oconnell.rae - 2013-08-22 09:52:06

oreilly.thea - 2013-08-20 19:27:40

Guilty Crown Review:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6.8 - Good

wgleichner - 2013-08-20 01:25:55

WARNING: this is my first review... You have been warned....

Wanna know what grinds my gears (meme intended), when people scream bloody murder when shows are similar, and because of that refuse to watch them . I say this because Guilty Crown (the show in questioning today) has been accused of "Copying" Code Geass, which I replay with, "And, how is that a bad thing"? It's a little known fact that Code Geass is one of the best Anime to come out in years of memory, if not all times, but if a show can copies it WELL, I (and others I hope) will not care. Almost all anime have roots from other anime's, same goes with all things in this world. I can name a hand full of anime that have used EVA's "Human Evolution to a Single Being" (including Code Geass) card and no one has left a eyebrow on that. So stop saying shows copy each other, because if it's done well, why complain; more of our favorite anime.

Now, does "Guilty Crown" live up to its inspiration, yes and no. I say yes because the show (besides at times a boring story... episodes 13-17) is refreshing with good MAIN characters, interesting story [with a supernatural, but actually scientific, power(s)], and THE BEST music and Animation I've seen in a long time. But no because it does try to be Code Geass a times but at the same time it does not (the much more dark and kind of boring four episodes already mentioned). It still clearly shows to be it's own thing and does not cookie cut Code Geass (having CG be a psychological thriller, like Death Note, while GC learns more on the romance and action side of things), something which I think the show did well to make itself good.

The only things that I have against the show was those four episodes I keep mentioning (they kind've ruined the show, but provided character development for the end so it was not for nothing), which derailed the beginning theme, mood, and overall action (one thing that was going well for the show). This is what really made a lot of people regretful of this show, but the ending (episodes 18-22) catch up with itself and the show stands on its own two feet again. The second thing that bothered me was the amount of characters I did not care about, this includes about 99% of Shu's classmates and a lot of the villains (besides "Kill 'em All Darrel, and Major Segai), they are both undeveloped and I just don't understand why they are here.

Two thing that the show does with the bliss of God is the Animation and music. The Animation of the first couple episodes and most of the fight scenes make Fate Zero look like the ending to TV Evangelion (pencil drawings), and the music is equally good blowing everything else out of the water (shout- out to the main action song "Bios"). If all goes to hell for you, you can just stay for the Godly animation and music.

Overall, "Guilty Crown" is a show that has a generic back bone (free Japan) but has a fresh and new story that with the legendary music and animation, despite its abundance of useless characters, is show that needs to be noted and watched...8/10

bechtelar.alexandro - 2013-08-09 22:07:06

Guilty Crown is a replay of a cliché.

It's premise sounds awesome and could have been a head turner. However, 2 things ruins this show.

1) It's a cliché, we all know how it will go and how the twists will be done. It could have been an amazing rewrite of it all

2) The protagonist, Shu is beyond pitiful, disgusting, useless and in the way of the show. There is no character development for him, he is the same person throughout the entire series. He is a whiny coward and when he tries to act tough he breaks too easily.

The fanservice I should have had a problem with but Shu was more of a problem and more of a pain.

Ultimately, Guilty Crown was a good idea made and executed badly. It has good points, you can do worse than this show but there are more shows out there that will be worth your time.

jacinthe86 - 2013-07-23 13:28:51

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.

vella75 - 2013-07-07 19:49:55

There was a ridiculous amount of hype for Guilty Crown before it aired. I must admit, being a Code Geass fan, I was pretty excited to watch this show. Just by looking at the plot summaries you can see they’re very similar. I had high hopes and even though I did give this a pretty good score, I was still disappointed in the end. I’m disappointed because this show could have been so much more than pretty animation and a catchy OST with a few good moments scattered here and there.The story itself is pretty weak despite being relatively original. Shu, the main character, gets a power called “The Ability of King” which allows him to extract peoples “voids” and use them as tools or weapons. He then is forced to join a resistance group called “Funeral Parlour” which uses his unique power to fight against the government.The story sounds good, right? The biggest problem with Guilty Crown is although it tries new and interesting ideas it fails miserably in execution; especially in its first arc. Whoever thought it was a good idea to sacrifice what could have been a show that focus’ on the ethical actions of BOTH the government and Funeral Parlour in favour of Shu being an all-around pussy and high school hijinks is out of their minds. The sad part was the show teases you with the much more interesting plot in the first arc again and again, but pulls it away in favour of what can only be described as pure retardation. The voids themselves are actually pretty creative. But half the time it feels like the writers use the voids as a way to write themselves out of difficult situations.I don’t want to give spoilers in this review, but it does change pace in the second half. The story takes a much darker tone and Shu finally begins to become a character with actual depth *gasp!*. The plot itself changes almost everything about it, and the writing becomes noticeably much better. But even then it suffers from amateur writing and God awful pacing. Some episodes were almost like the show was listing events rather than showing you them. To avoid spoilers, the explanations that were given for many of the questions everyone had can only be described as “Evangelion syndrome”. What I mean by this is by the end of the show, I still don’t know a lot of the details and I’m too lazy to look on Wikipedia to find out. Maybe I’m just an idiot but half the time I simply listened to the background music instead of the dialogue as it was far more interesting.I feel like the characters also suffered from the poor writing of this show. By the end of the show most of the characters received almost no development. I felt like other than Shu and Gai, most of the main cast was poorly written. Guilty Crown attempted to make Inori “interesting” by shrouding her in mystery and making her an emotionless blob for 90% of the show. But all this ended up doing was making her as interesting as a wall. I swear there were some episodes where her only line was “Shu”. I could go on and on about the other characters, but I only really want to talk about one… Daryl…. What was the point of his existence again? From what I can remember he shot innocent people in cold blood in the first few episodes, and the show actually attempts to make him seem like a “good guy deep down” for no particular reason? He is easily the most poorly written character in the show and the writers could have made him so much better. There were literally dozens of routes they could have taken with him, but instead of actually developing him with the use of realistic motivations and scenarios, they cram what they call character development down our throats. It makes me angry thinking about it.Despite all of this, the show actually does an excellent job at making us feel something for the characters. What I enjoyed the most about how the show handled the characters is that when a character died, they didn’t die for the sole purpose of nothing but a manipulative emotional reaction. When a character died, they actually died for a reason. And the reasons are used as motivation and development for the other characters in the show. I can at least applaud the writers for this. And the show did turn Shu into a likeable character by the end of the show. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say, the development got much better for most of the cast.The best and easily most enjoyable part of this show is the animation and soundtrack. I personally can’t wait to put every song from the sound track on my mp3 player. I haven’t enjoyed a soundtrack this much since Welcome to the NHK. From the “epic” songs to the catchy OP’s/ED’s… I loved everything about the soundtrack. I would say the show is worth it for the soundtrack alone. The animation is equally as gorgeous. The choreography during fight scenes are complimented well by the beautiful animation. I really can’t say more than good things about it.This series is a perfect example of a series that put production value ahead of telling a good story. The series also has excellent seiyuu’s to compliment both the amazing soundtrack and animation. When the seiyuu’s deliver their lines, you can feel their pain, anguish, enjoyment, melancholy and excitement. I found the voice acting in this show to be good even for Japanese standards.In conclusion, I can’t really say I hated the show. In fact, I really enjoyed it. It was a guilty pleasure of mine *bah dum tish*. The episodes themselves seemed extremely short, and it was rather easy to watch despite the plot trying to be “deep” or whatever near the end. Overall, after I finished the show, I just had an overwhelming feeling that it could have been so much more.

becker.norbert - 2013-06-10 11:48:41

Just as the average idiot that is fooled by fast food commercials, I must admit I felt the same when watching Guilty Crown. I'm not that much of an avid anime viewer, to be honest, I watch a fairly modest amount of anime to base an opinion (At least I hope so). I decided to try out Guilty Crown because I was enticed by the animation and mechas. Of course, I had no idea it was a decision that I would regret.Judging from the first episode, I couldn't really say much. I decided to continue with the hope that it would get better. Boy, was I ever wrong.Each episode I watched, the more I hated the show, and its characters. With unlikable characters, it was even harder to watch. But what made it extremely unbearable was the amalgamation of every single anime cliche. I'm not saying that cliches shouldn't be used. Sometimes they work or you need to use it for the sake of the plot, but in this case, they overdid it.Compiling typical high school anime cliches such as cultural festivals and beach episodes with serious science fiction anime cliches like mechas, monster girls, and evil government scientists, it just didn't and couldn't work. Because of all these cliches pieced together, there was no discernible plot that was comprehensible. Well, there was a plot of course, but it wasn't easy to follow or properly explained.I can rant all day and night about the show, but I must admit that the animation and visual effects were superb. Not to mention, SOME elements of plot that I managed to extract, like the Apocalypse Virus, and the Void Genome. Those I found fascinating and I honestly wished they focused more on just ONE those elements because it would be a far more successful show, or at least more bearable to watch.Alas, I am just one opinion in the world. For those who actually enjoyed the show , I apologize and I accept your opinions as well. Maybe I missed something when I watched it. Or maybe I took it too seriously. I don't know. Anyways, feel free to watch Guilty Crown and judge it yourself. If you find something I missed, please let me know and enlighten me.

bradtke.kelly - 2013-05-22 13:10:39

Based of the negative views of Guilty Crown on many forums I have seen I wanted defend one of my long time favorites.  

Sound:

I wanted to talk about the sound first because the way Guilty Crown does sound is unique. In the anime there is a fictional group call Egoist what is cool about this is the songs featured in the anime are by the group Egoist. If you go on youtube Egoist has a vevo channel and you can buy their CDs.

Story:

The story was perfect in everyway possible. The dramatic, fun, and emotional story had me wanting more at the end of every episode. 

Animation:

Not much I can say on this except that it was beautiful.

Character:

The characters developed so well they all reacted like how most people would in that situtation. I felt myself connect with the characters so often. I would find myself pitying characters, being happy for them, or being sad or upset.

Enjoyment:

I had the best time watching this I could not stop so I ended up watching it all in one sitting.

Overall: 

This was a wonderful experience that left me in tears. 10/10

-HauntedW

molly82 - 2013-05-18 16:44:19

Before I start, I will say that most reviews can and are slightly to extremely biased, mine included. Everyone has a different opinion, and I believe mine is the one that isn't very popular, as to most. I also refuse to write a section about enjoyment, since it's based on opinion.TL;DR: Story has great setting and plot, but the gigantic plot holes reduce the ratings by a lot. And I mean A LOT. What can I say about art and sound? How could they not be excellent? Both are produced by great artists. As for character: we all know that Shu is hated. By a lot of people. But the main point is that he's progressed from a wuss to a berserk king to a having a "Guilty Crown". Inori... well, she didn't really change at all, since she was only hiding emotions, and as for Gui, he's always a boss. No exceptions. Enjoyment was high, mainly because they've turned mecha and infection to a new twist, and cliffhangers wanted me to keep on going, also the berserk episodes really gave off bad vibes. Overall, it's great. Story: Mecha and infection. Things you've heard before, but never combined. Sure, a lot of animes use Mecha to represent super soldiers, but when an infection comes to ANY thing that it wants, Mechas are demoted to regular soldiers, and soldiers are reduced to cannon folders. This new variant really peaked an interest to me, as you would assume mechanical things are not affected by biological things, but Guilty Crown just slaps you in the face and says otherwise. Putting the time in the future allows the makers to have creative freedom and makes the whole thing seem more epic.However, it's also one of the most flawed thing in the anime as well. Why did the infection come to Earth? Why are the voids so deus ex? Why did the last episode give so many loose ends, instead of tying them up? Why didn't Shu die? So many plot holes, to a point where people question if the producers are actually caring about this. This is one of the main reasons why the story is such a low score.6/10Art: Beautiful shading. Outstanding details. Surreal skies. What's not to love about it?10/10Sound: One of the best OST I've ever heard. They create music from the most unexpected things, and the main track is in German, and has beautiful lyrics. I am not exaggerating when I say that this is excellent.10/10Character: There's so much character development over these episodes, especially out of Shu. He first acts like a wimp, which is understandable, since he's been having a normal, non-violent life. He doesn't want to die, and so he tries to run away. However, he finally mans up and becomes a great leader, until one of his close ones die. Then he goes berserk and turns the school body into a dystopian dictatorship, and then realizes what he's done after have a Coup d'état, and tries to save everything.8/10Enjoyment: 8/10. I refuse to write a review for this because it is completely based on opinion and will be biased. Overall: 8.6, which rounds to 9.

stremblay - 2013-04-24 18:43:03

Story: Guilty Crown's story is, for starters very good, though unfortunatly it slowly beins to deteriorate around the half way mark and from there on, becomes a disapointment.Art: In my opinion, this is one of the best looking animes of the year, the art style is beatuiful and the effects are well done.Sound: By far Guilty Crown has the best sound track I have heard in a while, and when I say that, I mean the sound track itself, which for me is rare as quite often I don't pay much atention the the insert songs.Character: The characters are around average in terms of personality, though not shallow, there not so rememberable either.Enjoyment: Though I did enjoy this anime a whole lot, once got a bit past the half way mark, my enjoyment realy hit a stand still and then began to decrease over time.Overall, Guilty Crown is definatly an anime to check out, even if only for the begining.