By Matthew Moorcroft

Solid Recommendation

All images of courtesy of Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures.

My knowledge on Guilty Gear is, admittedly, very casual. Anybody who knows me knows that fighting games, while I enjoy them, are not my personal area of expertise. I could tell you the ins and outs of something like Starcraft II or Age of Empires, but put me in front of something like Street Fighter and suddenly I’m just button mashing until punch hit face. But even I have a hard time denying the appeal of Arc System Works’ games, with their cel shaded style, heavy anime leanings, and lore so dense that it feels like you are walking into a neutron star if you aren’t prepared.

Dual Rulers, the sequel anime to the last game in the series, is the center of that neutron star – an anime so jam packed with background lore, prior narrative homework, and fantasy jargon that I suspect anybody who doesn’t at least have a working knowledge of these games will be completely lost. The only background lore given is basically anything directly important to this particular story – mainly that of the relationship between star crossed lovers Ky Kiske and Dizzy, which is central – as well as brief character intros that wouldn’t feel out of place in the game itself.

So yeah, for Guilty Gear newbies, this is pretty much a no go, but for those more immersed in the series – or those simply looking for a good time – there is a decent amount to chew on here. Sanzigen’s unique blending of 2D animation and backgrounds with CG character models that are almost completely ripped from the game itself allows for exceptionally dynamic fight scenes and great action chorography and blocking, of which there is much of here. In fact, the cel shaded style of the CG means when a 2D character does show up, the mix is surprisingly seamless, which is more then can be said for many a CG anime that has been released over the years. And what awesome action! While most of it here is contained to one location it’s clear that part of the goal here is to show how cool these powers here in motion and just how cool these characters are so you too can play them in the latest Guilty Gear game, now available on a platform of your choice.

Less perfect is the character stuff here, which is mostly stock at the moment and relies more on exaggerated personalities and moments over any actual deeper characterization. Which is totally fine, and considering the anime’s nature as a continuation it’s likely it knows it’s audience already has an understanding of the deeper nuances of these characters. It also means though that it’s likely the show will remain purposefully thin in it’s development, so those looking for more about these interesting and well designed heroes (or villains) will likely have to look elsewhere.

I am intrigued by the new character of Unika, however, whose existence appears to be here to try and challenge the new status quo of world peace and the lack of violence towards gears. I suspect there is more going on though, as Unika seems to imply some stuff about the future and her tortured expression makes me think there is some time travel/bad future shenanigans afoot, which could be fun. Guilty Gear has admittedly done stranger and the time travel story is basically as anime as anime gets, which this series has always tried to embrace wholeheartedly.

Honestly there really isn’t a whole lot to say about this that isn’t “yeah, it’s a ton of fun”. Sometimes what you see is what you get and Dual Rulers is exactly that – a good time with solid, even great, animation that’s mostly just a perfect excuse to turn your brain off for 23 minutes and enjoy the cool fights and characters as they trade banter. I think in that way, it’s arguably a pretty successful adaptation of not just the game’s story, but also of fighting games in general. After all, what’s a better representation of that side of gaming then two people duking it out and having fun while doing so?