After being one of the most hyped up anime for quite some time, it falls pretty flat in delivering anything close to what they set out to do. It did however provide quite high amounts of entertainment values for all the wrong reasons. To be honest, I was never a huge fan of Code Geass, I found the first season pretty good but nothing amazing, the second season was just a train wreck. Still, being such a high profile anime, I had to see it through, definitely far from the worst I watched, but nowhere near the quality it could have gotten had they spent some more effort on things rather then just throwing money at it.
Now onto the spoiler free review!
Story
I guess the core of this show revolved around the story. The first season of Code Geass did a pretty good job with their story, so how did they screw up so badly? Much of the story is filled with plot holes where they attempt to explain things by creating more plot holes. Most of the time things were so absurdly put together you won't know if they are trying to make you laugh. Too bad they are serious and was never meant to be funny or else it would have done an amazing job at humour.This was very disappointing for me as plot is probably the most important factor for me in anime.
~3/10
Immersion
This is one of the places it did quite well. The pacing of the show was lightning fast so you were always on the edge of your seat, for better or worse. You were always sure something would happen without the filler episodes many anime like to use to cut down on animation costs. The setting was was not astonishing, but it did the job in creating a good mystery to the story as well as the fantasy setting. They even left themselves open to have void powers create new designs for us to oogle at. One thing about anime is they always come up with amazing settings.
~9/10
Characters
This was one of the things they were really pushing for in the anime, character development. Too bad they fall flat on their face here. I'll start with all the other characters, they literally get zero development. I mean the female lead, Inori, barely says any words other then "Shu". The only real character that changes over the series is the main one, Shu. He sees many changes throughout the series but ultimately he never changes because he feels it is for the better, he just fills the "shoes" (pun intended) of what is needed of him. Romance wise, everything is forced with people randomly declaring love after the fact for no reason.
~1/10
Animation
Now this is where Guilty Crown can flex their muscles. The animation and art quality is through the roof. Proof of their huge budget they had behind them. All of the battles scenes were well animated. The art was quite detailed enough. This is probably the second highest animation quality I have seen, second to only Black Rock Shooter.
~10/10
Personal Satisfaction
One thing that I should mention that didn't have a header was music. The one thing that will last the ages is the music that came with Guilty Crown. Entertainment wise, it was always one day of the week I look forward to. It wasn't amazing show, but leaving you on the edge of your seat with high animation quality was always nice to relax to. It got me enjoying this show for a variety of reasons that they weren't aiming for. As I said every week, you never know what ass pull they will do next week on Guilty Crown.
~8/10
Overall
I think the most disappointing part about Guilty Crown was they had all money to make the best they could do yet they let such terrible writing take place. If it wasn't for the horrid plot holes and bad character developments, this would have probably been one of the best anime ever. Alas, Guilty Crown will be another one of the anime forgotten after a season. They tried to create a mainstream version of Code Geass and instead failed to accomplish anything.
Final Score [6/10]
~Pearz
