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Here's a blunt and straight forward review. This anime isn't very good, it's sub par in every aspect. The animation is average, the music and OST is forgettable, the plot is generic, and most of the characters as well. Notice I said "most" and not all. If you can stomach watching an average series, I recommend you do it for the one redeeming thing this series has brought us. And that is Shinoa Hiragi.

If you can make it to episode 5, you may be like me and decide this series is worth watching for this one character. It should speak for itself how ... a supporting character can make the series as a whole watchable, but Shinoa Hiragi has one of the most unique personalities I've come across during my time watching anime. Enough so to rank her in my top 10 all time favorites. Many anime tend to stick to the archetypes and stereotypical characters, so it's always refreshing to find something new.

Guilty Crown's greatest weakness was the excessive hype it received, and going into the series, my high expectations nearly ruined the series for me. If you're wondering why there have been so many poor reviews, it can be chalked up as people expecting a masterpiece, and getting far less. The biggest mistake would be to watch this series expecting anything legendary.

Guilty Crown is by no means a landmark anime, but it still holds significant watch value.

Pros:
-Amazing animation/art.
-Quality OP/ED and OST
-Several highlight moments/scenes in the plot

Where Guilty Crown fails in plot, it makes up for in eye candy. Mostly everyone, even the haters, will agree ... Guilty Crown at the very least looks like a top notch anime with the soundtrack to back it up. If for nothing else, GC is worth watching just for the memorable visuals and audio. The GC OST "Bios" is perhaps my favorite OST of all time. While the storyline is underachieving, there are moments within the plot that were exquisite and wonderfully executed, leaving me emotionally charged.

Cons:
-PLOTHOLES PLOTHOLES PLOTHOLES
-"Cliche"
-Easy to join the hate wagon
-22 episodes too little to fit in?

If you've done any research on Guilty Crown, you'll know it's biggest weakness is the plot. The story for GC does have it's moments and it is clear the effort was put in to make a unique and original series while still maintaining popular aspects in the anime culture. However, the result was a far fetched plot filled with illogical occurences. Just imagine the chaos of an anime that could be described as a sci fi, action, apocalyptic, mecha, school drama, love triangle/square, comedy, fan service. While there were many plot holes, by the end of the series they do manage to address most of them, albeit halfheartedly and rushed.

If you're one that likes to dissect every tiny detail, Guilty Crown may drive you crazy. Of course, every time theres an anime that has it's doubts, people will wonder if it would have been better if the series had more episodes to develop.

The Gray Area:
-Characters (Pro/con?)

Characters generally are what makes the plot, so how do the character fair when the plot suffers? Surprisingly, I enjoyed the characters in GC. Obviously due to the superb art and voice actors the characters looked and sounded appealing. However, even story-wise, the characters were well done. I believe as a whole series, the character development was good. It may have seemed rushed or slow at times, but after finishing GC I had grown attached to the characters and their stories have a fond place in my heart.

The main characters were a roller coaster ride of love/hate relationship for me. I believe the ending for the main characters was very fitting and has left me as a fan of Shu and Inori. The strong part for characters in GC has to be the supporting characters. The supporting characters were one of the few aspects of plot that did not disappoint, they filled their roles wonderfully.

But the above only applies to the protagonists. The antagonists of the story were underachieving and petty. Going any further into that would lead into spoilers.


Final Remarks: TL;DR

Guilty Crown may not have been a landmark anime like Code Geass (many people compared GC as a Code Geass wannabe), but it was certainly an entertaining series and worth the watch. The biggest mistake you could make would be to go into it trying to dissect every detail trying to find flaws. Some may take this as a negative, but Guilty Crown is more the type of anime where emotion reigns supreme. As someone who grew emotionally attached, Guilty Crown has left it's mark despite not being a gem.

Final score: 8/10
*Bumped up to 8 from 7 just for the art and sound.