Guilty Crown Episode 17 – Never Mind, He’s Good
Jesus bastardizing Christ, is it possible? A good episode? It seems almost impossible, but I think it really did just happen – I actually watched a good episode of Guilty Crown. Now, it wasn’t great, as I still don’t really understand any of the characters motivations and about 80% of what’s happened in this show hasn’t been explained, but for what this show has put out so far this is like episode 3 of Madoka Magica. Let me just say, this is what the entire series should have been. The whole first half of the series was completely pointless, as it was little more than Shu and Gai running around and blowing shit up with Funeral Parlor. The whole series should have been like this; a Lord of the Flies type of survival story mixed in with some classic “the end justifies the means” elements. But still, the characters motivations really don’t make too much sense.
So what happened after Shu discovered that he could kill people by destroying their Voids and laughed manically at the end of last episode? Absolutely nothing. He didn’t kill Argo, he didn’t behave any different – nothing. So why give us that bullshit cliffhanger that had him turning all super villain on us? It’s still really unclear as to why Shu is acting like such a dick, primarily because the show is giving conflicting answers. Shu states to Inori and during an inner monologue that he’s acting the way he is to save everyone. Now, if that’s the case, explain why you lost your shit when you found out you could kill people, Shu. Explain why you’re acting like such an asshole, be a real leader, take some notes from Rider why don’t you? Anyway, Shu’s beliefs and motives are still hella confusing, but maybe it’s because he flip flops so much. He’s never really the same person with anybody, which is pretty normal, but him being all “I’m going to fucking kill you if you don’t do what I want motherfucker!!!” and then running to Inori in their flower sex garden and saying “I’m such an asshole, why am I doing this?” is just retarded.
Shu also wises up and realizes “Hey, there is absolutely no reason for Yahiro to like me” and finally calls him out in. Like I said last week, Shu thinks that Yahiro has been manipulating him because he’s easily impressionable (and he very much is that) and calls out all of the shit that Yahiro has pulled on him throughout the series. At least Yahiro doesn’t bullshit him like he’s been doing the entire time and admits that he doesn’t really like him and he just wants everyone to survive, and even calls Shu out on being such a dick earlier. But wait, that doesn’t make sense at all, because Yahiro has always pushed the order and organization that they’ve created, why would he go all soft now? Goddamn, characters just don’t make sense these days. Anyway, the students are all planning their evacuation soon, but in the meantime, Arisa, who somehow actually wasn’t killed by Inori/Mana, gets the information to lead a revolt by having sex with that guy with those stupid glasses.
We have the big standard action scene with Shu once again claiming that he only want’s to save everyone, the ghost endlaves are destroyed and everyone is free to leave the wall… but not quite. Apparently people don’t like being rescued and decide to turn on Shu. It was fairly obvious that something like that was coming, but still it’s a pretty cool scene, even if it’s supposed to piss you off. But seriously, fuck all of these people. That guy you want to kill just saved every one of your sorry asses and you want to kill him because he’s been mean to you? Go fuck yourselves – it’s over, you’re free, what the fuck do you care, do you really resent the man who saved you that badly that you want to fucking murder him? Sure, he might’ve been a dick sometimes, but you assholes wanted him to be your leader, and he did save everybody he possibly could. Look, I’ve watched Evangelion, I know that people are assholes, but where does this logic stem from? Maybe it has to do with the Lord of the Flies environment of no consequences or something, but still, it seems kind of far fetched that everyone (even his secret service I’m assuming) wants to kill him, or at the very least leave in in the quarantine zone to die. Hell, even Argo was out there. What the fuck was his problem?! Shu could have very easily killed him but he didn’t, him wanting to attack Shu doesn’t make any sense. This show really seems to kind of overemphasize things that would probably happen in a situation like this, so maybe I’m just overlooking the big picture of this particular scene.
Obviously the Void death thing could play into these people’s motive, but how else did they thing they were going to get out? It’s not like dieing is a very far off concept in this situation either, what with this giant Wall of Death constantly moving towards you. I get that they’d definitely be pissed that something like that was kept form them, but that’s like a soldier being pissed of that he’ll die if his head gets shot. You’re in danger, you could die, it’s not like that’s something new to you is it? Either way, what other option do you have with a bunch of mechs and a deadly virus looming over you at all times? I don’t think guns would do much good in a situation like that. Of course Arisa is a fucking cunt for organizing this shit. Is this just because he upstaged he, or is does she really think he’s that horrible of a person? Surely someone in a leadership position like her would understand the stress he must have and the choices he’s had to make.
Well, while you’re wondering why everyone in this show is such a dick, we actually get some continuity from the last episode and Gai swoops down from the sky breaking up all of the soon-to-be-murderers. After all of the former Funeral Parlor members remind us who he is, he somehow stabs Inori with her Void, jumps down into the crater with Shu, greets him, and then…
He cuts off his fucking arm. Damn, now that really fucking sucks, and it was his writing arm too. But really, I’d be lying if I said expected that to happen. It’s also pretty violent considering how safe this show has been so far. Then Gai absorbs Shu’s Void-grabbing power into himself and Shu freaks out over his arm, which is rather justifiable. So now, maybe the show will rip of Star Wars and Shu will get a cool robot hand and matching glove to go with it. Maybe it’s just me, but the whole last act of this episode seems to be made to bring back everybody’s sympathy for Shu and make us see that he really wasn’t that evil. After all, it’s pretty hard to hate a guy who was just turned on by the people he led to safety and got his fucking arm cut off. Where the hell is this show going now? I couldn’t tell you in a million years.
I don’t really know what to make of this show now. It’s been so terrible and laughable for so long, I’ve having a hard time believing that this episode was actually decent. Of course even though the revolt was kind of cool, and Shu getting his fucking arm cut off was badass, this show is still so ridiculous that it doesn’t really make it seem worth the effort. I mean, Shu now has no arm, no power to draw out Voids, everyone has turned against him, Inori has been stabbed, and Gai is back to do… something. I really hope that this show can still pull out a decent ending, which seems impossible with it’s track record and all of that crazy unexplained bullshit in episode 12, but I guess anything’s possible if this show can have a decent episode after this long of sucking.
Posted on February 16, 2012, in Guilty Crown and tagged Anime, ARM, Episode 17, Guily Crown, Review. Bookmark the permalink. 32 Comments.
The Notaku Blog 
He’s probably gonna get that crystal arm that’s seen in the OP.
Wait, crystal arm? Then does that mean he has the virus, or just more unexplained stuff?
I’d say more unexplained stuff 😉
This anime have ups and downs, which really makes it ridiculous like you said. However, there were some episodes IMO that were really good aka Episode 12,15, and 17. This unexpected event really surprised me a lot and in no doubt it made me craving for episode 18 probably cause I am liking the anime…somewhat. Also Inori was not stabbed by her void, Daath took Gai’s void out for him and remember Gai’s void draws out other people voids. He shot inori to draw her void out. Future Speculation: Judging from the opening, Shu seems like he’s going to have a crystallized arm which they should explain in the episode where he gets that arm. Also, I believe that they will explain everything that happened, like what was Gai’s plan all along + episode 12.
I wouldn’t really say “ups and downs”, I’d call it more like “downs and looks like it’s going up”. Episode 12 was completely batshit insane, and didn’t make any sense at all, 15 was okay, and obviously I kind of liked this episode. I don’t really think it was Gai’s plan or anything, because that more than likely isn’t really “Gai”.
Honestly Notaku, I’m only watching this show just so I can look forward to you ripping into it. Also I’m surprised you didn’t take the opportunity to call Souta out on coming out of nowhere just to shove Shu into a crater. Making things worse. Yet again. Did you cut him some slack because of the crystal eye-patch he had going on or were you just reeling at this…..- motions over the entire episode – thing.
Probably should have called him out on that, but yeah that was a pretty dick thing to do. I can kind if understand why he dud it though, even if he is a complete jackass.
I need to remind myself not to marry a psychotic woman who will one day resurrect a dead man to go swing a giant sword and kill my own kids. Oh wait make that psychotic woman who stands above military, has god knows what kind of qualifications and can control an army of giant killer robots AND a constantly moving wall of death. I don’t know who Shu’s father was but I sure hope that pussy was worth marrying a complete psycho.
There’s also a very simple answer that explains all the dumb bullshit that seems to come with the disease these students are enduring. Why do they like acting like complete dicks and why do they not think logically? Why don’t they go bugger off now that they’re free from their countdown of hello bullshit wall of death? Why did Arisa have sex with the same guy who was doing all he could to turn her into a complete sex slave? Let’s not forget this complete asshole was the same cunt that pulled out a gun on stage playing wannabe terrorist. So Why Guilty Crown Why?
Answer? Simple
P.U.B.E.R.T.Y
I mean you’d guess it from looking at half the girls that appears in Shu’s school that they’d have been well under way with puberty but my guess is it’s due to puberty these kids are illogical, suicidal, stupid, naive, dicks. It’s the only conclusion I can gather from the show. If you take away the deaths, terrorism, crystal sex disease and giant robots, this show is more or less a cesspool of highschool drama.
It’s sad to say this but if only Shu accepted wincest when he was young and give Mana what she craved all these nonsense may have never happened. Moral of Guilty Crown seems to mount to one thing. Incest is Wincest in anime period.
Oh and before I forget let’s add in life you don’t need to save people, save yourself and your harem and ditch the rest of the fat fucks, win at life Shu.
One thing that does interest me is what will happen from here? Shu has lost the love he had from his student bodies whom he saved fulfilling his end of the bargain. Shu has seemingly lost his void grabbing powers. Shu lost an arm and is bleeding to death. Inori is dead? Shu’s hot milf mom wants him dead. I mean he has nothing left going for him. From a script writer’s point of view it’s hard to suddenly implement an element that would lead to Shu’s salvation in these difficult time Shu is facing. Because he’s been a dick from episode 1 to 17 nobody likes him. Only person who genuinely liked him, Hare, is dead too. At least when the Black Knights decided fuck you Lelouch and tried to corner him to death he still had 2 cards to play which was pretty obvious for every fans to see. His Knightmare and his Geass. But with Shu? Endlave? Void pulling powers? Shu has none of those, nor friends, psycho for parents and dead girlfriends.
Let’s look at his so called friends circle.
Yahiro: Uber prick. Potentially the guy who hates Shu the most and probably will do everything he can to make Shu’s life as miserable as possible before killing him off in a elaborate plan.
Souta: If the guy genuinely liked Shu at some stage I most definitely doubt the guy likes him now. Not when Shu treated him like how Adolf Hitler treated his Jew neighbors.
Arisa: Somehow the whole image of a high class lady who is noble and proud was shattered nicely as she degenerated into a stupid whore. But hey that’s puberty man. Oh right, she hates Shu for no reason. How original.
Ayase: Regardless of what effort Shu puts into changing himself in the end she’s the first to jump at every chance she gets to frame Shu. Gai is back so we can definitely assume Shu blew his chances at Ayase route.
Tsugumi: Read above
Hare: Dead
Inori: Presumably dead but if Inori is like Ayanami Rei theres bound to be a underground laboratory that supplies a fresh batch of Inori somewhere.
Inori v02: Probably doesn’t come with synced memory from the first Inori.
Random glasses girl who likes Yahiro: Emphasis on likes Yahiro NOT Shu.
Yeah I honestly don’t see how Shu is going to survive and mark my words whatever new plot device they come up with in the next Episode to allow Shu to survive it’s going to be one of Guilty Crown’s best works(bullshit) ever!
Now that Shu has nothing, he’s more or less the original Shu we came to know in Episode 1. But wait he’s less than 3/4 the man he used to be cos this time he’s bleeding hard from having his arm cut off by Gai.
I dont understand the Inori part …
I dont watch this episode, I kinda skip to the ending of this episode …
Who is Ayanami Rei ???
So Inori has a lot of clone huh ???
Yeah, Shu’s pretty fucked. I’m not so sure that I would count Ayase out, because Tsugumi knew she would probably try to help Shu if she went out there, and that probably isn’t really “Gai”. I don’t think Tsugumi and Ayase are going to take to kindly to their beloved leader cutting off Shu’s arm and absorbing his power, obviously for his own personal gains. Still kind of has Inori, because she’s going to live some way or another, even if she does bring her Rei rip-off character full circle and have a bunch of clones.
And I can understand about the whole puberty thing, but that can’t really push them to want to murder someone, could it? As far as we know, Shu never really let anyone die, other than during the attack, but that’s pretty good considering the circumstances.
Hmm yeah actually I take that back. Ayase/Tsugumi route is STILL VIABLE!
Inori has been stabbed ???
I thought that was Gai’s void …
Shoot people to reveal other people’s void ???
But then again how can he do that …
Oops …
Sorry …
It was Gai’s void …
I just watch it entirely … I kinda skip to the last part when I first watch …
So, Inori is alive …
Thank god …
She may not be alive, but if she dies, they’ll pull the Rei card. BTW Rei Ayanami is a character from Evangelion, who’s influence is rather clear in Inoir’s character.
Well, as you said, this episode made fuck all sense as usual. All I know is I feel very confused and pity Shu very much. Oh and that his mother is at least particially responsible and did this ‘for his own good’. (At least I think she is, like I said, fuck all sense).
I had a vague theory that they made Not!Gai retireve Shu’s powers because they had forseen the UN taking the steps to eliminate Japan and needed the Kings powers to protect Japan… or something. But with the evil blonde dude able to do exactly what Shu can, that kinda blows away that theory. In fact, I have no I what to point was of introducing him in the first place when he does next to nothing anyway.
The other theory is with Inori using crystal to injure Arisa, maybe she’ll become Shu’s new crystal arm, or at least contribute it (hopefully sacrificing herself in the process and also (very hopefully) without a basement full of clones somewhere to replace her) in which will cause Shu to break completely when the last person who gave a shit about him dies. Then the arms power itself will either be Inori’s void power permanently fixed to Shu’s arm, the ability to spread the crystal virus thing around to everyone as Shu’s goes on another rampage, or maybe the ability to cure it since Inori was donating blood or something once a month to Gai that kept the virus at bay- perhaps that’ll carry over allowing Shu’s to absorb crystal from everywhere and one and do… something. Perhaps he’ll implode afterwards.
Kinda hoping he’ll go for option 2 and lynch everyone who turned on him in a great move of dickery this ep, That’d be kinda badass and make the show more interesting. Perhaps pull a Shinji Ikari while he’s at it.
But anyways, this is the first time I’ve read your blog and since I’ve heard from the grapevine of comments you rip into each new episode that comes out, I believe I shall go back and bask in vast amounts of snarkery since I very much enjoyed reading this summation.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts =D
I’d be all for seeing Shu go all out on everyone who fucked him over, but he’s pretty screwed right now. Almost everyone he knows has turned on him, he can’t use Voids, and his arm is cut off. Needless to say, he doesn’t have as much influence in anything as he once did, but this show will probably pull some “You were powerful all along” shit or something.
But Jesus, I still don’t even know that blonde guys name…
Inori will probably contribute in making shu’s new arm but i doubt she’ll die or have plenty of clones. his new arm will probably have the king’s power and the ability to manipulate those crystals which he will use to defeat Gai, who is very legitimate, and probably being controlled or some shit. i mean gai’s whole eye situation; come on. u no wats goin down
I’m pretty sure that is Gai, which is what makes this so EPIC. “Long time no see, Shu” “King? I was always King” I think Gai planned this from the very beginning ever since the day he met Shu. Which is why i thought this was so AWESOME, it was like a whole extreme turn of events. Judging from next episode we’ll know if it’s Gai or not XD Idk Gai is teamed up with Daath so I think that explains episode 11 where Gai gets slashed by Daath ;3 This is my point of view (:
Well, I think it’s kind of a long shot to say that Gai was teamed up with GHQ from the very beginning, but I wouldn’t put anything past this show now. After all, the Void Genome that got fixated to Shu was originally meant for him and he took it back I guess.
Hmm that’s a bit too far fetched at this stage. Gai seemed pretty content dying while hugging his Mana plushy if I recall.
You know what I think? I reckon Guilty Crown script writers brought him back alive just because they ran out of ideas. It’s another way of flaunting that amazing technological breakthrough these people made.
Yes we have F(G)undams and yes we have Inori(Ayanami Rei) but did you know we have a government funded project that allows us to ressurect dead people too? Yup we sure do!
Conclusion?
Nameless blonde guy that slashed Gai? Guess what? He’s a resurrected clone(albeit younger) of Shu’s old man. How original! Did I just see that coming? I wonder if that’s why Shu’s mom is co-operating with the GHQ.
That’s just a tidbit of my assumptions.
Again I rant but I wonder if they have all these amazing technologies why can’t they have medical ingenuity that fixes girls with glasses to never need to wear glasses and mend those legs of a girl confined in a wheelchair. Who cares? It’s Guilty Crown.
Inori is alive btw LOL It was Gai’s void~~~~
About the “cristal” arm Shu will obviously get in the next episodes (instead of just dying and letting the leading role to Gai).. guess where they got the idea from? Anybody remebers FSN?
Uh… what can I say? The other guy said, I enjoy your ripping the series even MORE THAN THE ANIME ITSELF. But this?!! Its the kind of story no one would believe if you came up with it yourself. think about it, they finally get it, that lady turns against them, Gai amputates…arrggh, save it. Damn. I’m lost for words. But this ep’s shock value towards the end made me realize I enjoyed watching shu suffer…
@Lol at the Shu’s Mom worth marrying as a psycho. Damn right on the money that is. WTF? Hellooo? your own son? Bah..
The only thing that can save this series is for chuck norris to explain the whole shebang in 10 seconds.
Shu’s mom may be a psycho and homicidal for her own flesh and blood but I can safely say that she was probably worth marriage. She’s smart, got the nice physique and mature woman aura about her what more can you ask for in a woman minus the fact that she likes to kill people starting with her own son? Say… we never get to see Shu’s dad… oh wait…. omg shit… that psycho bitch….
I think we all enjoyed seeing Shu suffer even if half of it didn’t make sense at all. Like the part Arisa suddenly has this urge to organize a coup when she herself was a complete shit cunt of a leader to begin with. It’s amazing how the students suddenly start to think “Hey President Arisa may not have been a capable leader who can lead us to safety but I like her over Shu cos she’s hot and got a vagoos not a ponos like Shu.” Is it so wrong for the male students to suddenly turn their voids on Shu over ex-president’s coup? Especially when she’s even willing to be everyone’s walking porno? Nah~ Infact she should have offered herself from the start so that at least the male students would be willing to be her loyal bitches.
Right now other than Inori pretty much everyone (Za Warudo!) is against Shu. It’d be a miracle if the guy lives past episode 18 and as much as I painfully hate to admit I for one AM looking forward to see just what kind of miracle bullshit Shu shits out of his pants to Survive and take his jolly revenge against the coup, against Argo and all the students who decided to be dicks to him at the last minute. 😉
Crystal arm?what’s that?
Shu’s magic neon arm thing that’s in the OP for about three seconds.
Let me break it down why Shu was more than just a big meanie. The nicest thing to say about his leadership was that it was dangerously incompetent and corrupt. He chooses 2 rapists and would be murderers as his trusted lieutenants who regularly abuse their power. His other top brass are equally fanatical and ruthless. The students choose Shu at first but later he makes it so membership is no longer optional. Anyone who’s not on board with or betrays (and Shu’s definition of ‘betray’ becomes increasingly liberal) him will have their life threatened or be imprisoned. He treats the arbitrarily lower ranked students like sacrificial lambs and was fine with leaving Souta to die even though it would have been easy to save him. Shu constantly says he’s just trying to save everyone and justifies his harsh methods as being necessary to maintain order (that sounds like every dictator since forever) but he makes an exception for his psycho girlfriend and doesn’t give a fuck about how his lieutenants abuse their power.
He utilized Voids poorly and he even acknowledged that he used his troops as cannon fodder.
So, who does he have on his side?
Arisa: He imprisons her, makes Captain Rape her personal guard and doesn’t punish Inori for trying to kill her.
Souta: He left him to die for personal reasons and treated him like trash otherwise.
Yahiro: He never really liked Shu but for irony points, he’s one of the few not to betray him (again).
Ayase: She likes him, though she’s aware of how insane he’s becoming.
Tsugumi: Same deal as Ayase.
Argo: He was imprisoned and had his life held hostage.
Other students: Enslaved by Shu.
Not many friends besides emotional-crutch Inori anymore, huh? What didn’t make sense about the betrayal was that it was spearheaded by his top brass who (apart from being assholes, and Shu should already know this) were pretty well off in his dictatorship. If I were one of the surviving students I’d off Shu and hightail it out of there. Defending Shu just because he saved their bacon (after getting a lot of them killed) is like defending a tyrant who kills hundreds of people by saying “Hey, he’s a jerk but he improved the economy! Be thankful!”
tldr; Shu ep. 16 “I suppose to everyone else, I look like a selfish tyrant.” That’s because you are!
A tyrant is someone who forces himself into power because he desires it. In this situation, Shu did not want to be the leader, and he wouldn’t have even had that opportunity to if the government wasn’t trying to murder everyone. He didn’t become the leader of the school with the sole purpose of wanting power (even though the show tried unsuccessfully to make him seem evil for all of about three seconds), he only wanted to get everyone out. If getting everyone out of the quarantine zone wasn’t his real goal, wouldn’t he have tried to stop them from leaving or something? Why would he even destroy the generator thing if he just wanted to be their ruler in the first place?
Sure he was a dick sometimes, but after everything was said and done, he got the students out of the quarantine. After all, desperate times…
What I think the writers tried to do was force 2 different characterizations on Shu at once for predictably bad results. The first characterization was Shu being a well intentioned extremist. He wanted to save everyone but with limited supplies and the ever looming threat of the government, he had to be extremely pragmatic. This characterization is enforced by the scenes with Inori where he insists he’s only playing the tyrant king because he has to, and the scene where he briefly reflected (with regret) that he had used his troops as cannon fodder to get the job done. This is Good!Shu who is more consistent with his usual attitude.
The second characterization was Shu being a cold and mad-with-power tyrant. Regardless of what his goal was, there is no denying that he was responsible for everything I mentioned in the above post. Most of the horrible things Mein Shuher did were unnecessarily cruel, arrogant or outright insane. He didn’t need to demand a level of devotion equivalent to worship, he didn’t need to treat the arbitrarily lower ranked students like slaves and he didn’t need to forcefully conscript or imprison anyone who didn’t want to be a part of his “kingdom”. All the other students see in him is an evil tyrant, so they betray him in the end. There are two scenes in particular that show he was power mad. The first was when he evilly laughs after learning he can kill people by destroying their voids. The second was after he gets his arm cut off he screams “My king’s power!”. That doesn’t sound like something a selfless savior would say. He was indignant about having his power “stolen” and being violently dethroned. The writers put in as many Nazi parallels as they could fit for 2 episodes. Evil!Shu was very much intentional.
These two characterizations can’t be reconciled which causes serious problems for how we are supposed to perceive Shu. I get the feeling Shu being betrayed by everyone was supposed to evoke sympathy from the audience but he spent the last two episodes being Hitler. Half the audience will say “Poor Shu…” and the other half will say “Good riddance!”. The whole thing was an idiot plot anyway. The bad guys randomly come in to massacre innocents then leave and at the end they decide the quarantine was a silly idea and let the survivors go for some reason.
Yes, Shut did do a lot of completely unnecessary and idiotic stuff, but I think it was more because this shows writing sucks than anything else. They may be trying to create different sides to him but it comes across as completely contradictory to the way he has been acting throughout the series.
But him being a jackass to some of the people in the school doesn’t explain how Arisa got even the people on his side to betray him.
The “My kings power” thing really threw me for a loop, because he seemed pretty happy that everything was over and he got the students out just a few seconds before he got his arm cut off and list his power.
I hear you when you say it’s more the fault of the writing than the character. In Death Note, Light’s ultimate downfall is because of his henchman Mikami. All the Light fans were quick to accuse Mikami of being an idiot but it was really just bad writing because he didn’t take precautions he normally would have. I think this was an intentional move on the authors part to make it appear Light only lost because someone else made the fatal blunder, to appeal to Light fans.
This show probably has a large following of both fans and detractors because while it is heavily flawed, there are pockets of goodness and the show has potential (before repeatedly falling on it’s face). My favorite parts of episodes 15-17 were Hare’s death scene, Shu beating up Souta after getting Hare killed and Shu confronting Yahiro over his manipulative tendencies. The dialogue for these scenes were well written and the character’s reactions were organic and believable. Contrast to Daryl blaming Gai for… Daryl killing his own father. Or for that matter that he betrays his comrades to save the girl he knew for 12 seconds.
Actually, he betrayed his comrades because he didn’t feel what they were doing was right. The guy who murdered innocent civillians for touching his hands, and is named “Kill-em-all” Daryl didn’t think what they were doing was right… never mind, just more bad writing.
Or the power of Catgirls.