Guilty Crown EP 05-06 Roundup14

Summary:

Unlike the last roundup post of episodes three and four—which had quite a lot in common in terms of both highlights and disappointments—this week’s duo proves to be surprisingly dynamic. For starters, episode 05 came as a welcomed answer to our critical prayers, with Ayase fans entreated to a well-balanced ‘tsundelicious’ feast. I for one loved the perfectly executed juxtaposition between her and Shu; my favorite part being Ayase’s take down on Shu for foolishly taking pity on her being in a wheelchair. I would even have to say that Ayase, dressed in her business casual, could easily compete for my favorite girl of the series, while she also clearly wins in the personality department as well, as her tsundere inclinations easily trump Inori’s emotionless demeanor. Alhough Shu will most likely end up falling for Inori in the end, adding Ayase into the mix gives promise that maybe she will eventually insert herself between the two—a twist I wouldn’t mind seeing. Though it was largely overshadowed by all the focus on Inori and Ayase, we finally are able to have a formal introduction to some of the important faces behind the Funeral Parlor organization among many key members: Shibungi, heavy weaponry guy, Oogumo, and Argo, who looks like he’ll evolve into a close friend of Shu’s, outside of being used as a Void source like Inori and Kenji.

Crossing back over to Inori, I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed with the blatant cold-shoulder directed at Shu as of late, despite whether or not it was all a misunderstanding. Taking a step back, I can easily sympathize from Shu’s point of view—after all, the girl that practically handed her life over to him is now presumably sleeping with Gai. The major problem I had with these little nuances being sprinkled throughout the story was not in the way things were handled in their introduction (episode 05), but rather in the sloppy way in which they were resolved in the sixth. One factor of note in the latter—among many issues at play—were the behavioral inconsistencies that sprang up all over the place. The most irksome in my opinion were the events that led up to Inori approaching Shu to offer the opportunity to get to know Gai better. If the simple fact that she nonchalantly confronts him after conveniently forgetting telling him to ‘never talk to her again’ isn’t strange enough, Shu’s reaction of returning the cold-shoulder, only to wind up apologizing for being so formal should be an evident tip-off. I figured he would have at least held his ground for at least a minute after learning that she manipulated him, but he continued on with the self-pity approach instead. Call it kind or oblivious, but these blatant inconsistencies in Shu’s character—a willingness to trust again so soon after being betrayed—could possibly spell disaster for his future.

What’s more, Gai purposely uses Inori’s “infidelity” to prompt Shu to initiate a short-lived fist fight over her and Kyou’s death, ultimately concluding with yet another suck-up as Shu decides to support him in his cause (maybe we haven’t considered the possibility of amnesia?). From Gai’s confession to whom he believed was Inori and the way he displayed little faith in Shu, it sounded like he had already resigned to the idea that Shu was beyond convincing, which made it even more jarring that Shu magically fixed the situation by deciding to help, completely negating the understandable impression left when her first declined Funeral Parlor’s invitation. In the end, it felt like the majority of the time in this episode was spent erasing the premise the characters and their personalities and ultimately reestablishing their identity.

As I’ve mentioned countless times, I always try and take each episode for its face value—whether or not this prevents me from seeing, and then later dwelling on questionable developments is something else entirely. What began as a few head-scratching moments has progressed to the point where I feel it appropriate to point out some inconsistent “facts” introduced thus far in the series. The first goes all the way back to the very first episode in the way pain is apparently transmitted from the Enlave to the user. What at first seemed like a tinge for every blow made to the user’s Enlave is now getting a bit out of hand with the specificity of the pain being experienced—almost to the extreme where you can see the depressions around Ayase’s neck after being grasped in a choke-hold by Lt. Yan. And the final palm-to-face instance involves the strange Void combination created from Kenji and Inori, which pretty much came out of nowhere—Inori dramatically lit-up, unprompted by Shu, and “shot” her Void through Kenji’s gravity gun and saved the day. I normally wouldn’t give a second thought to a sudden development like this as long as the end result is decent, but the whole exaggerated laser gun idea just screamed cliche and little forethought.

Amidst all my confusion in episode 05 and particulars in the latest, there were still a few notable positives to take away. Again, the introductions of the other members of Funeral Parlor were a nice change to all of the attention—both good and bad—allotted to Gai and Inori. Another topic of interest that is slowly building presence are Shu’s vague memories of a possible childhood relationship with Gai, prompted first by the sight of the girl who resembles Inori. My prediction is that their past will serve as the a minor branching plot somewhere in the future, so it was good to see due attention given. Likewise, the prospect of new character, Yuu, should bring some interesting development to the table. Shifting gears to Shu’s personal life, the preview for episode 07 promises a welcomed introduction of the student council president, Kuhouin Arisa, whom we caught  brief glimpses of during the OP’s. Although it would be nice to revisit a school setting to provide for more thorough development of characters, like Arisa—and see where class chairman Kanon has gotten off to after being the victim of Shu’s clumsy boob-grope—my main goal is to hopefully see more of Menjou Hare, Kanon’s best friend and pretty much the only one genuinely concerned about Shu’s safety after he is taken by GHQ. Of course, my intentions might be somewhat selfish and on-tangent, but it would definitely be nice to see another female character (besides Inori) take the spotlight for a change.