Also, for anyone who got their hopes up with the Shinji Ikari expiness of Shu in
Guilty Crown, only to have them obliterated with the plot (or mess thereof) that that show turned into, I
highly recommend
Mirai Nikki.
Totally different genre (psychological thriller vs. mecha action) but if — like me — you're into weak, passive protagonists like
Guilty Crown was trying to do with Shu à la Shinji Ikari, but never really managed to pull off well (and I totally realize that kind of character isn't everybody's cup of tea), I think you'll love
Mirai Nikki. The Shu x Inori relationship falls flat in every way that the Yuki x Yuno relationship totally works and drives the story. Yuki's weakness consistently felt more real and believable to me than Shu's, which seemed to change at a moment's notice to meet the requirements of the scene. And unlike many anime out there, Yuki is constantly questioning the shallow, unhealthy nature of his relationship with Yuno.
To build off the latter point, I think
Mirai Nikki offers a rather nice deconstruction of the
yandere and
manic pixie dream girl archetypes. (And Yuno has the trope image for the former.) Yuno is probably one of my favorite characters from the last few seasons, and she's complex and interesting enough to pretty much drive the entire show (since Yuki certainly doesn't want to). The examination of what kind of relationship
really develops when you get a girl like her is quite refreshing. And for anyone disillusioned with the unhealthy relationships found in many paranormal romance novels, Yuno offers a great deconstruction of the gender-flipped version. I'm totally into fucked up love stories that aren't afraid take it all the way.
Another refreshing thing: someone was actually intelligent enough to adapt a manga that was pretty much complete
and make the anime long enough to actually tell the whole story at a reasonable pace, meaning the anime version actually delivers a satisfying conclusion. As bonus points, its twists are not only adequately foreshadowed and make a modicum of sense, but also are not totally contrived. (They're not brilliant either, but I'll totally take the tried-and-trueness of their steady-handed execution over the wtfery that
Guilty Crown — and lots of anime, it seems — started pulling off partway through.)
But really, what sold me on this anime was the main characters of Yuki and Yuno. Yuki delivers in all the places where Shu failed for me as a character that was trying to follow in the same vein as Shinji Ikari. (If you hated Shinji, this probably isn't the anime for you.) And Yuno is just awesome. And evil. And I love her.
Mirai Nikki is definitely my pick of the last two seasons.