Friday, February 10, 2012

Guilty Crown half season review (cour 1)

So im going to try something new. In an attempt to save time during a busy school year i'll review shows in cours and see if it works. How this is going to go down is i will give an overview of the story in the summary section, without too much detail. the reactions part will be told as if i expect you to have seen the show.

Summary:
Japan is struck with a horrible virus in the near future and the population is devastated. Foreign aid has came and saved japan, but it has also taken over complete control of the government. The story focuses on a young meek indecisive boy named Shu. Shu is living the average boring life when he sees a young girl running from the antibodies, the foreign army that has taken over control in the name of protecting the country. They claim she is infected and must be exterminated and track her down. Shu stricken with fear does nothing to stop them. He regrets the decision and goes to save the girl, names Iori, and accidentally receives the void gene which lets him draw out the true nature of one's heart manifested in a physical form. The series looks as his journey into a resistance force that Iori is part of to take back control of japan. Shu at the beginning doesn't seem to trust the resistance force at all. There sly and cunning leader Gai seems perfect, even able to gain the affections of Iori and Ayase, another resistance member. However, when his own classmate and friend betrays him, as well as witnessing the antibodies atrocities first hand, combined with a glimpse of a very human Gai makes him decide to stay. However him main motivation is to protecting Iori at all cost.

Reaction:
Guilty crown is a pretty decent action show. its got enough mystery and entreage to keep you hooked between episodes. Its trying to feel like the spiritual successor to Code Geass. In particular Gai feels very reminiscent of Lelouch. Hes a manipulative bastard who always seems to have 5 plans waiting in case one fails. What i think make Gai's character stronger is the fact that he wasnt the one to gain the powers. Instead he relies entirely on Shu to fulfill his plans, and relying on Shu for anything is a baaad idea.
Shu is a wishy-washy kid who is way in over his head. He doesnt completely trust the resistance and if not for Iori would have abandoned them long ago. Most people have a huge problem with Shu being such a weakling for a main character, however that actually works for me. He feels like a normal person who is thrown into the chaos. Unlike Lelouch who jumps at the call or Light who can kill people on a whim, he feels more true and believable. We all have those moments where we want to be the hero and save the girl. to be the guy everyone relies on, but most of the time, we just cant, both physically and mentally. the rest of the cast is strong so having one weak character to bring in believably doesnt hurt the show.
Iori is the standard Rei clone. emotionless. Thats pretty much her entire stick. Unlike Kanade from angel beats, she doesnt really have the cuteness to carry the character so she ends up feeling pretty bland. theres stilll time for her to develop, but for now...
 The last character worth mentioning is Ayase. She is a wheelchair bound pilot which in a sense is her own method of being truly free to move. She resolves to do things on her own and refuses unnecessary help. She also has the biggest crush ever on Gai. At first, i though her character was just the token disabled character. There only to build sympathy. However she carries the Tsundere character well and turns out to be pretty interesting. Shes really laying on the flirting pretty hard on Shu, but i highly doubt shes going to end up with anyone other than Gai.
On the villans side we have very generic vaguely evil foreign forces trying to take over japan. Theres nothing really special about them but nothing really boring either. What does surprise me is the amount graphic oppression they show on screen. instead of a pile of dead bodies we are told were prisoners, we actually see a scared innocent man get shot in the head, right in front of us. That carries a certain power that i think a lot of shows dont use.
The story is paced very fast. I dont think a single episode was left without any action. The main complaint people have about guilty crown is the fact that everything seems to come out of nowhere. Random plot holes are created and filled without much explanation, and at times without much thought. I do agree this is probably the weakest point of guilty crown, but it goes back to the show trying to be more than it is. we saw that with code geass where they opened the world, but had no way to close the story without it turning into a huge tangled mess. Guilty crown on the other hand tries to cover all of them as soon as they can. The result is that it isnt all stuffed into the end creating a mess, but it also makes us go "are you serious" once or twice an episode.

Overall, guilty crown is enjoyable enough, and given the weak season we've had, id give it a watch (however given that this review is late and this current season is AWESOME, i dont know how much i would still recommend this show). Things look to be shaking up in a big way so we'll see what the second half has to offer.
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check this out

Hey guys, so my friend needs a bit of help. Hes started his own site and is making small comics or stories each day. Since hes taking the whole interwebs stuff much more seriously than i am with my random nitpicking of anime, check it out if you got a spare moment

http://www.365not2off.com/ Read more!