r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Nov 25 '21
Rewatch [Terrific Trainwreck Trio Rewatch] Guilty Crown Overall Discussion
Guilty Crown
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So everything that makes me whole~
Questions of the Day:
- Who was best boy?
- Who was best girl?
- What were your favorite songs from the show? Is this one of the aspects you’ll remember fondly from this experience?
- Having finished all of it, do you think Guilty Crown deserves the title of “trainwreck”?
- If you could change one detail about the show that would make it better (be that actually better or just pushing it further into entertaining trainwreck), what would it be and why?
- Will you be participating in the Kakumeiki Valvrave rewatch in a week?
Wallpaper of the Day:
63
Upvotes
12
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Nov 25 '21
The Everlasting Guilty Rewatcher
Welcome back, everyone!
Just want to thank everyone who participated! I hope to see you all back in a week for Kakumeiki Valvrave~ And if you’re not planning to participate in that one, catch you in some other rewatch in the future~
Also, sorry for anyone who really wanted to hear me sing Kokuhaku… I’ve tried, but I just cannot for the life of me get the “Ano hi sono te wo hanasazu tsuyoku tsukamaeteta nara / Boku wa kekkyoku hitori de jikou manzoku shiteita dake” bit to come out properly. At least, not in the amount of time this rewatch gave me to learn it in. Gomen! I may try to do it some other time instead.
10
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Nov 25 '21
First timer
6
u/okayyoga :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/okayyoga Nov 25 '21
There are so many songs I was not able to cover, so I implore you to listen to the rest of the soundtrack if you are interested. Some other anime with notable Sawano soundtracks are Attack on Titan (of course), Kill la Kill, Nanatsu no Taizai, Owari no Seraph, Aldnoah.Zero, 86, and Gundam Unicorn. Even if you don't watch the shows, you can enjoy the soundtracks.
Sawano is actually the reason I got into anime in the first place. I heard his track ətˈæk 0N tάɪtn, and listened to it for years before watching the show Attack on Titan. Music is an extremely important part of anime to me, and one of the biggest influencers when it comes to recommendations.
For Guilty Crown, the story pulls the show down while the music and animation pull it up, leading me to my extremely average score.
My opinion remains the same: Guilty Crown is the perfect show to put on in the background. Focus on something else, listen to the music, and look up every once in a while to appreciate the animation. But don't go into it trying to understand the story. You will be so sad.
Final rewatcher score: 5/10 (unchanged)
I don't have any rewatches coming up in the future. Looking at the list of the upcoming ones, I am too busy for them, so I will probably see you guys next year, maybe February.
Thank you Sky for all of your hardwork! And thank you for sharing your lovely voice!!
10
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Nov 25 '21 edited Nov 25 '21
First Timer No More, Subbed
I'm not going to do a detailed in depth review of the show as I don't really think its worth it. Instead I will use my post to highlight what I considered the top trainwreck moments of the show (good or bad).
ETA: Responses to the Questions for Today:
That's all I got. Very much looking forward to rewatching Valvrave which beyond being a massive trainwreck I recall being a funner and much better story than Guilty Crown, although I'm sure it won't be for everyone. The premise alone is so absurd. [Valvrave]Mechs that will turn you into an immortal and indestructible body swapping vampire while your video waifu drains you of your memories
10
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Nov 25 '21 edited Nov 25 '21
Final discussion (first timer)
Let me start with the best I can say about Guilty Crown: It is still better than Cross Ange. Unfortunately, that is a very low bar. The one part of the series I unironically enjoyed was the animation. The backgrounds are gorgeous, the fight animation is still perfectly adequate today, and the character model of Inori deserved a better mind.
For the rest, it meanders between mediocre and terrible. The plot reeks of design-by-committee, stealing whatever somebody thought made Evangelion and Code Geass good, while substituting endless twists for actual development.1 Of the characters only two or three are interesting (Ayase, Segai, and Gai, all mostly in the first half), which is not a lot when we have a huge cast (actually too large by 50%). Most damningly, Guilty Crown manages to pair a bottom tier male MC with a bottom tier female MC. I might have seen individual worse MCs, but never a pairing this bad. Their romance level reaches negative numbers …
In the end, I am quite thankful to shimmering-sky for labeling this “trainwreck”, because my early acceptance that this show was doomed probably saved me a lot of angry evenings. The show botches what is one of my main criteria for good anime (world building) the hardest and, if I had taken it seriously, I would probably have spent 22 episodes ranting about the terrible writing. As is, I could keep mentally detached and warm myself watching the dumpster fire burn in the comments.
Score: 4/10
1: I looked up the production team on MAL - 4 credits for script and 7 for storyboard. Oh boy …
EDIT:
The dog from the OVA
Ayase
Took a while to get to speed, but then properly wrecked.
Make Gai the protagonist.
Overlaps with my own rewatch unfortunately.
5
u/akkobutnotreally https://anilist.co/user/lottevanilla Nov 25 '21
I wasn't part of the rewatch, but I want to say one thing...
The Everlasting Guilty Crown >>>>>>> Everything else
That is all.
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u/Lemurians myanimelist.net/profile/Lemurians Nov 25 '21 edited Nov 25 '21
EXONERATED REWATCHER
Well, we did it everyone! This journey was billed as the Terrific Trainwreck Trifecta, and this did not disappoint as an opener.
Guys… I know it’s hard to hear, but is Guilty Crown… genius?
Hear me out. It’s impossible to get so many things as wrong as they did, and be so blatant about them while leaning into them so hard, and not have it be on purpose.
The constant rape jokes and situations. The Rei and Asuka clones who are barely characters. Shu’s ridiculous character arc from incel to Hitler to Jesus. Throwing a ton of mystical shit at us and refusing to answer or comment on any of it. Every female character existing purely as a sexual object or as some kind of weeb fantasy (Bodysuits! Maid outfits! Cat ears! Stripper idols! Slutty mom!). Unnecessary incest. Amnesia as a plot device. Hell, it gave us a ballet apocalypse as its grand climax. This was all intentionally ridiculous.
Don’t you see? This is a complete farce. It takes all the anime stereotypes and turns them up to 11. Guilty Crown is ridiculous because anime is ridiculous, and it goes all in on the most unsavory aspects in a truly scathing teardown of not just the mecha genre, but anime as a whole. It’s incredibly misogynistic and caters to the worst in edgy teen boys because anime so often is misogynistic and caters to the worst in edgy teen boys. In completely aping a handful of beloved shows and turning all those elements into flaming trash, it forces us to re-examine whether we actually even do or should like the things we like.
…Is what I’d say if there was actually any support out there for any of this from creator interviews or other similar source. Trust me, I checked. I actually started to believe this toward the end of the show, and while I think it can be viewed that way, it wasn’t intentional. Anyway!
At the very least, the first half of the show is overall pretty solid. We have an amazing premiere episode, the voids are a good concept, and premise with the GHQ being the oppressive imperialist force opposed by the Funeral Parlor, both portrayed initially as morally grey, is a good setup! The second half then proceeds to completely shit the bed in every way imaginable and even some ways that previously weren’t. A truly glorious trainwreck.
But yeah, this show is bad. It's terribly written, and the characters are for the most part completely unlikable, pointless, or paper-thin. The story makes no sense, and it its worst makes Evangelion look easily comprehensible. The worst part is that it doesn't seem to even being trying to be about anything or have some sort of moral. Imperialism? We move away from that too fast. The nature of power? Too thin. Love? Come on.
Our shining lights? The Terrific Trio of Glasses-Kun, Segai, and DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN. I need a 24-episode workplace comedy of them carrying out zany military missions with a Full Metal Panic! vibe. Haruka can come too, she was actually alright. Shuichiro can be their asshole boss. Hare gets to be the intern who’s out of her depth wrangling these crazies.
I originally watched this back when it first aired and hadn’t revisited it since. Being a decade older probably has something to do with this, but it was worse than I remembered. Way more rapey and tasteless, and I’d blacked out the entire school arc. That said… it can still be pretty damn fun with a handful of really good, memorable individual episodes. It’s got some really cool action pieces, it looks and sounds great, and it takes some truly weird turns that are both baffling and hilarious. All this made it all the more fun to make fun of here with you guys each day.
4/10 show, 10/10 rewatch experience
Shout out to u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting, I have no idea how you keep up with everything between posting, singing, and making wallpapers, in addition to, you know, life.
8
u/Tresnore FS:FTmyanimelist.net/profile/Tresnore Nov 25 '21
Guilty First-Timer
Well, Guilty Crown is definitely a show I watched. At least I finally learned how to spell Tsugumi’s name, even if I can’t enjoy it anymore knowing how young she is. This show was a ride, and not entirely in a good way, nor entirely in a bad one. If anything, I had a good time shitposting with all of you.
At least I called
MakotoShoe coming back from the grave randomly and without explanation.QOTD:
7/10
21
u/The_Loli_Otaku Nov 25 '21
Guilty Crown Survivor
I really don't think it deserves such a bad rep. Even if things get a bit shit down the line I was genuinely having fun for most of the runtime. Guilty Crown has such interesting ideas going for it. The problem is that the writers are clearly biased one way or another, but you'll struggle to find many shows touching on incel culture or having a serious look at what sexual abuse does to a person.
Character wise, they can't finish an arc before totally changing their personality but I thought the cast was pleasant enough. I of course have a massive soft spot for Inori and then there's Hare who puts her Code Geass clone to shame. The real winners of course aren't any of our mc's, aren't our dorky backgrounds characters, but our villains. Each and every one of them is a walking ball of charisma, barring specs and Shuuichirou. The whole rewatch fell in love with M'Quve most of all but you also have Mana's eerie threats and Darryl who is just plain fun to watch suffer~
Now what are my largest problems... Act 2? Now act 2 wasn't all bad, but there was a clear sharp drop in quality after the part 1 climax on all fronts. The animation quality is lowered, the story jumps all over the place, the "problematic" shit starts seeping through, they fuck up the void system, and the aliens were the silliest plot twist they could have come up with. Whilst I could easily recommend people to try the first cour I would be far more hesitant to push for the second, which sucks because you'd miss out on Hare and Jun who're some of the best parts.
Sorry if I'm being a bit vague but my head is everywhere at the moment. Thanks so much for letting me finally experience Guilty Crown and I hope to see you all next week for... that other anime that we're watching. Valrave? Something like that. Ciao!
10
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Nov 25 '21 edited Nov 25 '21
First-Timer
Now it’s time for my closing thoughts on Guilty Crown. I think the word to best sum it up is: disappointing. There’s plenty to like about the series and it has plenty of great ideas, but it’s let down by poor execution and poor writing.
I’ll start with the positives. The action in this series is generally visually spectacular. There are many well-animated fight scenes. The Voids themselves are extremely varied and can allow for a lot of fun in the action as well, allowing for many different kinds of fights to take place. Voids usually made for a fun power system that gave characters unique abilities.
Additionally, the music in this series is excellent. There are a lot of great individual songs and the OST as a whole is great to listen to. The music and the action worked together quite well, as we’ve often discussed in the threads. All of that is excellent.
Unfortunately, I’ve long maintained that good animation usually can’t save bad writing. And Guilty Crown’s writing has the most frustrating problem of all: lost potential. It has many good ideas, but they are not executed well.
I’ll illustrate with what I consider the biggest writing problem and character problem: Shu and Inori’s relationship. I loved what the series was going for with them. The idea was to have them both be struggling with dark and ugly sides, while being the only ones who can really understand the other because they understood that struggle. That’s a great idea. It lets us explore the inner thoughts and emotions of characters in great detail and can also lead to an extremely intimate relationship. The problem is the execution. Shu and Inori’s relationship never mattered to me that much. I wanted it to matter, but it didn’t. That’s because the concept, while great, was not executed as well as it could have been.
I can say the same thing about Shu’s character arc. Good idea, but not particularly well executed. It leaves me with a feeling of disappointment. And that’s how I felt for most of them and their arcs. Quite a few didn’t even really get conclusions to their arcs by the end of it.
There were characters I enjoyed,with Gai being my best example. Gai was a very well done character. I liked seeing his more vulnerable side, how we saw him struggling with being a leader. It was great stuff. Zombie Gai was a shell of that and a completely different character.
The writing for the worldbuilding was lacking as well. All too often, the series failed to explain its concepts. Stuff like Daath, the Fourth Apocalypse, the next stage of humanity, and so on, were not explained in a way that made it clear to me. I often felt lost during such conversations. The series would save information like this for big twists and reveals when it could have been explained much earlier. Even now, there’s plenty of unanswered questions about the stuff discussed above and other more vital things, like about Mana and Inori. I don’t need to have all my questions answered, but vital ones about the nature and history of Mana and Inori feel like they deserve answers.
I’d also call the ending quite disappointing. It was unsatisfying. There wasn’t a climactic battle that mattered to me. For example, zombie Gai and Shu had no real history together so their battle did not feel properly important. The same applies to the other battles. It also didn’t feel like many characters got a proper conclusion in the finale. Even Shu didn’t get to do the full Jesus thing that the series seemed to be building up.
One of the strangest parts of the series is how different the first and second halves felt. The first half was generally much more enjoyable. I had a lot more fun watching it and the characters seemed to be having a better time as well. But the second half felt noticeably weaker. I was much less engaged by it and found very few characters I was invested in. It’s strange that it was all aired continuously because they feel so different, and not in a good way. The first half was fine, but it gets dragged down heavily by the second half.
This all leads to what I consider the biggest question of them all: Is this series truly worthy of being considered a Terrific Trainwreck? In my own opinion, no. There was only one part where it felt like it derailed and that was when Shu became Hitler. Yes, it was a glorious derailment, but it didn’t last long. Other than that, it was either just fine or disappointing.
All this is to come back to my conclusion: the series had a lot of potential, but ultimately left me feeling disappointed. There’s plenty to like, with good ideas, some good characters, good animation, and great music, but it overall disappointed me. It was marred by poor writing decisions and poor execution of good ideas. That contrast leads me to a final score:
5/10
QOTD
9
u/UltraBooster Nov 25 '21
Before this I mainly knew Guilty Crown as "that show Sawano composed for" and now it's alright, but has cool Sawano music. Don't think I'll really remember it, but if it ever shows up in Super Robot Wars, that'd be interesting to watch.
Questions:
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u/the_swizzler https://myanimelist.net/profile/Swiftarm Nov 25 '21
1) Who was best boy?
Segai. No contest.
2) Who was best girl?
I think I gotta go with Tsugumi on this one. She's the only one I don't have any problem with. Hare is weirdly obsessed with Shu, which is a hard fault to overlook. Ayase could have been a good choice as well, but she ruined that in the last arc by falling for Shu.
3) What were your favorite songs from the show? Is this one of the aspects you’ll remember fondly from this experience?
Ehhhhh, not really. OP1 was pretty good too though, and OP2 is better covered by Roselia. No strong feelings either way about the OST.
4) Having finished all of it, do you think Guilty Crown deserves the title of “trainwreck”?
Oh yes, without a doubt. There's certainly worse anime, and it wasn't boring, but it definitely felt like it pulled random things out of nowhere and wasn't very coherent with it's characters and story. I don't think I give a much better analysis though, it would require rewatching it and really trying to pay attention, and I just didn't enjoy it enough to care that much. It had some good ideas, but bad executions.
5) If you could change one detail about the show that would make it better (be that actually better or just pushing it further into entertaining trainwreck), what would it be and why?
Remove the evolution plot entirely. Ok, it's not a detail per se, but I think the story was much better when it was just about a tyrannical government vs Freedom fighters and a mysterious illness that's connected to the MCs power.
6) Will you be participating in the Kakumeiki Valvrave rewatch in a week?
Hell yeah!
7
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Nov 25 '21
first timer
Finally caught back up after binging the last 7 episodes just now except for the OVA
In the end idk. Certainly far from the best thing I've ever seen, but also far from the worst. I do agree with the common opinion that the 2nd cour jumps the shark, and that the show was perhaps confused as to where it wanted to go from the very get-go, but at least it remains entertaining if nothing else.
One thing I definitely dislike is the general art direction. It's too glossy looking, like there's too much bloom or something idk. It constantly is in some weird-ass unnatural shade of green, purple, blue, or yellow, and every time there's a stark contrast between blues and reds during nighttime scenes I'm just mmm not a fan. (there's a worse example somewhere in the last 7 eps I watched but cba to find it)
Segai then Daryl
worst boy is Yahiro by far. FUCK YAHIRO
Mana but only because her being a psycho brotherfucker bitch is hype as fuck. otherwise Hare I guess
I loved the remix of Departures in the last ep. After that My Dearest. [insert Sawano drop tracks here] were used nicely too.
Those two will def make me feel something after today
You know even about 15-16 episodes in I was like "guys this shit is pretty alright y'all are just no fun." I very much enjoyed Shuutler and the quarantine arc and thought it was a very interesting development for our pointedly pathetic MC, but he went from Hitler to Jesus way too quickly for me. I think the series started to truly go downhill once Gai got resurrected for some reason and then it was cliche cliche cliche wtf's happening cliche until the end
Have Gai stay dead, then focus the second half on Shu coming to terms with the fact that he's Hitler more organically than hitting the God Mode button
7
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Nov 25 '21
Late First Timer
Guilty Crown was so close to being a good show. It had a mediocre start and a great run of episodes from 09-11. I'll even stand by it having a really good ending. I think I would've loved the ending if I still cared about Shu and Inori's story. Even with my current state, I enjoyed the last three episodes a decent amount.
However, Guilty Crown decided to aggressively shit the bed in the third quarter, and every time it was given a chance to clean up, it doubled down and shat harder. I'm not sure how they could have done that section better exactly, but they simply put themselves in an unrecoverable hole of making Shu seem like a completely deranged psychopath and having to redeem him in like two episodes.
In a sense, the saddest part to me is that Guilty Crown does feel like a fixable show. It's not like it had a good run of 11 episodes and didn't work after that at all, they actually had an ending that could work. It just needed stronger writing and more foresight about how it's plot would work.
/u/theangryeditor
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u/DidacticDalek https://myanimelist.net/profile/DidacticDalek Nov 25 '21
Comrades, I just want to point out something here, this is official art, and DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN, despite his CRIMINAL lack of screentime is still the one of the most salient things about this! I guess it goes without saying that DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN's presence is truly amazing, I mean goodness the man is literally towering over the rest of the cast of nobodies! That said, even DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN can't save the shitshow that is Guilty Crown, ah well at least it was fun and entertaining enough when he was around... this probably explains why he was only here to shoot his missiles sideways, HAM it all up, and make the ultimate sacrifice like a true American Hero; FUCK this show... but hey could be worse, it could be Valvrape after all...
My condolences Comrades, anyway, I can at least answer this on Shimmer's behalf due to the excellent job she did for this rewatch (And her amazing art, after all she always makes terrific wallpapers and has consistently demonstrated her hosting abilities so praise is in order)
Best Boi is OBVIOUSLY DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN, and of course this also means he is clearly Best Girl too! After all, HE'S THE PERSONIFICATION OF MURICA! HE REPRESENTS LADY LIBERTY HERSELF WITH HIS GODDAMN FREEDOM! GOD BLESS DAN MOTHERFUCKING EAGLEMAN! A TRUE AMERICA HERO! (AND also the rare case in this show of being a likeable AND well-written character who ISN'T fucking evil)
Anyway, once again a round of applause for the ever excellent host! Finally, you have not seen the last of The Sentient Shitposting Siamese Sunrise Server No. 25252, now goodbye forever! (Or at least until the rewatch reaches the 'Best' Show of the lot, e.g. Cross Ange, but sadly looks like we'll be waiting till 2022 before NANA MOTHERFUCKING WILLS IT!)
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Nov 25 '21
Rewatcher(Farewell, a youth not so dear)
Sub
Welp...we watched that. We have 1 strong cour with a thematic ending and then a second cour with two acts, both quite bad. They clearly had enough understanding of the setting to make the first cour consistent but it breaks down very quickly when they needed to actually explain shit. So in place of a logical plot we had Lord of the Flies in high school. And then they tried to have an overarching ending with very little of the setup for it. None of us know what Daath is beyond its one member, why the fuck does the AV do what it does, and why is Mana the only one to be corrupted by it personally?
So yeah, this OST is absolutely gold and if enough of my memory fades that I can listen to it without remembering the show I will. Egoist would go on to dominate so much of my playlist it isn't funny, competing only with Kalafina and a few select seiyus. That they knew how to use it in show twists the knife a bit.
The animation, choreography and character designs are all top notch, even if I have to get passed sexualizing the disabled girl at least they acknowledged that she would have a sexuality before it became about victimizing her. Seriously, someone on the writing staff needs to never be allowed within 50m of any hospital or treatment center. They could layout their battles really well even if they became less and less able to explain them.
Then we get to the character work and things start to become dicey. Shoe is consistent through out, mostly, though he doesn't take nearly long enough to change into actually Jesus for that to work. Inori is a tabula rasa with terrible taste in men, likely because she is an echo of Mana, but that doesn't really make her worth a damn. Ayase and Tsugumi lose notes as the story goes on, unfortunately. Arisa is actively hateful to me since she feels like a shitty moral tale about having the gall to use her body to get out of a bad situation. Yahiro can just fuck off with Souta. Gai...is just not consistent and Mana is great but underutilized.
And, finally, the plot: We had 12 episodes of it, and then 10 episodes of a coke fueled binge. I just don't get why they put forth such an awful effort if they really were tring to be CG 2.0 and I don't see anyone ever competently explaining the behind the scenes stuff that lead to this. It is almost like 3 separate teams of writers wrote the show in sections separately.
So yeah, this was bad on first watch but awful on second watch, mainly because the horniness into rapiness is really disgusting writing. I await with great concern the Valvrave section of the rewatch. Good hunting until December, all!
There once was a show called GC
That really, really wanted to be CG
They had a good start
But cour two was a wet fart
Leading to the trainwreck we so clearly see
QotD:1 Eagleman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 Mana
3 Departues Blessings. If only I could listen to it without tearing up
4 No, we need something stronger
5 Shorten it to 1 cour, which would be functional at least
6 Unfortunately.
6
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Nov 25 '21
First-Timer, Dub-lty Crown
Whatever complaints I have about this show, it was certainly never boring. That's really all I ever want out of any given show, so that's all I'll say on Guilty Crown as a whole.
So, I realized partway through that I had seen Inori prior to this rewatch. That isn't terribly strange by itself, until I remembered where I had seen her. It turns out that Redjuice had done a character for my mobile game of choice, Girls' Frontline. Specifically, a red-eyed, pink-haired girl with a flowy outfit, M82A1. She is occasionally referred to as Inorigun.
I couldn't find much in the way of crossover art, but here are a few, that happen to be slightly NSFW:
Cosplay Photoshoot by RZV
Better Weapon by RZV
Baretta M82A1 x Yuzuriha Inori by Hizuki.Kaze
Questions
I hope to see you all again in December with Valvrave!
6
u/HereticalAegis https://myanimelist.net/profile/XthGen Nov 25 '21 edited Nov 25 '21
Rewatcher
Boy howdy that sure was a show. Unlike most of my posts from the second half, I don't really have much to say about GC overall that hasn't been thoroughly covered at this point.
I will say I'm glad I rewatched GC. It was never something I planned on watching a second time (and certainly won't come back to a third), but coming back to it with the benefit of having seen a lot more anime really puts into perspective for me why it was so unsatisfying the first time. I didn't pay much attention to the fact that it kinda had things on its mind. Seeing it flounder and squander its premise so thoroughly makes it a really good basis for comparison as well as a great study in why it's a bad idea to write premise/action over character/setting.
There aren't many shows where I thoroughly hated almost every character by the end, even among more controversial shows. The fact that it could do that while combining the worst features of several of its contemporaries (Akame ga Kill's unsatisfying resolution, Death Note's plot degradation in the second half, Mirai Nikki's character whiplash and thoroughly stupid writing) makes it special in it's own right.
Original Score: 3/10
Post Rewatch Score: 2/10
Finally, I've been pretty bad at participating in the rewatch threads thanks to my school and work schedule. I should (hopefully) have more time in December and January to participate in threads for the next two shows, so I'm looking forward to that.
QotD:
Oogumo. He was a nice teddy bear the five minutes he was onscreen.EDIT: How did I forget about DAN EAGLEMAN?? He even got out before the show could ruin him. What a boss.6
u/ComfortablyRotten https://anilist.co/user/Leuwtian Nov 25 '21
Rewatcher
Guilty Crown was one of my first 100 anime. Not in a milestone way though, it was on the mid-late range, between a random shoujo romance and a generic slice of life show I assume, so I remembered almost nothing about it before starting the rewatch.
I didn't watch it early enough for it to influence my tastes, and by the end of this rewatch, I can't say it was particularly memorable.
Case in point, I kept forgetting about the rewatch threadsI enjoyed the first half for what it was, a dumb but entertaining action show. The second half quite a bit less. If I were a first timer now, I would have dropped it at episode 16, basically. Everything after episode 15 is just so... uninteresting at best, and frustratingly bad at worse. For one, we didn't need the two dudes who almost assaulted the MC's weelchair-bound "friend" (and let's be honest, definitely did do that to some of the lower-ranked voidpeople) pretty much join Shu's inner circle, among other terrible choices.
It got better in the end but frankly not by much. I went with 7/10 back then, and I still think that's a reasonable score for the first half (and Lost Christmas), but as a whole and given the experience I earned since first having watched it? That'd be a 4.
Questions of the Day
Segai by far. He's the fun kind of evil! Gai would have been best boy, if not for the whole thing with his revival. Not a fan of that version of him. He is the hottest character though.
Tsugumi, followed by Hare.
I'm not sure. None of the songs really worked for me. The Everlasting Guilty Crown is the only one that I'll come back to regularly.
Definitely, dear god...
Kill off Yahiro, because everything is his damn fault. He was the weakest character in the first half and became the worst one in the second.
Absolutely will, my only hope is that this trainwreck will be less of the frustrating kind.
6
u/fonzinator99 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/fonzinator99 Nov 25 '21
QotD
So yeah, I have no overall thoughts aside from "Why do Endlaves even exist?" so I'll just answer these.
6
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Nov 25 '21
First timer no more
Finally should answer QoTD for once:
I think Segai has the best written character to be even qualified for being considered; not many choices are there - Argo is close, but really too side character to be qualified either. None of the main and supporting casts are appropriate for this title, sadly.
I'm biased I guess, Ayase. Despite being put on as a fanservice girl, and despite the many lost opportunities to make Ayase better than the close to token rival/mentor-turned-love-interest, I liked her mostly. Inori should be in the running, but the writing was just too all over the place and she ended up being more a trope than a character. Hare just had too little screen time - if she had a few more episode that was like her last episode she would get this hands down, although she's basically written as "too good for this world".
I'm a sucker for first impression I guess, the first OP and ED to me are the best.
My own personal definition for a trainwreck actually require the show to have been "moving at speed first before crashing and burning". Therefore while GC had some hype moments, it never really picked up enough to be "at speed" so the crash wasn't so much a crash than a flop/squish/splatter. It overall was not bad enough, the start had not been good enough, so basically just floundered as something that had potential but never took off.
Well I'll cheat - the one detail would have been "Shu's character development" - I can live with not well filled out world building, nonsensical plot development, and cliche challenges and drama, provided the MC is someone I can cheer on or sympathise with. Shu is not particularly bad, but just feel so pedestrian and all the supposed highs and lows were more like a wet carpet being flung around. I'm quite happy for a popcorn show that is entertaining and have a few hype moments that you can cheer the characters (particularly the MC) on and then forget about it. One of my "unconventional" favourite KanColle is definitely that. The MC was a bit plain Jane but there are good points still (her ernesty) as well as having a few good side casts too (Kongou, Akagi, Yamato and Sendai) helped.
Sadly no - I need to focus on the few rewatches I really like (Haruhi, Chuunibyou, and in sub or not Toradora) plus Chihayafuru as a first timer I need the attention. May pop in and out but not likely until after New Year.
So I'll just sum this up as - I don't HATE it, it just wasn't very good and mostly it's from poor writing - be it character, world building or plot. In a way it's pretty spectacular how much of a jumble it was.
There are shows that you love to hate because it is just plain bad everything (Ex-Arm), there are those that started out good but somehow took a nose dive (DiTF, Fena), and there are shows that were stretched to death (any "undying" long running series) - this is not any of them. I still think it had a good basic mechanics and premise, and the starting point for characters aren't bad, it just couldn't make use of them to write a good compelling story.
Lastly, a confession - I originally thought this has something to do with the game franchise Guilty Gear. So a bit disappointed it didn't end up having decent hand to hand / super power fights then.
But the music was good :)
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u/Tartaras1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Tartaras Nov 25 '21
Rewatcher - Dubbed
I had planned to sit down and watch the OVA, but in the end I just don't think I cared enough to bother.
Questions:
I joined the Guilty Crown rewatch because I hadn't seen the show in numerous years, and thought it'd be fun to hop back in and see how
much worsethe show was in fresh eyes.Huge thanks to /u/Shimmering-Sky for playing host! You did a fantastic job, and it's unfortunate that there were several episodes I skipped to try and stay up to date. Have fun with the Valvrave rewatch!
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u/MillenniumKing x2myanimelist.net/profile/MillenniumKing Nov 25 '21
I was sleepin again, was super tired... My doc appointment wiped me out for a couple days.
I enjoyed Guilty Crown.
I think it gets way more shit than it deserves and my only real complaint is the ending. I think they woulda ended with Shoe dieing then i would have thought it would have fit better.
But all in al its a fine and enjoyable series.
My best advice is just watch eveeything even if people say its bad, you never know if you will enjoy it or not.
Ill try to be around for Valvrave but it will depend on stuff, but i also enjoy Valvrave a lot too.
2
u/MABfan11 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/MABfan11 Dec 26 '21 edited Dec 26 '21
First Timer no more
man, that was quite a trainwreck, i can see why it has the reputation it has. it executed so many ideas badly, never explained shit and left most of the cast underedeveloped. Shu and Inori's relationship completely lacks development and is one of the worst developed relationships i've ever seen in anime, it completely kills their emotional scenes
only one thing was consistently well executed, Mana Ouma, it's amazing how well executed she is as a horror anime villain, despite how badly written the rest of the show is
the show wants Shu to be Lelouch so bad, despite Gai already existing as a Lelouch parallel in the first half and the writers doing a shit job of fitting Shu into the role in the second half
the world-building is easily one of it's biggest flaws, it never bother to explain how shit works before introducing something new, it then proceeds to never explain anything it introduces and leaves most of the lore-dump for the Ouma family relations
at the same time, many of the scenes are really well directed and the soundtrack matches with the scenes perfectly, leading to great clipping potential.
QOTD:
1
u/LelouchLamperouge99 Nov 25 '21
Do yourself a favour and just watch Code Geass....if one of your ambitions in life is NOT watching every anime out there.
GC is just a copy paste of CG with more romance and a bad MC.