Hello again guys , welcome back to Animeindia.in . Do you remember the first anime you’ve watched ? The first waifu you’ve wanted and the first time you felt this pleasure of diving into an unknown universe ? Well I certainly do . Guity crown is one the first anime I watched and that’s the topic this time , so put out your voids and lets go.
It follows the ‘silence before the storm’ vibe throughout the story . Feels like something is about to happen , whenever they have a moment , especially a happy one .
Story/Plot
Guilty Crown’s setting begins in 2029 when an unidentified “Apocalypse Virus” spreads and plunges Japan into a state of emergency in a chaos known as the “Lost Christmas”. An international organization known as the GHQ intervenes with martial law and restores order to Japan at the cost of its independence.
Great storyline , with a present , past and future . Often shows the characters learning from past mistakes and applying it in the future , making it relatable .
Breaking their shell
The lead characters , Ouma Shu and Tsutsugami Gai were always kept complementary , rather opposite to each other’s personality . Gai broke free his shell , at the past (when they were children) , 2ITU the help of Shu . Shu broke free in the present and continued to the future .
They made a point showing the affect of decesions the characters take , examples being; when Shu’s father dies cause he trusted Shuichiro ;how Gai becomes the “villain” and Shu the “hero” at the end .
The episode when Shu takes responsibility for his past actions and takes up the ‘void genome’ a second time is a turning point for the character’s personality . Its also a good biud up for him , becoming the “kind hero” by the end.
Yuzuriha Inori
Initially shown as a vessel for Mana, controlled by her will . However , by the end she develops her own personality and defies Mana’s will. The whole journey of her ,finding herself is quite engaging . It is to be noted that she dies in the end , so they didn’t go overboard with a ‘happy ending’ but gave a pretty expected ending . To show how Shu was happy just from Inori’s memories was a great job .
Comedy
The short comedic instances were pretty good . Comedic timing was great , like when Shu was figuring out the void power and accidentally ‘touched’ Kanon; and Shu’s training by Ayase at funeral parlour.
Equality
One of the great things about the show is that they show that males and females can fight equally , there were no instances of patriarchal ‘male protecting female’ philosophy . Even Inori came out scary when she fought Gai.
Strong Back story
The anime starts from the present , a point in Shu’s life ,however , it is supported by a strong back story from the past, with Mana, Triton(Gai) and the lost Christmas . It engages the viewers to ‘connect the dots’ for the ‘unexplained’ events that happen in the present .
Playlist :- Egoist playlist is almost liked by everyone who has watched the anime , especially the song ‘Euterpe’ from 1st episode and the battle song ‘Bios’, they also set the mood for rest of the anime . Another great thing was that they used music as a part of the anime and story line , about how Inori’s song could heal and Mana’s song could manke you sick, as evident from the episode resonance where they played Mana’s song and Inori came singing later.
Animation was pretty good , even though it didn’t have much high resolution (like AOT ), still decent. Did a good job ,showing the ‘light’ of the ‘king’ , and the emissions of void material from all the voids , we know when we see a void .
Emotions
They portrayed emotions quite well , some top examples being ; Death of Yahiro’s brother ; Hare’s death ; Mana, when Shu pushed(rejected) her back , causing lost Christmas ; Inori’s bloodlust (under Mana’s will).
Relationships
Complsex relationships made a great story , especially the ‘love triangle’ between Mana, Shu and Inori ;the relation between Gai and Mana ; The development of bond between Shu and Ayase; the friendship between Shu and Souta, including betrayal and forgiveness ; relation between Shu and Yahiro ;and finally the meeting of Tsugumi and Daryl.
They also did a great job , basing most of the terminology with respect to DNA and things involved in DNA replication , like genome , antibodies , even telling us that voids are formed from energy trapped in genome , based on the fact that breaking of DNA release energy . Makes it more appealing to science geeks .
Popularity
Didn’t grow ‘most famous’ but definitely has a fan base , keeping in mind its an anime from 2011 , did good enough .
Some Criticisms
The character of Aries Kuhouin was a bit off . Little too shady and easy for a high school girl . Gai didn’t have to do much , to make her fall in love so madly , that she slept with someone , shot her own father. ,just for his sake . They could have shown 2-3 more scenes of them together to set up the base of their relationship.
Another thing that they didn’t address was how DAAT gained so many followers . They didn’t mention the motivation factor of so many people giving their lives , only mentioned ‘just for evolution’ , which was a little vague . They could have shown little instances of recruiting members , where they brainwashed people with the concept of evolution .
The character of Daryl Yah didn’t seem to have a specific personality , sometimes felt like a ‘crazy , disgusting human being’ however at other times felt like ‘a child playing with toys and not understanding how he was wrong’.
The scene where Gai cut Shu’s hand , it seemed like the only indicator that Shu is in pain , were the screams , could have done a little more job on the hand .
They never explained as to why Inori or Mana’s void is a sword despite of addressing the question in the show. An answer would be manas personality and Inori was a vessel , but they didn’t address it much.
Doesn’t show what happens when Mana discovered the comet , how she got her powers. It would have been better if they showed some interaction between the material from comet and Mana.
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Great work. Keep it up