.On October 13, 2011, there was an anime done by the writers of Code Geass and Death Note called Guilty Crown. Guilty Crown left a polarizing reception to the anime community; whether the bad aspects are a trainwreck writing style, inverse character development (especially from the main character, Shu), and plot holes; alongside the good aspects that are the beautiful animation, the setting, the music, and a few decent characters (like Ayase) that are sadly wasted.
Throughout the small fandom, certain Guilty Crown fanfics like Guilty Melody, Shackles of Guilt, and Reclaiming The Throne have fleshed out the narrative and made the setting and characters more enjoyable than the canon source material. Over the years, these stories and others from the first days of the anime’s fandom either remained unfinished or on indefinite hiatus.
Then on October 13, 2021,the tenth anniversary of Guilty Crown, Kanius (the author of Akane no Mai and Shin-YuYuGiDigiMoon) and Allfather-Ford thought of a reboot story entitled Akane no Guilty Crown. This improves on the show's flaws, fixes the characters' personalities and compresses the story's pacing into a limited OVA series. It works for the best of making this an OVA instead of a longer term main series in relation to real-life and the author is focusing on other things. New characters are incorporated into this story alongside the familiar cast. This is also meant to bring a renaissance in rekindling the anime fandom along with its interest with the setting.
Following Akane no Guilty Crown's release, in behind the scenes since it's the final "announced story", the author announce on his profile of no longer doing fanfic story/plot bunny requests due to concentrating more on his future.
Japanese Version: Fanfiction Link and Archive of Our Own (AO3) Link
Spanish Version: Fanfiction Link and Archive of Our Own (AO3) Link
German Version: Fanfiction Link and Archive of Our Own (AO3) Link
French Version: Fanfiction Link and Archive of Our Own (AO3) Link
Chinese Version: Fanfiction Link and Archive of Our Own (AO3) Link
The story provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The Apocalypse Virus outbreak occurred in 2029, thus setting up the rest of the story.
- Adaptation Expansion: This story expands more of the worldbuilding and sci-fi concepts that the canon anime never had the chance to do. One of which is the connections to real-life relations such as 2039 is the 100th anniversary of World War II.
- Bloodier and Gorier: With the M-rating, the story allows the use of brutal moments and deaths. The first scene that establishes this trope is in Chapter I showing Shu delivering the killing blow on the Fafnir rex, by slicing off half of its head horizontally that blood pours out of the death wound and soaks Shu.
- Breaking Old Trends: Akane no Guilty Crown is a huge breaking of old trends to past stories done by Kanius. It is the first stand-alone story after decades of previous fanfictions that focus on crossovers. It is the first that truly feels like a novelization in selective moments after the previous two series (Akane no Mai and Shin-YYGDM are like pseudo officials), with a different writing style that has no named attacks and no bold/italics location/timezone sections in the story narrative at the start of each scene, alongside averting Infodump in which any specific report-like information and explanations go under the All There in the Manual A/Ns.
- Past stories of Kanius take place in present/current settings, 1999, the 2000s, and 2010s as main/major focuses; while fictional settings taking place in the future don’t play main/major roles. Akane no Guilty Crown is the first to properly utilize science fiction concepts that bring the future setting the proper main/major focus.
- There are also no references of popular culture from story texts and dialogue, because this fan-story is written before the 2030s, and that human society hasn’t reached and experienced that completed decade yet in real-life. The only exceptions of popular culture being referenced are moments of whenever they take place in the real-life past.
- Unlike Akane no Mai and Shin-YYGDM that have the Adventure genre, Akane no Guilty Crown does not and instead has the Romance genre being used for the first time in a multi-chapter story instead of one-shots.
- Akane no Guilty Crown’s story is fully set in Earth throughout; unlike past stories and crossovers that shows other planets, realms and dimension travelling.
- It is the first story to have multiple language versions for international readers.
- Compressed Adaptation: At the same time, because this story is written like an OVA instead of a main series like Akane no Mai, it has both scenes/dialogue and summarized sections due to constraints of other real-life factors, alongside understandably related to the canon Guilty Crown remains a mixed reception to the general public’s eye (While Persona 5 is generally positive relating to Akane no Mai).
- Continuity Reboot: It is a fan-reboot of Guilty Crown.
- Crapsack World: Like the source material, society in Japan really went to hell after the Apocalypse Virus invaded it.
- Darker and Edgier: Than the canon anime itself since the story has an M-rating compared to the canon anime’s T-rated setting. Of all the three pseudo-novel stories (Akane no Mai, Shin-YYGDM, and Akane no Guilty Crown) done by Kanius, Akane no Guilty Crown serves to be the darkest due to showing the aftermath of an apocalyptic viral event and GHQ taking over Japan for quite some time in representing a dystopian future.
- Technically, in comparing this and Akane no Mai since both have the cast of Persona 5 involved, Akane no Guilty Crown is more solemn with the deaths of most of these characters from Lost Christmas and leaving remnant survivors. When the reader hears any music, there’s actually no presence and existence of Persona 5 music at all; showing that these characters are assimilated to a different society as a stand-alone narrative and not a crossover one like Akane no Mai. With Morgana gone for instance, relates to a loss of hope of the remnants. Akechi no longer has the passionate and unhinged energy he had in his game of being ‘Everyday Akechi’, instead he becomes a tired old man.
- Chapter XI onwards that starts the second half with the Episode 13 adaptation is where things get way darker relating to the canon anime's second half with the rise of Loop 7's walls.
- Establishing Series Moment: In behind the scenes of what the author states about Shu and his role in the reboot:One theme I could see is finding your true purpose in the world. Shu has yet to determine what he wants in this dystopian setting. Him meeting Inori, Gai, Ayase, and the others opens his eyes to a chance to fight for a better future and escape his mundane lifestyle. After finding his new purpose, he has found a chance to better his future and open his horizons to a world outside his normal one.
- The Government: GHQ serves as the organization that controls Japan.
- Lighter and Softer: On the other hand, it has these moments in balancing out the tone than the canon anime. Major instances are having the characters more likable/relatable, alongside the involvement of the Jones siblings.
- Series Fauxnale: In behind the scenes of Kanius’s three stories (Akane no Mai, Shin-YYGDM, and Akane no Guilty Crown) that composes the new triad, this Guilty Crown retelling would have been seen as a finale. Of course Akane no Guilty Crown will end before Akane no Mai’s Book II even concludes, meaning that after Akane no Guilty Crown will return back to the Akane no Mai continuity of return back in time to the present. On the other hand, the author of the story mention this:As for Akane no Guilty Crown being a ‘series finale/fauxnale’ for the pseudo-fiction/novel works, I could see it being the finale. I hope it’ll match the writing quality of my first novel at least, but we’ll see. It’s a story set in the far future, making it an ideal finale of the pseudo-novel trilogy (Akane no Mai, Shin-YYGDM, and Akane no Guilty Crown). It’s also fitting that the more grounded non-crossover story is the final one.
- Shout-Out: Heath and Akiko's Voids that are humanoid shape pay tribute to Stands, Legions, and Personas.
- Inspirations of the Reigizan are from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Rising of the Shield Hero.
- Being an AU sequel of Persona 5 feels like a
Spiritual Successor of Persona 3’s anime AU sequel Persona -trinity soul- as both are non-canon works to the Persona franchise.
- Stealth Sequel: It is revealed to be this towards Persona 5, taking place 23 years (2016 - 2039) after the events of that game.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Just like in the source material, the story takes place in the year 2039.
- The Virus: The so-called Apocalypse Virus.
- Wham Shot: The first instance of Adaptation Deviation in the prologue chapter is showing Ayase piloting the Steiner Endlave in its appearance in the final two episodes of the canon anime.
