Guilty Crown Episode 18 Roundup

As everyone watches Shu in agony over his lost arm, Rowan informs the Ghost Units to defend Gai, to Daryl’s disbelief, as he believes Gai is the enemy.  As airborne missiles begin to drop on Japan, Gai returns Inori’s Void and extracts the Voids of Nanba, Takaomi, and Ritsu to stop the warheads and the planes, but effectively destroying their Voids in the process.  Ayase and Tsugumi approach Gai, the former happy to see him but shocked by his actions.  Miyabi tries to kill Gai, but her Void is destroyed by an Endlave.  Gai tells them that he’s not the same person as he was before and asks if they’ll join him or have him kill them.  Argo, Ayase, and Tsugumi are in shock, and one of the Ghost Units threaten Tsugumi.  In his Endlave, Daryl protects Tsugumi and attacks the rest of the Ghost Units to help her and her friends escape; he tips Tsugumi off on his identity as the boy she met at the school festival by briefing calling her a “runt.”  Daryl tries to attack Gai, blaming him for having to kill his father, but is attacked by the rest of the Ghost Units.  Inori reaches Shu.  Arisa protects Gai, who finds that Shu and Inori are gone.  Gai informs Keido of his progress and leaves on a vehicle; Arisa is requested by one of the soldiers to participate in helping Gai.  Planes and naval ships continue on their route to Japan, but are destroyed by Gai, with help of Kenji, who is controlling 256 Leukocytes.  He tells everyone to not interfere.  Arisa’s grandfather learns about Gai taking the Void Genome, and one of his henchmen explains to Oogumo that the Da’at—a secret organization—are behind it and have found Arisa.  While showering, Haruka expresses regret over going against Shu, but feels that he should live now that he’s free from the Power of Kings; a panel zooms up on photos of Haruka with Kurosu and Keido during her university years.

Soldiers search for Shu throughout Loop 7 and interrogate civilians; Inori continues to hide Shu.  A soldier reminds Arisa to refer to Gai with more respect as “Gai-sama,” to her annoyance.  She wonders what Gai wants with Inori, but the soldiers tells her that it’s unnecessary for them, as pawns, to know his motives, to Arisa’s further annoyance.  As Daryl recovers in his prison cell (likely beaten after betraying his men), Segai and Shinbugi continue their chess game in the cell next to his, and Shinbugi wins.  He realizes Segai purposely let him, as the latter wants to ask him questions too.  Arisa and Da’at soldiers discover where Shu and Inori are hiding and plan to ambush them when they, themselves, are ambushed by Arisa’s grandfather’s men.  Inori secretly checks on the fight, and Arisa’s grandfather appears to warn Arisa that Gai is a man who is solely about his motives and she will gain nothing from following him.  Da’at soldiers explain to him that they are looking for Inori, and Arisa’s grandfather attacks the Antibodies, killing two, and goes for Arisa when she shoots him in self-defense.  Inori is surrounded by thugs, but Mana takes over and kills them; when she comes to, Inori runs away in fear.  She finds Shu and hugs him, and they collapse on the floor.  Mana briefly takes over, but Shu snaps Inori out of it before Mana can do anything, which only upsets Inori more.  Arisa, jealous that Gai wants Inori, decides to dispatch Endlaves.  Inori wakes up to find Shu is gone and has an inner coversation with Mana, who tells Inori that it’s only a matter of time until the latter kills Shu because she is a monster.  Mana tells Inori that her heart is fake and to return to her, but after remembering Shu deciding not to ask about Inori’s Void since it is her soul and she is herself, Inori decides that she is herself too.  Shu is outside of the building and hears Inori sings; he finds her and starts crying.  Inori hugs Shu and comforts him, telling him not to hate or blame himself because he’s taught her so many things and that no matter what happens, she’ll stay by his side.  Inori tells Shu that everyone is looking for her and she’ll act as a decoy.  Shu refuses, but she puts Shu to sleep, kisses him, and destroys the Ghost Units following them.  Seeing Inori’s ferocity, Arisa calls her a monster.  Inori doesn’t care if she’s a monster or has fake emotions; she wants to protect Shu.  Gai uses Daath’s Void to capture Inori and tells her that she’s always been on her side and is a monster.  Shu wakes up to find Inori gone, leaving behind her hair-clip.  Inori’s sacrifice hardens Shu’s resolve.

This episode was… interesting.  Again, I’ll start with the cons and work my way up to the pros.  Cons.  1) Again, the animation is really bugging me.  It’s like the animators got lazy in this episode after making a pretty awesome Shu battle in the last episode (just Shu in the battle, everything else was pretty much still frames), and this is why Inori’s badass fight, as well as some character close-ups, became a little distracting for me.  2) Haruka’s shower scene.  Because apparently we need obligatory fan service in this episode.  3) Arisa.  Just Arisa.  Why are you still alive?  I don’t even like her.  I’ve never liked her since she fell for Gai, and her massive hero worship of him (and jealousy towards Inori for no reason) is starting to get on my nerves.  If he didn’t like you before, he’s not gonna like you now. Ugh.  4) It’s never explained how Inori stops Shu’s bleeding, but this is just more of me nitpicking in my opinion.  5) The Anto Bodies’ outfits.  They’re kind of unoriginal and not creative.  6) Mana.  Mana, Mana, Mana,Mana.  I try so hard to justify or defend her sometimes because the crazy Mana isn’t the “real” Mana, but it really ticks me off that crazy Mana is still in the plot, still acting creepy and incestuous towards Shu.  I mean, there’s no way to ignore what she was probably going to to do to Shu if the latter hadn’t woke Inori up in time.  Oh, the implications.  7) Inori singing.  Again.  It’s not I don’t like Inori singing.  She just does it a lot.  Maybe too much, in fact.

Pros.  1) DARYL APPEARED IN THIS EPISODE.  That alone is a pro in my book.  2) DARYL SAVES TSUGUMI.  I FINALLY GET SOME DECENT DARYL/TSUGUMI SCREEN TIME.  THANK YOU.  Even though, you know, he gets beaten and imprisoned and everything, but I’m sure that imprisonment can’t hold Daryl for long, and Tsugumi could always save him, I guess.  Ah, my shipping heart.  3) Inori actually doing something.  In spite of the animation, I’m just glad she does something instead of being an emotional crutch for Shu or singing.  Needless to say, she gets captured, but she was doing a pretty damn good job before that.  I guess a few other notable moments in this episode would have to be that Haruka moment and Segai still playing chess with Shinbugi.  The former scene shows that Haruka probably had a friendship with Kurosu and Keido before marrying Kurosu, and Shinbugi being shown alive refutes the theory that Gai’s soul is combined with or inhabiting Shinbugi’s body. The next episode’s preview shows quite a number of things, from Keido apparently trying to pull the whole marriage thing again on Inori, Haruka in her plug-in suit with a gun, flashbacks of Haruka and little Shu, and Shu fighting.  I assume that since the episode is called “Rebirth,” Shu might possibly either find a way to get the Void Genome back from Gai or just act on his own willpower and resolve to save the day.  Regardless, time to wait other week until the next episode comes out.