Anime of the Week: Guilty Crown

Well, well, well… I’m back with another Anime selection foryou to check out. I have no idea if anyone checked out the last one, but that’scool.  Someone will respond sooner orlater and just so you know, we do read comments around here. Now on to the goodstuff!

It’s very rare that to find a cartoon that isn’t at least afull one or two seasons ahead in Japan, so I was very shocked to find out that Guilty Crown was actually premiering onlya few weeks ahead in Japan. Imagine... a new Anime for both markets! Even so Ididn’t find out until becoming hooked on the show and was forced to wait forthe twelfth episode on Hulu.

The premise is that a terrible virus has struck Japanleaving it under military rule. They call the even “Lost Christmas” since it happenedaround the day of Christmas. The show begins with an internet popstar Inoribeing chased by the GHQ aka the military. She’s stolen a vile that when usedgives the person access to other people’s voids. A void is an item that peoplekeep hidden from others, but is the true reflection of them. Honestly it’s arule that is broken often in the show and only brought up when one of the mainsupporting cast members have their void used.

The main character’s name is Shu Ouma and he’s the key toeverything when it comes to the plot and I do mean everything. He of courseends up using the vile that Inori has and starts using people’s voids. Becauseof Inori and his fascination with her, he joins the Funeral Parlor. The namesucks and even though they explain the meaning it still doesn’t make any sense,but whatever. Soon enough this high school boy is training with the FP andgoing on missions that depend on him and his ability to take void’s out ofpeople. The funny thing about the voids is that they’re only inside peopleunder the age of 27, so everyone is younger than that.

The leader of the FP is named Gai. He’s basically the most badass of the bunch. He’s leading the crew of young adults against the militarywhich is basically fucked up and corrupt in many different ways. Now add inmech suits that are driven Matrix style by plugging in the drivers brain andyou’ve got a pretty big world.

What hooked me was Shu’s character… at first. I found itvery interesting that he was basically working with the FP then quit and wentback to school. Then they send Inori to keep an eye on him and that’s when itgets interesting. Later what becomes interesting is the storyline that surroundsShu, but his character becomes kind of lame. He’s constantly yelling at Gai andnever commits to any of his feelings which makes it hard to tell if he’s genuinelyfeeling anything at all.

I won’t say that it’s perfect and really there are severalepisodes that you can basically ignore. There are also some plot inconsistenciesas well more than likely due to the translation. The second episode makes itseem like the infected are a new race capable of doing more than humans(mutants), but this concept is completely dropped mid-way through the story.

Even still I enjoyed it a lot. The eleventh episode is byfar the best and really shows the power of the series. If only the otherepisodes were as strong. I get the strong impression that a lot was cut out ofthe Manga to meet budget and scheduling restraints. There is a kick ass openingand closing song for the show that I enjoyed so much that I never skipped them.The opening song tends to be used a lot in the episodes which started to ruin itscharm, but thankfully they toned it down in later episodes.

The last thing that grabbed me was the animation style. Sureit looks like a typical Anime in design, mech robots and everything, but this isone of the best drawn Anime’s I’ve watched. The production value on the show isintense and it gives it a movie look and feel to it. I think that the art andmusic really kept me coming back to the show and if it continues past thetwelfth episode I’ll still be watching. If this sounds interesting to you thencheck it out, if not… then I failed at my job, but hey I write about comicbooks and believe it or not summoning up twelve episodes of a show is verydifferent.

Last Weeks Pick: Maken-Ki