Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers Episode 2 is really hoping less hardcore viewers do not mind not understanding what is happening. Even more so than the premiere, this episode has zero interest in filling in blanks. It cares so little about doing so that it reaches peak hilarity in avoiding lore dumps. That’s going to — reasonably — turn off a lot of potential viewers, but they will also miss out on some pretty consistent production value.
Okay but how does any of this work?
Sin and Sol’s chase after Yunika takes them to an America that I’m frankly jealous of. She’s continuing her own quest to restart the Crusades, the war between humanity and the Gears, but even with teases at her past and who is influencing her it’s hard to know what to believe. Some of this is the loose nature the anime takes with its rules. It’s not clear if Yunika is a descendant of a Gear, even as her powers suggest she is. The power scaling back and forth she has with Sin alongside managing to hold Sol Badguy back seems to want us to think she’s actually what she hates.
Speaking of Mr. Badguy (who, to be clear is not a bad guy) he’s actually the source of my laughing out loud this week. The only explanations of Guilty Gear lore in Dual Rulers has come from a narrator, who does give us a very tantalizing hint at Sol’s relationship with the current President, Vernon. The reason it’s also funny is how casually it’s dropped: these two fought together one time on the floating White House. To be clear, that is badass and as such pretty bonkers to drop so casually before moving on. I’m sure it’s a call out for long time fans.
But while casually dropping cool lore is fun, there’s still so much here that is hard to grasp onto. The identity of Yunika’s father is clearly going to be a big reveal later but the series hasn’t done much to make that mystery compelling. If you don’t know the game’s history, you’re also not going to understand how all these characters know each other, despite the fact they clearly do. Fan favorite character Bridget (Manaka Iwami) has half the episode’s run time but operates completely separate from the plot save for recognizing additional playable fighter Baiken (Mayumi Asano) upon her arrival. There’s already so much that doesn’t have context to also do character trailers, right?
Nope, we also do character trailers
On the other hand, this is an anime adaptation of a fighting game and Guilty Gear Strive really does have some stellar character designs. Everything, from Sol combining off to Baiken’s last second save of Sin, retains that extremely cool action choreography from the premiere. Even when the production doesn’t want to go full sakuga and transitions into a hand drawn image, those images are full of life. Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers episode 2 is no To Be Hero X, but the mixed media is a nice touch.
The sound design is also perfectly matched to an anime mostly about looking cool during fights. I found myself constantly noticing how much attention was being paid to the sounds of weapons clashing. Each time Sin’s weapon, a flag pole for some reason, clashes, it’s not only visually visceral but audibly accurate. The twangs and creaks of the metal but hollow pole add dimension to events.
Rule of cool always applies
It might be unfair to overlook how impenetrable Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers wants to be narratively just because it also is very cool. Yet, it is very cool and while I do wish the series would take a beat or two to do more than a character card, that cool factor is so powerful. If the story has to be thin in order to be a showcase of rad looking characters hitting each other a bunch, that’s more satisfying than the other way around in this case. Why else adapt a fighting game like this? That said, I do hope the story becomes a bit more compelling as the season goes on.
Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers airs Saturdays on Crunchyroll.
Featured images © ASW/Project GUILTY GEAR STRIVE DR
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‘GUILTY GEAR STRIVE: DUAL RULERS’ - EPISODE 2 - 7/10
7/10
Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.
