webidolchiu94
Since: Jul, 2010
05/05/2013 00:00:00
An effective review of the series. I thought it felt hollow as well. The ending was just a Wham Episode that I couldn't handle. "Train Wreck" is right. Four more episodes would've been sufficient to end it on a less sour note. I for one was not thrilled at yet ANOTHER pink-haired cutie sacrificing herself to save the world.
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Better and worse? Heh?
(Written for episodes 13-22. Spoilers incoming!)
So the second “arc” of Guilty Crown is a moderate step up from the first. This is in part due to the pace of the show, which gets ramped Up To Eleven and Darker And Edgier in equal measures. However, this is also its downfall, because too much is laid out that only get hastily wrapped up in the last two episodes.
Character-wise, Shu and Inori actually start to develop, although not to their best extent. Shu’s Tragic Hero side is brought out in full force: he doesn’t get a break. Even his Start Of Darkness doesn’t help anything. Instead, the reality of trying to assert full authority comes around and brutally smacks him down. Inori breaks out of her emotionless-girl shell to solidify a persona: however, that mainly seems to be “love doll for Shu.” The introduction of Mana trying to control her mind is intriguing, though, but one wonders how much more the writers could’ve done if she tried fighting against her eventual fate more.
The plot’s improved and for the most part is more overt in its delivery. Ignoring the whole Daath shebang, which comes out of nowhere and concludes just as quickly, the whole downfall of Shu’s kingdom and the aftermath thereof is played engagingly. However, the various actions and motivations of the characters come to a head way too fast: “train wreck” is one way to think of it. One side is GHQ and resurrected!Gai, another’s Shu and the school (with Arisa as her own wild card), and then there’s the UN thing that comes out of nowhere.... All the different factions just amount to whiplash.
The ending is rather lackluster, to boot. Inori taking Shu’s burden and dying in his place seems to fly in the face of everything that the show was building up for, and Shu going blind is an ineffective bid for sympathy. Sure, the final few scenes were touching enough, but it feels... hollow? That’s a good enough word.
Final thoughts? Definitely could have been paced better. If Guilty Crown had been given four more episodes, it would have been able to flesh out its ideas better and give characters more satisfying conclusions. GC needed to finish strong to overcome previous stumbling blocks: instead, everything fell in on itself like an house of cards.