Guilty Crown Episode 22 – Final

The final episode of a series that deals with a totalitarian oppression of the people and an evil horrendous scheme to destroy all of mankind for the sake of it’s own greater should probably end in either an awesome epic battle of good versus evil or the ultimate realization that fighting against the destruction of the human race is an utterly pointless venture, as we are simply prone to self destruction.  Guilty Crown, however, ends in… neither of those.

But at least this episode finally admitted, “Yes, we’re ripping off End of Evangelion because we can’t write anything by ourselves that’s actually worth a damn.  I mean, the whole “People will be joined together in the memory of the crystal” thing?  Does that remind anyone of the sea of LCL?  How about, all those magic purple moon beams turning people into crystal?  Kind of resembled the giant Rei going around and turning everyone into LCL, if you ask me.  However, while Evangelion’s ending was amazing – in a sick and bleak sort of way – Guilty Crown’s was just a standard kind of abstract ending that didn’t really make a whole lot of sense, but people will accept it because everything turned out okay for everyone.   It seems that anime fans often treat any ending where someone dies, but other characters live on as the ideal type of ending.  Just think about Madoka Magica, or Code Geass; a vast majority of anime fans like these endings because they aren’t too bleak, but it still isn’t the classic perfect fairy tale ending that people come to expect.  Everyone’s happy and rich somehow, and even good ol’ Shu managed to make it out in one piece.  Well, not really.

But how in the hell did Shu make it out okay?  And for that matter, why is he suddenly blind for no reason?  That was really out of fucking left field.  But even more so than that, I really want to know exactly what the hell happened at the end.  When Gai and Shu went to the magic Da’ath purgatory, Gai said that Mana’s destruction of humanity was inevitable, and if she was stopped she would simply be brought back again and again until she fulfilled her purpose.  So he decided to be her death partner because he wanted Shu to stop him or something.  To me, that doesn’t really make any sense, because if her cycle will never stop until she does what she was meant to do, how would it make any difference if Shu out of all people tried to stop her.  Perhaps it has something to do with her vessel taking on human qualities that she shouldn’t have possessed and broke the cycle with the power of love, or whatever, but that’s only speculation, because the show doesn’t like explaining things too well.  But what was that whole thing with him absorbing everyone’s Voids and Inori dispersing for no reason?  I probably just haven’t been paying attention as well as I should have been.

Ever since early on in the series, the show has been on a tirade of bad storytelling and writing, and it continues on even until the end.  People, if you want to know how not to write something, look no further than the story of Guilty Crown.  for the first twelve episodes, the series was some big action sci-fi show with rebels trying to take on ‘the man’ and save the people.  Then it turned into some crazy ass mind-fuck fest with so much random unexplained bullshit that you’d think it was preaching a new religion.  Next it was an actually kind of decent claustrophobic struggle for power thriller type-thing.  And finally we had more mind-fuck with a side of more random unexplained bullshit.  Now, I don’t have a problem with movies of shows switching it up and changing it’s focus as the story continues, once again – Evangelion, but it still has to make sense in the context of the story.  You can’t just sporadically jump to a different type of show that doesn’t mesh with the overall plot of the show.  That would be like if in the middle of Fight Club, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt went on some random thirty minuet side story of starting their own soap business.  But really, there’s so much stuff in this show that didn’t make sense that it would take me three hours just to put down all of the stuff that I can think of off the top of my head.

Finally, for a last episode, I thought this was a pretty weak attempt.  Either way, Shu or Inori was going to die, and although I picked Shu as the most likely candidate, that doesn’t mean that I was surprised by Inori “dying” or whatever happened to her.  And even then, I didn’t really feel too much of anything about it, maybe because she’s been such a boring brain-dead sex symbol for pretty much the entire show and I didn’t buy into the notion that she actually “loved” Shu.  Shu was also a standard boring and weak protagonist.  I, personally, don’t have any problem with this type of protagonist, but Shu went from a complete pussy, to a pussy with a magic hand, to some tyrannic overlord, and from where most people would have turned into a revenge seeking psychopath, into a perfect good guy again.  To me it wasn’t believable at all, but hey, this is Guily Crown, the show that spent 98% of their budget on the animation and music then got the janitors in their studio to write the story for them, so it’s safe to say that most of the people who worked on this show weren’t thinking clearly.

Guilty Crown Episode 21 – Apocalypse Now

Oh Lord, it’s almost over, this stupid show is almost over, and when it is, I’ll be able to make fun of it all I want.  I’ll finally get to talk about everything that didn’t make sense, how shitty the writing is, and all of that other stuff that made this series so stupid.  This episode was just a typical part one of the obvious two part finale here, nothing else other than that.  Lots of “We can do this” and “Make sure that you come back” quotes and other stuff like that littered the episode as well.  There was also a whole lot more Evangelion rip-offs in this episode as well, especially with the organization behind everything that’s been going on so far.  Oh, and why does Daryl have an arc reactor in his chest?

Harkening back to the old days of Guilty Crown, this episode had Shu doing what Gai taught him to do best: assaulting and breaking into places.  Yeah, you remember all of those episodes that wasn’t much other than Funeral Parlor attacking Building X in order to get/do X object/task?  Seems like Shu learned something form all of that stupidity.  Yet somehow, Gai, who’s able to destroy eighty-something percent of the UN doesn’t take the time to stop the five or so people that everyone else in the facility knows is there.  So obviously he wants Shu to find him for whatever reason.  Either that or this shows logic continues to suck.  And is Arisa dead now?  He used her when he made that big splitting-purple-cancer-crystal-exploding-bow right?  So, then she would be dead, wouldn’t she?

So the blonde dude (who’s name has probably only been said about two times) tells Shu about the organization that’s trying to advance the human race by destroying it, Daath.  Well, holy shit, what does that sound like?  Maybe I’m reading too much into the similarities of this show and a certain (much better) one, but that sounds an awful lot like Seele doesn’t it?  Same mysteriousness, same goal, same method of achieving said goal – why, if I didn’t have such respect for the writing staff of this amazing series, I might have to accuse them of copying that other show.  However, I know that they would never do such a thing.  Jesus, this parallelism with Eva is really getting out of hand – I don’t even think that we’re too far away from having Inori melt everyone into a giant sea of purple cancer crystals.  Oh well, at least their fight scene was pretty cool.

Other than that one instance of the show bragging about their oh-so-original idea of an organization that wants to end the human race in order to help it, this episode did very little to explain anything else that’s been going on so far.  I still don’t truly understand if Gai actually wanted for everything to happen the way it did, or if was all just inevitable.  He talked about how none of this would have happened if he didn’t wake up Inori when he did, and he didn’t look too happy about what he had done in that scene.  Why in the hell did Gai even lead Funeral Parlor in the first place; I still don’t understand what he could have gained from that.  The only explanation that I can accept is that he didn’t really want to have to be the partner of Mana, but was forced to under the circumstances.  After all, if this was all set up from the very beginning then why did Keido try to marry her, or whatever the hell he was trying to do, in episode twelve.  If everything was just going back to Gai, then why would awakening Mana in Inori be left up to him.  And still, what the hell is Inori?  I know that she’s a vessel for Mana, but where did she come from?  Is she a normal person who’s been chosen for this, or is she just some artificial life form made for it?

Unfortunately, probably none of that will be explained in the next episode, and we’ll just have Shu sacrificing himself to save everyone.  I still don’t think that this show will have the balls to go down the Evangelin route of having a completely horrible ending(not as in a bad ending, but just a horrible outcome), so other than Shu dying to save everyone he may end up living, though that’s highly unlikely.  Due to his absorption of the cancer, they’re pretty much spelling out that he’s going to die when this is all over, so that’s probably all we’re going to get after watching to see how this all ends.

Guilty Crown Episode 20 – Exposition Before the Storm

Hmmm… trying to bring about the end of the human race for its own good, where have I heard that before?  Oh yeah, the Human Instrumentality Project.  Look, I’m not trying to nitpick things here, and I understand that there’s nothing new under the sun, but it’s just too similar to not point it out.  However, I don’t think this show will have the balls to have an ending like Evangelion, so as long as it doesn’t completely rip off the ending, I won’t harp on it too much.  But speaking of Evangeloin, did anyone else find this episode very reminiscent of the flashback episode in Evangelion that showed Gendo and Yui’s lives as scientists before they had Shinji?  Once again, I’m not trying to find things to say this show is ripping off, but with all the other Evangelion-esqe things in this show, that really stood out to me.

Now, good God there was a lot of exposition in this episode.  Basically, Gai is trying to start the Human Instrumentality Project, because he’s a crazy Evangelion fan.  He also gives them Shu’s father’s diary, because he feels bad about how confusing this whole thing has been up until now.  It appears Gai, who was adopted by Keidou, was actually a potential mate of Mana, who got the virus by getting cut with a meteorite, to bring about the Fourth Impact.  So Gai is Keidou’s “son”, Keidou is Haruka’s sister, Haruka married Shu’s dad – Keidou’s best friend – after Shu’s real mom died from the Virus after birthing Shu.  Jesus, are we writing a sci-fi soap opera here guys?  My best guess would be that the writer they hired to do this episode was some middle-aged female Evangelion fanatic.

So let me try to make sense out of some of this.  Mana got the virus form getting cut by the meteorite, that was pretty clear.  But in the flashback in this episode, she looks the same age as she did in the flashback in episode twelve when Shu is about twelve or so, but but in this episode, he hasn’t even been born yet. Also, what the hell were they talking about when they said Shu was gathering the parts of Mana that were spread around into people’s voids, when the fuck did they ever say anything about that?  A lot of people said that the government was manipulating Shu into getting him to do what they wanted him to do, but I don’t get how he was collecting Void Shards so Inori can become a full demon, I mean, a full bringer of the apocalypse.

So would someone please explain this to me, what the hell is Mana? I know that she’s the holder of the virus, and that She’s pretty much the Rei to this show’s Lilith, but where did she come from and why does she not age?  Did the virus stop her growth or something?  Dammit, please explain yourself, show, I really want to know what you’re trying to do here, I’m really trying to give you the benefit of the doubt and tell me what’s going on.  I know you’re trying and you did an pretty good job at explaining some of what’s been going on, and I guess a big exposition dump is better than being left in the dark about everything until the last millisecond of the show.  But was all this crazy stuff that happened in these past nineteen episodes worth this?  Was it worth some sub-par ripoff of Evangelion?

And now we’re going in to the final showdown of the series.  I honestly can’t see anything other than Shu saving everyone and sacrificing himself happening here.  I mean, he’s already pretty much said that he’s willing to absorb everyone’s cancer to save their lives and was willing to fight Gai without his void powers, so I don’t think he has any qualms about biting the dust.  And also, he’s not going to kill everyone else in the process, he’s going to end up giving their Voids back at the last second, because he’s somehow now some uber heightened morals Mr. Good Guy.  What exactly made him want to reconcile with Souta anyway?  They both tried to kill each other, so I don’t think that they’d really have too much of a friendship left to brag about.  But hey, I guess if the plot calls for it.

Guilty Crown Episode 19 – Back in the Saddle

Thank you NicoNico, for finally getting this back up and running, because I hate wasting my time downloading this show.  Damn, Shu is really one lucky son of a bitch isn’t he?  His arm gets cut off, and he somehow doesn’t bleed out.  He’s able to sneak into a heavily guarded Team Gai camp and kidnap someone without anyone noticing.  And to top it all of he walks into a destroyed and burning building and has the very thing he needs literally land at his feet.  Now if he can just get some tail before all of this is over and he dies Lelouch-style he’ll be all set.

But let’s talk about Shu for a second.  In the past few episodes the show has tried to paint him as some corrupt power hungry ruler who’s taking advantage of his followers for his own gains.  But even during those times, his personality was completely split from a dick to a stressed leader with no indication as to why he was behaving so differently.  Remember when he supposedly “turned evil” when he learned that destroying a persons Void could kill them?  Did he ever use it to kill anyone? No he didn’t.  Other than Shu treating the students like they were part of some concentration camp, that was the only thing the show did to try to convince the audience that he was now “evil” or “power hungry”.  The only problem is: he hasn’t done anything sense to corroborate that vision of him.  Nowhere else in the entire series has Shu done anything that someone would consider evil.

Even now, when his fucking arm is cut off and he’s trapped in a military occupied city, he’s still the nice and understanding Shu that he’s been throughout the whole series.  Anybody else in the world would have killed Arisa the second he got her away from everyone, but not Shu, he just wants to find Inori and his mom.  He still, after all the shit he’s been through, wants to help everybody, and is even willing to die to do it.  So I ask: why try to make him seem evil before?  He’s obviously not some totalitarian dictator who loves being in power or something like that, so why did you need to make him like that for those few moments?  It would have been much easier to have Shu reluctantly continue to use Voids because they were the students only chance to escape, and then have to students revolt against him because they found out that if their Void breaks, they die.  The show didn’t need to make it seem like he deserved what he was getting, because he was never really anything like that.  I don’t think Shu is evil, I just think that the writers of this show suck and they were trying too hard to make Shu seem like he was corrupted with those few scenes.  Then, the second he gets betrayed – something which would make anyone else in the world (especially someone who’s supposedly power-hungry) angry and bitter – they go back to his original kindhearted character and personality.  The writers of this show can’t be older than eight, I swear to God.

Now, let’s talk about Shu’s mom for a just a second.  Well, she’s not really his mom, which serves absolutely no purpose in the story, but whatever.  Fuck that dumbass bitch.  A couple of episodes ago, she said something that alluded to the fact that she wanted Shu’s arm to get cut off because he wouldn’t have to bear to power of the Void Genome.  And now, here comes the bitch with a new vial of the shit saying she wants Shu to use it, but is afraid that it’ll kill him.  So why was she glad that he lost his power in the first place if she needs someone to use it now?  Because she’s an idiot?  Maybe so.  Because this show has shitty writing?  I think I’ll go with that one.

You know, I haven’t really talked about him too much  before, but Segai was actually a pretty good villain, probably too good for this show.  He isn’t some overly flamboyant evil to the nth degree villain like you’d expect from a show like this; instead, he’s actually pretty laid back and reflective.  He isn’t the highest ranking person in the hierarchy either but he still doesn’t give a shit; he knows what he wants (whatever that may be) and he knows how he’s going to get it.  I think he’s kind of like this show version of The Joker in a way.  But are you really telling me that all of his evil shit he did was just to see the Void Genome or something?  Come on, that really screws up a good villain, are you really just going to have all of his secrecy and planning end on him getting killed by Shu while driving a gas tanker?

Shu get’s his new crystal arm in this episode too, which is apparently his Void.  Okay, so… his Void is an arm?  I’d make some kind of masturbation joke, but that’s not all his arm does.  It also absorbs everything around it or something of that nature, which includes the Crystal Virus Cancer stuff.  Anyway, Shu’s back and he’s ready to kick Gai’s ass and save his girl.  It seems that I was wrong about Gai himself,  apparently, this is the “Real” Gai and he just used funeral Parlor to do what he wants.  Okay, that makes no sense either, but once again, I’ll give this show time to explain itself.  Sure, creating and entire clandestine organization to fight the government doesn’t really have anything to do with taking over the world with cancer, but I’ve heard of weirder schemes.  I guess he wants to use Inori/Mana to use her virus to take over the world or something like that, but what exactly is he now?  What the hell was Mana for that matter, just some crazy wincest virus-filled psycho-bitch?  Please explain yourself, show.  I don’t have much respect for you, but I’d still like to know what in the hell you’re trying to do.

Guilty Crown Episode 18 – The New Boss

Holy shit, another episode of this show that didn’t completely suck ass through a straw – I honestly can’t believe this happened.  A ton of shit still doesn’t make sense and a lot of things still seem really stupid, but I guess I’ll give this show the benefit of the doubt and wait until it’s over to tear into it’s ass about all of the crazy stuff that it leaves unexplained.  And once again, why the hell did this need to be twenty two episodes?  So much of the first 3/4 of it was completely unnecessary.  It was generic, cliched, sloppy, and stupid, but here we are now with this show trying to make an effort to not suck.  Why the hell did the first half even need to exist?

First off, what the hell is up with Arisa?  I don’t know about anyone else, but to me it seems that she lead a rebellion against Shu just to get into Gai’s pants.  The whole time she’s all over Not-Gai like Kallen on Lelouch as if she’s expecting him to marry her or something.  Exactly where did this sudden infatuation come from, why is she so vehemently supporting Not-Gai now?  I’m calling bullshit if she’s this much into him due to the whole thing on the cruise ship or something stupid like that.  She’s never given any reason as to why she is so crazy about him, and how the hell did she even know he was coming back in the first place?  She’s really become a cunt for no reason whatsoever in these past few episode.  But goddamn, what is up with anything anymore?  I mean, Japan’s being bombed, the GHQ is being told to support Not-Gai, he stops the missiles, he has his own secret service with matching uniforms – where the fuck did all of this come from?  And I think it’s pretty clear that Not-Gai isn’t really Gai, hell he even says it to Ayase and Tsugumi.  But what exactly is he, why is he ruling over the world with a bunch of giant satellites, who’s helping him do this, why does he want Inori?  Goddamnit, I want some explanation about this shit!

Damn, there’s so much unanswered and unexplained shit that I can’t really say too much about anything.  Like what the hell is Inori?  If we work in the Rei angle, she’s probably the clone of Mana or whatever, but why the fuck is that important?  She’s obviously losing her grip on her “real” self and turning more and more into whatever she really is, but what exactly is she.  Hell, where the hell did he crazy-ass evolved form come from, since when could she do that?  That really didn’t make any sense to me.  First, she tells Shu that she’s never going to leave him, then ten seconds later is outside digivolving into MetalInori, what the fuck was up with that?  That sure as hell was not explained even in the slightest.  That whole scene was really unbelievable, because I was simply incapable of sitting there and excepting that this random off-the-wall bullshit was real.

Shu’s really fucked too.  I mean, everyone just left him for dead; Neither Tsugumi, Argo, nor Ayase even attempted to locate him, let alone try to save him.  Oh, and while we’re on the subject of Tsugumi – Really, show?  Really?  You’re really trying to sell me on Tsugumi x Daryl?  Excuse me, but would you mind going to fuck yourself?  Now back to Shu.  He’s really fucked; he’s armless, even the people that still kind of liked him have abandoned him, and Inori probably isn’t coming back to him any time soon.  Not to mention that it seems like his own mom was the reason behind him getting his arm cut off, even if it was to save him from the power it brings.  So I’m kind of looking forward to whatever random plot device they throw in to give Shu the ability to go apeshit on everyone and take his badass revenge.  He still doesn’t have his new crystal arm, but it’s coming and hopefully he’ll crush some skulls with it.  However, Shu seems to be taking the fact that his arm has been lopped off, he has no power, and he has no friends pretty well.  Hell, his morals are still intact enough to stop Inori from giving him a blowjob, because I guess giving blowjobs is evil or something.  It’s probably bad writing, but he’s a pretty hardcore good guy to go through all of that stuff and still have the heart to give that kid his food and to still want to help Inori.  If he’s really supposed to be a Shinji for the new generation, then he’s doing a hell of a lot better than his predecessor did in handling everything thrown at him.

Even though Shu was supposed to have changed a long time ago, he still seems pretty similar to how he was at the beginning of the show.  Well, if it took the death of Asuka for Shinji to snap, maybe Inori’ll do the same for Shu.  Even though this episode didn’t suck, it still wasn’t that great, because almost all of it was stuff that has yet to be explained.  Not-Gai is now some kind of God-tier world leader, Inori could be badass a new X-men character, Arisa is still a bitch, and plenty of other stuff doesn’t make any sense.  This show will have to have one hell of an ending to make up for how awful it was during it’s first half, but if it can just start explaining stuff and stop being sporadically stupid (which is a pretty tall order for this show to fill, I know)  Then all my time watching this show might not have been spent in vain.  But please either have a really awesome or a really horrible ending, don’t end up somewhere in the middle.  I really want to either think that this show wasn’t complete shit, or be able to hate it with the fury of a thousand suns.

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.

Guilty Crown Episode 16 – I Guess He’s Evil Now

So after Shu’s shocking revelation last week that people inside a hostile government quarantine zone could possibly die, what does he do?  He becomes an emo prick.  Now, I know everyone will rush to say “How could he treat the lesser people like that?” or “Why is he acting like such a douche?” but it’s like he said himself, there is no way that everyone can be treated equally and fairly and survive as well in a situation like this.  Though you might not want to believe it, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.  Let’s think about this; we have a bunch of high school kids, quarantined from the rest of civilization and soon to be killed by a giant ever-moving wall of death.  So what are these kids to do?  Hold hands, give everything away to the rest of the looters and rioters, and wait to die?  Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem like the ideal situation to me.  So the only solution left is to buckle down and try to live, by whatever means necessary.  You will have to make sacrifices, but if you want to live it’s just something that you have to do.  You could really split hairs with the way Shu is behaving, but it doesn’t really seem like he’s acting this way out of some thirst for power, he’s just their best hope for survival.

But with that being said, Shu is still kind of a bitch.  Although he’s not really a complete tyrant by any means, he still isn’t the nicest we’ve seen him all series, especially when he finds out about what Voids can really do.  I’d also like to point out that pretty much everything that’s happening here (both good and bad) is because of Yahiro.  He suggested the Void ranking system, which helped them secure power, but also caused them to discriminate against the weaker students.  He was the one who suggested that Shu become president and rallied everyone behind him.  He was also the one who convinced everyone that Hare died because of some new superweapon.  In reality, he’s the real problem right now, and the more the show goes on, I’m beginning to think more and more that he’ll eventually become a villain.  He’s been an asshole throughout this entire show; he sold drugs, betrayed Shu, deceived him, and is obviously manipulating him and changing him into a complete jackass.

That one guy from Funeral Parlor who had about three lines in the fourth episode also returns, but his only purpose is to say “You’ve changed!  You’re bad now!” to Shu, which doesn’t really work too well, because Shu is, for the most part, just as meek as he’s been throughout the rest of the series.  The only exception to that being the situation with Souta, but that was obviously completely personal.  He even tells Inori that he doesn’t really want to be the way he is, but he has to do it because he’s their biggest chance for survival.  I don’t really understand why Shu cares if Arisa leaves or not, because (other than her void) there’s no real reason for him to give a shit about what she does.  Is it just to reinforce his new evil persona?  That’s also been a not-so-gradual decline these last few episodes.  When Shu first learns that the destruction of a persons Void can kill a person, he is shocked and angry at Yahiro, but then randomly turns evil when his stupid-ass brain figures out “Wait, if people’s Voids can be destroyed by accident, then they can be destroyed on purpose too!”.  So he’s now all of a sudden evil and consumed with the pleasure of holding peoples lives in his hands?  Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on that, he hasn’t behaved in any way, shape, or form that would suggest that.

I also find it hard to believe the level of organization these kids are able to achieve.  I mean, Jesus Christ, they’re scuba diving in wrecked ships salvaging goods and filling quotas of vaccine.  How the hell do they even know how to operate that stuff?  They have a secret service walking around with infinitely powerful weapons and students stand at attention when Shu walks by.Really, if you had a bunch of kids running around with magical weapons that could do all sorts of crazy shit, there is now way hell that you’d be able to maintain order there; it’d be a balls-to-the-wall free for all battle.

Actually, for the most part, this episode was pretty good.  The moral dilemma of those in power and the sacrifices and expectations they must bear is always really interesting, and along with the setting and situation of everything made it pretty realistic.  Throughout the episode I was constantly thinking to myself, “Yeah, that’s really shitty and unfair, but what else could you do in a situation like that?”, and it was probably one of the few times that I’ve ever felt something realistic form this show.  But Shu’s random character swing from morally troubled leader to some evil psychopath just didn’t really seem to convincing to me.  Who knows, maybe he’s not like that in the next episode, and I hope he isn’t, but that really didn’t sit too well with me.  And Inori might as well be renamed Instant Plot-Device, because she seems to just do whatever the hell the plot calls for her to do.  She apparently is now Shu’s C.C. (though she obviously isn’t as cool) and is going to do whatever she can to help him with his plan of world domination or whatever.

Guilty Crown Episode 15 – Survival Outweighs Equaltiy

Holy fucking shit, this episode pissed me off so much, then finally gave me some sense  of reality at the end.  I honestly cannot fathom what the fuck is wrong with these kids and why they simply cannot grasp the situation they’re in; it’s like they think everything is a fucking game or something.

So last week we were introduced to the Void Ranking System, which does what it says: ranks people based on  how useful their voids are.  But Shu doesn’t want to use it, why?  Because he doesn’t want to discriminate against people.  Cry me the fucking Nile River.  In case you were unaware, the situation for these people right now is far from ideal.  There is a huge-ass Wall of Death constantly moving towards you, the government has quarantined you to die of a deadly virus, people are rioting in the streets, and there has already been an attack on your school.  I’m sorry, but now is nowhere near the time to be thinking about how you shouldn’t discriminate against people in the school, because, whether you like it or not, some things are just more useful than others.

Let’s put it this way, if you were a general in the army, would you put all of your snipers on the front lines?  Would you give doctors bazookas?  Would you let infantry soldiers lead bombing raids?  No, you wouldn’t, because that’s fucking stupid, people work best where they’re best suited to.  So why on God’s green earth would you NOT rank people based on their Void power?  This is supposed to be a life and death situation, people’s pathetic desires of usefulness be damned.  Are you honestly telling me that you’re going to let all of these people with shitty Voids be treated like they’re as powerful as Inori?  That makes no sense, I honestly cannot think of a single reason that this wouldn’t be the ideal system, other than the obvious possibility of the lower ranked people being upset.  But who cares, they can’t help you survive; needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few.  And as assholish as that sounds, in the situation that they’re in, that would just be the cold, harsh reality.

And fuck Souta to the seventh level of hell.  I’ve always hated that obnoxious little prick, but this episode just pushed my hatred of him to a whole new hierarchy of disdain.  This man-bitch has the gall to complain to Shu about discriminating against people based on their voids to his face.  So, I wonder where he’s ranked?  Pretty low in case that wasn’t completely obvious.  He spends most of his time this episode complaining about how he’s being discriminated against and screaming about how he still want’s to fuck Inori.  Go fuck yourself kid, it’s a fucking life or death situation, if you want to live, get over yourself and let the people who can actually help, help.  I mean, would you rather be alive or useful?

But not only does he act like a spoiled child who didn’t get picked first in kickball, he decides to lead a group of other F ranked Void users on a mission to secure more vaccine for the school.  Now, while that may seem like a somewhat noble thing to do, anyone with half a brain can see that they’re only doing it for personal reasons.  I think it’s safe to say that they only want to be seen as more useful and that they only want to get the vaccine for themselves, because they found out that they would likely not receive any more due to shortages.  All of his motivations are completely self centered, which is only natural, but he’s such an asshole in covering them up by saying that they want to help everybody.  Bullshit.  Oh, and you know that guy in Funeral Parlor with the long white hair that’s had about three lines of dialogue?  He’s being held hostage; but enough about that, let’s move on.

Shu was pretty damn annoying throughout this episode too.  He constantly flip flops from one side to the other to fit in with whoever is in his present company.  Once again, this is a totally human response, but he’s the leader of this little rebellion now, and he can’t be waffling back on forth on such important issues just because he wants everyone to like him.  At least he admits to what he’s doing to Hare, and that he knows he shouldn’t be doing it.  Of course Hare couldn’t care less about what Shu’s saying because she’s too busy fantasizing about him, and tells him how great of a leader he is, due to the fact that he’s very quite.  Not really sure what that has to do with anything, but whatever you say.  Unfortunately the awkwardness of Hare smashing Shu’s head into her boobs is cut short when they have to go and stop Souta from being a dumbass.

So exactly how in the fuck is someone in a wheelchair supposed to shoot a bazooka?  I haven’t fired one myself, but it seems like those things would have a bit of kick to them.  But whatever, it’s Guilty Crown.  And then of course we have the death scene.  Now, why did Hare die?  Because Souta is a retarded asshat.  Anway, Hare uses the last of her strength to save Shu (rather original I must say) and gets infected by the virus.  Her death is one of the few times in this show that I could say “Yeah, that’d really suck”.  Not only did she die in front of Shu, but she pretty much disintegrated into nothing in front of his face.  I gotta say, I probably wouldn’t be too happy if one of my friends died like that in front of me.  But of course Shu has to have his revenge and finds Inori running through a barrage of bigass missiles (completely unscathed by the way) and proceeds to pull out her Void, in a rather rapey way.  So explain this to me, why did she have a problem with him pulling out her void?  You’d think she’d be very accepting of someone saving their lives, but I guess because Shu looks different she didn’t want him to or something.  Whatever, it’s Guilty Crown.  Shu blows the shit out of the Endlaves, and punches the shit out of Souta for being such a douchebag, before finally accepting that now is NOT the time to be nice to people, it’s the time to fucking survive.  About damn time.

My God, I just hate this show so much.  I don’t give a shit if Shu does become badass; at this point in the show, I just want it to be over so I can be through with it forever.  Oh, something I forgot, what in the fuck was the long-haired asshole from last week thinking?  I mean, he just walks up to Tsugumi, the girl whom he held at gunpoint, and talks to her like they’re old friends.  How in the hell does he expect her to react?  Everything is just so unbelievable in this show, from the utterly ridiculous action, to how completely unrealistic some of the characters act, it’s just a fucking mess.  But only six more episodes.  I can do it.  I must.  For the sake of the internet, someone has to tell the world how absolutely shitty this show is.  This is my crown of thorns that I must adorn.