Despite being produced by the respected Noitamina and Production I.G., Guilty Crown has garnered a lot of criticism from fans, especially amongst bloggers. By the first episode, people were already deriding it as too full of cliches and having an annoying protagonist, many dropping it before the episodes even hit the double digits. But while everyone around me was hating on it, I continued to enjoy it (seriously not mockingly). Throughout its 22 episodes, I tried to see what’s so despicable about it and couldn’t find anything that was that bad. Do I think it’s a great anime? No…but do I think it’s a good, or at least a decent anime? I’d like to argue so…
There are two things in Guilty Crown that elicit the most hate from fans: 1) its main protagonist Shu, and to an extent, love-interest Inori, and 2) having a convoluted story with too many cliches.
I feel like people’s issue with Shu goes back to what I said in my post about weak-willed male protagonists. A lot of fans have this expectation that anime protagonists, especially male ones, should be tough, assertive, and develop confidence in themselves. The “tragic” ones who are never able to man-up and who remain unsure of themselves rarely get anything but bashing. Though he went through different emotional stages throughout the series due to events around him, Shu remained consistent in his personality of lacking confidence and being emotionally immature…but is that a reason to despise him so? Like I’ve said about Shinji and other weak-willed male protagonists before, is it so hateful for a 17-year old kid with a screwed up past who’s suddenly thrust into dangerous and emotionally-scarring situations, to not take it with confidence and acceptance? Of course its nice to have a gutsy, heroic protagonist to admire. But it can also be refreshing to have a more realistically portrayed one who’s scared and inept.
I did mention in the other post that I’m not trying to say that all weak-willed male protagonists are good characters. They can be just as bad as any other character when not given good characterization. So what can we say about Shu in terms of this? I’d say he went through some interesting developments: He started off as a shy, socially awkward kid (no doubt due to having an uncertain past he can’t remember and not much in the family-love department). When he became involved with the Undertakers, he was conflicted between his distrust of Gai and his methods, his feelings for Inori, and the dangerous events around him, which understandably made him indecisive and quick to change his emotions. Being betrayed by his friend Yahiro, further conflicted after meeting Segai, learning that Inori would rather be with Gai than him, witnessing Gai (supposedly) die, having to murder Yahiro’s brother, and all the students of Tennouzu suddenly making him the new president, didn’t help his emotional state either. Like with Shinji from Evangelion, you have this kid who went from being quiet and introverted to suddenly being thrust in a world of danger and death with big burdens on his shoulders and people around him eliciting distrust left and right – it’s no wonder Shinji decided to quite being an Eva pilot at one point and Shu could never fully accept the Undertakers. Shu’s breaking point came when Hare died – that totally traumatized him as he then became an insensitive, cold tyrant towards the students of Tennouzu. But we see during his alone-time with Inori that it’s just a facade and deep down he’s still the same emotionally-scarred boy from before who believes he’s doing what’s right. Finally, when the world is crumbling and Inori has been captured, he pulls himself together, makes amends with his classmates, and confronts Yuu and Gai. In the end, also like Shinji who rejected the world where all beings are one, Shu rejected bringing about a new human race. After losing his loved one and sacrificing himself, he saved the world (though lucky for him he survived)…looking at all this, I think Shu had good characterization and how he acted made sense considering who he is and the situations he was placed in.
To a lesser extent than Shu, people also have problems with Inori. I’ll admit she wasn’t very likable in the early episodes, being stoic and manipulative with Shu because of her relationship with Gai. But after she voluntarily decided to rescue him and Shu then rescued her, I could see she was really falling for him. But it wasn’t until the Tennouzu episodes where we see how extremely loyal to him she’s become, sadly watching him from the sidelines as he becomes more and more of an emotional wreck. Her confession of why she loves Shu in episode 21 was very touching in my opinion and concluded her character development well. I dunno, maybe you think I’m a wimp like Shu for being moved by that scene.
And lastly, the other big issue people have with Guilty Crown is that its convoluted story is too full of cliches. First of all, I’m a firm believer that anime is a medium that thrives on cliches. All anime have cliches, so I feel that an anime shouldn’t be judged because it has cliches – it should be judge by how well it uses those cliches to do something interesting. Should Guilty Crown be called out because it has mecha? Because it revolves around a mysterious virus and shady organizations? Because it follows the setup of “ordinary high school boy meets weird girl and gets caught in a world-changing situation”? But so many great anime also utilize these same cliches, so it wouldn’t due to judge the series solely by that. So is there something wrong with the story? It does seem kind of all over the place in the beginning, but once everything is explained about Mana, Triton/Gai, Shu’s father, Daath, etc., in episodes 12 and 20, I think it all came together pretty well and was an interesting backstory. Like any anime with a complex plot, you can of course poke holes in it, but again, I don’t think it’s that bad. And I actually liked the premise of the Voids. I looked forward to seeing what each character’s Void is and how Shu would use it.
To conclude, I haven’t become a Guilty Crown fan or anything, and again, I don’t think that it’s a great anime nor that Shu and Inori are great characters. There were certainly things about the show I didn’t like and I found some problems with the plot. But in terms of the issues people seem to have with it, I just wanted to address why I don’t have the same issues. I watched the series without a cynical mind and enjoyed it. I feel its a decent anime and deserving of at least one person saying good things about it (other than complimenting its animation quality).
I agree with you to a large extent. Guilty Crown was criminally underrated, at least to me, but I can still identify a massive amount of flaws with it. The show received a large amount of bashing on sites like MAL, some of it justified, some of it not. I never quite understood the people who screamed that it was an abomination to anime, as it has a lot of obvious entertainment value for all its flaws.
Shu’s character I actually loved at first, unlike apparently everybody else. Having a main character who starts off weak and subdued and will grow over the series is a good character if you ask me, take Simon from Gurren Lagann for example. Shu never quite got to where I wanted him to go as a character, but he was decent as far as protaganists go. What baffled me was how Shu was crucified by the fans for being a wimpy protaganist, yet I heard barely a peep about Yukiteru from Mirai Nikki…
What frustrated me so much about Guilty Crown was that it had all the ingredients of a modern classic. Top-notch production values, talented writers, and a good starting point for a story all made it look like it could be the next Code Geass. What damaged it was that the writing consistently let down its potential. Character development was grossly uneven all across the board, numerous plot points are poorly explained if at all, and the show never achieves the kind of quality it was obviously reaching for. I feel that if GC didn’t have the same kind of talent behind it and wasn’t so ambitious that the reaction would have been a lot more positive.
All that aside, I still enjoyed watching it. All the eye-candy and gorgeous music helped tremendously and it still has some of the most intense action scenes in recent memory. I sincerely hope there is a second season and the writers attempt to address the flaws present in the first series.
I agree with you about Shu. He’s not a particularly likable character, but I personally felt like I could follow the emotional changes he went through. I think Yukiteru is on the same level as Shu as far as likability, and maybe even below him in terms of characterization, so I don’t know why we don’t hear as much passionate hatred for him.
Yeah, lack of character development for a lot of the show’s many side characters was one problem I had with Guilty Crown. Ayase and Tsugumi in particular I wanted to get to know more. But even people who weren’t totally negative about the series did have issues with the writing…maybe that’s something that would affect me more if I watched the series marathon-style instead of weekly.
It did look to be the next Code Geass at first…but unfortunately not. Even though I didn’t think it was that bad it’s far from the greatness of Code Geass.
About the last point, I think you are confusing clichés with tropes.
Tropes are the basic storytelling elements that every media uses.
Clichés are, by definition, OVERused tropes, annoying, noticeable errors in storytelling, when you can tell what happens next, so it fails at it’s main purpose of being interesting.
“Mecha” is a trope. “Shady organization” is a trope. When incest happens, and you already see the “Not Blood Related” revelation coming episodes earlier, that’s a cliché.
The goal is not true realism, just a kind of verisimilitude. No stories can be truly original, but only the bad ones let us notice how unoriginal they are.
Oh, by the way, I agree that it was overhated. Even if the plot was bad, there was some great music, cinematography, etc.
Also, it was getting nitpicked for things that would elsewhere be accepted as normal tropes, after everyone was getting into the mood of finding faults in it.
It reminded me of the time a few years ago when everyone realized what a cliché James Cameron’s Avatar was, and then it got picked apart for every basic sci-fi trope it used, starting with aliens looking too much like humans.
Yeah, I guess I thought the two were more or less the same but apparently I’m wrong. Thanks for clearing that up…I learn something everyday XD
I discovered long ago, and have even written posts about, the fact that there’s no such thing as true originality. You’re right that the best works are the ones that hide this fact while the worst ones make their unoriginality obvious. This could apply to Guilty Crown, but I think it’s more of what you said about how hating on it became the “hip” thing to do while other series with just as many flaws didn’t get as much hatred. I think a lot had to do with the fact that the show was very hyped and had high production values, so fans’ expectations of it were higher than the average anime. So obviously they were very disappointed that it wasn’t the masterpiece they were expecting so they were much more inclined to bash it.
I feel like you may be setting up strawmen to attack about why people don’t like Guilty Crown. At least this isn’t why I thought Guilty Crown was awful. (also, please don’t feel insulted when reading this, I tend to use… colorful… language when talking about Guilty Crown)
I don’t think most people’s problem with Shuu is that he’s weak-willed. Hell, you have to have some confidence in yourself to imitate Hitler and lead a dictatorship where you nearly kill your best friend. The problem isn’t that he’s an ass either (although of course, he is).
The problem with Shuu, as I see it, is that he’s a) wildly inconsistent and b) phony. One episode he and Souta are all buddy buddy, the next episode he’s giving Souta an incurable disease and drowning him at the bottom of the ocean, the next episode they’re best friends again. WTF? Shuu may be inept, but he certainly isn’t realistic.
For the phony aspect, from the way he poses for the camera and the size of Shuu’s martyr complex, you’d think he’s Jesus H Christ or something. But forgive me if I can’t feel much sympathy for him. The kid’s spoiled rotten. We start off the show watching him fap to a pop idol, who appears from nowhere and immediately becomes his girlfriend. Not feeling sorry.
Then he joins a terrorist troupe so that he can follow his
heartcrotch. Supposedly he “grows” here and gains everyone’s respect, but really he just gains a magic power to grope girls’ chests. Later, he’s sad because his mistress is killed and starts a brutal dictatorship. Why should I give two hoots whether this guy lives or dies?Later he takes on the sins of the world and becomes Jesus. But he never takes responsibility for his own sins. Despite everything he’s gone through, Shuu doesn’t learn anything. It’s always other people who are sinning, not Shuu. And this is another reason why I love Shinji but hate Shuu: Shinji realizes that he’s a a worm and repents. Shuu thinks it’s always someone else’s fault, and he’s always right.
And Inori is just a glorified sex doll.
For the cliches, I agree that this wasn’t really a big problem. The bigger issue is that the story is just plain dumb. See Shinmaru’s excellent series, “Guess the Dumb” for countless examples.
First of all, thanks for being courteous even though you totally disagree with me XD
That long paragraph about Shu I have in the post is how I personally interpreted him. You, and obviously a lot of other people, saw him in a very different way. What you said about him and Souta, I felt that Hare’s death and just everything else that happened around him at that point totally made him snap, turning him into a tyrant and even turning on his former best friend. But like he confessed to Inori, he felt it was the only way everyone could survive (utilitarianism I guess). People he cared about were still dying and suffering when he was being the wimpy nice guy, so he finally flipped after and decided acting in the opposite way would be the answer. Not saying he was right in his choice, just that I could understand his actions based on his character.
For your 4th and 5th paragraphs, I’m not sure what you mean. I never saw him as spoiled. From the beginning he had low self-esteem, pretty much no family, and then suddenly this power is forced upon him, a terrorist organization tries to elicit him, his friend betrays him, he’s later forced to kill the friend’s brother…and other bad things that happened to him that I mentioned in the post. I’m not saying he’s an admirable martyr or anything but I don’t see how he’s so spoiled. As for Inori, I didn’t feel like she “immediately” became his girlfriend. Obviously he felt attracted to her when he first met her (he did like her music after all) but then she admitted to manipulating him for Gai’s sake. They became lovers later on of course…but I do agree about them glorifying Inori sexually. That wasn’t necessary.
For Shu not taking responsibility, I can’t remember if he did apologize to his classmates in the end or not. If he did, then I’m not sure what else he could do to repent. And if he didn’t, then yes, I agree that taking responsibility would have made him better. And could you give me examples of when he thought it was someone else’s fault when it wasn’t?
Oh, and thanks for the link to Shinmaru’s posts. I read a few of them and they’re very funny XD That’s even coming from someone who obviously likes Guilty Crown, so he must be doing something great with those posts! I agree with some things he’s pointed out and disagree with others, but they’re funny posts either way.
I can see what you’re saying about Shuu when I think about it logically, but really I just can’t see him that way. :/ He just feels so fake and self-centered.
This is probably exactly how Shuu sees his situation, which is part of why I hate him so much. He gets this great power that everyone in the world wants, and he’s busy feeling sorry for himself. He *chooses* to join the terrorist organization and then blames other people. His friend betrays him and Shuu is “forced” to kill his brother. Does Shuu feel bad for his friend who had to betray him to save his brother’s life? No. Shuu’s busy feeling sorry for himself for being betrayed. It’s all about Shuu, Shuu, Shuu.
I don’t think Shuu apologized to his classmates. But either way, he could at least have the decency to feel ashamed of himself. That’s pretty much all I want.
The most obvious example is Hare’s death and the whole blaming the weak voids / starting the Nazi death camps thing.
Glad you enjoyed it Shinmaru’s posts! I hate to blow my own horn, but you might also enjoy a series I did of anime bloggers singing songs about Guilty Crown. :)
Clichés and tropes aren’t bad in my opinion, instead, it is how they’re used. If they just stick with, say, the “bland protagonist” and never try to do much more with it than that, it becomes rather boring and unimaginative. Tsunderes are fine, as long as they aren’t just a tsundere because of the sake of being tsundere. And so on.
About Guilty Crown though, the main problem is that the story was dumb!
I agree, it’s not that cliches and tropes are used, it’s how they’re used. It should be in such a way that makes them special and memorable.
Obviously you’re one of the many people who thinks GC is dumb. Obviously I don’t think it is and I’ve discussed why in this post and above comments. You’re more than welcome to explain why you think it’s dumb…but you don’t have to either XD
You know, I just knew you’d try defending this series in a blog post. I admire you for that.
But, you sure picked the wrong show to defend.
I’ll just say I agree with draggle’s assessment of Shu. He was a horribly built character.
“built”, I used that word cause that how I feel about this plot/story. The characters and story weren’t developed, they were engineered. Hardly any of the characters felt real to me. They seemed to be carefully placed chess pieces to be moved back and forth as needed to progress the story.
Arisa’s character is a prime example. In one episode she shows up becomes the main focus of the story and is seduced by Gai. She also just happens to be the president of Shu’s school. So, she disappears from the story for half the series only to resurface during the “lord of the flies” high school arc and becomes the traitorous vixen who uses her feminine ways to get back to Gai, the man she now adores. After going to the “dark side” She then decides to help Shu to take him to Haruka so she can ask Haruka questions about Gai. The end. wait, what did she ask Haruka the questions?! What were they?! where did she go after that?! Oh, I guess she disappears again only show up for a few brief minutes in the finale. I guess if the plot doesn’t need her at that moment she needs to get lost. She seems like a Rook that is placed in the corner only to used when needed. Which is sad cause her character could have been far more interesting. It was by far the most interesting of the show when she was actually part of it.
Let us not forget the other good guys becoming bad guys thing? I mean really. Gai is resurrected and is now Evil Gai? Shu is butthurt over losing his girl that he didn’t even truly love, So he becomes psycho dictator Shu for a few episodes? I mean come on?!
I’m not even going to go into “emotional” state of minds as a defense. Cause even they seem convenient. Shu is scared of his own shadow and pissed his pants when troops show up to take Inori away. Yet, in the same episode he jumps in front of two mechas in a half-ass attempt to save Inori from a girl he just met.
As for the story itself, everything seemed too convenient.
Every time Shu needed a void with particular attributes he would seem to have it.
A country that’s been wallowing and mired in poverty and disease for 10 years has world destroying satellite weapons?! Yet the rest of the world can’t counter this? I mean really?
Gai and Keido were on the same page wanting to bring back Mana. So why spend 2/3rds of the series fighting each other?! Really Gai, you thought if you didn’t do it Mana would never stop being used by darth, daath, or whatever secret Illuminati like organization that was dreamed up? That was your motivation?!
See, it’s all this crap that makes me start ranting like an angry troll. It’s at this point I realize the show wasn’t worth it to begin with. The story and characters felt manufactured and had no feel to them. The story screamed “we need to try WAY TOO hard on this.” They must have felt they needed to that as a way to justify the big budget. They could have done a much better job if the story was less grand and more simplistic. They could have spent time developing the story and characters instead of trying to manufacturing them to fit an impossible storyline.
But, I did enjoy the music. I love Ryo, Nagi, and Supercell’s work.
BTW, I so wish there was an edit function. :( Maybe I should proofread 10 times before I post.
I did notice some typos in your comment but nothing terrible. If you want me to fix anything, let me know. I’m not sure how to add an “edit” function for comments =/
That’s funny that you knew I would try to defend Guilty Crown. You know me well ^^,,,
For Shu, you can see my response to draggle’s comment above.
For Arisa, I can understand how you could see her that way. One of the issues I did have with Guilty Crown is that a lot of the side characters weren’t properly developed. But I felt she was interesting enough, and if a few things about her were contrived, that didn’t bother me much. And for Gai, I never thought he was a very “good” guy to begin with. He came off as distrustful and manipulative from the beginning. And when he was resurrected, he didn’t need to keep up whatever “good” guy facade he had anymore and just needed to focus on his objective, as bad as it was. But I do feel that his relationship with Shu was rather inconsistent and it was one thing about the series that bothered me.
For Shu jumping in front of the mecha, I felt it was to show how much he likes Inori that he can temporarily overcome his fears to save her. He sort of already “knew” her because he admired her music. And with not much else going for him in his life then, he latched onto this fluke encounter with a singer he loves and didn’t want to let anything ruin the new intrigue he finally found in life. Again, that’s just how I interpreted it.
I thought the reason Shu always had the right Void was because in one of the early episodes they kept a record of everyone’s Voids while searching for “Sugar” (Yahiro) and so they knew which one they would need for a given mission. I could be wrong about this though.
For your other points, they probably were results of bad writing. I’m not saying the series is flaw-free at all. Just for me personally the flaws didn’t affect my overall enjoyment and understanding of the show.
I agree with you in most points..i just hate how many would bash shuu,because of his character,what is so wrong about being a weak willed boy,isn’t normal for his age considering what he has been through,and i really want to know from these people what weak means,does it mean being introvert,being wishful,doing what people what you to do,without any room to decide by yourself?..by this premise,it should be pretty obvious that most of us are all weak,is there really a 17 year old boy in this modern era,who doesn’t share many of the traits,most so despise in shuu,even worse?..despite everything he had faced,promising himself to not get involved anymore with people.. ..he had to fight to protect those he loved,..the only friend he thought he had betrayed him not one but two times..he made mistakes,but that is a given,isn’t he a human and a young one at that?..
The reason most of us love anime,is its realism,its so emotional and deep that you feel and cheer for the characters…so why hate a character with so much emotions in conflict,which is the base of our beloved anime.
The only thing i didn’t really enjoyed,was the ending,it felt kind of rushed,shuu dying then miraculously surviving,his uncle killing himself off .. its like nothing even started to begin with.
Wow, that’s quite a defense of Shu. I now think that a lot of people’s issues with him isn’t that he’s weak-willed, but because they feel he’s a poorly written character.
I also didn’t like the fact that Shu miraculously survived in the end with no explanation. I think it would have been more impacting if he had really died to save everyone (his haters would have rejoiced too). He could have been with Inori in the “afterlife” too.
I like protagonists who fail because of who they are. I like wimpy protagonists. The problem is (at least in the first three episodes), Shu is not even that. You could replace him with a loaf of bread and it would barely make a difference. Similar with Inori. What’s left is more or less Code Geass without Lelouch, i.e. a) no interesting protagonist and b) no interesting battles.
I wouldn’t say the battles in Guilty Crown are that interesting either, but they’re at least fun to watch because of the show’s high animation budget. As for Shu, well, I already addressed how I feel about him in the post and in replies to a few comments above. In short, he’s certainly no Lelouch but I didn’t think he was that bad either.
We’ve talked about this before, but GC has horrible foreshadowing for all the random plot twists it tries to pull off :/. And the way the voids are handled basically means that the writers have no need to think ahead in terms of plot because there’s always a deus ex machina at hand.
I will always appreciate stuff that allows me to think, and dislike things that prevent me from doing it.
Not that I support unnecessary hate for the show. It just doesn’t leave much of an impression.
Hmm, you’re right that the show’s foreshadowing could have used improvement. But it wasn’t all bad – I remember seeing Mana early on in the series and wondering who she was and how she was related to Inori, and then we learn her story in much later episodes. I thought that was handled well at least.
And yeah, the Voids were kind of deus ex machina, but at least we know why (they gathered a list of everyone’s voids while searching for “Sugar”)
Hehe, guilty crown. I knew you would eventually post about it :P
I agree, it’s definitely not great, but it’s not that bad either. I think they just focused too much on the weaker characters (Shu/Inori), and may have been a bit better if they focused a bit more on the other characters. I forget the names, but the blond enemy pilot, and the girl that dresses like a cat, their relationship could have been interesting. The girl on a wheelchair, strong, but with her own issues. Shu’s mother, giving her more time could have been good.
Even it if was 24 episodes, I think it tried to tackle just far too much, and the directors were simply not able to compress it all well. I think Shu was not a bad character. Sure, weak at the beginning, but he became something more. Not a bad development. Inori was just a mistery, but once we know she is a created being, with no previous memory before meeting Gai, then she is not a bad character either. The orbital satellites that were in one episode, and then mentioned on the last 2 were not explained. They were important, but they were not fleshed out more. Shu’s father, and his friend, they needed a bit more.
I think it just tried to tackle far too much, and jumped all over the place without clear explanation. So it could have been a pretty good anime, if they focused a bit more on the back-story and other characters, and a bit less on Shu/Inori.
Oh! The one thing I forgot to mention… I’m still on the fence about one thing, and not sure if I like it, or not. The ending…
The ending to me was exceptionally cruel. Shu wanted to die with Inori. he wanted to sacrifice himself for all the bad things he had done. But in the end, Inori went and save him, and he was crippled in the process.
That, to me, was a fate far worse than death. He now has to live with the knowledge of all the evil things he did, with the death of Hare, with the death of Inori, and on top of that, blind… I’m not sure I liked that ending. It was just cruel beyond measure. And no way to take his life now, after Inori sacrificed hers to save him… Hell on earth if there is ever one…
Yeah, I agree that side characters and certain plot points like the satellites needed to be fleshed out more. I really enjoyed the backstory episodes about Shu’s father, so I would have liked to see more episodes like that for the other characters.
That’s a really good way of looking at the ending. I was thinking I would have liked it better if Shu had died too (not because I hate his guts like everyone else XD)
Who say “Guilty Crown is a bad anime”???
It´s the best anime of year
Are you being serious or sarcastic? XD
I’m praying he’s sarcastic.
Seriously, I can respect people who like or love the show, just as long as they acknowledge that IT IS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM IN NEARLY EVERY ASPECT. At least as far as the story, pacing, theming, characters and their development is concerned. Everything else is great.
well its good to see some people liked this anime. the only thing i might not liked about is how fast the pacing of the plot turns but in how the character develops is pretty decent enough. observing how the plot turns is one of the entertaining part I got from watching this with my friend. The guesswork on how it will develop and sometimes backtracking some episodes to see small details. xD The ending is a bit expected as shu will gather every thing because of his void, and inori always wanted to keep shu safe. the thing that frustrated both me and my friend is the lack of explanation that should be inserted on between some episode for better story telling. i dont care about the fight scenes due to its a more of character conflict rather than a battle anime. i just have one thing on my mind right now… would it be a little possible the reason on shu’s blindness was from inori from the last part showing she can’s see anything as the place is collapsing… just a wild thought knowing shu’s void is that gathers all. :P
“I continued to enjoy it (seriously not mockingly)”
Aww drat, I thought I had found a kindred spirit. I actually had no problem with Shu and I actually like Inori. What got to me what how unexplanable everything was, as I outlined in my sudfest post. That reminds me, I should probably get back to finishing part 2.
I really loved Guilty Crown, despite the huge faults. I felt that during the production they had an image in their head, which was probably HUGE!, however they didn’t have the tools to build that image. so it fell short, so where there were big gaping holes, they circled around it put in great music and cinematography to smooth it all out. Irregardless the anime was very entertaining! The music and imagery was what caught me and you have to congratulate the production team for that, every song was befitting of the scene it portrayed, it got 8/10 for me.
Though shoe character was lacking, cause the resolutions of his conflict and inadequacies didn’t really seemed resolve and his motives seem contrived. when he was asked why he wanted to Funeral parlour it didn’t seem believable and the friends that betrayed him and became buddy right in the end was just TOO fast. I get that they HAD to make up, but there should have been an ease of transition. When i watched that I felt that there were scenes that I had missed. Despite the gaping holes I love Shu emotional development. A wimpy character to me is more believable that a typical Shounen character who was a wimp in one episode then all of a sudden is on a mission of strength and succession. Or the idealist that convinces people to soften their practical beliefs. Shu was neither, he made people develop confidence in him without assuming a contrived confidence as his own. i think that Shu character despite the flaws had more verisimilitude, in a way that I can see Shu as a real person more than a character in anime. I felt the pain of his fall and failures more than his flaw as a character.
I can understand why Guilty Crown has been constituted as a fail to some, It had a lot of ‘hope’ riding on its back, so when it just came strutting in the form of a wimpy kid rather than a self confident and possessed form (as seen in Lelouch) people went crazy. But one as to admire the anime for what it is than what it wasn’t. Shu ain’t Lelouch nor was he intended to be him.
P.S
Is it just me or does this have a Eureka Seven feel? like right down to a ‘T’
You know, Guilty Crown was actually some random drawings a guy called Redjuice put up on his deviantart page that became the basis of the show?
I actually thoroughly enjoyed GC and would rate as one of the best Anime I’ve seen in awhile. Now mind you, I loved Black Rock Shooter and Mirai Nikki and most of the
Winter 2012 worst series list, so there might be something wrong with me. :p
I felt like the flaws were purposely put there to emphasize how human the series was. I digress
I’m 100% secure to say that Guilty Crown was one of the best animes I ever watched. Shu is indeed one of the characters of the kind I deslike, but the anime quality itself dragged me. Shu is not static tho, he has some character development through the series and it is pretty good how the things around him are able to make him change so much. Ironi is for sure my favorite character in the entire series, her loyalty to the one she loves is just awesome, and I personally have a fetish for sad endings so… On my part? 10/10!
I really loved Guilty Crown. And I think they avoided anime cliches by not going into to detail about the side characters. The main focus of the story was lost Christmas. What would be the point into seeing into tsgumis or any other side character’s past if it doesn’t have to do with the main theme? As for the plot holes, I used
own context clues and ideas to fill it in.
When watching there were moments when I was like, “wait what?” but as I continued watching the show explained itself. But it still had some big plotholes like (spoilers):
1. How did Gai come back alive twice?
2. When the students were trapped in the 2nd season couldn’t they have just used Soda’s (or whatever his name was) void to open up the walls surrounding them and escape?
3. How did Shu get out of that place in the final episode and become blind?
(SPOILERS OVER) and probably other plotholes, but the characters were the best part. In the 1st season the typical characters from the highschool the protagonist is from get introduced and don’t do much, but play bigger roles in the 2nd season and have their development. The show does get confusing at times but if you pay attention to what’s being said it becomes clear.
I agree with you on the confusing plot twists. To answer your questions, I have worked out some possible answers.
1. Gai coming back alive is just kind of…inexplicable. He clearly died. However, since he came back with a different appearance and came back with scientists surrounding him, I’m guessing he was resurrected in some way. The technology was sure advanced enough.
2. Soda…I’m guessing you meant Souta? Since the walls were heavily armed and guarded, I doubt they could have gone close enough without getting filled with bullets. If it were that simple, they would have tried it a while ago.
3. From my understanding, Shu survived because Inori sacrificed herself for him. They were planning on dying together, but obviously that did not happen. When Inori was covered the plague crystals and stumbling around saying “Where are you, Shu?” and had that vacant look in her eyes, I’m guessing she became blind at some point and contracted the Apocalypse Virus. Now since Shu’s Void, if you recall, “absorbs and bears the full weight of everything” as Gai put it, he absorbed the plague and blindness of Inori too. Because of the explosion and the way both Inori and Shu were completely covered by the crystals, I figured they both died. But he survived somehow, which is never explained, however I figure Shu was saved by his “King’s powers” and that’s why when he survived, he didn’t have the Void power anymore and had to have a prosthetic arm at the end. Basically, Inori sacrificed herself for him.
I’m really new to watching anime; I started just towards the end of summer last year. So I was very surprised when I watched this anime, loved it, and declared it my one and only most-favorite anime…and people were hating on it supremely. I reflected on it and re-watched the anime, and I felt the criticism was justified a little bit on some aspects, however, my position and opinions on this anime are final and I still love it to pieces. I liked the plot twists because other anime I have watched in the past (like I said, I’m so new to this) are riddled with even more cliches and predictable endings. I grew to hate strong male protagonists and liked a lot how Shu was more submissive at first. The character development I loved as well, it was very thorough. I thought they didn’t focus on Inori enough; the problem wasn’t that she was a horrible character, it’s that they honestly didn’t include her enough so we never got to really know her. Of course, she was just an empty, unfeeling vessel, so I guess it’s justified somewhat how she wasso indifferent and cold. The animation was so gorgeous, I just can’t get over that. And oh my, the music. Beautiful. It was very rushed and confusing and I would have liked it if it had been split into two seasons, like how I feel Sword Art Online should have been too. The main reason why I enjoyed it so much was how it just…completely enraptured and mystified me. It touched me, and that’s what I think is important. What really matters is if the anime made you feel something, not just “okay, perfect un-cliche story line (which is virtually nonexistent), perfect characters, completely flawless, nothing to nitpick”. It was very captivating and thoroughly thought-provoking and entertaining, keeping me on the edge of my seat until the very end. It really amazed me, the beauty of Guilty Crown. It honestly depends on personal preferences, what mood you’re in, and what genre you like. Every anime has cliches and flaws. Why pick on this one? And yeah, people argue it’s just a Code Geass wannabe, but that’s expected because the writers of Code Geass worked on Guilty Crown. And I realized something…CG (Code Geass) is GC (Guilty Crown) backwards. All in all, I totally agree with Yumeka’s views and I still love this anime for its positive aspects.
I hated the ending. This anime is a sadist. First, Hare died then inori too died. I woupd have been satisfied if both Inori and Shu died or both survived.