
GUILTY GEAR is a series which was far ahead of its time during is initial release. However, it has never garnered the same amount of love that legendary fighting series like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or TEKKEN had. By that, I mean it never sold well where as the other series did MILLIONS. However, a dedicated fanbase kept this game series alive, and developers never gave up hope on it. Legendary music by Daisuke Ishiwatari and the prowess of Team Red helped the newest iteration in both sound, gameplay, and aesthetics. The promotion campaign which included VTubers and popular streamers also got many eyes on the series.
STRIVE seen the GUILTY GEAR series sell over a million copies for a single iteration for the first time within history. It is still going strong to this day, with the 4th Season of DLC characters underway and popular tournaments like Tampa Never Sleeps pulling over 200 entrants weekly for their online series; INSANE. Now they have dedicated themselves to releasing an anime, which I believe will be more-or-less like Guilty Gear Xrd’s and STRIVE’s story mode; but will need more details. Let’s check out the trailer for GUILTY GEAR STRIVE: DUAL RULERS and then I’ll give my impressions afterwards.
To start off, the first thing I noticed was how much more “anime” this appears than GUILTY GEAR STRIVE. While I know that Xrd‘s main goal was to make a 2.5D fighter that looked extremely close to high resolution 2D sprites, I feel like GUILTY GEAR STRIVE abandoned that goal for a clearly 2.5D fighter that has a beautifully unique art style all its own. For GUILTY GEAR STRIVE: DUAL RULERS, I feel that they’ve adjusted the models to be closer to the new age look that most anime go for; thin lines, cell shaded, and colors that are saturated that pop. It’s good looking while still using 3D models; which is different from the usual 3D anime we see like Kengan Asura and Dorohedoro.
One of the things I wanted to know was whether-or-not this takes place before or after the events of GUILTY GEAR STRIVE; which is fairly important. However, Sol seems to still have the Flame of Corruption, Dizzy is still within her original costume rather than the “Queen Dizzy” remake we got in STRIVE while talks of her marrying Ky. However, Ky has his STRIVE costume along with Elphelt, and we even see Johnny. The fact we have 2 characters from the 3rd Season of GUILTY GEAR Strive means that it is possible that Arc System Works worked on this before the final concept of “Queen Dizzy” was made; so the visions we see could be specific flashbacks or the events of Dual Rulers happens after Xrd but before the events of Strive finalize.
Unika is the new character, and is the 3rd character we will be getting in GUILTY GEAR STRIVE Season 4. Right now, she seems like the main antagonist but her goals are unclear, despite saying something as pure as “save the world”. The sword she wields reminds me a bit of Sol’s Fire Seal. Also, acting opposite of her, is Sin Kiske. Being the son of Ky and Dizzy and the Grandson of Sol, it makes sense that they’d want to shine light on him. Mainly, Sin embodies everything from at typical Shonen protagonist and would be perfect to try and garner a larger audience for the GUILTY GEAR series.
Sin is a loveably naïve kid, always trying to do the right thing while also fighting with a cherry nature. This is something we wouldn’t see in Sol or Ky simply because of the things they’ve been through and the responsibilities that rests upon each of their shoulders. We see this with Sin saying, “Why would you do this?!” while locked in battle against Unika, as well as a scene with him and Sol in which he mutters, “I…can’t give up on talking to her. There must be some reason why”. Searching for a way to forgive an enemy, or at least sympathize with their cause and finding another way is the telltale sign of a goodhearted anime protagonist. I think this shift to Sin is smart, as they will need to spotlight someone other than Sol for the next GUILTY GEAR.
Overall, I’m hoping this anime is pretty good as the visuals are already a step-up from the Story Mode we got in STRIVE. Unika looks like a unique character who’s motivations and backstory will be revealed, and using Sin to be her opposite was a smart move by Arc System Works. The only thing I’m extremely worried about is those who are unfamiliar with the lore of GG trying to understand things like The Crusades, Gears, and some problematic things. Like Dizzy only being 5-years-old when she had Sin, or the fact that Sin is only 5-years-old during the events of Strive. Whatever. I’m just looking forward to a good story, great action scenes, and possibly an influx of new fans. It would be cool if the anime did for GUILTY GEAR what it did for BlazBlue.
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