Guilty Crown: Complete Series, Part 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Brace yourself for the agonizing conclusion of Guilty Crown, an acclaimed instant classic hailed for its mesmerizingly-animated action sequences! Shu s desperate quest to save Inori from the mysterious spectre known as Death sends him hurtling through a horrifying flashback. Glimpses of the boy he once was combine with fragments of painful memories to hint at the harrowing origins of the Apocalypse Virus. And though Shu manages to save his beloved songstress, he and his friends find themselves quarantined to the warzone that was once their own school. Meanwhile, nefarious GHQ agents seek to incite chaos by turning this frightened band of young rebels against each other. Division in the ranks and the shocking death of a dear friend pushes Shu to the brink of madness, exposing Inori and everyone he loves to an eerily familiar enemy. As the terrifying truth about the power of the King s Right Hand emerges, Shu and his comrades must place their faith in one another and fight for the future of their world!
Contains episodes 12-22. As the fantasy-adventure Guilty Crown (2011) continues, the storyline that began 11 episodes earlier seems to come to an unexpected conclusion. Shu learns that Inori is really a "created vehicle" to communicate with Mana, the first victim of the Apocalypse Virus. She's also Shu's older sister and once nurtured a weird, incestuous passion for him. Shuichiro, the nasty head of GHQ, attempts to marry Mana through Inori; her enormous power will enable him to exterminate mankind and establish a new human race. But he's thwarted by Shu and Gai, who turns out to be Shu's adopted younger brother. When Shu stabs Gai and Inori/Mana with a Void, they disappear rather anticlimactically. Two weeks later, Shu, his classmates, and some of the Funeral Parlor rebels have set up a refuge in Tennouzu High, a safe enclave within the devastated Loop Seven region of Tokyo. As temporary ruler of Japan, Shuichiro announces plans to abandon the ruins for 10 years, but covertly he plans to kill the students. The story lurches through numerous baroque twists as Shu and his friends battle GHQ and the mysterious group that controls it. Guilty Crown is an absolute muddle. Amid the battles, sacrifices, returns from the dead, and threatened destruction of humanity, Shu metamorphoses from nerdy loner to reluctant hero to dictator to savior of mankind. The filmmakers simply can't tie all the plots, subplots, characters, and effects into anything approaching a coherent narrative, despite the flamboyant visuals and apocalyptic trappings. (Rated TV-14: violence, violence against women, torture, grotesque imagery, brief nudity, risqué and toilet humor, alcohol use, ethnic stereotypes) --Charles Solomon

(12. The Lost Christmas, 13. Isolation, 14. Election, 15. Sacrifice, 16. The Tyrant, 17. Exodus, 18. Dear… 19. Rebirth, 20. A Diary, 21. Emergence, 22. Convergence)