What They Say:
The Fourth Apocalypse is upon us.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With so many different events in motion playing against the general idea of having Inori become the sustenance through which Mana can devour her and become Eve, Guilty Crown certainly starts off big with a good bit of action and a real sense of drama about it. But it’s also very personal from the start, since Shu had made his way to Gai and Mana and she’s beyond thrilled to see him after all this time. But the two of them are much different than they were before, especially in the physical sense since they’ve taken on the crystalline aspects to parts of their body. While Shu has grown overall, he still has no clue how to handle women though and it’s not a surprise in the slightest that he pretty much sets her off instead of calming her down and trying to find a way to defuse the situation.
With the added bonus of the adult side of the show adding to events, especially when it comes to Shu’s parents and the opposite sides they’re on, the series does its best to showcase large events at play here and a whole lot of violence. While we often see the adults as fringe characters in shows like this, incompetent at times at that, here they’re all fully involved and there’s a very enjoyable power struggle going on between them all, even as some of the cute young girls do their best to act bouncy at the wrong times in their skintight outfits. Most of it is just fluff when you get down to it, the final bit of closure for certain storylines or characters that need to have little things tidied up or just to have them participatory in the final bow of the series. It’s main focus is on that of Shu and the choices he makes here as he deals with Mana and Inori.
With the final bits of revelations made when it comes to what Gai has been doing, or even manipulated into when you get down to it, it continues to be surprising and somewhat shocking for Shu to understand. Gai’s return has been a curious if expected part of the second half of the series, but watching how he’s not like he was before but attempts to become a bit more humanized at the end, to try and connect with Shu by explaining what he was really up to does make a certain sense. It also adds some fun replay value to the show as you try to understand how much of it was in the series before but not easily seen, as he makes his final sacrifice and puts everything in the hands of the young again. Something that has hit Shu repeatedly in this series that he has a hell of a hard time handling.
In Summary:
While understated at times, Guilty Crown does go big here for its final episode as it deals with some of the lingering plot elements. But largely it deals with things at its very core, working with Shu, Inori, Gai and Mana over what the fate of the world will be that other adults have set up. There are basic and expected story elements here that are certainly familiar to long time anime fans, especially those with the science fiction background, but it’s well handled here and definitely has the proper air of something that’s reaching for greatness but did it in an awkward and confusing way at times, seemingly reaching out of nowhere for plot devices to let things advance. That gave it a bit of an unpredictability that I really enjoyed, but when you get down to the ending here, it hits all the right notes and does the expected in strong form. Guilty Crown is a series that has a certain magic about it, conflicting as it may be to some at times, but it’s a thoroughly engaging watch and one that offers significant replay value in the years to come. It may be the kind of series that truly develops a great little cult following and becomes something more.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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