2011-10-14, 07:06
|
Link #542 |
|
Kana Hanazawa ♥
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: France
Age: 37
|
That was a very strong premiere. Outstanding animation, fantastic music and beautiful character design. This is definitely the blockbuster of the season.
Sorry to bring up Code Geass for the billionth time in this thread but... this really did give me strong Geass vibes. The basic premise is pretty much exactly the same: in an alternate version of Japan that is under the oppression of dirty evil gaijins, a young man meets a beautiful girl and awakens a supernatural power (it actually seems based on science here, but it seems supernatural enough to me). Nonetheless, the atmosphere of this episode was still different enough for me to enjoy it - no, LOVE IT. My only complaint about the first episode would be the terrible main character. He spent most of the episode asserting how beta he is, even though the sole fact he's voiced by Yuki Kaji already made that clear. Thankfully, he seems like the type of character with the potential to quickly man the fuck up, so it's okay. Furthermore, the little snippets of his past we were shown did a good job piquing my interest regarding him. He might turn out to be an excellent main character. Inori was as lovely as thought she'd be. After it was announced Kayano Ai wouldn't be the one singing, I was afraid the transition between Inori's normal voice and singing voice would be as jarring as in Macross Frontier with Sheryl, however that wasn't the case at all here. Both voices sound similar enough. Lots of people are rightfully praising Kayano Ai, but I believe Chelly deserves some of that praise too. She truly has a beautiful voice. Hotwheels sadly didn't have a lot of screentime in this ep. It was still enough for me to notice HanaKana was using her badass voice for her. This is promising. Gai was cool. Maybe too cool? I felt they tried a little too hard to make him look good during the beat down scene. Ah, whatever, I don't mind. I agree he's most likely the boy seen in Shu's flashbacks, and that the girl isn't Inori despite the strong resemblance. We'll find out in due time. As I typed this, I realized I liked it even more than I thought. I can't wait for the next episode!
__________________
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 07:09
|
Link #543 |
|
(¬‿¬)
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Boyzone
|
Solid opener. The art was gorgeous, but I thought the mecha design wasn't as good as I wished it'd be. Lots of nicely animated action scenes, but what stood out to me were all the glorious explosions. The music in my opinion wasn't that great and sometimes sparsely used but was competent. The episode kept a nice tempo overall.
Gai seemed like a calm "bad-ass" character, but I thought his handling of those thugs were overkill. Especially with the last guy he dealt way too many blows to. Hoping there is a nice OP song and sequence next week.
__________________
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 07:26
|
Link #545 |
|
...
Join Date: Jan 2009
|
Seriously, a few pages back I've been seeing more "We shouldn't compare F/Z and GC" lines than the actual comparisons. Where did that come from? Haven't seen a bland comparison of these two, but I agree they shouldn't be compared. Definitely can't deny I got extreme Geass vibes at certain frames but when I first read the summary I figured that would be inevitable..
 Pretty sweet visuals, intriguing first episode, this is surely going to be an entertaining show. Nothing too original of course but as already said the characters make the story and you can have the same starting scenario played out in a million different ways with just the different characters. The music is also pretty nice (especially liked the chants when Shuu got into this Void Genome and afterwards, just cut the overboard rock part off XD), Gai's scene was soo overdone it was funny again, so yeah, some epic scenes some fail scenes but definitely entertaining as hell. The characters are a bit of a letdown so far (Inori - "I have a magic body suit, I can sing, but if you'd meet a person saying my lines irl you may think I'm a bit backward") but it's only the first episode and Shuu seems like he'll take a major turn with this power now so let's see and enjoy this ride as long as possible 
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 07:33
|
Link #546 |
|
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Age: 37
  |
Guys, I think my mind was blown after I watched the 1st episode of Guilty Crown especially when Shuu possesses “The Power of Kings” & cuts the mecha in half!
When is this turned into Code Geass minus Deus Ex (Or GITS)? |
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 07:40
|
Link #547 | |
|
I dunno what to write.
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Canada
|
Quote:
I really enjoyed the first episode, my favourite of the season. I can't really judge mecha shows' first episodes, I just have to see if I like the atmosphere, production values, and see if the characters/plot have potential. That was all achieved here. MC is annoying but I think he'll grow. |
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 08:22
|
Link #549 | |
|
Senior Member
 Author
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 42
 |
Quote:
 While I respect how the Makoto Everyman archetype is, yeah, a bit overdone in modern anime, I feel like defending Shu here a bit. Let me just draw a (hopefully unique!) comparison here. To me, Shu is much like Narumi in Kamisama no Memochou. And while Narumi took some heat (from me as well I admit ), I don't recall his character getting criticized quite this much.Also, I don't know how we can question Shu's ability to act like a man when he threw himself into a literal warzone, and proceeded to destroy an enemy mech with a swing of his mighty blade. I admit that I wish that these Makoto Everymen didn't have a tendency to freeze in conversations so much, but other than that...
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 08:29
|
Link #550 | |
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: In my room
|
Quote:
but the main problem for me is him cutting down a mecha robot. It just seem not so real for me with the them the first episode show. With all of the mecha firing missiles and sub machine gun, then we are shown that the MC with his big ass sword can cut down a robot 3 or 4 times bigger than a human being. It just didn't suit with me. Well I will wait for further judgement but it just doesn't seem fitting at all.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 08:38
|
Link #551 | |
|
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 42
|
Quote:
Judging by its size in the PV, it was clearly going to be pretty powerful. I myself tend to dislike incorporating magical/fantasy elements into a sci-fi story, or sci-fi elements into a magical/fantasy story, but if you blend the two together in an upfront way (think of Star Wars) I have no issue with it. Better for Guilty Crown to blend them now, in the very first episode, then to wait until Episode 6 or later, and then say something like "Oh, by the way, there's a Wasp Queen Goddess in a major role here. Yeah, she plans to destroy the evil government". 
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 08:43
|
Link #552 |
|
We're Back
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Redgrave City
Age: 35
|
Now that all the first episodes of this Fall season is out, in my honest opinion I think Guilty Crown really have the best visuals and soundtrack of them all. THAT SAID, obviously everybody's going to be putting their best foot forward at the start but it's a different story if they can maintain this quality throughout the 2 cours.
But enough with that. I think the story and pacing turn out to be pretty good and there's no reasonable argument against it, but is it a bad thing to be constantly urging them to hurry up in your head every step of the way ? Throughout the entire episode I was impatiently waiting for them to reach the 'Real Starting Point' of the story- Which was Shu getting his Power of the Kings.On to the two main characters, Inori is cute and beautiful and sexy and pink-haired, but I really hope she doesn't overplay that cryptic card too often... And I question why is she doubling as a cyber songstress ? I suppose this is one of those ways to 'get the message out', I knew it was coming but now that I actually watched the episode it's a nagging feeling stuck in my head As for Shu I am completely understanding- that is totally the normal reaction to have when people start pointing guns at you, anybody that said otherwise is a liar or delusional. BUT, being realistic doesn't mean I have to like it
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 10:07
|
Link #556 |
|
WHERE'S...MY...COW????
Join Date: Dec 2007
Age: 34
|
What's with all the comparisons to Fate/Zero going on? The shows have nothing in common I can see. Couldn't, I don't know, both end up being good shows? I like both thus far.
The Code Geass comparisons could be more warranted I suppose, but I don't quite get them either. In any case, the episode didn't necessarily wow me, but I'm definitely interested enough to see where it will be going. The animation and music at the very least were outstanding. Shu isn't the most compelling character, though his reaction to being threatened to be killed was pretty much what mine would have been. He seems to generally be motivated by a feeling that he should be able to do something to help despite everyone telling him the opposite. I'd guess that his character arc will be something like him becoming braver, more involved, and perhaps closer to everyone around him. I just hope he doesn't spend too much time whining and being self-pitying. That will get old real fast. Inori I can't really get a read on. The fact that she dealt with all those injuries without barely a peep or complaint seems to indicate either inner strength or a lack of emotions. She seemed to have some weird cloaking ability at the start though I don't know what happened with it. That dress seems like a bad thing to be wearing when you're infiltrating and stealing highly classified materials though. Gai wasn't in it enough for me to get him really although they really seem to be emphasizing how cool he is. That BGM when he was beating up the guys was a bit much honestly. Curious how quickly he seemed to trust Shu with the dangerous Void Genome, though given the attack maybe he didn't have much choice. Shu's friend Hare gives the slight impression she has a thing for him. Which makes me guess she'll end up dying halfway through the series. The GHQ seem a bit too trigger happy. Unless it really was that serious, it seemed like they decided to kill everyone in that district as a way of punishing Inori for not telling them anything. A bit too blatantly evil honestly so I hope they manage to step away from that. The flashbacks Shu has certainly seem to tease and bring up a lot of questions obviously. One of the big ones is what exactly this Virus did though I'm guessing the weird crystals are involved. Another one is whether Inori is the girl that appears in the flashbacks or not. If she is, then I have to wonder what happened to her since it looked like she was consumed by those crystals and that weird shot of her turning her head with them on her face. It's possible that if she survived, she didn't have memories of before and that it changed her hair color. I'm not so sure though. Maybe those crystals created a copy and the original is somewhere else like dead or in a lab? I really like that shot of Shu coming apart into little pieces of paper. I don't know why exactly, but I do. Now was this ability he now has something he's been capable of since the Virus and was simply unlocked by the Void Genome, or was it just because of the Genome and this is one of those chance things? The ability itself is one of the things I'm most curious about. Mainly since I want to see what he pulls out of other people as well as the cons to such an ability. One I would guess is that the individual he takes the tool or weapon from isn't able to do anything to protect or defend themselves since Inori seemed to just kneel there not doing anything. I'd also guess that if the person died while he was using the tool, it would shatter. Overall, a good enough start. Not the most original yes, but I'm not going to hold that against it and judge an entire series by one episode. I remember an author talking about cliches and saying something about how they become cliches because they work and that there isn't anything wrong with using them if you can manage to put your own spin on them. Whether Guilty Crown will do that quite yet is hard to tell, but we have 24 more episodes to find out. Feels like a while since I wrote anything that long.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 10:10
|
Link #557 |
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
|
Very good 1st ep. This is one of premiere shows this season along with Fate Zero. The story is alot like Code Geass... Evil gaijins oppressing poor Japanese and freedom fighters, with only difference the protagonist is actually Japanese this time. The main character eventhough he's a wuss but he's likable and got balls. The way he receive his powers is kinda cliche but the neat animation and eye-candy heroine really add the positive chemistry on the show. Liking also the music and bgms, specially the one where Gai made his appearance.
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 10:15
|
Link #558 | |
|
Senior Member
Author
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 42
|
Quote:
And yeah, I definitely see a touch of Kira and Lacus in Shu and Inori respectively (although Shu admittedly has a ways to go before he's fully comparable to Kira). Inori really does make me think of a mix of C.C. with Lacus. At least so far.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 10:28
|
Link #559 |
|
Amor Fati
Join Date: Oct 2011
|
Did anyone else have significant problems with it? I don't know. It's a pretty show, and the music is great. Inori's voice actress can sing.
I thought that it was kind of racist and sexist? It's obvious that Guilty Crown was created to inspire nationalism in Japanese otaku. And granted, the world doesn't have a high opinion of the US in general. But all of the foreign characters are exceedingly evil. Not to mention that the first couple of villains are violent stereotypes of african-american men. One abuses women and one is a thug. Great. As for being sexist, I mean, just look at the character designs. It's possible to sexualize women while simultaneously empowering them--Guilty Crown isn't doing it. Inori's clothing and submissive nature Inori's clothing and submissive nature--the fact that she's naked and kissing a phallic skull in the first scene while singing? Look at these scenes; this is only the first episode and already it's out of control. It was also exceedingly cliche. Childhood friends? "I couldn't do anything to protect her"? Ugh. Shu is the weakest protagonist we've seen in awhile. Last edited by Toto y Moi; 2011-10-14 at 10:47. |
|
|
|
|
2011-10-14, 10:31
|
Link #560 |
|
You're Hot, Cupcake
Join Date: Aug 2008
Age: 42
|
Hmm, fairly entertaining first episode. The visuals are EASILY the strongest of the season - Production I.G. has really pulled out all stops for the aesthetics. The opening song was a little corny but turned cool as it went on. There was a decent spread of action and progression of the world scenario/plot. Ended on an interesting note. Character designs are slick are well done. Backgrounds look sublime. Ai Kayano is a great fit for Ayase - hope her voice doesn't get weary since she's also voicing characters in Chihayafuru, Last Exile and Ben-to this season. Yuuki Kaiji is also pretty hot property at present and is backing up his credentials with voicing Shuu.
But I've got a few things to pick at, though. Firstly, while character tension was established, there really wasn't much character development of any kind done. Granted, since it's running until March next year, the 2 cour format will give it more of a chance to develop them within a proper timeframe. But the hints as to what these people are like were very flimsy and I felt it was unnecessary. Aside from Shuu, hard to get a proper feel of them yet. The one thing I did get a grasp of is I think the dynamics between Shuu and Ayase don't seem frigid, nor does it seem Ayase is going to be dictating Shuu's actions, but I could be wrong. It seems that Shuu might be the stronger of the two despite Ayase's public identity. Secondly, I'm not digging the music in-episode much. It seems rather...cheesy...I'm not getting into it. It's not as absurd as Horizon's but it's acting as a distraction for me. Third and final - this feels so much like Code Geass thus far, it's not funny...Really...And I sincerely hope Guilty Crown establishes its own identity quickly because when a show looks like it's riding off the coattails of another, it's just not that endearing. Whatever character and world development comes next needs to give it a solid edge in the next two episodes. Because there are too many aspects that are making me and a lot of friends compare the majority of content to Code Geass rather than think about what Guilty Crown is doing for itself. And seeing that Kana Hanazawa is going to be voicing a character in a wheelchair and looking like yet another Code Geass character...I seriously hope the Guilty Crown characters themselves end up being distinct. Early days. This has done enough for me to continue watching. But it was not the most impressive opening episode for me this season.
__________________
|
|
|
|
 |
| Tags |
| action, noitamina, production_ig |
|
|
Oh and the "mystery" that surrounds her seems to be deeper than the "mystery" about C.C. (which wasn't anything impressive or splendid or heck, even mysterious, at all imho).
