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.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 6 – New Players

You know, even though this show is a just huge teen-romance-drama thing, I can honestly say that I still like it.  Even though it still has a lot of annoying elements in it, the overall package is enough to allow me to overlook those certain shortcomings.  In this episode, we get more of everything; more Remon, more relationships, and even more characters.

Since the basic premise of this episode was a typical “We’re going to the beach” set-up, my expectations weren’t that high to begin with.  Jesus, older sisters in this show are really irresponsible aren’t they?  First, Kaito’s sister leaves him alone with a hot older girl in his house, and now Tetsuro’s sister pretty much says “You, Kaito, and all those hot girls go stay in a condo on the beach by yourself”.  Besides, what could that possibly lead to?  Although they do a lot of standard beach anime stuff, such being completely awestruck when they see girls in bikinis, and playing volleyball and such, Remon quickly gets everyone down to business of making their movie.  Two new characters also join our already confusing love octagon: Kinoshita, Kaito’s freind from elementary school, and Arisawa, Kinoshita’s friend who takes an unhealthy attraction to Tetsuro.  I’m not really sure, why this show felt the need to add anymore characters, especially since the show is now halfway through, but at the end they didn’t seem as forced as I first thought they would be.  Even if Arisawa existed for the sole purpose of raping Tetsuro, Kinoshita kind of had a purpose.  At least she gave something Kanna and Ichika to team up about.  Apparently when girls encounter a new threat, they put aside their differences to weed out the new threat and then go back to dueling each other.  Exactly why is Kaito being punished for simply knowing an attractive girl?  Who knows, it’s anime, girls are crazy enough anyway.

Oddly enough, Mio, who’s pretty much sat in the background the first five episodes gets some development as well.  And apparently, she likes Tetsuro… I guess.  That really didn’t make too much sense to me; in all the time she’s spent with him, she’s never insinuated that she has feelings for him, and has always tried to help him deal with his relationship with Kanna, but when nympho girl comes into the picture, she gets all flustered and embarrassed.  So, does that mean, she’d behave the same way if Kanna ever did anything with Tetsuro?  It seems like she’s her relationship with Tetsuro is similar to his with Kanna, in that, they both sense that the object of their desire doesn’t like them, so they’re not pursuing it any further.  Well, at least now we have two sensible people, or rather, a sensible guy and a sensible closet nudist.  Thank GOD that was finally (kind of) explained, because her constant unexplained nudity was really irking me.  Now, if that’s not a plot device for fan service, I don’t know what is.  But just because you feel that you have to sleep naked does that mean you have to go commando too?

Kaito and Ichika continue to be idiots, and for the most part, boring.  Is it just me, or does it seem that everyone else in this show is far more interesting than the obvious romantic interests?  Kaito still suffers from bland harem MC syndrome, and it still confuses me why so many people are smitten with him, especially a girl that he hasn’t seen in years.  He’s kind of an ass to Kinoshita too; he’s constantly telling her to leave him alone and to get away from him, though that may just be his survival instincts kicking in, because he can probably feel that Ichika and Kanna want to go yandere on his ass.  Ichika’s retarded self later contemplates how to handle Kaito’s indecisiveness, and pretty much says “If I had sex with him, then I would win” but doesn’t for some undisclosed reason, or at least that’s what I got out of it.  Maybe she meant some crazy alien technology, but judging by how she got embarrassed about it, I’ll assume the later.

The episode moved along fairly quickly, but that last minute or so, where Tetsuro’s getting raped, Mio’s exposing herself, Ichika and Kanna are running through the jungle, and Kaito is making a hot girl cry was pretty damn good.  Everything was built up pretty good, even if Ichika and Kanna’s motives were to stop Kaito and Kinoshita from having sex.  Really?  Do you really think that indecisive little generic-ass MC would ever do something like that?  Even if he did, it’s his own business, leave him alone and let him do what he wants.  Who in the world would have sex in a jungle when you have a house on the beach near you anyway, why in God’s name would you stop there?  Anyway, everyone is caught in extremely awkward situations, making thousands of gay babies, and Remon epically stands on a cliff.

Remon also returns in full force this episode to continue to push everything along and keep things in her life interesting.  Even though she probably had every single thing that she wanted to happen planned out in her mind, as soon as Kinoshita came along, she decided that such an opportunity was too good to pass up, and instantly reworked her entire trollish scheme, God love her.  Also, form the preview, it seems as if she’s going to get some people drunk again.  She’s still ridiculously enigmatic and doesn’t show even a slight sign of her own motives, but that’s part of what makes her so awesome.  Perhaps she’s deliberately spurring everyone’s relationship on so they don’t spend their youth wallowing in teenage angst and unrequited love.  Or maybe she’s just doing it for the lulz.

Ano Natsu de Matteru Episode 5 – This Seems Familiar

So finally, after four episodes school time teen angst, we move into (according to Kaito and Ichika) a summer that they would never forget.  Much like their school days, this summer is also filled with unrequited love and teenage emotions, except it happens while filming a movie.  Although this didn’t really feel too different from the huge four episode prologue type thing, that isn’t really a bad thing, because for all of it’s angsty teen subject matter, it’s still fairly enjoyable.  But it’d be a lot better if the two main characters would stop being such retards (thankfully we’ve got Tetsuro to help with that).  We also get Remon silently trolling Ichika and Kanna being a bitch.  Oh, and did you know, Kaito’s beehive cancer is cured now, because it sure as hell hasn’t bothered him in a while.

Kaito and Ichika are both idiots, there is no way you can disagree with this.  Exactly what in the hell does Kaito and all of the others think that Rinon is?  I mean, it’s already been established that he is stupid enough to think that Rinon is just some animal, but now everyone else is too?  Remon brings this thing out in public, in the middle of the day, and they still act like it’s a completely normal life form.  Speaking of that, how did Remon even get Rinon, and where was she keeping her this whole time?  That could probably be considered animal cruelty, that is, if Rinon was a fucking animal.  However, Ichika is equally stupid; how in the world does she know enough about the Japanese culture to pass exams there, yet not know enough to know that you don’t make pasta with soba noodles, or there is no such thing as chocolate curry?  And that whole conversation she had with Kaito about how he would react to a real alien would have probably been a little too suspicious for me, but of course, I’m not as dense as a two year old. Is Remon the only person who has a head on their shoulders?  Well, Tetsuro kind of knows what’s going on too, but is too obsessed with Kanna to notice that anything is up with Ichika.

Anyway, the first half of this episode is (finally) spent  on making their movie.  Although Remon said she’d handle the script, it’s very obvious that it’s really about Ichika and the real reason she said the script would be written each day is because she probably plans to make it about Ichika’s everyday life on earth.  God, does Ichika not think that this is strange at all?  They just happen to be making a movie about and alien girl landing in their town, she just happens to be playing the alien, and she just happens to be staying with Kaito?  Hmmm…. sound familiar Ichika?  Man, I really like it when the main characters are clueless to everything except how to breathe.  This segment is rather entertaining, not just because it was what I was expecting the first time I heard about this show, but because it’s a good break from all the love quadrangles and such.  It does quickly change back to the standard format of the show, with this episode dealing more with Kanna in particular.

Now, Kanna’s a nosy bitch, but at least she finally admits it.  She goes to his house on a rainy day, pretty much to make sure Kaito and Ichika aren’t having sex, and even asks Ichika when she’s going to be leaving.  But at least then she finally realizes how much of a jealous obnoxious bitch she’s being, and talks to Tetsuro, who came to find her because Mio told on her, about her feelings for Kaito.  Speaking of her, does she just not wear clothes when she’s home?  Both times they’ve shown her at her house she’s been completely nude, and I can’t really see some high school girl who walks around her home naked as a terribly shy person.  Anyway, I really hope they give her a reason for liking Kaito, because he doesn’t really seem like too amazing of a guy; he’s a complete idiot for one thing.  In most shows like this, they’d at least have a reason why the obvious second banana girl likes the lead, either because she’s his childhood friend, he did something for her that was really nice, or some other stupid shit like that.  It might not be very convincing, but at least it’s a reason.  At least Tetsuro kind of has a reason to like Kanna, as generic as it may be, but he’s not an asshole about it, he knows that she doesn’t feel that way so he shouldn’t force himself onto her, unlike what she’s doing with Kaito.

But we do get something somewhat unexpected this episode at least.  Although in most anime the girl with the crush on the main guy would never tell him, or at the very least wait until the last episode to tell him, Tetsuro decides to make things a little more interesting and spur the show along a little bit by confessing to Kaito for Kanna.  While that was kind of a douchey thing to do on his part, at least it gives us something to look forward to for next week.  So good for Tetusro, even though it’s entirely possible he’s just doing it to see if Kaito likes her, so he can either give up on her or pursue her more, at least it got something moving.  Hopefully Kaito doesn’t just blow it off and act all awkward for the entire next episode like Ichika did – the last thing this show needs is more awkward teen angst.

Hopefully next week Ichika will tell Kaito that she’s an alien, and the story will actually get a little more interesting form there.  It seems like she’s a little more open to the idea because of their conversation, but I don’t think she really has anything to be concerned over.   After all, we are talking about the guy who thinks Rinon is normal.  You know what, I bet when she tells him he assumes that she means an immigrant.  Makes sense right?  She’s a foreigner, she had nowhere to stay – she’s an illegal immigrant.  But seriously, why do the two main characters have to be such complete morons?  Kaito claims that he isn’t going to be able to survive the summer, just because Ichika’s boobs are going to be too distracting, he’s too retarded to think that Kanna likes her, and he thinks Rinon is an everyday animal.  I don’t really have a lot of hope for this guy, and I call bullshit on this guy knowing how to splice and edit 8mm film.  Is it too much to ask for a harem lead not to be a completely oblivious retard?

Guilt Crown Episode 13 – Hell’s Gate

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Okay, with this episode, I can now say that this anime has some of the most stupid pacing I have ever seen in any television show.  And I had actually had some hope with all of the stuff that happened in the past few episodes that this show would get better.  Not good, there’s no way in hell I could call this show anywhere near “good” after all of the shit it’s pulled.  This show can only possibly achieve “mediocre” in my eyes if it has an amazingly awesome ending, which it won’t, but that kind of goes without saying.

We start this episode with a half-way decent setup; Gai has really died, the city has been destroyed, and GHQ has initiated a quarantine over a large portion of the city, including Shu’s school.  After all that we get a new opening, which is just as meh as the first, except there’s an older more serious looking Shu, so yeah, I’m not letting up on my Gurren Lagann jokes yet.  Anyway, Ayase and Tsugumi have taken refuge in the school as well, posing as students.  While roaming the school grounds Ayase falls out of her chair trying to pick up a track shoe (for whatever reason) and a couple of obviously asshole-ish people appear to offer their “assistance”.  Of course, Ayase can’t swallow her pride for a fraction of a second to let anyone help her back into her wheelchair, so she starts acting like a bitch to them, as she often does.  They talk like assholes for a second, then one of the assholes reaches for her chest, only to be stopped by Shu telling him to stop.  I’d like to point out that people like this don’t fucking exist.  What the fuck kind of high school boy would try to grope a paralyzed girl who fell out of her wheelchair?  A fucking rapist, that’s who.  What is the deal with all these generic douche bag guys in anime who just have to pick fights with girls?  Come on, if you picked a fight with a girl in real your ass would get made fun of so much.  Well, Ayase bitches some more about having anyone help her, and everyone leaves, with Tsugumi talking about how hard she’s taking Gai’s death, and about the future of Funeral Parlor.  Yeah, you got me there screenwriter, I really thought this was the end of everything.

So, Shu and all of his classmates have a meeting about how they need supplies, how long the quarantine will last, etc.  They begin to talk about how riots have begun in the city and how there have also been fights in the school, and that’s when Shu’s spastic friend (who’s name escapes me) has the most amazing idea ever: to have a cultural festival.  A fucking cultural festival.  The writers of this show have got to be out of their mind, a main character just died and we decide to do this shit.  Maybe I’m the only one who thinks so, but I think that Gurren Lagann handled this situation a little better.  I think Simon would have flipped his shit if someone suggested having a party after Kamina died.  And yes, that really is the main focus of this episode; everyone having a party to try to cheer themselves up.  Now, while that’s a pretty lame idea for an episode, just wait, the “villains” make it even better.

There are a few moments where we see Segai talking to a few people and commenting about making things more.  Obviously we are given no clue as to what he’s talking about, but you kind of come to expect it in this show.  Daryl also decides to make an appearance in this episode to, probably to show that he’s still alive more than anything else.  So, he has “infiltrated” the school and is posing as a student, even though he doesn’t make too much of an attempt to act like one.  Tsugumi runs into him and makes him carry some stuff for her while he continues to be a pompous douche, even when she gives him a candy apple.  Come on man, candy apples are awesome, you can’t not want one of those.

About this time all of the preparations for the festival are beginning and we’re introduced to our “villains” for this episode.  I use quotation marks because they’re really just a bunch of pathetic losers.  So they all gather on the roof of a building nearby the school looking down with disgust on the festival that they’re planning, and decide to attack them because they’re having too much fun.  Are you fucking kidding me?!?!  Who the hell do you think you are, the fucking Grinch or something?  How much a pussy do you have to be to be upset that a bunch of high school kids are having fun at a festival?  That is one the most pathetic excuses to attack something I’ve even heard in my entire life; we don’t like them having fun, so we’re going to kill them.  I mean, it’d make sense if they were going to ransack it for food or supplies or something, because it’s kind of retarded to be doing something like that in the first place, but doing it just to be assholes?  Just… wow… that is some amazing writing right there.  So here’s the plot for the episode.  A bunch of crybabies are going to attack a festival that a bunch of kids are having to make everyone feel better.  Give me just a second, I need to go cut myself to release some of this adrenaline.

Okay, I’m back (took me damn near an hour to wipe all the blood off my keyboard).  So where were we?  Oh yeah, Shu talks to Ayase (who had recently bitched Tsugumi out about her not being useful) and she once again whines about how she isn’t worth anything, Gai is dead, blah blah blah.  But then, The Grinch Gang crashes the party and Shu begins rolling Ayase away from the mayhem.  She stops him and tells him how much she still wants to help, even if she can’t use her Endlave, and look what starts happening, the void-circle-thing-a-ma-jig.  It turns out that Ayase’s void is a pair of bionic legs (why she can’t leave them on all the time, I don’t know).  She and Shu both kill the “terrorists”, everyone cheers (even though they kind of overlooked the fact that Shu’s power’s have been exposed), they strike a cool back-to-back pose the episode’s over… or is it?

Tusgumi manages to get the television signal back and turns it to a GHQ announcement.  And look who it is, good ol’ Commander Koudou (thought he was dead, but whatever you say).  He announces that he is now the acting leader of Japan and says that no trace of life can be found in the quarantine area.  He then says that it will be put under lock-down for the next ten years, and we see a big-ass wall rising around the perimeter of the quarantine zone. Ooooh.

Man, what a complete waste of an episode, and not just because of the stupid ass plot, but because of all the shit that happened last episode.  I mean, did they not feel the need to explain any of that, or am I just an idiot who didn’t understand all of that stuff.  The only attempt that this show makes to explain anything is Yahiro asking why he can hold his own Void now, to which Shu replies “My powers changed… I think”.  Is that really the only thing they could come up with to explain any of that?  You know what, I’m willing to bet that less than fifty percent of that shit that happened is explained by the end of the show;  $20 dollars right now, who’s in?