[Anime Crush] Ichinose Guren

Ichinose Guren is a fictional character from the anime and manga series Seraph of the End (Owari no Serafu). He is part of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army and the leader Moon Demon Company. He is rank within the army is Lieutenant-Colonel. He is also the head of the Ichinose clan which mean Guren is also the leader of the Order of the Imperial Moon.

In past post, I used to say I have a love, hate relationship with Guren, but after reading the chapter 58, this hate feeling I had began to slowly fade away. Like all the other post, this post contain spoiler, read at your own risk.

Guren is probably one of the most interesting character of the series, even if he is not my favorite, unlike most people of the important family under the Hiiragi, Guren didn’t have it easy. Long time ago, the Ichinose was a high-ranked family, same level as the Hiiragi, but due to some event the Ichinose clan fell in disgrace and it now the lowest clan. Because of his family rank, Guren got bullied by all the higher ranked clan when he enter in high-school, Fight Shibuya , high-school control by the Hiiragi. This animosity between the Ichinose and the Hiiragi cause a lot of other trouble to Guren. In his childhood, he got separated from his first love, Mahiru Hiiragi and got beaten after that.

Guren felt powerless, he knew he couldn’t d anything the way he was, that’s why it was so easy for Noya, a demon to take control of him soon as he touch the cursed gear for the first time. Demon feed on that hunger for power and Guren gave him that. But it wasn’t enough to save his father, Sakae Ichinose, from being executed by the Hiiragi when Guren failed to kill Mahiru after the betrayal of the latter.

In the series and manga, Guren can appear cold-blooded most of the time, but he is not that bad, he care more than he pretend about his squad, his friend, that’s why he revive them and kill a large part of the Earth population, he wanted to see them smile again. He know he was selfish, but now he will do anything to bring back to live the people who were killed during the catastrophe. However it didn’t always been his goal, at first he only wanted to be able to overthrow the Hiiragi and abolish the ranking family system.

Guren is a very skilled swordsman, plus he is quite strong when come to spellcraft, his clan is specialize in a fighting style combining sword and magic. When it come to fighting with a sword the Ichinose are on part with the Hiiragi and Guren is the most powerful of the Ichinose.