Guilty Crown’s return after a several week grace period from its horrid story is one which escalates the series, or rather, tunnels it into the questionable depths of siscon whilst all else remains incomprehensible.
The series previously left off with an explosive outbreak overtaking the city – little did we realize at the time this was in fact intended to foreshadow the demise of the plot in a fashion all so similar, imploding upon itself as it expands with air, a seemingly impulsive story which just progressively grows worse as it continues along, completely lacking of significant substance or reason for being. One could watch this entire episode intently and have it finish without catching any sort of serious development at all – feeling as if an empty 20 minutes have just went by.
These wispy 20 minutes do nothing more than show us a succession of obscure flashbacks which fail to do much but expose to us that the series’ pink haired heroine who is currently in captivity, Inori, is an artificial being formed from our cowardly main character’s expired elder sister. Shu stared at Gai whilst the two wasted time conversing as Inori was being kidnapped, as seen last episode, until Shu suddenly recalls Gai to be someone from his past – a fellow he formerly found close enough to call his “best friend”.
After realizing that Inori’s abductor is getting tired of waiting for the main character to finish his chat, Shu is then reminded by Gai to go save Inori – thus finally allowing Inori’s kidnapper to make a suspenseful escape.
As he does so, Shu tagged along somehow – entering an arcane nether-realm immersed in red where Inori is going to be “proposed to” for marriage and turned into her original identity, Shu’s sister. Yet Shu’s not accepting of this – making an attempt to battle back, only to be defeated like the weak and incompetent main character he is, though he need worry not as Gai arrives gallantly to the rescue, almost as if he was never in pain at all only a few minutes ago from being blasted at point blank range with magical laser weaponry.
Thus a generic fight goes on while Shu idles idiotically in the center of it all – trying to remember his past as it has abruptly become critical to the story according to Gai. Conveniently, Shu then begins to remember it all – the aforementioned facts of Gai having been his “best friend”, as well as how they met. However that is merely fodder for the second item of dire importance he comes to recall, an incident in which his older sister’s scheme of having intercourse with him fails – ultimately resulting in the tragic event known as Lost Christmas.
Now having recalled his childhood, action breaks out as Shu strives to save Inori – however, seemingly killing Gai in the process, as per Gai’s own will, as Gai wished to die in such an overly dramatic manner for no clear reason, leaving the episode to conclude with Shu and a rescued Inori crying at the loss of their blonde haired friend.
While it is expanding, Guilty Crown’s plot is being filled with nothing more than air – it’s like a balloon on the verge of bursting from being filled with so much of nothing. A total of 12 episodes in at this point and what has one come to learn or see accomplished within this series?
Shu has a sadist sister who wanted an incestual relationship with him, failed, and brought about a destructive viral infection – and then, the one who Shu devotedly looked up to as he had no dreams or aspirations of his own has died, now effectively leaving him an individual without any personal motivation or determination, save for ensuring the well-being of this artificial organism crafted from his now deceased sister.
The plot is a complete mess – yet at least this episode set the stage for fresh opportunity, allowing the series to go whatever direction it wants from now on without worrying about Gai’s, or rescuing Inori’s.
Jan 12, 2012 @ 15:42 CDT
Shu x Mana . . . . lol
INB4 x years later, Shu is a badass.
Jan 12, 2012 @ 15:57 CDT
Just to throw it out there, I say this halfway point was intentionally rushed so as to give a clean slate to Guilty Crown’s second half. I mean, really, cut-and-paste job fits this episode all but perfectly.
Honestly and truly however, I was looking forward to seeing what was going on with Shu’s sister, whose name we now know was Mana. What a sorry treatment she received though.
And it’s not even that she was a brocon (or if the “rock that started it all” somehow twisted her original happy-go-lucky personality into becoming such?). I’ve seen this so-called forbidden relationship play out so many times now, I honestly don’t give a damn anymore. They gave us NOTHING about Mana except as a convenient plot device to close this first half of Guilty Crown up.
And so, if this is all you’re giving us of Mana, Production IG, suck and fail is the least of what you’re guilty of.
And someone tell me why Shu is so obviously so much more awesome as a kid than as the whiny little brat we’ve come to know? Is this some transparent attempt to try and piss us off by throwing this in our faces? ‘Cause if it, congratulations.
And what the hell was going on with that whole marriage thing? Okay, I get that Mana (or Dark Mana… whatever), was with the whole brocon incestual marriage in order to reach some completely obscure evolution of humanity thing… or, you know, maybe she just really wanted to get it on with her brother, but what was the point of the old dude, one whose name I didn’t bother to remember, doing all that?
If, and this part I think I actually do understand, he was trying to use the concept of marriage as a catalyst to bring back Mana’s soul into Inori since she was really hung up on it, then doesn’t it make more sense to cultivate the relationship between Shu and Inori and use him as the puppet that he is to do that? If the objective here was simply to bring about a second Lost Christmas, then doesn’t that seem more logical?
-Facepalm-
Ah, screw it. This is starting to make my head hurt. Someone call me if Mana shows up with an actual role to play.
Jan 12, 2012 @ 16:10 CDT
Nicely said, this new trend of incest relationships is becoming a spontaneous fail. The mere hint of their presence is starting to immediately diminish my views on an anime, although Guilty Crown’s already rather low on the ranking to begin with.
And on another note, not merely this, but these last 12 episodes have been so bloated with meaningless drivel which served no purpose or relevance to any sort of central story, I’m feeling further inclined to regurgitate than continue watching this series – although incidentally, even if I were to chose the latter, it would induce the former.
Jan 12, 2012 @ 16:43 CDT
As I mentioned before, I don’t care if Mana, all cliche plot twists aside, honestly wanted a passionate incestual relationship with her brother. My only real problem here is that he was still a child at the time. Seriously, not cool.
That aside, all I ask is that if you’re going to do it, just don’t suck at it. Don’t just throw it in as some random plot twist to have slack-jawed otaku going “Whoa…” and hope to make your anime just a little bit more interesting. Either do it right or don’t do it at all.
Now you and I may well have differences on the concept itself and our toleration of it, and that’s fine. As a side note, I just want people to understand the original reason why incestual relationships between brother and sister are considered a taboo, and it’s not because of any religious reasons, either. At their core, humans are programmed to procreate and continue the survival of their species – and it’s a documented, scientific fact that children born between close family are by far more likely to have genetic defects than those who are not. It comes into direct contradiction with our very nature, and that’s it. Anything else is just icing on the cake.
As a conceptual character though, I really like Mana. Not only is she, IMHO, far easier on the eyes than Inori, but she has an actual twist to her personality that makes her leaps and bounds more interesting to watch. That is why I, yet again, will hold out that last bit of optimism and hope that she shows up again. I feel that she will be the final saving grace that can give Guilty Crown some redeeming sense of accomplishment.
Jan 12, 2012 @ 16:53 CDT
Oh look, a bunch of True Selfs with incest on top. This clusterfuck just got more retarded, and in short, giving a single episode reflection of Gai and killing him off at the same time? Rushed big time. Herp derp, and some shit I’m not paying attention now.=, just lulzing the heart-break and action.
Jan 21, 2012 @ 13:03 CDT
Look i honestly like Guilty Crown so Imma bout to just state my damn theories about what the hell is going on using a contrast of FFVII… First off as stated in the episode the now “adult” Shu and Gai have for all intensive puposes switched roles or Personas or whatever like a Zack Fair Cloud Strife {FFVII Continuum} type of thing from what i can tell in this episode and the next Shu is mos def gonna gain a solid confidence [at least i hope] like cloud who was emo for the whole first half of advent children… So give the story a break damn…
any who the episodes play out well each has its own purpose it just makes you think… but the whole guilty crown storyline in and of itself is followable and ok [I cant say its the best thing in the world]but its pretty good