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.

With the large amount of Guilty Crown reviews going around lately, It wouldn't be too hard to find a 'decent' review, right? well that's not the case at all, It seems that most of the reviews are either written by blind fan-boys/fan-girls or haters, 10's,9's,4's and 3's seem to be the popular choice of overall rating, though looking at Guilty Crown in a balance way, this anime definitely deserves a 7 and I'll explain why in the next couple of paragraphs which will you most likely will flick through.

= Story (3) =

If you have been watching Guilty Crown or have seen some of the rantings ... on the forums, you would know that the story is filled with cliché's and awful execution (for the most part anyway), So I won't go that in-depth to the story, basically just think of it as a mecha-action-supernatural-apocalyptic-drama-comedy-Sci Fi-romance-school-fan service super show.

In other words, Shu (Shuu), your average 16-year-old guy living in a future version of Tokyo get's himself wrapped up in the activities of terrorist group defying the government called Funeral Parlour, he meets the leader Gai, find's out his favourite singer is a member of the group and that the government is corrupt blah blah blah

= Art (10) =

If there's one thing that no one can complain about, I'd say it's the art. Every episode looks of cinematic quality and the character designs are well down as you'd expect from Production I.G and Redjuice (supercell). If there is one thing to fault about the art, I believe it's the design of the apocalypse virus, It just doesn't look like some deadly disease that someone would be afraid of, though that doesn't really matter.

= Sound (9) =

Sound is also a great part of Guilty Crown, the insert music and the OST is brilliant, the first OP 'Euterpe' was only used in the first episode which was disappointing since the second OP which lasted for 11 episodes wasn't hardly as good. The best OP in my opinion and one of my favourite anime openings is the third and last one 'The Everlasting Guilty Crown', It seriously made the other two seem like crap in comparison.

= Character (7.5) =

7.5? That's not even an score according to MAL is what you might say though that's really the only score I can give it, The characters and their developments weren't very good though they weren't just good either, sort of in-between.

The problem with the characters is that they introduced too many too fast, there wasn't really any-time to grow attached to them or even remember some of them at all. You didn't know which ones were supposed to be Minor or Main characters or just background ones in most of the first half.

Another problem was the likeability of the main characters in most of the FIRST HALF, Shu just sit's around most of the time, being a indecisive, annoying loser. Gai was just emotionless (for the most part) and all Inori could do was use the power of singing(?), provide fan-service and dodge (she might of shot a gun once) but that's it.

Though, (without spoiling anything) In the second half, the main characters had great development.

= Enjoyment (7) =

Enjoyment levels really depend on how serious you take Guilty Crown, don't go into the series expecting a masterpiece because you will most definitely be disappointed and hating on it. Though if you are a simple person (no offence) and just like your anime with ton's of great looking action scenes and a little bit of everything rolled in one (even if the result is total mess) then you will obviously enjoy the series a lot more.

= Overall (7) =

Overall, Guilty Crown is definitely not a masterpiece, though it does NOT deserve the crap reputation it gets, sure the story becomes screwed up beyond repair with the can of cliché's they sprung at you each episode and the character development doesn't really start until halfway through the series, what really matters at the end of the day is how much the viewer enjoys the anime, people will hate, like or love GC and that's their opinion just as this review gives my opinion, I don't really care about the 'helpful' or 'not helpful' clicks, as long as my review isn't buried so deep that it can't be of at least some help to the many users who are looking for a new anime to enjoy, and that's the whole point of reviews, to help people decide whether a anime would be to their liking or not.

Quite possibly the most soulless show to hit the anime industry in a long, long time, Guilty Crown is a true example of "don't judge a book by its cover." Yes, this show by studio Production I.G. may in fact have some of the most impressive TV anime visuals ever, while also having a modestly good OST (Save that god awful OP by Supercell), but once one peels away these more superficial aspects and dives into the core of this production, there is nothing but a hollow shell.

Guilty Crown is supposed to be about Japan in a semi-futuristic setting after some sort of viral pandemic ... that is currently being occupied by foreign powers and how some terrorist organization called the Undertakers is trying to stand up for all the injustices taking place in the country behind the eyes of its citizens. Our main character Shu is some random high school boy who is obsessed with some singer from a band named Inori, who just so happens to be a member of this terrorist organization, and after a chance meeting with her among other things, he obtains something called the King's Power and becomes involved in some chaotic conflict with these terrorists.

It is quite easy coming into this show to be misled into thinking that there is some sort of plot that one would find thrilling, interesting, and emotionally involving. The longer one watches this show though, it becomes quite apparent that it is none of these things. The plot while seemingly complex on the outside, is actually extremely simple minded. The conflicts of the show range from the absurd to the more absurd. Worst of all, the characters of this show are either extremely boring or extremely annoying.

There are a myriad of issues that have gave rise to these failures during the course of this show, and they're easy to name, but most of all I would have to say that they mostly stem from the terrible cast.

The main character Shu is especially annoying in this cast. His motivations in the story are ill-explained, his internal conflicts are not given nearly enough exposition for the audience to understand him, and several times throughout the story he treads the line of coming off as little better than an ass hole. At times he is angsting to the audience about not going rambo on some military police, and at other times he is complaining when he discovers that the female gender actually does possess the concept of individualism. I'm not a person who hates angst, or characters that are flawed, or what have you, but this show has done everything possible to make sure that the main character is not only incomprehensible, but also someone extremely revolting. I'm not sure if it was intentional by the writers though, because I can't see a reason to portray one's own main protagonist in such a negative way, especially when at times he comes off incredibly chauvinistic.

Still, Shu is not the only offender here. The female lead Inori comes from a long list of poorly conceived dandere archetype characters in anime (Silent girls who emote very little basically). There is no established reason for the audience to care about her, especially considering that there is no reason to believe she even has a pulse. In a way she is just a doll, a mere object that is supposed to stand there and look pretty. It is hard to believe she is even a main character considering that one has to concentrate really hard to even realize she's there.

The terrorist leader Gai is supposed to be some sort of badass, but everything he does just makes his character look really stupid. He does not seem to care about the future of his terrorist organization at all considering he enjoys engaging in extremely dangerous stunts over and over again without any concern for his or his organization's safety. Perhaps this type of character would fit better in some sort of shonen action show, but considering how seriously this story takes itself, one can't help but feel that everything he does is way too over the top. This person apparently can take down giant mechas by himself, dodge near nuclear scale explosions standing still, and charm any girl he wants just because he can. It is especially overbearing for the show to really try to make you think he's really cool.

The worst side of the cast is definitely the villains though. Any subtlety in storytelling that one might expect form this sort of show is tossed out the window as this setting is divided into white, black, and more black. Some of the villains are downright insane. The overall seriousness of the show takes a huge hit as a result. It is hard to take a plot seriously when you have bulging eye crazy villains beating up poor women in the slums. To top it all off there is a very prevalent xenophobic attitude in the show, which can be seen in all these villains, but especially the one named Dan who is some big shot evil American dude apparently. This sort of attitude is definitely not helpful for Japan, and is not very flattering to have your show perceived as being a bit racist in portrayal.

More or less the rest of the cast is of the same poorly written shtick. They're extremely cliche and archetypal, which leads most of them to either being boring or annoying because the story does nothing to make the character feel like they have life or feeling. There's nothing relateable about them, nor is there anything about them that the audience can use to see that they are just more than their character archetype. In the end the characters come off as a sign of extremely lazy writing in the show, or a desire of the creators to pander to every audience imaginable in an attempt to grab as much cash possible, or perhaps both. Frankly, it just makes for a very nauseating experience.

More generally, even beyond the characters, the show just doesn't have anything compelling going for it. The plot has this weird dichotomy where it is wanting to be taken as seriously, but at the same time does everything in the most over the top manner that can't help but make one roll their eyes over each scene. A show that uses the rule of cool effectively isn't bad, there's been plenty of examples of anime in the past that have done this, but because of this weird dichotomy, the attempts to employ it here just fall severely flat. Perhaps again it is the fault of this cast, but it is also this incredible misuse of the setting for this story. I think placing this story in a much more fictionalized world would have helped it tremendously for one thing. Still, every episode seeks to top itself, no matter how ridiculous it is getting, and it is hard to believe that this should be a good thing for a show of this kind.

The plot also has very distracting elements at play, in particular, very poorly used and unsubtle fanservice. Several times throughout the show, even in the serious action scenes, the audience has to bear witness to blatant fanservice that comes off enormously tasteless. Things from females butt tapping computer screens in body suits, to boobs swaying in a very sexualized manner after physical violence, are just very distracting to a show's enjoyment when the show does not seem to be about this kind of senseless fanservice. It again just feels like a money garb in this show to pander to a certain kind of audience in this show in a very disgusting manner. The worst and most blatant example of it is Inori's outfit that shows so much skin that it ends up just looking hilariously stupid rather than hot and appealing. Honestly everything portraying the females in this show just seems extremely sexist. The female characters feel little better than sex dolls.

Without making this too long winded, I think I can safely say that Guilty Crown is an amalgamation of all the worst aspects of modern anime industry. This is the type of show that reminds me of why I went away from American TV shows in the first place and it makes me very sad to see the same sort of attitude being placed into anime. For a Production IG show, this is an incredibly disappointing affair.

Cliches. What anime nowadays doesn't have cliched moments? In my opinion, using cliches isn't that bad. That is, when it's not overdone and poorly used.

Guilty Crown is the perfect example of an interesting premise going wrong. It is a very formulatic show : following every damn cliches in anime history. It seems Production I.G tried really hard to make something revolutionary. It is revolutionary ; this anime completely changed my opinion of what a poorly written plot is. And not only the plot, the characters are mostly one-dimensional, and some of them bipolar.

First of all, the story is just plain uninteresting. It's mostly a mash-up ... of every cliches the team behind the production could find. I mean, couldn't they come up with something more original than the usual "boy meets girl who grants him power. (Actually, she carries the power, but it's pretty much the same thing.)" And then, the main character, Shu, joins some resistance team to go against the government. This sounds fine and all, but we've never got to know the motive of the resistance group. Why did they go against the government? What was the point, exactly? Especially after the first half of the show, it seems like the resistance group thing was dropped because I.G ran out of ideas and tried to take another direction. Now, we're presented with some episode trying to be overly symbolic a la Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it failed epicly. Not only was the whole thing pulled out of nowhere, it transitioned to the worst part of the story. Let me remind you, the beginning of the anime was about a corrupt government abusing their powers; a problem on a national scale. In the second half, it's about a school (with no teachers apparently) in crisis, trying to escape the zone they're isolated in, or they'll die. It's hard to take a show seriously when it takes another direction that is completely different, in a bad way. Overall, the story did not satisfy me, and I really doubt the remaining episodes will do Guilty Crown justice.

I find it very ironic that some episodes are rushed, yet I.G still managed to pull off a BEACH episode in a supposedly "serious" plot. Atleast perverts got what they wanted.

Now, let's talk about the so called "void" power Shu has. The power itself is very interesting, I mean, extracting weapons and tools out of a person's body, and the tool/weapon representing their personality, who thought of that? The problem is that the power is FILLED with inconsistencies. Let me begin with how the power is convenient, up until the second half of the anime, every tool/weapon Shu would draw in a difficult situation would be JUST THE RIGHT THING to deal with it. Every time Shu would draw out a void, it could be convenient for the situation and would get him out of that difficult situation easily. That is the perfect example of what a deus ex machina is, used in a bad way. Of course, Gai has the power to see people's void. How did he get that power? No one knows. It just sounds like a convenient excuse used as a plot device because the writers have no idea how to make a progress a plot correctly. The second inconsistency is people fainting from void extraction. Basically, when a void is extracted out of a person's body, they faint out of "shock". Now for the inconsistency, sometimes people faint, sometimes they don't. There is NO explanation as to why they sometimes do and don't. I heard some people claim that when Shu held someone's hand while having their void extracted, it would prevent them from fainting, but I do remember times where he held their hand and they fainted anyway. It seems like the power wasn't explained because what if the writers run out of ideas again? They'd probably add another unforeshadowed element to voids and we, as watchers, will be forced to accept it.

Also, why the fuck can Shu only extract voids from people under 17 years old?

To go back to the one-dimensional characters, I believe Shu and Inori are the WORST PROTAGONISTS to EVER exist. To this day, I still laugh at the interview where I.G claimed that they wanted Shu to be the new Shinji Ikari.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.... Are you fucking kidding me? Shu is just your average pussy character that doesn't want to hurt people, even though they are killing without remorse and hesitation. I.G tried to make a character full of flaws with no real strength. They succeeded, but no way in hell is that close to be a realistic character. It's not that he doesn't want to hurt people, he's just scared. What a lame protagonist, right? Never once does he really change, his personality is and always be that of the average useless main character. And in the second half of the show, his personality takes a sudden 180. I'm sorry, I.G, but people don't instantly change like that, this character is a complete joke.

Inori, on the other hand, has no personality. Or too many. She behaves in a different way in every episode, it's really strange. At first, she completely depends on Gai, but suddenly decides to switch to Shu. I don't understand exactly why she's so dependent on people, since we've almost never seen her take a decision herself.

I won't continue talking about characters because honestly... I have no clue about them and their motives or whatever. Especially the "villains".

I.G can be praised for two things about Guilty Crown. First the animation and art, done by Redjuice, are excellent. The animation is realistic, with a somewhat dark mood attached to it. In my opinion, it's pretty solid, very fluid, I don't remember seeing many repeated frames, and animation quality was consistent in every episode. Still, the style itself is pretty generic and isn't memorable. Same thing applies to the background animation. The details are amazing, I.G really did put a lot of work into the animation. (I wish they had done the same thing with the story.) Personally, I really liked the metal-like effect when a void is being extracted. It's pretty cool.

Music is quite good. I personaly really like the second opening by EGOIST, which is essentially supercell. The animation of the opening sequences are well done, although the moments in the anime don't really seem to happen in the story. The background music is also very fitting and helps deliver the mood of the show.

In the end, do I enjoy Guilty Crown? Yes. Guilty Crown is a very enjoyable anime, there are a lot of action scenes, animation is amazing and so is the music. Story is still terrible though.

I began watching Guilty Crown on a whim. It was a pure coincidence. If I had anything else to do that day, I probably would never have started watching. However, it just so happened that I was bored out of my mind and at the bottom of my current "to watch" list. When I saw Guilty Crown peeking out at me from another member's favorite anime list, I couldn't resist the temptation. Reading the synopsis turned me off. It didn't seem very promising. "Boy has power in his right hand that makes him special." Okay... cool?

So I started reading the reviews. They were horrendously ... mixed, ranging from three to nine with very little middle ground. Well, the positive reviews piqued my curiosity. The negative reviews seemed rather confrontational and angry, as if the show had somehow personally wronged the writers. They railed and ragged on clichés, flat characters, and brought up similarities to other shows.

Being immensely bored and slightly curious, I couldn't help but make Guilty Crown a guilty pleasure. I'll admit that the story takes a while to warm up. The first episode was incredibly cliché, with the generic "boy meets girl; boy becomes superman; boy is involved with terrorists" story going on up until the end. But it diverged. The character (of his own volition) refused to acknowledge his power and left me wondering what could possibly happen next.

Indeed, what could this story be about if the main character refused to join up with what I had assumed to be the protagonist group? Well, Inori happened. Now, I've seen people complain endless about her. She's essentially Ein with pink hair, a lovely singing voice, and a sword in her chest--right?

Sure, if you watch the first six episodes or so. Once you get past the initial "OMG SHE'S SO ," you'll start seeing how she grows. She's a parasitic character. That is what makes her, well, her. She simply cannot function without a strong character to depend on. I don't see how that makes her unrealistic? There are people like that in this world. The only hiccup is the justification. She's weak because she's a blank slate. Okay, maybe that is a little cliché. Does it make the character terrible? No... if she didn't grow at all, then yeah, it would be cliché. Instead, facets of her personality are revealed throughout the show, including the afore mentioned shaky justification.

I'm surprised people don't talk about Gai. He's a sixteen year old who leads a terrorist group, who is a better killer than trained soldiers, a genius tactician, and has the ability to see Voids (which is all too convenient since the main character has the power to extract these Voids). There isn't anything realistic about him for quite some time. He is my least favorite character of the series. He "grows" the most, if you can call it that, but his character itself is subjugated to Shu's growth.

While I'm addressing things that were detrimental to my enjoyment, I'll mention that there were a few inconsistencies as far as Voids are concerned, and a certain character that is built up as being incredibly important with a pretty serious power who is completely ignored in the second half of the show. Actually, if I recall correctly, he stops making an appearance before the plot changing event even occurs. I'm not particularly put-out with his exclusion, but a little explanation would be nice.

As for other inconsistencies, the Void regulations are pretty flighty. The whole "person must be under seventeen" rule is pretty laudable, and the Voids themselves don't seem to be very relevant to a person's heart except in a select few cases--which, if I might add, is downplayed afterwards. You have a character whose Void seems pretty useful, put to heavy use for support purposes, but then you find out that his power is actually among the weakest of the bunch.

However, I can overlook these inconsistencies. I can overlook some questionable plot devices. I can overlook quite a bit as far as this show is concerned. Why? To put it simply, the show is beautiful. The art is magnificent, and the sound wonderful. Everything is so fluid and Inori is just stunning. Couple that amazing art with a cliché story that becomes progressively darker, and I simply cannot help but enjoy it.

I'm not going to lie; there are plenty of areas that could have been handled better. The second half of the show, while my favorite in terms of mood, felt rushed at times. The first half annoyed me with its developments. The character's choices were predictable at times. But, even though we could predict them, it was because of the way the story was told. (I'll refer to everything revolving around Hare. Did we see that coming? Yes. Does that make it cliché? A little. Does that mean it wasn't realistic or handled well? I'd beg to differ. I felt that the changes in mood that resulted were worth giving in to a few minor clichés to attain.)

This is a show you're either going to love or hate. You will either latch on to the little things, or you'll take the bigger picture into mind and just enjoy it as it comes. I personally enjoyed every second of the show and would re-watch if I had the time. Some people may draw parallels to Code Geass, but I don't see them unless I specifically look for similarities. Even then, the ones I see are just general clichés rather than pieces drawn from the show. Some people may complain about the fanservice. I guess they'd be referring to Inori, or Ayase in her flight suit. To be honest, I didn't see any of that as fanservice. It's debatable, and heavily reliant on taste.

This show is not a master piece. It's good, yes, but isn't particularly insightful or groundbreaking. It's eye candy, and interesting enough to spend a few days over. I'll be sad to see it end, but it lacks that certain force other shows have.

The first few episodes had some problems, but nothing unforgivable, and the show actually seemed really awesome at first. There was so much they could do in the world they had set up.

Would the main character become a cunning LeLouche? Perhaps a brave Suzaku? Will we identify with his teen angst like we do with Shinji? Will he seem human?

The answer to all of these questions ends up being "no." The main character is someone you increasingly dislike as the show goes on.

Not only is he generic, he's a bad execution of the generic shonen protagonist. He doesn't feel very human, and his courage & ... competency literally manifest only as required by the plot, only to disappear immediately afterwards.

Sadly, despite an A-list team and a huge budget they really just made an unbelievably bad series. I can't understand how this could have happened. Even mediocre garbage like Symphogear told a more emotional story, and that show was butchered by a huge budget-cut (and a much worse premise, honestly).

Fairly early on you start feeling a sense of disappointment as they layer on extremely generic "twists" that the main character literally cuts through with a magic sword.

The worst part of this show rears its head mid-way through, but it becomes especially prominent in the second half. I am referring to the fact that people change sides without ANY reason to do so, only to change back later without any serious reasons for their actions. The worst example of this by far is the student council president.

It's my guess that the flailing writers looked for any opportunity to inject some kind of pathos into a story that is honestly much to happy for its apocalyptic setting. "Why don't we have his mom help the bad guys for a while?" "Oh yeah! Awesome! The audience will be shocked!"

So many of these twists end up half-baked. Mana's character is a particularly strange creation, honestly. Who came up with the idea to add in all the (barely avoided) creepy incest and rape to a show that is already struggling to tell a convincing story about geopolitics? Not to mention the plague that turns people into crystals. Not to mention the terrorist v.s. government war. Not to mention the other sub-plots that get forgotten until the last episode clumsily ties everything together with a big "reset" button after a boring "final battle" influenced by strange forces never explained.

Not only does an abundance of cheese-ball dialogue ruin the mood on the few truly dramatic scenes, but the writers lacked the balls to really hit us with anything big. The audience never feels much when people die, because the people that die are almost exclusively fodder.

There was one exception to this, but it felt really artificial. It was a terrible 3-episode mini-arc where the main character ends up killing the sibling of his friend, but special circumstances removed all the moral questions in this case. Why not make your main character kill a friend who wasn't already about to die? It worked in Evangelion. Twice in-fact.

Even the action - which should be the one area this show simply cannot fail on - is often really simplistic and boring. If you compare the knightmare suits duels from Geass to the mech battles here, it's just pathetic. Not that these battles ever end up mattering, since the entire show is setup to allow the main character to save everyone repeatedly.

If they had just stopped trying to layer on really shallow twists and developed the core Japan v.s. The World narrative a little more, putting Shu in a moral dilemma regarding Gai's ultimate actions, and dropped the character Mana entirely then this would have been a much better story.

Watch it for yourself. Maybe with low expectations you will enjoy it as a "pretty mess" as some have suggested. As for me, I can't see myself ever recommending it to anyone after this post. It's a cautionary tale for writers, perhaps, but beyond that it has little value.

We all weep for the show that COULD have been. What a waste.

When I saw Guilty Crown on the preview list with the synopsis and the production team, I thought this was it. I thought that this would be an anime that would save the industry. Guess what? I was right. After all if you cannot be a good example, then you will just have to be a terrible warning.

Lets get to the good points. Art. It is Production I.G we are talking about here. Even the haters have to agree that the art is amazing. The animations were fluid and detailed. The character designs are appealing as well. The only problem ... is the uninteresting mecha designs though lets be honest, there are only a few ways that you can draw a giant robot. It is obvious that they spent a large part of their budget in this department. The music is beautiful too except for some engrish and the fact that sometimes the music does not really match the mood of a particular scene.

Oh boy, it is time for the bad stuff; namely the plot. Now I am not going to say that the premises is a copy of Code Geass or anything like that because there is no problem exploring a concept that has been done before. It does become a problem, however, when a previously explored concept is horribly executed. The writers wants you to take the show seriously but it is especially hard to do that when hardly anything follows logic along with the lack of consistency and cohesion of the story. To me it just seemed like the authors all got together and wrote 50 plot progressions and added them into a box. Before every episode they draw one out of the box and say "this is what today's episode is going to be about". This sort of progression leaves little to no explanation nor even any information for the viewer to infer what is happening. Surprisingly the producers think they have enough time to produce a beach episode which again makes me unable to take this show seriously.

The character is another aspect of this anime that made it not enjoyable for me. None of the protagonists' nor the antagonists' motives are explored other than the generic good guys versus the bad guys black and white conflict. The bad guys kill people and the good guys are the heroes of justice oppressed and hunted down by the bad guys. With the inconsistencies of personalities and sudden illogical character "development", it is hard to even give a damn about the characters. The special ability of the protagonist is basically a Deus ex machina used for plot convenience. Coupled with several layers of plot armour that protects the protagonists just makes the characters that much more uninteresting.

With the huge budget, superb production team, and the so called golden time slot given to this show, it pains me physically to see it become the train wreck that is Guilty Crown. Perhaps through a modicum of sadism that exists in every human being, I decided to savor every aspect of its shortcoming by finishing the show; despite all the crap that was thrown at me since episode 3. All in all it seemed to me that 80% of the budget was spent on art and music and a janitor was hired to write the plot. The flashy action scenes and music basically carried this show. At the end of the day I just cannot decide whether or not this is an anime or just a new form of advertisement for promoting Supercell's songs.

Guilty Crown belongs to what could possibly be the most frustrating of shows: ones which are well produced but poorly executed. Sharp visuals and a strong soundtrack are always a plus. However, they don't compensate for haphazard writing and overly hammy direction. Guilty Crown suffers from both of these.

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan, that is ridden with a deadly disease after a catastrophe called Lost Christmas. The nation has been taken over by militarists in order to supposedly prevent the spread of the disease. Shu is a normal high school student, going about his life adhering to the status quo. That is ... until gets involved with Inori, the lead singer of the music sensation Egotist, and member of the resistance group Funeral Parlor. Shu then finds himself in the middle of the action, gaining the power to draw items called 'voids' from the hearts of other people. All he wants is to get back to his normal life, but circumstances keep pushing him back into the conflict, which goes deeper than he ever imagined; holding the fate of the human species in the balance.

Now, admittedly the premise sounds pretty intriguing , and could have actually made for something pretty compelling... that is if the writing was any good. Unfortunately, it is not. It is bad. It is really bad. The plot is just overflowing with silly cliches. Whether it be the action-pack conflict or Shu's mundane school life, the plot consists of retreaded and uninspired material; to the point of being laughably obnoxious. When it is not wallowing in cliches, the story takes some ridiculous and downright asinine twists. It is as if the writers didn't know where they wanted the story to go, and were pulling ideas out of their butts as the story went on. Sure, there are somethings that are foreshadowed and some characters whose roles don't become clear until far into the story; but honestly the reasoning behind them is just so flimsy and often make minimal sense, if any at all. This all leads up to an ending which is completely unsatisfying, even for those who enjoyed the show.

The cast for this show is just as unorganized as the plotting. Shu isn't exactly a terrible lead, he is just exceedingly bland. All that could really be said about him is that he has a kind heart and struggles under pressure, because he spends majority of the show looking like a sad wet puppy following the ideas of everyone but himself. Now, it is clear that the creators meant him to change from this wimpy kid into a mature young man, which would have been perfectly fine if his character development wasn't so forced that it feels hollow and insincere. The rest of the cast is no better, if anything they are far worse. Leading lady Inori has next to no personality at all. Besides her striking look, she is hopelessly dull; nothing more than a glorified plot devise. That the show is intent on forcing viewers to sympathize with her helps nothing. Funeral Parlor leader Gai likewise has inconsistent characterization. This is especially true for the latter half, where his motives are largely unclear at first; then become utterly contrived in an attempt to make his actions sympathetic at the series end. The other characters are barely worth mentioning and all into simple archetypes such as the fiery Ayase, spunky Tsugumi, psychotic Daryl, etc. This over-sized cast eats up eats up the running time, while providing little in way of substance.

Director Araki Tetsurou previously did good work with the wickedly exhilarating Death Note and stupidly fun Highschool of the Dead, and manages to breathe at least some life into this dreck. If nothing else, the action sequences in Guilty Crown are energetic. There are some moments that will certainly get the adrenaline rushing and are very well animated. If only Tetsurou directed the shows dramatic moments as well as its action; he has always had a penchant for over-the-top drama, and that does not work in favor of this series. Often quite drama is the most effective and the most compelling; Guilty Crown doesn't understand this, its drama is constantly heavy-handed and overwrought. Moments that might have been interesting in theory are completely ruined because of how overblown the show is dramatically. It is as if the show decided to supplement plot and characterization by making this as dramatic as possible, it does not work.

As previously mentioned, the show is strong as far as visuals go. The landscapes alone look quite something to behold. The futuristic cities look fantastic, but also fittingly oppressive under the military rule. The otherworldly fields of crystals seen throughout the show are a dazzling sight, despite their rather ominous role in the plot. Likewise, character designs are striking and attractive; once again anime has brought us into a world occupied by gorgeous, or at least above average, looking people. Inori is particularly eye catching in her more often than not revealing outfits; as is the inexplicably cat-themed Tsugumi. The animation usually looks great, at times it is rough around the edges, but that is expected for a TV anime; and it comes in full force when it is time to show off. The music is, of course, also well produced and nice to listen to. Whether it actually fits is up in the air, as the soundtrack features a ridiculous number of insert songs. At times it can be very effective in setting the mood of a scene, but other times it sounds silly and feels out of place.

In the end, Guilty Crown is a big, loud, glossy mess. The show provides plenty of eye-candy and some nice tunes, but falls flat on its face where it really matters. The plot is wildly confused and constantly tripping over itself. The characters are poorly developed and largely irrelevant. Honestly, there isn't very many reasons to watch this. Sure, it is very pretty on the surface, but underneath the decadent facade it is completely empty.

Re-edit 2 years after watching the show!

Story
9/10
The amazing part about it is that they'd leave you with more questions every time they offer some hint. And they do it little by little. Too bad that people never cared to look into it.

Art
9/10
It was wonderful in most episodes, but some were sloppy (e.g. ep 21). The character designs are great. By the way, there are very specific reasons why they made Inori wear those outfits other than the fan-service.

... Sound
9/10
The OP/ED's are real monster. What's more, they're perfect fits for GC. Departures is singing of the people who died from FP's struggle for freedom (though nominally it seems like a love song). TEGC is singing of hope, one of the bigger themes explored during the latter 11 episodes. EGOIST continues to release songs for other anime. These also often make references to the story of GC.
The soundtracks are also nice, though now thinking back it doesn't feel so special compared to other recent anime (soundtracks are pretty big these days)

Character
8/10
Pretty amazing. Inori's personal growth occurs just about on every episode.
As for Shu.. the story would've been meaningless had he not survived at the end. The whole point was that he would grow into a person who isn't so easily influenced by the thoughts of those around him, and killing him off would've denied that purpose.

Enjoyment
10/10
You know, this anime is like a hidden gem that you'd never discover unless you were a diligent miner..

Overall
10/10
I think that people should've hated this show less and actually gave it a chance. And by giving a chance I actually mean to watch carefully for character/plot development rather than nit-picking.

BEST COMEDY OF 2011-2012. 10/10.

Oh wait. This isn't a comedy?

Well then.

Where do I even start with this mess, then?

Guilty Crown seemed to promise to be one of the best series of the season when it first aired. Boy, was I wrong.

... The writing in this show is an absolute mess and tends to try to just throw random plot devices at you in random intervals to try and surprise you. It is not particularly surprising, but it's a bit cute (cute as in, a child seems to be writing the show).

The characters are really awful. The writing staff seems to be trying their hardest to make characters of a certain archetype, and to make characters stick to their archetype without fail. I'm not sure if they realize that character complexity is derived from the fact that people aren't simple enough to act only based on a single characteristic, or if they're just trying to create characters that might possibly mature. So far, it seems to be the former.

The show has many laughable situations. Take episode 6, for example. Fully armed guards, holding guns in their hands, charge at an enemy instead of shooting with their guns, resulting in a teenage girl killing them without returning a single shot. Hilarious, but I don't think that was really the intention.

That's not to say the show's completely awful. The art, animation, and music are really quite good, even if at times they cut a few corners. But really, a mess with art, animation, and music is still a mess.

So? The bottom line? Don't take this show seriously. You'll be able to enjoy it a lot more if you don't. Because... well... it's funny to ridicule at least.

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.

One day some director decided to make an anime show where a regular teenage boy, who goes to school and gets super powers because of a serious event that happened (usually a girl appears which grants him that power). Soon after this anime was made, more similar shows kept being created. After a couple of years, Guilty Crown was made, and damn, it changed everything! No I'm just joking, it has nothing fking new in the anime industry. BUT, to everyone that thinks this is a copy of Code Geass, the only thing related between these 2 shows is "Magic girl appears and gives power ... to highschool boy @random" or "Boy finds girl and they go on a honeymoon together fighting baddies everywhere" or this, which is practically the same thing "Highschool boy +random people + magic powers = Bleach", but who the fk cares, it's not like I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS TYPE OF STORY HURRDURRDURR ITZ PURRRRDDY ORIGINAL (Code Geass, Sacred Seven, C, Dantalian no Shoka, Bleach, Reborn, and MANY MORE SHOWS THAT ~TOTALLY~ DON'T HAVE THE SAME SHIT GOING ON!!)

Story: Pretty much already explained this dumb story, and if you've seen many other anime shows you won't expect anything new. But midway through the show, the whole average shounen thing of "one's loss of a loved one transforms or changes the main character into a mature leader" is discarded. It was the ONE episode where I expected Shu to mature like Simon did in Gurren Lagann because it always happens like that in anime right? But I was wrong, oh so very very wrong. Overall I don't even know the point of this story. From the average "Group of good guys vs bad guys" it turns into something fucking crazy and far more stupider like this: "Highschool kids in Japan get infected by some disease shit that turns people into a pink stone and breaks them apart. Main character Shu tries to become the King of the school (lol) because a friend died. He forces dictatorship onto everyone, who soon rebel against him. While that happens some weird government organization who securely closed the area around the infected highschool kids, soon kill them off, and suddenly plan to exterminate Japan. And with an added plus Gai (Shu's friend) is revived and turns against Shu". As you can see this show starts out as an average pathetic shounen show, until the highschool lockdown begins where it changes dramatically. It's just so stupid. A "government" suddenly plans to exterminate Japan without a good reason? Who were the bad guys again? Why did the good guys wanna kill the bad guys? What are they trying to accomplish?

THEN IT HIT ME! This show is nothing. By that I mean it throws in random plot lines at random times trying to make it seem like it's something that has a unique and interesting story, of course all that would make the fanboys and fangirls go "OHMAHGAWD! I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!" They only say that because it shouldn't happen, the shitty show doesn't stay on the same FKING PLOT for the whole show. Just like Inori's personalities.

Art: This is where GC goes right. The art is pretty good, though I don't care much since I'm more of the Story type guy. I do dislike Inori, main female character, because of what she wears 24/7. She barely wears anything at all. Like whatthefudge I don't find her to be "smexy" or "cute" at all in the first place, get her to wear some god damn clothes.

Sound: "So everything that makes me whole" TROLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLMAO. i no spek ingles, plez u talk me in English. Other than that opening, sounds = decent.

Character: No one has their own unique personality. It's like everyone gets a lot of screen time but, nothing about their character traits are shown.

Inori: sucks, since she's clearly a robot from the future with a "daily personality changer" system programmed into her. Plus she's also Shu's sister.

Shu: is your typical failure w/ magic powers who soon becomes epic, in fights, not character, but soon due to death of a loved one he becomes Hitler for some time (aka wannabe Gai).

Gai: is the "badass" who owns everyone and does it with robotic Inori at night. He's so damn godly that once he dies, he comes back to life.

Many other characters too but they juz backgrounds so who cares =D In total there is almost no character development for anyone, other than Shu of course, since he is the main character.
"Noob is Evolving! ...dudududududududu! ITZ LELOUCHE. Oh my bad, it's a Hitler"

Enjoyment: It's just a "watch cuz I'm bored" show.

Overall:
-The fight scenes suck hardcore since Shu can just swipe away like a crazy monkey playing Fruit Ninja and chop them robots to pieces. Overpowered bish!
-Empty characters, almost none are likable
-Pathetic action scenes
-There's a lot of errors in this show, you can see them easily if you actually pay attention to whatever the hell is going on
-Needs more BETTER music, no Ingrish
-No original story
-Typical boy meets girl with powers in highschool anime for 14 episodes
-Story suddenly changes FKING 50 TIMES! (exaggerating a bit)
-Episode 1-14 So yes, it's one of those retardedunoriginalfaggotrystorywheregirlgiveboypowertogopewpewthembaddies
-Episode 15+ Completely funny

GoodDaySir.

P.S If you like this, watch Mars of destruction =D

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

Usually, I try to be a good sport and watch all of the anime before I make a review. But this time I have to make an exception. There's a time in one's life when there's a need to say "Stop That! Just Stop That!" And the people on the giving side need to adhere to that. Unfortunately, said people are the Japanese animu industry and they DO NOT care about us Westerners' opinions.

I should've seen it, though: The pretty girl during the first scene, the pansy-ass self-insert nobody (who's good on computers, by the way) created for the mere sake of the nobodies ... who watch this show, and the GODLY ANIMUTION.

I'm not gonna talk about how GuiltCrown has the same staff as Code Geass; I didn't watch the latter and I think it's elitist bullcrap anyway. I'm not gonna talk about the jingoism found in GuiltCrown (like there was in Geass) because (if the US armed forces left) China would kick its ass.

I WILL talk about how this animu will FLOP in the US based on its badly-created and heavily cliched characters and plot alone. GODLY ANIMUTION (along with T&A) can only take you so far for so long.

Finally; before you hit that reply button to curse out at me; remember that you guys are the winners here. Japan is making more of the $#17 you love and licensors in the West are more than ready and willing to bring it to you. So slurp / slobber / whatever to it however you please.

What the hell is going on?
Are all of the studios compete in "who can make most stereotyped and boring anime"?
First s7, phi brain, smth else, now this.

Story and setting some directly from code geass - Japan is SO SUFFERING, evil military forces everywhere, and there is bunch of liberal children who OPPOSE SYSTEM (of course, they are handsome bishounens and a loli, who looks exactly like Kuroneko, and military are all evil, bald and stupid), god spare me, also there is some hybrid of CC, Dalian and that girl from s7.
Technicaly, there is no difference between them (cc and s7 girl GIVE SUPERAWESOME POWER ... to the main character, and Dalian is used by him via penetrating her chest). Ah, and main char have smth like COMMAND SPELL.
 
So, plot is simple - low-lived, miserable and qiute stupid japaneese schoolboy SUDDENLY GETS SUPERPOWER, destroys in one strike all bad guys on mechas, joins liberal kids and becomes defender of GOOD. I believe, I watched something like that in Star Wars, 4th episode, it aired 1975, if i remember correctly.

In sum, there is not even one scene, or idea, or character, which is not copied from other series.
So, why to waste time on this junk?
I'm quit, i'm quit.

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.

Originally I decided to watch this as I was informed that it was similar to Code Geass ( Which I enjoyed greatly by the way). After watching the first few episodes I realised how bad this anime was, it had potential but was ruined with shallow characters and little development. I decided to continue watching to see if it improved as I went along but to no avail. If i had watched this before CG and was told that CG was similar to this I would have never even considered watching it.

This anime is one of the worst I've seen my list may be ... few but I have no preference to which type I watch. This is complete and utter filth. I have to vote this as a score of 1 to counter-act the amount of fan boys who scored it a 10 on its first episode after seeing some fan service and familiar plot which was awful