Random Curiosity

「捕食 prey」 (Hoshoku)

At times, it feels like Guilty Crown is on the verge of shaking off the jitters from a rocky start, but every time the series is about to, it has a knack for injecting a sudden development with no precedence or build-up and expecting viewers to get emotionally invested in the subsequent scenes.

「夏日 courtship behavior」 (Natsubi)
“Summer’s Day”

It’s a breath of fresh air to see someone other than Gai take the initiative, though I never thought I’d be saying that about Hare of all people.

「輪舞 temptation」 (Rinbu)
“Round Dance”

More so than what kind of series Guilty Crown is trying to be, this latest episode left me wondering what kind of series the writers want it to be.

「檻 leukocytes」 (Ori)
“Cage”

I haven’t been as harsh on Guilty Crown as some viewers who may or may not be trying to find faults with it simply because it’s popular, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking at it objectively either. If there’s something that I find irksome, you can be rest assured that I’ll bring it up, much like in this sixth episode where I felt there was a serious discontinuity in the characters’ behavior from the previous week.

「訓練 a preparation」 (Kunren)

In the back of my mind, I knew better than to trust a pretty face and already suspected that Gai might be using Inori to get Shuu to join them, but I’m still kind of disappointed with the cold shoulder that Inori’s giving Shuu all of a sudden. The only thing worse than a tease is a tease with a manipulative ulterior motive, regardless of whether she’s simply following orders or not.

「浮動 flux」 (Fudou)

After the cliffhanger last time, Guilty Crown takes a noticeable turn for the better in terms of showcasing complexity in the characters, building up the story, foreshadowing future events, and most importantly, avoiding any questionable plot developments that viewers may dwell upon prematurely. At the center of it all is of course Shuu, who’s now at a crossroads on who to trust.

「顕出 void-sampling」 (Kenshutsu)

It’s somewhat regrettable that I may have inadvertently hyped Guilty Crown too much — at least for our regular readers — because rather than impressing audiences with everything that the series does well, it’s now struggling to live up to everyone’s high expectations.

「適者 survival of the fittest」 (Tekisha)

The Power of Kings along with a gorgeous singer saying she’s mine and all I have to do is help liberate my country in return? Where do I sign up for that? I’ll take two please.

「発生 genesis」 (Hassei)

If there’s one thing that I was worried about coming into Production I.G’s sci-fi post-apocalyptic original noitaminA series, it would be the inadvertent reader hype created by my own anticipation, both in the Fall 2011 Preview and the site’s banners.