking the ground with tremendous force after spinning to build up momentum. He used this against Flashy Flash.

Military Martial Arts (我流武術, Garyū Bujutsu): Based on Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, this fighting style evolves freely during combat.

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. Furthermore, if in a crisis, the martial art has his body moves on its own.

Secret Combination: Cross Fang Dragon Slayer Fist (連携奧義 交牙竜殺拳, Renkei Ōgi: Kyōga Ryūsatsu-ken): A combination of the martial arts of Bang and Bomb. This technique is usually only achievable by having two users, but Garou managed to reach a degree of mastery that allowed him to use combination without needing a second person.

Monster Calamity God Slayer Fist (怪害神殺拳, Kaigai Shinsatsu-ken): 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 (神殺昇撃, Shinsatsu Shōgeki): Garou delivers a powerful uppercut punch with either of his arms, so strong and fast that it nearly struck Saitama.
 * God Slayer Instant Attack (神殺瞬撃, Shinsatsu Shungeki): Garou throws a volley of quick punches from both hands. These punches were so fast that it encouraged Saitama to use Two-Handed Consecutive Normal Punches instead of just Consecutive Normal Punches.

Quotes

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


 * (To Superalloy Darkshine) " ' Monster Play ' Did you just say that? Then aren't you ' playing hero ' as well? Huh? It stinks... It reeks of hypocrisy, it makes me wanna puke. So what you're doing now is also part of conducting ' conducting justice and punishing evildoers ' ? As long as you're doing ' the right thing ' you gain immense power, is that so? That is powerful indeed. Humans conducting violence with no regret or guilt, they can beat anyone. If needed, just throw all that kindness overboard. You heroes are shit. Supported by the called mass society, I'm not going to lose to that. That's why I have to fight. Betting my life on it, in order to crush this justice. You cannot end this monster play!"


 * (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!!"


 * "This is what I feared most. Expelled by the power of justice without even a say. But I won't let it."


 * "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 establish 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 unbiased 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 is ranked 14th in the character popularity poll.
 * Garou (餓狼, Garō) means "Hungry Wolf". During his participation in the Martial Arts Tournament, he disguised himself with a wolf mask.
 * In French, loup-garou means "Werewolf".
 * 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". However, ONE believes that Garou is stronger in close combat.
 * Garou is the second monster not killed by Saitama in combat (the first being Kombu Infinity), although the latter does not see Garou as a monster.
 * Garou is the third monster to survive a punch from Saitama (after Lord Boros and Evil Natural Water).
 * Garou is by far the most durable opponent of Saitama, surviving 7 on-screen direct hits from Saitama's normal punches (the battle against Saitama in his final form was not shown, so the actual amount is unknown), a direct hit from Saitama's Consecutive Normal Punches with only a broken horn as a result, an exchange with Saitama's Two-Handed Consecutive Normal Punches, a fall from Saitama's Serious Table Flip, numerous body slams (from the start of their battle and when Saitama was trying to shake him off his arm), and a Serious Headbutt.
 * Surprisingly, at the end of their battle, he remained relatively unharmed and was still capable of fighting. He only stopped because of broken morale, rather than succumbing to damage.
 * Garou is the first monster to block, dodge, and counter Saitama's punches and kicks.
 * He also escaped from Saitama's grip twice (once when Saitama tried to catch him so that they can fight and once more during their battle when Saitama caught his fist as he tried to punch him).
 * Garou is so far the only character that had Saitama actively participate in battle. In other fights, such as against Carnage Kabuto, Lord Boros, and Tatsumaki, Saitama was simply receiving hits and rarely hitting back. Even if he was, it usually resulted in either total obliteration, like in the cases of Carnage Kabuto or Boros, or just simple defeat of the enemy.
 * He is the first monster that had Saitama use something other than a punch.

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