Guilty Crown

Many people are aware of the financial problems faced by the anime industry, and one of the methods that studios have adopted over recent years to try to shore up their crumbling foundations is to adapt popular manga, games, and more recently, Western comics. This approach has become a tried and tested moneymaking endeavour for the majority of studios, but in many cases this is simply due the fact that the source material caters to the lowest common denominator - which usually means fanservice. Unfortunately, the relative success of these shows have allowed them to become the norm rather than the exception, and with that ... comes a number of problems.

The sad fact is that while it's okay to find inspiration from other sources, the industry has become so used to the adaptation that studios and writers find it difficult to produce work that could be considered "original". Instead, what passes for a unique story tends to be nothing more than a collection of concepts and ideas from other tales that are thrown together in the vain hope that people will rush to buy the end product because ... well, because someone tells them to.

But rather than dwelling on such things, let's take a look at Guilty Crown.

Set in Tokyo in the year 2039, a decade has passed since a mysterious outbreak known as the "Apocalypse Virus" killed thousands of people and brought Japan to its knees - a disaster that would later be called "Lost Christmas". Since that time Japan has lost its independence, and has become a martial state governed by an international organisation known as GHQ. The story opens with a pink-haired girl and a small robot escaping from a futuristic-looking facility, but security forces injure and corner her until she falls off a bridge. The next morning is just like any other day for highschool student Ouma Shu, an awkward young man who is a fan of the pop-group Egoist, whose lead singer just happens to be a waif-like girl with pink hair.

And then everything gets ... weird.

Guilty Crown is a bit of an odd duck as it attempts to blend several disparate themes, but doesn't quite manage to finish the job. The plot has clearly been influenced by several popular franchises - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the execution is where the writers have let themselves down. The narrative is often disjointed, and many events in the storyline appear to have no logic behind them other than to put Shu through an emotional wringer. In addition to this, the writers appear to have taken a rather nonchalant approach to reasoning and rationale, one example of which is how GHQ's repeated massacres are never covered by any sort of media outlet. This seemingly lackadaisical attitude is apparent in several areas of the plot - which is littered with "coincidences" - and these cause the narrative to have a mechanical feeling. In many ways it's almost as if the story was nothing more than a collection of bits that would apparently appeal to the largest number of people.

Aside from the inclusion of numerous well-known aspects that have clearly been transplanted from other popular stories and the "plot-by-numbers" approach, Guilty Crown also suffers from the rather obvious idea that most adults are evil and only kids are able to save the world. That said, the series does have some good points, in particular the way it attempts to recreate a situation similar to that found in "Lord of the Flies" by putting all of the students in one place and imposing self-rule. There are other, similarly dark influences that add a veneer of maturity to proceedings, but sadly these aren't enough to support the inherent weaknesses in the narrative - the main one being the decision to make yet another school-based anime.

In terms of production quality, Guilty Crown is arguably up there with some of the better shows of recent years, but the sometimes stunning visuals and effects are tempered by a few issues that may initially appear to minor, but in actuality are representative of the mentality of the show's creators. It's obvious that a great deal of thought has gone into the background artwork and set designs, but the same isn't true of the characters. For the most part they look good, but the decision to feature highschool students places an immediate limitation that becomes obvious when one considers the variety of features and body shapes found amongst the adults.

The problem lies in the fact that the design of the younger roles includes an element of stereotype in order to impart a degree of familiarity - thereby making the show more accessible to people. It's an old marketing trick that has become a staple of the anime industry over the years, and while Guilty Crown has tried to be a little bit more subtle than most in its usage, one does have to question the logic behind Tsugumi. A cat-eared tsundere loli wearing what is effectively a plug suit (and a maid costume later on), only serves to highlight the thought processes of the show's creators.

Thankfully Production I.G. maintain their standards when it comes to the animation, and the series is littered with flowing, well choreographed action scenes. The characters are well-balanced in their movements, and a degree of care has been taken with those that are injured, disabled, or suffer from an affliction.

Like many anime that run for over twenty episodes, Guilty Crown features two opening and ending sequences - each with an original track written by Supercell. The first OP is a rather dizzying blend of effects, character montages and action scenes while the song "My Dearest" - a suitably fast paced and dramatic pop song performed by Koeda - sets the tone for the series. "The Everlasting Guilty Crown" performed by the fictional band Egoist is the track of choice for the second opening sequence, but while the artwork and design ethic have clearly shifted to promote a bittersweet atmosphere, the actual content is much the same as that of the first OP. Egoist also perform the melancholy ballad "Departures ~Anata ni Okuru Ai no Uta~" for the first ending sequence, which features Ouma Shu and Yuzuriha Inori walking away from each other against a backdrop of character art and effects. The second ED contains a mixture of video footage of landscape speeding by, scenes from the series and a few still images of the school environs that are "projected" onto a screen behind Inori and Shu as they decide to run - all while Koeda performs the rather upbeat rock song "Kokuhaku"

Which brings up one small issue.

Although it's true that some thought has gone into the composition of the opening sequences and that they are very well choreographed, both also feature overt plot spoilers. Now this does happen in other anime, but in general there are efforts to avoid such things occurring - which doesn't appear to be the case with Guilty Crown.

Aside from that minor niggle, the high production standards are also reflected in the quality of the music and audio effects. Sawano Hiroyuki has taken care to ensure that the background pieces are varied and suitably dramatic where necessary. The wide range of sounds and noises are clear and distinct, and the audio/visual choreography shows just how much effort has been made to produce a show that looks and sounds great.

Unfortunately the same can't be said of the actual dialogue.

Now while it's true that Guilty Crown features a range of characters and personality types, for some reason the decision was made to revert to old anime stereotypes and then write justifications into the storyline. The script is littered with monologues, diatribes, conversations and arguments that would grace any show where the "hero" has to lead his people to salvation whilst fighting against the enemy and his inner demons, forming a pseudo-harem along the way, and showing the world just how much of a tragic-yet-heroic figure he is. Thankfully the actors are more than capable, but no matter how good their skills are, prosaic and formulaic dialogue will always be just that.

As for the characters themselves, Ouma Shu is the kind of leading man who can be found in a number of other titles - quiet, reserved, doesn't have many friends, and a bit of a loser - and therein lies the problem. The writers have taken great pains to try to show him as a "human" more than anything else, but in their efforts to promote Shu as the tragic hero, they've ignored one of the most basic rules of characterisation.

In other words, Shu has no personality whatsoever - even at the end of the series when all his "suffering" is over.

It's this apparent inability to develop the characters in any meaningful way that makes them appear as nothing more than inane, and the lack of any real growth means that everyone pretty much ends the series having learned very little (aside from maybe Daryl). In addition to this there's an element of ridiculousness to the choice of characters, the prime example being Yuzuriha Inori (although Tsugumi does come a close second). One has to wonder what chemically induced delusion could have persuaded the show's creators that having the lead singer of a hugely popular band stealing from the enemy in the opening scenes while wearing her stage outfit was a good idea.

Apparently students can recognise her even though she's wearing a school uniform, but soldiers and officers of the military forces controlling Japan have no idea who she is since pink-haired girls wearing fluttery costumes are a dime a dozen in Japan.

Guilty Crown is one of those anime that can only truly be enjoyed if you have never watched any of the titles that it takes its inspirations from - and that becomes a problem if one has watched, and enjoyed, most of them. The main issue is that there are several character types and plot elements that are better used in their original anime, so their inclusion here makes them stand out in less than flattering ways.

The real problem with Guilty Crown though, is the element of arrogance that is prevalent throughout the series, and this comes solely from the show's creators. The basic premise of Guilty Crown is perfectly fine, but everyone from the director and series composers to the producers have assumed that the "anime-by-numbers" approach that they have so clearly used here is enough to make a hit franchise. There appears to have been a major assumption that the audience will swallow the whole thing without automatically referencing other shows that they may have watched, and that's where everything begins to fall apart.

Storytelling is, after all, an art form, and a good writer can captivate their audience without overtly referencing where there inspiration came from. Unfortunately the folks behind Guilty Crown appear to have forgotten this simple fact, and it leaves one with the sad realisation that this anime had the potential to be so much more than it is.

Note: These are my opinions only. Everyone has different tastes, and thus, what I think is cheesy may not be cheesy to someone else. I try to judge the show based on technical mastery and evidence of being well-thought out, but in the end, a lot of it is still based on personal judgment. That's it.

So anyways, I first wanted to watch this anime because of its freaking epic art, and animation-wise, I was not disappointed. But almost everything else was, in the purest sense of the word, utter crap.

To be completely fair, though, GC isn't /that/ bad (a 5 is still a "mediocre"), but ... the discrepancy between the expectations and the actual thing is so large that you can't help but feel disappointed. That probably accounts for at least 60% of the negative feeling towards the show.

Story 4/10
Generic plotline and obvious Code Geass rip-off, but that's not the bad part. I've seen plenty an anime that took a generic plotline and kicked ass with it, but Guilty Crown... no. For one thing, the gratuitous use of deus ex machinas and clichéd plot devices is annoying enough, but the plot also has to be jerky and abrupt. Also, the show shifts between cheesy comedy and fast-paced action with all the subtlety of a bipolar psychopath. Comedy is important for high-strung shows, but it has to be done /well/. And all of the (amazingly animated) kick-ass actions scenes are really mostly there to try to trick you into believing that there is decent plot development.
There have been objections - and I quite agree - that the /overall/ plot of GC isn't that bad, but sadly, this is lost in the chaos of the individual episodes, which are done rather sloppily.

Art 10/10
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT. Every 2 minutes, there is pretty much at least one masterpiece scene. The background is never too detailed to be distracting, but neither is it plain. Overall, every scene is unified and clear, and yet there's still plenty of contrast. And all the angles! There's no such thing as messy rotation that makes a character's face look weird. The colors are beautiful - there are so many hues and values of each color. They're somehow soft and yet still vibrant, and no one's outfit is ever just "red" or "blue." Tons of attention and care are put into everything, down to the movement of each individual strand of hair. I mean, someone spent a LOT of money on this show; if only the plot and the characters could make the cut as well. But dang, this show is worth watching for the art all by itself.

Sound 9/10
The music is really nice. The opening and ending as well as the inserts are all very well done, and they match the overall feel of the anime. The background music tends to be very well done as well, though occasionally they drop something a bit cheesy on you. Overall, though, the sound was done very professionally. I'm not really an sound-oriented person, though, so I can't elaborate much on that.

Character 2/10
THIS IS THE PART THAT KILLED ME.
I'll admit that I rather like the concept of Shu. He's a normal person with flaws and doubts who wants to believe in his ideals, and that's a very powerful concept. But, like pretty much all of GC, it's a concept that's executed crappily.
For one thing, someone really needs to tell the script writers that thing that English teachers always like to say: "Show, not tell." This show likes to substitute cheesy narration for actual character development, and to cover it up, they just add in abrupt action scenes. Even without that, though, almost all the characters are flat and predictable. Everyone on the enemy side is appropriately sadistic, twisted, evil, etc. Everyone in Undertaker is appropriately badass/cute/energetic (and mysteriously young). I started watching GC because I saw an epic AMV with Daryl in it, and I was looking forward to him, but in the end he was just psychotic, and not in a good way.
Also, they were trying to show the main character's growth, I believe, but it was done badly because they just kept trying to force actions and words on him without allowing time for transition. Admittedly, Guilty Crown may be one of the animes to suffer from the recent trend towards short animes, but then again, Madoka Magica handled a similar development ridiculously well, and it only had about half the number of episodes.
I'd say that the only exceptions to the crappy character development of Guilty Crown are Inori and Gai. Gai is probably the pivot around which the entire plot of GC rests (I'm just guessing here), and having the leader of your rebellion be a complete Gary Stu would be too predictable, so that's probably why he seems to have a rather dark side to him. Either way, his character development is still kind of jerky and abrupt, but at least it's a lot better than everyone else's, since it actually exists. Inori is also done well, most likely because she's so "mysterious" that there's not much to develop yet. But I rather like her.

Enjoyment 6/10
The animation was AMAZING, and the sound was great, but sadly those two are really not nearly as important as story and character, and GC screwed up BADLY on both.
GC was also trying to go for the profound and philosophical and introspective type of thing, but it pretty much failed at that, too. Cheesy narrations are not thought-provoking, no matter how much they want them to be. The "Void" thing is more of an excuse to come up with cool weapons than a method of introspection, and since character development is crucial to the philosophical value of a story, all of the flat characters in GC really kill it. To be honest, I don't think the script writers of GC even thought about their philosophical theme when they wrote the story - they just threw in some generic themes and thought it would work.
Last but not least, GC has screwy logic. The substitute government is evil, but it's the one that got Japan through the virus. Undertaker is fighting for the people, but no one knows what the heck it's about. There are lots of paradoxes in the story, and if done well, they could have been mind-blowingly amazing, but they're not done well at all. They're just half-assed, and the result is that the show just doesn't make much sense when you think about it.

Overall: 5/10
So, GC on episode 6 needs some SERIOUS improvement. It may or may not get better, but if it doesn't get better... Well, it really should. It's a ridiculously high-budget anime that didn't deliver the way it could have and should have. There was so much that could have been done better if it had been thought out properly, but GC decided to just slap together some clichés and random action and call it an anime. It doesn't work that way.
I'd still recommend watching a couple of episodes, though. Just for the amazing art. :DDD I mean, the animators did their job. The script writers and whatnot just didn't.

*Updated*
I take back what I said. This series is a complete mess.

Remember the first episode? Guy meets girl; evil government; le resistance; Deus Ex Machina (Gai); guy is thrown into battle; guy gets power from girl to fight giant-robots-from-nowhere - all done before, nothing new. And guess what? It GETS WORSE. Onwards from there, the build-up of episodes is just awfully underdeveloped. Towards the semi-finale, its revelations rushed past the audience like a train, or over the audience if you’re trying to figure out what the whole first half was for. The GHQ? Virus? Terrorism? Shuu manning up? Yeah, alot of those issues are ... just not important. Perhaps the proper title for this series is “Guilty Crown: What the heck is this?” I'm gonna directly quote critic M0rg0th here:

"And it’s strange because everyone (I’m also guilty as charged) complained about the generic dullness of this show but surprisingly neither the script-writers nor the director realized that this show concerned itself far too much with stuff that isn’t important."

Now the characters... oh god, the characters are so bland it makes me want to scream. Perhaps the biggest mistake Guilty Crown has done until now is just one word: Shuu. Shu Ouma - 17 yrs old, and a bit of a wimp... or so I thought. Turns out he's the biggest, whiniest, and retarded douchebag in the entire series. We never get a good explanation on why he's doing what he does (other than some useless split-second flashbacks). Why was he chosen as the main focus of the story? Shuu is a weak character, not just in the way that he’s bland and dull but also because he simply has no charisma; a poorly made plot-device. Not to mention it's his own damn fault that the city's in danger in the first place.
Inori Yuzuriha - a completely dull female lead. Inori is a different character in EVERY EPISODE. Plus, her comments on "love" are nothing short of face-palm worthy. Nothing more than an stereotypical otaku's wet dream.
Ayase Shinomiya - mech rider of the resistance who rides a wheelchair (accident maybe?). She's very modest and kind, and has feelings for Gai. But she also likes Shu?! Seriously?!
Tsugumi - Genki-girl and fanservice. Who the heck is she and why is she there in the first place?
Gai Tsutsugami - okay, he's a strong-willed, stern, conflicted but inspiring leader of the resistance. Initially cold to Shu, he accepts him in the end (which is a big mistake). AKA the best and most developed character in the series.

Ok, undeniably the art direction is this anime's strongest point. From the very beginning the animation is as expected from I.G Production - the transitions and movements of characters are smooth and realistic. Character models are rich with expression and personality, all differentiating in unique ways. The action and fight scenes are free-flowing and cinematic, rivalling that of many animated action movies. The backgrounds and environments are fully developed, blending a mix of futuristic and modern Japanese architecture, filled with vibrant shades and colours. Special effects are very pleasing to the eye.
Music is of great importance in this series, as the music direction is lead by Ryo of Supercell, with Supercell themselves providing the opening, ending, and insert songs. The soundtrack ranges from bittersweet ballads to fast-paced rock-guitar riffs, and the random insert songs from time-to-time don't hurt either. One problem is that there are too many insert songs in one episode, so it can become somewhat of an annoyance. Voice acting, however, is top-notch work that doesn't really need explaining. Sound effects are what you'd expect from a sci-fi anime.

But you know what? None of that matters. Michael Bay is pretty much all of this. But how is it that the director of "Code Geass" and "Death Note" became so much worse? Someone, please tell me.

The "future" is pretty much dead. The series excel in Art and Music, but fails spectacularly with an awfully undeveloped story. But perhaps I'm being too hard, and that things will pick up in the second half! But by then, it'll be too late to make much of an impact. We can't keep calling incompetence as brilliance.

Truly original anime concepts are rather hard to come by these days, for a variety of reasons. For one, simple formulaic concepts are much easier to produce and usually cater to a wider demographic. Reason two being that the anime industry is an incredibly fragile business in terms of profit, meaning that risks that should be taken, or unfortunately shafted in favor of simpler anime. However, there is one reason that stands out above all, a general lack in inspiration. Pouring in countless amounts of influences and concepts from highly acclaimed anime of the past in order to create something unique is common ground. However, ... anime such as Guilty Crown use these influences and concepts and jumbles them up into an incoherent mess of an anime, complete with extremely high production values to please the audience.

Guilty Crown’s influences seem to plague the anime more than enhance its concepts. Taking place in Tokyo 10 years after the “Lost Christmas” incident, Guilty Crown seems to have taken some cues from Neon Genesis Evangelion in terms of its setting, leading to an obvious originality issue. An ordinary (yet obviously troubled) high school student named Shu Ouma eventually finds his way into a rebellion group named “Funeral Parlor” who seek to usurp the totalitarian government now running Japan, the GHQ. This story element was clearly influenced by Code Geass and even approaches copying it during certain scenes in the anime. Guilty Crown’s influences make the anime much harder to take seriously, as the concepts the show adapts are from anime that did a much better job of executing these concepts.

The plot eschews any sense of realism, instead adding needless drama and more opportunities for dues ex machina, thus making the plot come off as contrived and nonsensical. The plot adapts more and more story elements as it goes along leading to many inconsistencies and plot holes without any coherent explanations for these changes. Sometimes, these changes suit the plot quite well and the anime benefits from a change in pace. However, one change in particular is absolutely jarring as the show takes a darker route in order to keep the suspense factor up, but it only comes off as laughable and unnecessary. Guilty Crown tries so hard to make the audience take it seriously, but the dialogue and scenarios come off as angst-ridden and over the top at times. Guilty Crown’s plot and execution are too far off base for it to be taken as anything more than it is, making it a huge let-down despite occasional moments of clarity.

Guilty Crown’s characters suffer the same issues that the plot does. The leading and supporting characters are full of clichés and elements from other anime and thus aren’t compelling individuals. Protagonist Shu Ouma often comes off as angsty and annoying and goes through an erratic spell of character development that will only make the audience sympathize even less with him. “Funeral Parlor” member/idol singer/mysterious waif Inori suffers from an inherent lack of a personality, as well as a lack of character and motivation. “Funeral Parlor” leader Gai is basically an even more twisted Lelouch vi Britannia. The supporting characters are hardly worth mentioning as they are simply anime character archetypes.

Fortunately there are a few areas where Guilty Crown excels in, namely in its production. Guilty Crown deserves top honors in the production department, featuring fluid character animation, high-quality art designs, and a really good soundtrack to round out the package. All of these components add up to make a rather entertaining anime, despite its many flaws in the writing and character department. The opening sequences by supercell and Egoist respectively are well-done and were made with a grand production in both music and display. The ending sequences, performed by supercell, are similarly well produced anime ballads. In other words, Guilty Crown’s production is amazing and they took much more time refining this aspect than in regards to storytelling and character development.

It’s actually rather sad that an anime with such good production values and potential falls flat on its face. Guilty Crown is essentially this tragedy personified, as it honestly could have been something so much more than it turned out to be. Lost in a mess of misapplied concepts and influences, Guilty Crown was truly a disappointment.

6/10

Note that this show isn't finished and I probably won't update this review for ages so my opinions might substantially change.

Anyway, lets begin on a positive note:

Art: Clearly the best part of the series so far.
A lot of detail was put into the art, and it shows clearly with the backgrounds possibly being the most detailed you will ever see, the saturations of colours are amazing, etc. Don't really know how to describe this further so moving on.

Music: 'Out of place' is probably the correct term to use here. For example, the opening of the FIRST EPISODE had a really soft ballad over a ... hectic chase scene with giant robots/explosions. In the fight scenes the music is a little more appropriate but it is pushed further down the mix in order to hear more explosions, so it doesn't really create the 'get up, get pumped, fuck shit up' feeling in the viewer (or at least me) that it obviously intended to do. When the music attempts to create tension, the score sounds too orchestral and ends up failing at this.

The actual quality of the music itself is good, but I don't really like it. However your tastes in music might be way different to mine (listening to dubstep now) so you might end up liking it. Plenty of effort was put here as well, maybe too much in my opinion.

Plot: Basically, a rebel organization named Funeral Parlour is fighting against the government for ?????? reasons while the government (GHQ) are apparently evil and oppressive for ?????? reason. As you can see, plot holes everywhere but I'll give this section the benefit of the doubt and hope it closes the plot holes at the end.

The 'void' thing was extremely awkwardly handled, but that might be me looking at the synopsis and expecting 'tools' to be undercover spy tools that the MC uses to go all vigilante on the evil plans of 'oppressive gov't', eg stealing weapons, canceling satellite launches, infecting giant robots with viruses, etc. Instead we get this generic action setup where only a few people actually have useful 'voids', so only a few people are important.

Characters: Oh boy
The MC in this show is probably the most unengaging MC that the writers could have possibly put into this show, Which is a shame, because he has moments which have almost entirely convinced me that his entire body is made of a strange kind of plasma substance because this guy is so far completely unharmed after standing near a fire and being only a few metres away from explosions (ears don't even ring!), which probably convinced me that the MC should be a tiny bit more confident than he is (wallows in self pity most of the time when not fighting).

The other characters have potential, but character development seems extremely forced so far ("I don't like you even though you saved my life twice! I must obey Gai!) - *facepalm* ("I don't want to appear weak in from of them! They trust me completely") - I cannot think of a situation where a leader would want to look weak, so the scene was pretty redundant.

Enjoyment: i was expecting more. Maybe it's my fault that I don't enjoy the series so far, but it isn't engaging my brain in anyway, despite "cool 148 backup plans".

See you guys when this ends!

This anime has gone downhill. I was being fooled by the pretty art from episode 1 and the fact that it was a Notamina series [they usually have potential].
Ok, so the graphics are nice. The ost...ok, but I hate all the songs Inori sings. They have no heart. And up until now I thought that the artist was bad, but after seeing episode 16 I'm starting to feel that maybe they lack heart on purpose?

Anyway, spoilers might follow so if you haven't seen the anime till episode 16 you might want to skip the rest. Or rather, you can read this and skip the anime ... instead, because I'm sure you won't want to watch it after you'll hear what I want to say.

This can somehow be split into 2 seasons. Season 1 are episode 1-12.
We see how our main character is described as your typical shounen main protagonist. Starts as a wimp, but he has the "ultimate power" to draw out voids. Everything is rater predictable and slow peaced. He develops very slow and remains pretty week till the ending of the first season. This apply to the rest of the characters as well. Maybe except Gai and the president chick.
Anyway: they fight for freedom and in the end they save the world from the evil sister that was the one who crated this town to begin with. Confused? Just wait, it gets better...
If things would have stopped here everyone would have just rated this show as average. An average shounen with a predictable plot and good art. We can dig it.
Then it comes season 2: episode 13-22.
I have seen only the first 4 episodes from this one [aka till ep. 16] but I can tell that this show is using the antihero in the most horrible way possible.
So, let's start with the first 2 episodes. Everything seems to be going well, they are trying to get better after the war but they are still in quarantine after what happened in episode 12. Of course things will get shitty and the government decides to annihilate all the infected zone without letting any of the survivors out. And how do they do it? By shrinking the space they can go to from time to time. Now that's like applying torture to a group of people who know that they are going to die in the end. Why not just kill them from the start? That I did not understand, but it helped the anime develop into one hell of a "full of shit" anime. [please excuse my words...it's because of the frustration]
So now they need to find a way to get out and not remain without supplies, but it seems that Shu is too kind and is not able to make the right decisions. So after one of the girls dies in a fight he becomes this super evil king that thinks he can save people by killing other people. [Death Note anyone?]
And then his mother, in some sort of a lab, is resurrecting Gai for god knows what reason + she's working with the antibodies now. Plus Inori goes all berserk on the president girl and on some classmates and kills them with cold blood. I knew she was heartless, but that thing now made her no. 1 evil character in this show.
So we have it like this: Shu [going all berserk in his own world; Death Note style], Inori [the ultimate expressionless assassin or something like that; God, her face annoys me!], the antibodies [evil from the start], Shu's mother [working for the antibodies], the head of the mafia going away after his granddaughter is killed.
Is it just me or is this show left with no main good characters? If you transform all your remaining heroes into anti-heroes who will it be left to fight the bad guys? At this point I'm not rotting for anyone anymore. I really hope they'll just throw a big atomic bomb over Japan and kill them all. [and I really hope no one misunderstands my post, I just want all of them dead except Ayase and the remaining sane people around there].
There is a very small chance that this show can be saved, so I'm making my review now. If anything will change by the time I reach ep 22 I'll come and revise it.

This really isn't much of a review, more of a first impression from watching the first quarter or so of the series. I may or may not update this in the future.

From the outset, I feel like I'm watching a Code Geass clone. It's quite a generic series. The ability of the main character (which allows him to draw out "Voids" from people) is even named the "king's power" (I recall the Geass being referred to as "the power of the kings") and it even has mechas!. The story, from what I've gathered so far, is about your typical shounen main character who has a ... special ability fighting in a resistance movement ("Undertaker") against the government. I'm not going to say that having parallels to Code Geass is a bad thing, however, one can see that this isn't going to be a standout series of this season (unless some convoluted, Madoka-esque twist happens very soon) and is in all senses a generic series of average quality.

The characters are fair - again, we have a somewhat generic cast. Shu, our main character who starts off as a "wimp" but in more recent episodes seems to have become more confident, Iniori, your typical quiet female who seems to have some connection with Shu and Gai, your typical anime badass who is the leader of Undertaker. None of them come off as particularly memorable characters, although it might be too early to make such a call.

The art however is exceptional, and I'd say it ranks among the top of this season. The characters look good and the animated sequences are usually fluid and appealing for the eyes. The sound is also quite good with the soundtrack being performed by supercell and all.

At the moment it is your average and rather generic anime. Unlike some other anime of this year, it isn't downright horrible or unwatchable in any sense and it is certainly a very visually stunning series, however, I ultimately don't think it's worthy of these 9 or 10 reviews it seems to be getting. If you really liked series like Code Geass then you should probably check this out and see whether or not you enjoy it. Otherwise, I wouldn't personally recommend it.

I feel after only watching one episode that I've already seen enough. I'm sick of these reoccurring themes in anime. Boy finds mysterious girl, she is being tested on, girl has special powers and the antagonist appears. Essentially, there is nothing wrong with that but when it is used in such a typical, uncreative manner it really becomes unappealing.

The art is great, no doubt about that. The story and characters though, really both do not deserve such a high rating or praise for that matter. There is absolutely nothing special about this story and not to mention the characters. Its not a matter of ... how "cool" they seem and I hope people aren't blinded by that.

I'm definitely going to wait till this series is over before I watch it again, I want to at least know if it becomes worth the watch later on.

Guilty Crown is the show I was most excited for and it has proven to be a great disappointment. I know hardly anything is original nowadays but this feels like a poor man's Code Geass.

Admittedly the animation and sound are excellent; it's obvious we're talking about high production values. Unfortunately that's where the positive things end.

The plot is contrived and shallow, the action seems pretty silly, and the characters are boring, i.e the wimpy school kid who turns into a badass when it's convenient, the friend-or-foe? ruthless strategist, the fanservice female protagonist...

I don't know, it feels like I'm expected to watch this (and subsequently ... love it) for the cool visuals and the scantily clad girl. Nothing wrong with enjoying it for those reasons but that is not what I thought this show would be.

Review based on the first episode, it may change...

First, main girl steal a super important thing dressed the same way she was in a video clip. Cool disguise.

A while later bad guys find her with some guy and a robot. What do they do? Just take her away while laughing at the guy. It's not like they should have just secured the area and searched everything. Which is like the most basic procedure ever. But we can't have our great hit end on the first episode can we?

Then our ultra pathetic MC meet bad guys and he's saved by a super cool long haired badass ... handsome blond dude in a cool coat. While a super cool music is playing. Oh, did I mention spotlights?

Then we have Britann... I mean USA troops massacring poor innocent japanese civilians. Shame on you evil americans.

And then the resistance (I think) leave that super incredibly important thing in the hands of a teenage faggot they just met (a faggot who let bad guys take their friend a while earlier) and tell him to do his best.

And then he accidentally get super powers and start cutting big robots.

Didnt really see what was all the hype about or is it just me?

I give it a 5 for the pretty animation.

Guilty Crown Review:

Sheesh.... This show... just... I don't know. It really was awful. But at the same time.... it was great? What's wrong with me!? Why can't I figure out if this show was good or not!? AHHH!
All kidding aside, it's funny that the name of this show is Guilty Crown because if there is any phrase to describe my feelings toward it, it would be "guilty pleasure."

Story 6/10:
Guilty Crown takes place in future Japan, where a disease has ravaged its way through the city. The government is corrupt and killing anybody who they think is infected, thus causing a terrorist group called "Funeral Parlor" ... to fight against them. Enter our main protagonist Shu who accidentally gets a super power to pull out weapons from people's hearts. Shu is forced to join Funeral Parlor and fight against the government. Cliche anyone? Of course, much like far too many shows nowadays, the entire focus of the plot shifts halfway through, but I will avoid talking about it because of spoilers.
Hm. This is without a doubt the hardest aspect of the show to rate. This story suffered GREATLY due to its writing. First off, the show just takes itself wayyy too seriously. I mean, if a show doesn't take a break to relax and show what "good" life is, then it's hard to see what exactly it is that everyone is fighting for. It also has a hard time identifying itself at first and really tries to do too much. But, the REAL main problem was that there were sooo many plotholes and inconsistencies that it was almost comical. The lack of logic that the characters had was also tear inducing. Some random and fun plotholes are: where on earth were the teachers at this school? Since when does student government have so much power? How does the nobody notice all the massacres the government performs? Why didn't somebody kill Inori long before the show even started? I won't get too deep into why there are so many errors in the writing, but trust me, there are a lot.
So why did I still give this story a 6 if it was as bad as I said? Well as embarrassing as the writing could get, the writing could also be, well, great. Wait... what did I just say? Well, seeing as the writer and director were involved in works like Code Geass and Death Note, it would be quite unusual to not see flashes of brilliance in the story (I will not go into this do to spoilers, just know that this show does have its moments). Although the whole base of the story is a huge "kid gets superpowers and joins a ragtag team to defeat the corrupt government" cliche, it did have an interesting background to make it unique within this cliche. Some plot twist (while often poorly detailed) were indeed surprising, and the show did do a great job of maintaining suspense and making you want to marathon the show instead of taking your time. However, the strong points of the writing could be eerily similar to those in Code Geass, making it seem somewhat unoriginal.
This is one of those shows that is convoluted at its finest, and will somehow keep you interested in the story even though it fails to explain why or how half of the stuff is even happening. The story is just full of hit or miss elements, shining gloriously one moment, then falling down the stairs and landing on its face the next. The story was definitely enjoyable, but was majorly held back by its inconsistency.

Wow that was a lot of writing. Don't worry, it gets easier after that.

Art 8/10:
Guilty Crown really does have great animation. The lighting isn't particularly special, but the character models, movements, colors, and just overall feel were definitely high end. This is the kind of animation you hope to see out of more modern anime and is truly impressive.

Sound 8/10:
Much like the art, the sound in this show was very high class. The openings and endings were great and the vocal tracks used in the show were good too (although sometimes overused). The background music wasn't particularly notable compared to the vocal tracks, but I never heard anything out of place, and the music only enhanced the vibe in the show. The voice acting for the Japanese version was nothing special as far as I could see, but I usually hold back judgement on this unless it is really special seeing as I don't even speak Japanese.

Character 5/10:
Even more flawed than the story were the show's characters. The two leads were Shu and Inori. Shu starts off as a wimpy high school student who doesn't want to get involved, then like all other wimpy leads, slowly becomes more confident. His development doesn't end there though! Shu's personality flip flops so many times that it is almost ridiculous. Why Inori claims to have loved him throughout this entire time is beyond me, seeing as he was at least 5 different personas in the show. To add onto his multiple personality disorder, he has almost no backstory, and the only backstory he does have is poorly explained. This goes for everyone else involved in this flashback. The characters aren't really developed, instead they just briefly explain how everything happened when they were kids, not why the characters acted how they did. Gai is similar to Shu, where his personality changes multiple times during the show, and it never quite explains his reasoning or actions. Inori also has to go down as one of the most uninteresting female leads of all time. She basically is confined to one liners and barely shows any emotion throughout the entire show. The side characters weren't nearly as bad, but they too lacked any back story or true motives for their actions. It's also sad to see probably the two most interesting characters (Daryl and Segai) get pushed aside for most of the show in favor of more bland ones. Now even though the characters were extremely flawed, it was still interesting to watch how they acted in certain situations. Although I'm sure it was unintentional, the poor portrayals of the characters, along with their complete lack of ability to use logic and reason, actually helped them become more unpredictable and fun to watch. The characters weren't necessarily "bad" because to be "bad" you really need to be annoying, or something that makes me cringe while watching. The characters were just lacking in anything that could make me attach to them, and many shows have this problem. It's just that with a plot as heavy as Guilty Crown's, you kind of need to establish strong characters.

Enjoyment 6/10:
Guilty Crown did one thing right in this department: it kept me watching. It's one of those shows that keeps you wanting more due to its piling on of questions and cliffhangers. At times I could be pretty shocked by what happened in the story. However, I never laughed, nor even came close to getting emotional. The show really does try to be emotional, but the glaring mistakes this show has makes all of these attempts at being emotional feel forced, sometimes adding even more questions. Usually errors in writing don't really bug me, but when they start interfering with my connection to the show, then you know it's serious. I did like Guilty Crown, no doubt about it, but it also wasn't even remotely hard to see its faults.

Recommendation:
I really can't recommend this show sadly because it is just too flawed. I'm sure many others may love this show, but the chances of that aren't high enough for me to tell you to go out and watch this.

Overall 6.8/10:
Guilty Crown was very strange for me. Usually with shows like this, people either love it, or hate it. For me, it was both. It sounds strange, but for every glaring mistake this show had, it also had a shining moment. Yes the characters were relatively weak, and there were plot holes all over the place. But, Guilty Crown is no pile of crap either. It succeeds in telling an interesting tale that will keep you interested throughout. Add in its stand out performance in animation and music and you easily have an above average anime. Many people hate this show, and many people love it. I didn't love it, but it was definitely worth my time watching.

The Verdict:
A thrilling ride that fails to reach its potential due to poor writing.

Pros:
+ Thrilling, kept me wanting to know what happens next
+ Vocal music pieces are stellar
+ Ending was actually very satisfying
+ Quality animation

Cons:
- Plot holes everywhere
- Poorly developed characters
- Fails to deliver in emotional moments

If you liked Guilty Crown, watch...
Code Geass:
This is the obvious one. Mecha. Intense. Cliffhangers. Main character with a super power. Yep. But believe me when I say that Code Geass is far superior in the character and storytelling departments.
Gurren Lagaan:
If you enjoy nonstop mech action and fun and have the wonderful ability to turn your brain off while watching a show, you will also enjoy Gurren Lagaan like I did.

6.8 - Good

The most hyped show of 2011, but is all the hype worth it? To be blunt, no and if you can't see that you probably haven't absorbed a lot of media or you are a twelvie.


Story: 5/10- interesting, but poorly executed.
Neon Genesis Evangelion + Code Geass + darker than black + a hole lot of S*** = Guilty Crown

This show tried it’s absolute hardest to steal from other anime whether it be the seemingly pointless episodic structure of Darker than Black, the group of freedom fighters led by an anti-hero in Code Geass and if I mention the numerous Neon Genesis Evangelion references throughout ... the show it would spoil a lot of the plot, so I wont. It also has every single generic episode in the book such as the swimsuit episode, the ship/cruise episode and what a surprise it's based in a highschool! Japan, you sure like your schools, dont you?

Another thing to note about this anime is it’s writing, which feels a lot like fan-fiction, and not your good kind of fan-fiction written by someone who is actually passed there English classes in school, I mean the fan-fiction written by unpopular fourteen year old girls who think they have a good grasp on love even though they have never felt it. A true shame considering if this show had done the story or the characters right they would have had quite a good anime on there hands. However the show does have an "interesting" premise even If it is wishy-washy eighty percent of the time so, to sum up, this show puts the “corn” in corny and can only be watched with your brain turned off (figuratively).

Art and Animation 9/10:
This show has created a phenomenon that I like to call the “Guilty Crown Effect” (everything sounds better if you add “effect” to the end of it). This is when a show has amazing animation and art but awful characters and story and somehow manages to get fan-boys/girls screaming about how amazing EVERYTHING is. Getting back on topic, the art is crisp and the animation is in my opinion, the best of its time. It also avoids lazy animating such as making the background or scenery move instead of the characters, moving the bodies slowly up and down to simulate walking or my personal favourite, moving the camera to a spot which would require less animation which is something that one show it copied is quite famous for.


Music 10/10:
The best part of the show, it created some feeling to scenes that would normally warrant no feeling from me, which, was to be expected after seeing Ryo and Supercell were working on this project. If you don’t know Supercell is a group that have created many catchy and famous Hatsune Miku songs such as Black Rock Shooter, Odds and Ends and World is mine and have also written music for Claris (Mahou Shoujo Madocka Magica) and Kotoko (Shakugan no Shana, Ano Natsu de Matteru). In short the openings and endings are catchy and contain smarter writing than the show itself.



Characters 4/10:
Shu: A wannabee Shinji who just runs away for half of this show and magically dodges bullets because getting hit by bullets is only for hipster protagonists or something. He occasionally shows moments of badassness but when it happens it feels extremely shallow and just happens for the show to move forward. He is relate-able for a large amount of teenagers at the start of the show and is constantly trying to be Gai.

Inori: soft spoken and cute so basically top-tier waifu material. She is another badass who likes to shoot guns and is probably a gymnast as she can do gravity defying flips and dodge bullets. She is as generic as every other character in this show and quite forgettable unless you watch a lot of 18+ material.

Gai: leader of a terrorist group known as funeral parlour, he tries really hard to be Hei from Darker than Black and is your generic badass character. He has no clear motive for leading Funeral Parlour and apparently no one ever questions this.


Personal enjoyment-8/10
I actually liked this show a lot and was a rather quick watch for me. If it wasn’t for the god-awful ending and some other large quarrels with this show it would have been a nine.

Summary
An extremely enjoyable show with poor writing, story and characters. A definite pop-corn flick, but Shingeki no kyojin exists so just go watch that if you want top-tier animation. Now if you will excuse me I have a date with itunes.

~SAO and guilty crown are equal.

Gulity Crown is one of the most beautiful animes I have ever watched. The art is comparable with Attack on Titan's, if you've seen that show. Both the scenery and characters look very good. I liked the music as well. Great soundtrack and openings.

However, the story is poorly written and hard to keep up with. I don't even think I dare try to explain the plot. When you think you're starting to understand what's going on, there's a plot-twist and you're totally lost again. I started watching this anime in english, but I had to chance to japanese so that I'd have to be more ... focused and read the subtitles. I thought I'd keep up with the story better that way, but it didn't help much.

The characters are kind of hard to get a grasp of as well, even the main character. I though I had a pretty decent idea of who he was and I liked him, but he totally changed at certain point and acted all weird. No wonder though with all the crazy stuff going on. And he's not the only character who changes.

If you can stay 100% focused while watching in order to understand this anime's complex plot, you might like it. However, I couldn't keep up with the plot-twists and therefore I didn't find Gulity Crown very enjoyable. It's such a shame because I really wanted to and I tried very hard to do so.

Warning: Non professional review incoming.
Also, my first one.

So, every once in a while, some random anime pops out and causes lots of hype. Guilty Crown is just another one of them. What's fun is that most of the viewers have 1 of 2 very different opinions on this turd. Me? Well, the score should be a good indicator of my opinion. Anyways, back on track.

Story: 1/10
Terrible is all I need to say to this cluster fuck.
Let me summarize it without spoiling.
- High school boy wants to change things but doesn't have the power to do so.
- High school boy meets famous female singer
- Said ... singer is being chased by soldiers
- Soldiers capture woman
- Boy obtains super powers
- Boy joins Terrorist group called Undertaker
- Train wreck occurs.

Art: 8/10
The art is good no doubt. Beautiful in fact. That's all there is to it.

Sound: 8/10
Once again good. Maybe even great. You won't forget this anime's OST... Unless like me you don't really pay too much attention to it.

Character: 3/10
Disgusting. All the characters are disgusting except for maybe some side characters and Shu.
Let's branch it off into 3 groups:
- Shu's friends: Stereotypical group with no depth.
- Undertaker: Same as above with some actually decent people in there like Ayase and Tsugumi.
- Enemies: Well... while most of them are forgettable, Segai, Daryl and DAN EAGLEMAN (That's right motherfuckers) are awesome.

Enjoyment: 7/10
You're probably all going like "Wtf this guy just gave the story and the characters terrible scores. How can you enjoy an anime where you hate the plot and the people?"
Simple, think of this as a comedy. The moment you do, everything's gonna be so much nicer. Plenty of hilarious moments which normally should've been taken normally but I just couldn't because it was so bad.

Overall: 5/10
While the story and it's characters were terrible, this anime is a sight to behold. It broke out of its' shell and became a comedy! Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't watched it myself. Definitely give it a try if you want to see a story written by a 12 year old.

Story: 3/10
I'll try my best no to spoil anything... How can you describe the story? The story is inconsistent from the very begining to the end. The first few episodes follow a storyline that has quite an original setting (NB: a vaccin isn't used this way) and is decent. Then for the rest of the show the story makes no sense at all. A whole bunch of unbelievable coincidences happen which don't make any sense. It feels like the story was out of breath and the author added that at the end to be able to make it more interesting. It had the opposing effect.

Art: ... 8/8
The art is breathtaking. It is extremly good and saves a little bit this anime. I think it was truly wasted on this.

Sound: 8/8
The background music is good and all the themes are just awesome.

Character: 3/10
I don't particularly dislike the characters. I just think that the story destroys them. For exemple, numerous times you should pity the characters but the only thing that comes to mind is WHY? I mean they some overly stupid things for no real reason and you're suppose to sympathize with them? There still are some good characters like the woman in the wheelchair but most of the characters are so poor. That was without talking about the almost non-existant character developpement. It is there with the two main characters and then fades away for the other characters

Enjoyment: 5/10
I think I was pretty pissed off while watching this but the romance made it still enjoyable.

Overall: 5.4/10
I think it was a less than average series. I would never recommend it to anyone. In fact, I'd do the opposite. If you don't really mind a crappy story and pathetic characters then watch Guilty Crown. If not then don't

Sorry for everyone that really likes this series but let's face it: It ain't great!

Guilty Crown is a lot like a soup with too many ingredients in which half of them have gone stale. The setting is pretty much Code Geass--occupied Japan, resistance fighters, and a mysterious power given to a highschool student. The cast is glutted with underdeveloped characters, quite a few of which go on to become cannon fodder, and the subplots and sequence of events are choppy and uneven. The series does touch on one particularly interesting theme however; those seeking to change the system start turning into the very thing they despised. Unfortunately some pretty bizarre and incredulous events put an abrupt end to several ... episodes' worth of development in lieu of some out-of-place Judeo-Christian esotericism and a few climactic battles. The final ending is either laughable or bittersweet depending on your take. Overall I'd say Guilty Crown brings in too many elements and themes which are better handled by other series, and then leaves them half-baked.

After finishing this series, Guilty Crown left me feeling… rather empty. The production value behind the show was great, the animation breathtaking, the OST was conducted by one of the renowned musician in the industry, and above all else, we had an all-star seiyuu cast. Everything looked very beautiful and it was a joy for my eyes and ears to enjoy. So what went wrong?

I believe this was mostly because of the production committee behind GC played everything “too safe”, and “laziness” was to blame.

GC took a lot of themes and tropes from many other different animes and mashed them all up together, packaged ... them so well that it could easily appeal to the mass audience. In one way, GC was quite a hit and a commercial success, but on the other hand, it became a train wreck and a huge loss of potential.

One of the many tropes GC used was by making a “relatable” male protagonist, Shu Ouma, who was presented as a shy boy who had difficulties in making friends with others, he was a coward, low self-esteem and selfish, in essence, hardly any good trades. He felt that he would be of no use to the world. In a sense, many teenagers who are still developing could well face these issues in real life and may find Shu “relatable”, as personally I did face similar troubles years ago.

GC then proceeded to develop him more as a character by having various traumatic events of different magnitudes affecting him. Unfortunately, I can’t help myself but feel that the creators put a rather half-assed effort on this. Minor events that shouldn’t affect Shu so much made him depressed for weeks, yet a much larger event which should have a bigger impact on him, Shu just brushed it off as if it never happened. The said traumatic events affected Shu in practically any way the creators made it convenient for themselves to portray Shu the way they wanted to.

As a consequence, any thoughts of believing Shu as a “real” character was turned into dust. His progressive growth as a character was nonsensical, and he was like a totally different character throughout the series, he turned from Haruyuki into Kirito at some point, and turned into Lelouch thereafter. He was socially inept at the beginning, and then suddenly he became so likable to others around that he managed to form a pseudo-harem and even became a leader. I understand how major life events can turn a person 180 degrees, but sadly it wasn’t done very well here.

Another mess of a character in GC would be Inori Yuzuriha, the poster girl of the series. Her character designs were no doubt decent, sadly it felt way out of place when used in the show. Who on earth would wear a sideboob outfit in the middle of a fight against robots? Sorry but to me she was created merely to help promote the sales of merchandises and Blu-rays. Her personality was also tailored into what could be the perfect waifu material – soft spoken, kuudere, beautiful, sexy (who was never aware that Shu was ogling at her tities), strong-willed, badass and wasn’t afraid to kill. Sounds to me she was the ultimate otaku fantasy wife who should be able to fulfill most of their fetishes.

All of these were fine should they provided a fine backstory for her, but unfortunately there wasn’t any, despite the fact that she was very relevant to the plot. I found myself picturing her as a sex combat maid android sent from the future, as it made much more sense this way. (sigh)

Speaking of the plot, I am often perplexed by the fact that the anime producers did not want to let go of the school setting. Yep you guessed it, the usual school festivals and onsen scenes were present. The terrorists were mostly teenagers who for some reason so immensely talented and trained well enough to stand up against the military. Gai was merely a 17 years old boy but he acted as if he was Hitler, somehow Inori could shoot more accurately than James Bond because she was "talented and trained", and the wanted serial killer cum super hacker was only 14. The fact that they were merely teens made it convenient for the producers to brush off any silly actions the characters made as “pubescent mood swings” or “because love is blind”.

Furthermore, they made all the good guys in GC teenagers, and most of the adults were the bad guys. The black and white hat that were assigned to the characters were so blatantly obvious that it was difficult to take the antagonists’ ultimate evil goal seriously, and the show did not actually explain it well on the motive of their plans, simply throwing in the mask of “I am evil just because I am” to them.

The plot elements introduced in GC were actually very interesting, especially the concept of the shape of a people’s heart in the form of “Voids”, which I believe to hold immense potential to make a great show if handled well. However, it seemed to me that the producers were lazy to elaborate on the Void concept, using it merely as a convenient Dues Ex Machina that Shu and Gai often pulled off to solve whatever difficult situations they were stuck in. What happened to “as the emotions and fears of a person change, so do the form of their Voids?” I never see any change in a person’s Void whatsoever in the show regardless of the so-called “change of feelings and fears” occurring in said person.

Notice how I repeated the word “convenience” so many times in this review, basically, this summed up how lazy the writers were when they were concocting the plot of GC. This extends further to the Apocalypse Virus, the Lost Christmas incident and the subsequent selective amnesia Shu had, the ultimate motive of the antagonists, to the entire setting of GC itself. The writers hardly finished anything they started.

Ultimately, GC could be seen as a summer blockbuster anime which came in with a bang, and ended without leaving a trace of excellence behind. With its beautiful presentation and many tropes thrown in, it might appeal to anime newcomers, and personally I also believe that GC is a decent choice to introduce anime to others. But the poorly written plot and characters left a bitter taste to those who expected a mesmerizing tale from one of the most famous modern animes out there.

Most overrated anime of 2011. Which had a lot of potential and nice art but ! (yeah here it comes) Because of poor execution of storytelling, failed character psychology design and not so good episode structure, is definitely far from great. Not mentioning all the cliché present in big portions: high-school, black and white, every important guy has to have his girl, she has to be cute or capable(not both), mentally unstable main character, badass char, saving futuristic japan issue... The worst thing is probably the continuity of episodes. Many things doesn't make sense, main plot is barely holding throughout the episodes. Anime itself doesn't ... stick to any genre. You can find mix(mess) of romance, fantasy, sic-fi, mecha, action, tragedy, psychology elements that are misapplied in whole concept. Its obvious that GC tried to copy loads of stuff from Neon Genesis (Shinji,Dad,mom), Code Geass (Rebellion,Tyrant transformation) etc.. Unfortunately Its not working out in the incoherent story with illogical behaviour of characters. The only thing worth of praise is fluid animation and high-quality art design. The anime might be targeting younger audience with lesser anime experience.

Guilty Crown is an anime I had heard so much about and was really looking forward to finally watching. On the outside, this show looks like an action-packed thrill ride filled with stunning visuals, an amazing soundtrack, and some of the best animation I have ever seen, but the more you watch the more you realize that all of these are just covers for the shows complete lack of proper story telling. This show gets a ton of hate AND a ton of a love from a bunch of people in anime community, and hopefully my review will give you an honest opinion of the ... show :).

Story: 2
This anime has one of the worst told stories I have ever seen, and its really fucking depressing when you realize how great this show could have been if it would have been given proper attention. Basically, this show follows our main character, Shu, who has been given the power to take the "voids" out of people's hearts (for some reason). He later uncovers a conspiracy surrounding the Japanese government and their plans to take over Japan using the "apocalypse virus." Shu ends up joining a terrorist group know as Funeral Parlor in an attempt to overthrow the Japanese government and stop their plans to use the virus to take over (I think?). The show was just incredibly confusing and 75% of the time I legit had no fucking clue what was going on. It was a gigantic mess from start to finish. They tried to cram in way too many plot elements and it just ended up making the entire thing unwatchable from a story standpoint. The ending is also extremely disappointing, and leaves the viewer with no satisfying feeling whatsoever.

Art: 10
As much as I hated the story of this anime, and found it to be incredibly confusing, it does have some redeeming qualities. The art and animation in this show is some of the best I have seen in any anime PERIOD. The show looks drop dead gorgeous. Everything from the color palette to the crisp and fluid animation is top notch, and I would highly recommend anyone watch this show just for its artistic value alone. This was definitely the highly light of the show by far.

Sound: 9
The soundtrack in this show was almost as equally fantastic as the art. Both openings are memorable and catchy as hell, and I honestly looked forward to them every single time I started a new episode. All the songs in the actual show are great as well, each doing a good job of adding to the mood of the scene they are being used in. I still find my self listening to the opening theme songs from this show from time to time because they are just that damn good.

Characters: 3
Just like the poorly told story, the majority of the characters in this show are just as as shit as the plot itself. Shu is your standard high school student main character. This type of main character has been done so many times at this point that I just really don't care anymore. He's your typical whiny bitch main character that is afraid of everything, goes through a metamorphosis mid way through the show, and then becomes a badass by the end of it *Yawn*. Its been done time and time again, nothing special here. Inori, who is Shu's love interest (Lol), is even more boring. Nothing special, she is simply in the show because reasons. She is really only there to be the forced love interest of Shu. Yes, she does have some back story, and yes, she serves some kind of purpose to the plot (I think), but its so poorly explained that I couldn't care less about her. The other characters aren't even worth mentioning, they are basically just cardboard cutouts. The only side character that I found somewhat interesting was the girl in the red suit that had to use the wheelchair (can't remember her name). She was actually given some decent backstory and purpose, but it sure as hell wasn't enough to save this cluster fuck of a show.

Enjoyment: 5
There were definitely parts of this show that I enjoyed, but I most certainly wouldn't watch it again. It was the definition of "Meh"

Overall: 5
The only reason this show gets a 5 is because the art and sound were just so outstanding. This show would have easily been a 3, but the art and sound at least make it somewhat mediocre of a show. Like I said earlier, I would recommend this anime to anyone that wants a beautiful show to watch with an amazing soundtrack and crisp animation. However, if you are looking for a show with an amazing plot and in-depth characters you are not gonna find it here.

This was one of those animes that I really did hope to be good. Sadly it simply proved that you can't judge an "anime" by it's cover.

-Story-
It's mostly bs. It starts with young Ouma Shuu joining some "terrorist" group. Afterwards almost every episode of the first part, is made out of spectacular effects/art, explosions, betrayals aaaand a lot of crying and self-pity.
The first 12-ish episodes could've been reduced to max 5 if it wasn't for all those explosions, shouting, running and crying. The first part of the story felt more like a filler than an actual part of the story. At times it ... does seem that the story advances too fast but that is only because they SKIP some parts, frankly most of the first part is made of the main character Shuu crying (I did say this before but it annoyed the shit out of me).
The second part starts with a more determined male character, someone that does what needs to be done for the best of the majority. While it seems that they worked just a bit more on the story part of the second half, it does have way more "fuck logic" moments.
It's just a pity that I can't spoil the ending but the last episode simply blew my mind, in a bad way.
While others did say this too but the story is full of cliche's, maybe they tried too hard, that's why they fucked up the story so bad.

-Art-
10/10 nothing to say here (judge by it's cover, right?)

-Sound-
Sound effects 10/10 but that's normal I guess...
They did try a lot, nothing to say, even the main female character has an original song of her own.
While I really like most of supercell's / ryo's music I didn't like any of the songs in this anime, but hey maybe it's just me.
That makes an 8 for sounds for me in the end.

-Characters-
At least we have some development on Shuu's side.
The problem with the characters in that most of them are simply without any personality. Seriously, it's like all of them are simple "vessels".
Shuu is an annoying piece of crap in the first part, the good part is that Shuu does develop a little bit, well at least he doesn't cry that much towards the ending.
Inori... she is simply nothing, I mean she is beautiful in the anime but that's kind of everything that you can say about her. For the most part all that I can remember about her, is her saying "Shuu" and that's it.
Characters 3/10

-Enjoyment-
In the first part I felt many times that I should get up from my bed and skip those really annoying crying/self-pity/ full of effects but nothing else parts, but meh I'm too lazy for that so I had to watch it all. You can imagine how much I did enjoy this anime, right?
3/10

-Overall-
Maybe I simply expected a lot more out of this than I should have. All in all I do believe that this failed because they did try a lot. We all know that sometimes when we try too hard we simply fail.
Overall I gave this a 6 mostly because of the really "wtf" moments towards the end, otherwise it would've been a 6.5 (which means 7 to me).