This anime has a lot of negativity behind it, which is understandable. It was simply not able to live up to the hype that it had gathered. But, the anime was not bad at all. Guilty Crown is a very good anime, that suffers a lackluster story. But the anime itself is nonetheless enjoyable to watch til the very end.
Art/Sound - 10/10
Great Visuals and OST's are amazing. The music is so great, in fact, that they literally made an entire band (from the show) to be used in different animes.
The art is stunning, and you will want to watch just for it.
Story - 6/10
Mediocre plot line. The problem with the story is a). the pacing was incoherent, and b). the plot line for the later part of the show was so convoluted, it made no sense. Im not going to summarize the story, but just be warned, dont watch the anime for the story. It will disappoint you the second half of the anime.
Characters - 8/10
The main few characters, Shu Ouma, Inori, and Gai Tsutgami are great characters. Shu, the main protagonist of the series has the most character development. He starts off as a wimpy character, afraid of change, and turns into a more badass character towards the end of the show. He does suffer from huge mood swings, but if you are responsible for many peoples lives, who wouldn't be? Inori is Shu's love interest. She is an interesting character, and reminds me of Mikasa from Attack on Titan and her relation with Erin. Inori starts off as a very emotionless character in the beginning, but starts to really love Shu and becomes far more emotional overall. She also becomes more dependent and, overall, a more developed character by the end. Gai is also a great character. He starts off as the leader of Funeral parlor (a terrorist group), who had suffered a whole lot due to the manipulation of the governing power and his previous love interest. He then must try to man up his wimpy childhood friend Shu (who was the person he looked up to as a child), and create a plan that will save humanity from the manipulative government. This character is reminiscent of Lelouch from Code Geass, and is a very good character altogether.
The rest of the characters are pretty much stereotypical anime characters with barely any personality, which is why the rating is an 8/10, and not higher.
Enjoyment - 8/10
The art and music make up for this anime's inconsistent, complicated plot. Because of how beautiful this anime's art and music is as well as its very good 3 main characters, the anime is immensely fun to watch and is, in my opinion, highly enjoyable.
