[SPOILER FREE REVIEW]
Story: 7/10
The story follows Shu Ouma, a perfectly normal high school student who doesn't have many friends and tries to lead as normal a life as possible. Until one day when he runs into a girl named Inori Yuzuriha and after getting mixed up with her and a group of "terrorists" known as "Funeral Parlor" he gains a strange power in which he can pull "voids" out of people's hearts and use them to fight with. Now, You could say I am somewhat new to anime, I *started in August of 2013 with Death Note. As of the time of this review, I haven't seen anime such as Code Geass, Evangelion and Eureka Seven. A lot of Guilty Crown's criticism came from the fact that it recycles a very similar plot to shoes such as these as well as Gurren Lagann. If you were to have seen these shows already, you may find yourself saying "This show is just copying all the good mech shows." HOWEVER, to quote another reviewer, "Guilty Crown is one big homage to mech anime and I love that about it." I intentionally watched Guilty Crown before these shows because I know that I would have viewed the anime as just copying the other famous mech anime. The way the show executes its story may be very similar to other anime, but if you can get past that, you'll love it. And if you haven't seen the other shows, you'll definitely love this.
Characters: 6/10
There's nothing really special about the characters. You've got Shu, Inori, Gai, The rest of Shu's school and classmates, and the rest of Funeral Parlor. As well as the antagonists: GHQ. I will say that almost every character in this anime is some sort of slightly different version of characters from Evangelion, Code Geass, and Gurren Lagann. I won't get into who each character is a copy of exactly, but you should be able to figure it out while watching. One thing I really loved was the development of Shu's character. He goes through a lot and I would call him a very "broken" character. It's really something to watch him develop.
Art: 10/10
The animation was done by Production I.G. Famous for their very good animation in anime like Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Eden of the East, *insert other amazing shows done by I.G here* I'll be honest, THIS ANIME LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. One of the saving graces of this anime is the absolutely amazing looking action sequences and very precise art for all the mechs. Even the non-action scenes look really amazing. Thanks in no small part to Tetsuro Araki.
Sound: 10/10
I am an avid fan of Supercell. Knowing that the music was basically completely done by Supercell, I was damn excited going into this show. And I was not disappointed. The music was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano. Famous for his soundtracks from Ao no Exorcist, Attack in Titan, and *cough Kill la Kill. The 1st opening theme is as of right now my favorite opening theme in all of anime. I'll also point out that one of the song in the show titled "Euterpe" (which played in that awesome introduction sequence of episode 1) is up there with my favorite background music in all of anime right next to Scattered Rain from Trigun and the Dango theme from Clannad. I'm inclined to say that this anime has THE BEST SOUNDTRACK in anime.
As for the Dub, I watched the anime in dub and I thought it was a very good dub. I'll say the best performance goes to Austin Tindle as Shu Ouma. I've never heard Austin Tindle's voice before, and I thought he did a very good job. I'd also like to say that Micah Solusod as Gai was very good as well. I only know Solusod from playing Soul in Soul Eater and didn't know his voice could change that much since then. I'll have to recommend the dub strictly on the fact that watching this dubbed will allow you to take it all in at once.
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 8/10
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I know a lot of people really hate Guilty Crown, and I can understand why they would hate it. But on its own, this is a pretty good anime. For me personally, I loved this anime so much. I haven't enjoyed an anime this much in months and I would day this was probably one of my best viewing experiences ever. I had that "void" feeling after I finished this where I was just so depressed and sad that it ended and was not able to watch anime for a few days because I just wanted more Guilty Crown. This show is a very very enjoyable show to watch. I would go as far as to say that with all the genres that it has, I would recommend this as a gateway anime to people who want to get into anime. I am not the biggest fan of mecha anime, and i wasn't expecting to like it, but this show just totally captivated me. The anime is not without flaws however. With a few one-dimensional characters and a point where Shu goes full on Lelouch. I will be re-watching this one day, and I'll hope to have a similar experience. As I will say this is one of my favorite anime series ever. For similar anime recommendations, I'll recommend everything I said above Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, and Eureka Seven, as well as everything else directed by Tetsuro Araki.
POSITIVES:
-Strong Start
-Amazing action scenes
-Outstanding soundtrack
-Good gateway anime
-Strong development from Shu
-Great if you haven't seen the other famous mech shows
-Fun to watch
NEGATIVES:
-Copies a lot of other anime
-One dimensional characters
-Almost non-existent romance
-Inori is almost emotionless
-Not everything is fully explained
-Open ended ending
THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! IT MEANS A LOT!
I'll see ya soon...
