Episode 10

Episode 10 picks up a few days after the previous episode ended; Shu is on the verge of a mental breakdown after having to end Jun’s life in order to keep him from killing Yahiro and endangering everyone around them and is thrust into the midst of yet another battle between GHQ and the Undertakers.  Everyone is doing their part to try and secure the GHQ headquarters where the stone was taken and everything is going according to plan until it’s Shu’s turn.  As he reaches for Inori, he panics and tries to withdraw his hand.  Inori grabs it and tries to force him to draw out her Void, but he seems to snap and runs away screaming.  Gai is irritated by this, but tells everyone to continue with the plan.  Unfortunately, things go awry and soon the Undertakers need to withdraw from their fight.  After the fight has ended, we see Haruka being called into a meeting with Daryl’s father.  It’s here that she learns about the stone that Keido took from that island was all part of a greater plan to subdue the population.  As if that wasn’t enough, she learns about Shu being a part of the Undertakers, which comes as a complete shock to her.  However, even with this information, it doesn’t seem to deter her from keeping her son safe and getting to the bottom of what’s going on in GHQ.  She ends up going to the cell that Keido is being held in and begins questioning him, particularly about how he managed to get his hands on her deceased husband’s ID card and why he stole the stone in the first place.  Keido only answers her cryptically, which doesn’t seem to help Haruka at all.  A few days later, we see Shu hiding out in the video club’s club room and Hare brings him some breakfast.  The two talk for a bit, though it’s mostly Hare asking Shu if he’s ready to come back to class yet, since everyone is really worried about him.  Shu doesn’t say much, but agrees to try going back to class in order to try returning to some sense of normalcy.  Unfortunately, when he does actually enter the school and runs into his classmates, he’s bombarded with images of his friends turning into crystals before his eyes.  This causes him to curl into the fetal position and it seems as though Hare is the only one who can talk him down from his delusions.

Later, Shu is able to finally return home, only to find that Inori has packed up her belongings.  This saddens Shu, but he must have known deep down that it would have happened eventually because he simply asks that she keep in touch if she’s able to.  Inori approaches him and goes to hand him a music file for a new song she wrote, but Shu has another flashback to the mysterious girl burning and covered in the crystals associated with the virus reaching out towards him and he slaps the object away from her, calling her a monster.  This seems to hurt Inori, but she simply leaves while Shu attempts to apologize but to no avail.  The following day, as Shu is wallowing in self pity in the club room while Hare tries to cheer him up, the Undertakers are embarking on what very well could be the final encounter with GHQ.  Everyone – including GHQ – is preparing for the battle, though GHQ is only planning on transporting the stone to another area and out of Undertakers’ grasp.  Momentarily, we see Daryl run into his father, who is too busy making out with his girlfriend and/or secretary to notice him and Daryl goes ape-shit.  Meanwhile, Hare is trying to calm down Shu, who blatantly makes a move on her and confesses that he knows she’s in love with him.  That doesn’t go over so well with Hare and she slaps him, saying that although she loves him, this wasn’t exactly how she pictured them being together.  Shu apologizes and Hare accepts, though there still seems to be some tension between them.  Back at the airport, we find out that Daryl’s father has handcuffed himself to the stone so that it would arrive to it’s destination on time, but they were aware of the Undertaker’s presence early enough to put an un-manned plane on the runway.  While everyone is worrying about the plane, Makoto orders his men to take the virus anti-biotic while Keido is released from his cell.  Once Makoto receives the order to activate the plan, he presses a button which emits some kind of radio wave and causes the stone to start glowing.  All around him, the men in the area start collapsing and crystals start growing out of their skin just like Jun had.  Even on the unmanned plane that Gai and his men were able to board, they start collapsing and Inori collapses, screaming for the song to stop.

Episode 11

Episode 12 picks up exactly where episode 11 left off and the first thing we see is Keido unleashing the stone’s powers to essentially finish what he started ten years ago.  As a result, everyone in the area of effect are becoming covered in crystals like Jun was and several people actually disintegrate and the crystals float towards the Tokyo Tower where most of the signal is coming from.  This causes widespread panic and people start to try and feel the city as the epidemic begins to spread quickly.  As all of this is going on, we see several of the GHQ members follow in the same fate, including Dan.  Daryl’s father is panicked, as is his secretary, but both are shocked when an Endlave suddenly bursts through the window and holds its blade to Yan’s throat.  At first he thinks that it’s a terrorist, but we find out that it’s actually Daryl behind it.  He ends up killing his father in cold blood, though GHQ simply blames it on the Undertakers and say that it was a result of a terrorist action.  After Yan’s death, we see Keido enter the room as well as Makoto and Haruka, though Haruka isn’t there by choice.  Makoto turns out to be holding a gun to her head, but just as he’s giving her his orders, Dan – who is encrusted in the Virus crystals, but not quite dead yet – manages to tackle Makoto, allowing Haruka to escape uninjured.  Unfortunately for Dan, Makoto does end his life.  While Haruka is escaping, we see Gai and Inori trying to make their way down an empty hallway, though Gai doesn’t seem to have much strength left.  Inori begs for him to keep going and even offers to sing “that song” though Gai tells her no.  As luck would have it, Haruka is heading down the same hallway, though she’s almost killed by Inori.  Inori recognizes her and lowers her weapon, much to Haruka’s relief.  She asks Gai where Shu is and is happy to find that he was still in school when they came here and should be out of harm’s way.  However, even though this is a relief to her, Haruka isn’t quite done trying to fight against GHQ.

Back at the school, Shu and Hare are still in the club room, but after hearing an announcement from the government about how the Undertakers killed Daryl’s father in a terrorist attack, Shu is adamant that Gai would never do something like that.  It’s then that he decides to reveal his secret to his friends in order to save Gai and Inori.  He makes an announcement over the school’s P.A. system and requests that Kanon, Souta, Yahiro, Kanon and Arisa to meet him in the club room.  Once they all arrive, he reveals his powers by drawing out Hare’s Void and while everyone is surprised, they all agree to help him rescue the others.  Thankfully, Funnell is with them (Tsumugi sent him to Shu in order to ask him to come help since everyone is pretty much done for) and thanks to Hare’s Void being a bandage and able to mend anything, Shu and the others are able to safely leave the school area and make their way towards the airport without being detected by the government.  Once they’re able to commandeer a vehicle, Funnell takes the wheel and Shu takes turns using everyone’s Voids in order to safely make their way towards the airport.  While they’re busy making their way to the airport, Haruka has been busy helping Inori set up something that will allow her genomes to merge with some sort of broadcasting equipment – similar to what Keido is using with the stone – and Inori begins singing.  The effect that happens is her song is able to disrupt whatever signal the stone is outputting – as well as effectively shutting it off – and entirely reversing the effect that the stone had on the citizens.  It even seems to give Gai some of his strength back, which is a good thing.  Shu manages to find Inori and she notices him as well, but continues to sing while Shu makes his way to her.  Once the song is completed, they’re finally reunited only to be torn apart again.  A mysterious blond teenager appears and scolds Shu for giving up his throne as he withdraws Inori’s Void.  Shu is in too much shock to do anything as the boy swings at Shu, but thankfully (or unthankfully as I see it), Gai is there to take the blow instead of Shu.  As Shu holds Gai’s body, he isn’t sure what to do.  Should he help Gai and try to keep him alive, or should he help Inori and stop the second Lost Christmas from happening?

Opinions:  First of all, I just want to point out that according to wikipedia and myanimelist.com, Guilty Crown is supposed to have 22 episodes, but according to ANN, it’s only supposed to have 12.  I think I’m going to have to go with ANN on this one.  It just really feels like a finale episode to me.  What we managed to learn in the last two episodes was pretty interesting, even though it wasn’t a whole lot of information.  We now know that Keido was behind the first Lost Christmas and wants to finish what he started, Daryl hated his father so much that he finally acted on it and offed him and Shu was finally able to come out to his friends.  I think the fact that Shu was able to tell his friends about his powers and they were still accepting of him was great.  Then how they risked their lives to help him save Gai and Inori?  That was fabulous!  Although I’m curious; why does that one particular song that Inori sings have the power to not only stop the stone from creating another Lost Christmas, but have the ability to reverse the effect of the stone?  Does it have something to do with the mysterious girl that is somehow connected to her?  I’m assuming that’s the only thing that could possibly cause it.  If the next episode is the finale (which I’m pretty sure it is just based on how this episode went), then I really hope that we’ll finally be able to learn about this girl; who she is, what her connection to both Shu and Inori is and why she seems to be such an important key in all of this.  And who the hell is this new kid who has the King’s Mark and what is his role in everything?  Either way, I’m pretty stoked to find out how it all ends!

Overall combined score: A/A+