Credits to Yumekichi11 for this image stitch. http://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=173361

The first episode of Guilty Crown was hard to finish. No, it wasn’t because the visuals were bad, or that I felt that there were a lot of similarities with Code Geass.

This was because I had to stop myself from replaying the insert song over and over again in the beginning.

Aside from Euterpe, the insert song and supercell’s songs and singers (new ones this time) being infectious to my ears (as in, still playing as I type this post out), there are a lot of other references to viruses, infections and other forms of medical lingo in Guilty Crown. But I won’t delve too much into the specifics, don’t worry.

First of all is the obligatory Code Geass comparisons, which a lot of bloggers refer to when talking about Guilty Crown. Just like Code Geass, Japan is suppressed and simply referred to by a number (Area 11 vs. Ward #s). The people are also looked down upon, treated like lower status citizens, similar to the servant/serf noble system back in old ages.

Instead of the intelligent and cunning Lelouch, you get Mr. I’ll-Probably-Never-Amount-To-Anything-Unless-I-Somehow-Gain-Superpowers protagonist, Ouma Shu. But thinking about it, I’m fine with this as in real life, people like Lelouch are one in a million (probably over-exaggerating) any ways. Either way, this story isn’t without its cliche bits. Cowardly protagonist and generic band of friends, with a resistance movement and some badass characters to obviously fight the man.

And of course, the first episode is dedicated to introducing the plot with some nice action scenes, as well as Ouma going from useless to overpowered in the blink of an eye. The thought process is simple and overused: “I can’t do anything to change anything” -> meet a girl I really like -> “time to be out of character and die for a girl I just met” -> lucky, I’m the main character and I get superpowers instead of dying. The power of love.

However, while Japan is conquered under the royal kingdom of Britannia as a result of of their desire for conquest in Code Geass, in Guilty Crown Japan is brought down by an apocalyptic virus “Lost Christmas” epidemic in Japan, possibly giving up their nationality for a cure/vaccine to the multinational organization GHQ. Somehow you get the feeling that they’re the ones behind all this, as stories usually go. Profit over people, unfortunately. But who knows, I’m over-thinking it at the first episode already.

Guilty Crown seems to revolve around this virus concept. The Japanese people are few and far between; some are privileged, while some lay in the alleys, simply succumbing to their fate, or possibly plotting against it. I’m not sure how the main female protagonist, Inori (shown in the first pic), manages to be popular on TouYube while seemingly in the resistance group as well. Nonetheless, GHQ wants her for whatever reason there is, possibly the container she possesses, marking the Japanese as infected then proceeding to purge the area “clean” with blood in their Glasgows mechas just to chase her down. The Japanese can be considered already “deceased”, as Gai, a member of the resistance force, points out.

As Ouma gets his powers from saving Inori, it seems like he can be the permanent “cure” for the Japanese people as he slashes and hacks his way to a possible victory. There’s much more to be desired after the first episode, but Guilty Crown has be poisoned already and needing the antidote.

I skipped school and went to third period only again, as usual. I got picked on by my childhood friend, who gave me a headlock for coming in late. She was the class president, but only I got her special treatment. Even though I’d walk back every day with a sore neck, that was the part that I liked about her. Not to mention I enjoyed her company, even the pain, for that was the only reason I attended school in the first place.

She didn’t deserve me anyway. That bitch. I thought of the humiliation the other girl put me through last week, then shrugged it off. Her boyfriend was ugly anyways. Thinking in retrospect, she was as well. What was I thinking?

I decided to ask my childhood friend out tonight. Today was half-off day again at the supermarket. This time would be different. After school, we went to the supermarket. She would be buying groceries for home; I would be carrying out my master plan. She gave me her usual smile then walked off to buy off items from her list. Before leaving home, I asked my parents for this whole month’s allowance. I would buy all the items that were on sale today and have a grand dinner with her. Surely, she would like me even more than when we spent time together through our childhood. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that today she felt more beautiful than ever.

Thinking that I would pass all this off as an excuse to stock up for next week’s meals, I would go back with her to my apartment and I would quickly warm it up and present it with the best plates and cutlery, then confess. It was yet another foolproof plan. This time, I thought of something even better to carry forth my plan.

After a few minutes later, I heard a familiar voiced scream. An evil grin slowly grew on my face as I already knew what was about to happen. I quickly rushed to the scene to find out what happened. Next to her was a bunch of gangsters in red jackets, eyeing her intently.

“Hey girl, you look quite hot for just a high schooler. Wanna come with us?” A scruffy guy with a beard said.

“You should just listen to what he says and follow us.” Another guy said. There was a huge scar on his left eye. I assumed he was the boss, as he seemed more demanding than the others.

“N-No…get away from me…” she quietly uttered.

“:What was that?! You’re coming with us right now!” The scarred eye boss yelled. He started moving in towards her, with the rest of the gang following him. I could see the scared look in her eyes.

“GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF OF HER RIGHT NOW!” I bellowed. I blindly charged into the crowd, engaging the gangsters.

Despite how impossible the odds seemed, I beat them swiftly and badly. Punch after punch I landed, letting out my anger with each punch and kick that ensued. After awhile, they all fell, even the boss.

Using the last of his consciousness, the leader of the gang uttered, “This w-wasn’t part of the deal…” and fainted.

Tch. It had to look realistic, after all. I paid quite a hefty fee for all this anyways. The plan seemed good so far.

“T-Thanks. You really saved me,” she said, attempting a smile through the tears. “Thanks.” I could see she was still in shock as I helped her up from the floor.

“Any time.” I responded. “How about we head back for dinner? My treat.” My eyes dimmed for a moment due to the pain, but I had to keep going. The plan should be a success from now on.

“E-Eh?” she said back to me, as though surprised. “Sorry, I should go back now…my parents are waiting for me, after all.” She pointed to her bag, groceries still in hand.

“What? No, that can wait, right?” I nervously chuckled. No worries. She should be able to spend some time with me. Even an hour would be fine. It was all I needed.

“It’s ok. We can meet back at school, right? Don’t you be late again, got it?” She smiled mischievously back at me again, regaining her composure.

“NO! IT’S NOT ALRIGHT! CAN’T YOU FORGET ABOUT THE DAMN GROCERIES FOR NOW AND COME BACK WITH ME?!” I shouted at her, grabbing her hand. She fought back. I wouldn’t let her. This wasn’t all for nothing. Not this time.

“And just what do you think you’re doing, punk?” A voice from the shadows said.

I saw a flash, and then blackness as a man jumped out from the shadows and into the light, hitting me with the brunt of a roundhouse kick. I coughed up blood as I hit the pavement. More blood. I began losing what little strength I faked, almost blacking out from the force of the attack.

“You shouldn’t try to force a girl to do something she doesn’t want to, you know. It’s impolite.” the man said. She held his hand.

“Thanks for the help, honey. That guy can be a bit weird sometimes. Sometimes I don’t know why I was friends with him anyways. Shall we head back?” She whispered in his ear.

“Sorry, but I got something to do tonight. See you later, sweetheart.” A parting kiss, then they left separate ways.

“Sorry about that. My boyfriend can be a bit overprotective like that. See you tomorrow. You should be fine, right? Seeing as you beat up those gangsters and all.” Those were the last words I heard from her before she faded away into the night. I wasn’t going to cry this time. It hurt too much to cry.

I inched back home, intense pain still in my head. It was still bleeding. I thought about treating it for a second, but decided against it. It was yet another dark night. My parents greeted me with a worried face.

“Are you ok? You look really hurt. What happened?”

I went to my room and slammed the door. I crawled into bed. My eyes slowly closed as darkness engulfed my vision. I dreamed of us having the dinner I planned together. Us talking, laughing together. It would have been a nice night. But I guess I can’t even have that.

“I hope I bleed out tonight…” I thought.

First of all, it’s nice to see LiSA in action again as she performs in Fate/Zero’s opening sequence, “oath sign”. Her voice was certainly nice to see in Angel Beats, and I’m glad that she’s getting more exposure now. The animation is also solid as of now; we’ll see how this goes. We’re off to a slow start as the series introduces its cast, but we’re starting to get the cliffhangers now by the end of the second episode.

First of all, some masters are definitely going to have some problems with their servants. Waver and Iskandar are already off to a bad understanding, with Iskandar having more interest in re-conquering the world now that he’s back, with Waver wanting the Grail just to prove his teacher wrong. Well, he is the King of Conquerors. I can’t see how they’d get along well together with such little rapport. Waver did steal the artifact to summon Rider, after all, so he shouldn’t be in this crazy game in the first place. Rider does show a fraction of his power, though, so we’ll see how far they can go after they meet head-on with another master and servant.

Naturally, I’m interested in one of the protagonists, Kiritsugu. Just because he appears to have much more of a backstory and personality than Shirou. He reminds me almost of Hei from Darker than Black: Cold and mysterious on the exterior (with threatening titles as well: Black Reaper/Magus Killer), but with a tragic past. Of course, he is kind and caring to the people he truly cares about. I’m glad he and Ilya are getting along well, especially after when he didn’t even seem to look at the newborn Ilya. However, after seeing that King Arthur isn’t all that he seems to be, Irisviel says that he’s already given up. Just because he is a she? Or just because she, Saber (Arthuria), was forced to accept her fate as king after pulling out the sword from the stone? In any case, we also end up with a broken relationship between master and servant.

Now here comes the dangerous part. We have quite a situation here: Uryuu and Bluebeard. Two dangerous murderers who love to kill. Especially when Bluebeard, Caster, likes to drill hope into his victims then kill them in even crueler ways. Uryuu, a serial killer, is drafted as the seventh master, and the circle is complete. We have an understanding, and therefore dangerous, relationship between the two, and I’m not sure whether they’ll even try for the Grail, or just go off mass murdering anyone they come across. Another one to watch out for is Kariya, but I’ll talk about him after he takes action.

Something to look out for is also the relationship between two masters, Kirei and Tokiomi. Sure, they have an alliance, but it becomes seemingly broken when Assassin gets destroyed by Archer when Kirei sends Assassin in to kill Tokiomi near the end of the second episode. We also get to see a glimpse of Archer’s abilities as well. Too easily done in? Although knowing Kirei, he probably has something else up his sleeve. The animation sure was fluid during the infiltration part, though.

So here’s my two cents on Fate/Zero so far. Not that big of a fan of Type/Moon, but Fate/Zero is definitely going to be blogging material. On the approach to blog it, however, I’m not that sure yet.

It was the end of the day. A troubling school day. I headed to the supermarket, list in hand. Wallet equipped with only enough money to buy a cheap ben-to, I let out a sigh of disappointment. Nonetheless, I had to move on.

I pressed onwards towards the entrance of the supermarket. My Asian frugal senses began tingling. I knew I had to do this soon. Even then, I still waited for her. Suddenly, a whisper. I quickly turned around, expecting her smiling face to be there, as if to show off her mischievous smile. However, she was not there. I checked my phone. 7:02 pm. “She should be here by now,” I thought. “We promised at 7:00 pm today.” I checked the date on my phone. Perhaps it was the wrong day. Saturday. We definitely set it for today, didn’t we? I started doubting my own recollections. A quick shock ran through my fingers as the mobile phone started vibrating. Blood rushing to my head, I swallowed my saliva as I inspected the message that lay before me.

“Sorry! I know we promised last Saturday that we would go out and eat dinner together, but I forgot I had a date with my boyfriend tonight. We’ll do it another time!”

A sinking feeling began to take place in my heart. A boyfriend? Why wasn’t I informed of this? No one ever said she had a boyfriend. Not even her. Feeling depressed already, I had to take a deep breath of the cold air around me to regain my composure. Nonetheless, it was almost closing time. I had to go in now. It was almost time.

There it was. My eyes fixated on the treasure that lay before me. Half off. Half off tags everywhere. Ten minutes before closing time. Every Saturday. It was my tradition. It was my passion. My eyes quickly looked around, examining the tension around me. I was prepared to sacrifice my dinner just for her. But it looks like I’ll be left with cold turkey tonight. I saw the people move in. My fists clenched, and I was ready. I quickly dashed in to snatch my prize.

But what lay ahead was no fight. No brawl. Nothing that I expected. There were tons of meals half off. There were to be no competition. Impossible. Never before was a situation like this. I had watched that anime. There had to be a challenge. But there was none. My eyes almost began to tear up. A young girl, possibly in middle school. I could tell by the uniform. She slowly moved in towards my treasure.

“DON’T TAKE THAT! YOU WANT TO FIGHT?!” I screamed out in frustration.

This was it. Any second now. A fight to the death.

But nothing happened. “O-Okay…” she uttered as she began to tear up, slowly moving away. I slapped her hand away from the prize. It was to be mine. Mine only. There had to be satisfaction. I was drawing attention to the crowd. I had to leave now.

“Hmph…” I grunted, making my leave. I had won the battle. Yet another victorious day.

I walked back home, with prize in hand. I slowly unwrapped it, and began eating. It was to rain tomorrow, said the weather report. My parents hadn’t come back yet. “Their loss…” I murmured. More for me.

And I cried that night. My emotions took a hold of me.

Forever alone.

Based on yesterday’s leftovers.