Week 10 - Guilty Crown, Jack of Some Trades, Master of None

The Anime Machine by Thomas Lamarre, pg 64-154

Having watched and thought about classic animes these past few weeks, I can't help but continually compare them to the anime of today. The example that comes to mind is Guilty Crown. An original 22 episode TV series produced by Production IG and aired during the Fall 2011/Spring 2012 seasons, Guilty Crown is the story of a highschool boy in a post-apocalyptic world finding himself involved in a resistance group "Undertakers" fighting against the international military group, "GHQ". The genres include action, drama, sci-fi, and even mecha. What was unique about Guilty Crown, however, was its extreme (over-)hype and high (unmet) expectations.

Guilty Crown was undoubtedly the most anticipated anime series of the fall season. To start off, the opening and ending themes are composed by ryo of supercell of VOCALOID and Black Rock Shooter fame and whose popularity has drastically skyrocketed over the past few years. The production staff included director Araki Tetsurou (Death Notes and Highschool of the Dead), series composer Hiroyuki Yoshino (Mai-HiME and Code Geass), and character designer redjuice (illustrator for supercell). The anime's Flash-animation-filled website was loaded with PVs and character design sketches, and much advertising money was blown at promoting the upcoming series. Guilty Crown was a modern anime expected to set the bar for 2012 and after.

What came out of the huge efforts, however, was arguably a mess. Too much crammed into one anime. Reviews and reception were drastically polar everywhere, but they mostly all shared the same evaluations for some aspects; artwork and animation quality was top knotch, music was stunning, plot and character development were terrible. Guilty Crown included mechas, but at such a unfocussed level that mecha fans were only disappointed. Guilty Crown included a playful tech-savy catgirl, strong-willed fighting wheelchair girl, and other niche character archetypes, but so over-the-top and out-of-place that it appeased no-one. The overblown teen-angst aspects of Shu did not attract fangirls like the male leads of Gundam Seed; they were so drastically unrealistic to the point that the main character was completely unlikable in personality. One of the only relatable characters in the series (*spoiler!*) dies half way and is forgotten by the end. It was quite easy to see the various attempts at different elements mixed into the series. The only problem was that none of those elements stood out. They tried too hard and the result was a mess.