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Guilty Crown is a series that had great promise from the getgo. Excellent artwork, a great director (Araki Tesurou - Deathnote, Highschool of the Dead), and an interesting and deep story.

The plot is about a resistance group fighting to protect Japan from UN interference after a strange alien disease devastates the nation.

An interesting plot, but at times it feels the plot is rushed and others like it is taking it's time.

The characters are a mixed bag and their inconsistency detracts from the story. Several of the secondary characters are great and could have used some more elaboration on their backgrounds. The main characters were ... erratic and seemed to jump to bizarre conclusions without enough explanation. The Protagonist Ouma Shu was terrible. He starts off as your typical shy student without any confidence, but every time he take a step forward in development, he takes 5 back. How many times can a character chose the singe worst choice available to them before you start to root for the bad guys? Inori was drawn well, but was not really interesting at all. Meanwhile you have Ayase Shinomiya, whom while handicapped, is strong willed, interesting, loyal, tries her hardest and makes you want to root for her. The characteristics you wish would develop in Shu.

I think the biggest problem with this anime was that it is only 22 episodes. An additional 2-4 episodes, which would have made it a normal 2 season length, would have gone a long way to filling in the holes and flushing out the characters and giving some redeeming qualities to Shu.

So after what started to be a promising anime, it ended up being rather irritating at points. If you are bored, feel free to watch it, otherwise, you aren't missing anything.

Black Rock Shooter is an anime based off a song by the band Supercell, that got turned into an OVA, a Manga Series and finally a TV Anime.

It is about 2 girls, one a normal school girl in the real world, the other a girl named Black Rock Shooter in an alternative supernatural universe filled with constant fighting. The style of the show is where what goes on in one world is mirrored in the other world. The real world half could be considered a School, Drama, Slice of Life, Shoujo anime. While the Black Rock Shooter half could be considered an Action, Super Power, ... Shounen anime. In an interesting way, they kind of work together to be almost a translation of school age girl issues so that boys can understand. But this is only up to about episode 5 when the main plot kicks in.

The story is good, the art is a little disappointing if you compare it to the OVA. Characters are decent and it is a good anime to watch overall.

For those that have seen the OVA, this is a retelling of the story. Basically they didn't like the first one and expanded it greatly adding more girls other than Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master. Where the TV series' BRS side is a reflection of what is going on in the real world, the OVA's BRS side was telling the story of BRS trying to save Dead Master after the events of the real world side.

For those that are reading the Manga, they are totally separate stories, involving the same characters but the premise of the universe different to the point as the stories are mutually exclusive.

I, personally, love the switching back and forth style of storytelling, so was quite happy with it. Some people, I know, do not like this style as it melts their brains which can't handle jumping back and forth between stories. Whether you like it or not probably depends on which side of the fence you are on, but overall it is worth watching if only for the really cool fighting sequences in Black Rock Shooter's world.

Now that the show has ended, here is my take on the series:

For those that care, it is a very ecchi Harem series and your standard "Fighting makes girls lose all their clothes" anime. I generally like fighting anime and feel an amused indifference to ecchi, but if you really liked any of the following anime, you'll probably really like High School DxD:
Ikkitousen, Freezing, Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Queen's Blade, or Sekirei

The plot of the story is basically Demons vs Demons (DxD) in a highschool setting, set in a world where there is a stalemated war between Demons, Angels and Fallen Angels. There are ... a lot of chess references as well, enough in fact that they become integral to the plot as lesser demons (Pieces) are enslaved to their master (King).

The art is very good and the series has one of the more interesting ending credits you'll ever see. Characters are stereotypical Moe, but in no way are any of them badly done.

Overall, is a decent anime. If you love Nudity and Girls Fighting anime, this is a must watch. If that type of anime offends you, skip it. Otherwise, it is a decent anime that you may not watch over and over, but at least you won't regret seeing it.

Note: Some versions may be heavily censored.

I am sure some producer in Japan watched Usagi Drop and thought "This show would make a ton of more money if it only had more Moe!". So he found a novel for LtMGIYF and turned it into an anime. Change the main character from a mature adult to the standard insecure College student, replace the one little girl with 3 fitting different stereo types and add in some quirky friends and neighbors to replace the more normal secondary characters in Usagi Drop.

When I first saw this show on the list for winter, my first thought was "oh, no! not more Tsunderes and Ecchi". But ... I checked out the first episode I was pleasantly surprised. There is really little to no Ecchiness (No panty shots, no nudity, no side boobs, some towel scenes and bare legs, but that is about it). All the girls ended up being being very polite and nice, if a little high strung. It still is a full tilt Moe fest however, and you should be prepared for that. In the end though, it is and adorable and entertaining show. It's sappy, sad, and humorous all at the same time. If you ever lost a parent at a young age, you'll probably cry your eyes out.

It's still early, but if you are an adult and liked Usagi Drop, you'll like this show, though maybe not as much. If you are a young, have a short attention span and mentally block out serious situations, you might even like this better than Usagi Drop.