A.D. 2010. The Holy Britannia Empire declares war on the rest of the world, confident in its military strength due to their devastating mechanised weapons, the Knightmare Frames. The aftermath of the war saw Britannia establish itself as one of the world’s most powerful nations, with several territories claimed and renamed “Designated Areas”, Japan being Area 11. As a result of colonisation, the emergence of Japanese radicals caused several politically-motivated conflicts, and exiled Britannian Prince Lelouch Lamperouge found himself caught in the middle of such a conflict between Japanese rebels, who were in possession of a dangerous weapon, and the Britannian military. With his life in mortal danger, the weapon reveals itself to be C.C, a young woman who grants Lelouch “the Power of Kings” – the Geass; an ability which grants him absolute obedience. With this new power and a score to settle, Lelouch takes advantage of the political situation in Japan to finally exact revenge on the Empire.

Having main themes of war and loss, as well as rebellion, Code Geass and Guilty Crown bear outright similarities. Granted, the settings and protagonists are vastly different, the very prevalent theme of war in order to achieve independence stand out in both anime, the rebellion stemming from Japanese resistance in both Code Geass and Guilty Crown. Armed with a special power which gives the side to which they are affiliated a great advantage, both protagonists become trump cards in the game of war. On a more superficial level, Code Geass and Guilty Crown have a large amount of combat happening between the pilots of giant mechanised weapons, which creates highly explosive, highly enjoyable high-tension fight scenes with stunning animation. If you really enjoyed Guilty Crown and would like more of the same, be sure to try out Code Geass – that is an order.

1. In 2021, the world went to ruin after the emergence of the devastating Gastrea Virus, an infection which turned humans into bloodthirsty monstrosities. The few surviving humans live under the protection of the Monolith Walls, which are made of Varanium – the Gastrea’s sole weakness. In order to combat the Gastrea, young girls whose bodies contain trace amounts of the virus are employed alongside highly trained individuals and they are known as Initiators and Promoters respectively. The series revolves around one such Initiator-Promoter pairing: that of Aihara Enju and Satomi Rentaro of Tendo Civil Security as they protect the citizens of Tokyo from the Gastrea threat.

Black Bullet is a turbulent, large-scale action-packed monster hunt with some adorable characters (a major contrast, considering just how dark the show is) and bears many easy-to-spot similarities with the turbulent, large-scale action-packed rebellion that is Guilty Crown, the most obvious similarity being the fact that both anime have a plot driven by the presence of a highly infectious virus that ruins everyone’s lives. With that being said, Black Bullet and Guilty Crown also share a similar futuristic, post-apocalyptic setting. On a much more superficial level, the protagonists of both shows have female companions who become highly important factors in their lives. Enjoy Black Bullet on a hot summer night, just don’t let the Gastrea bite.

During the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of a mysterious and devastating virus which turns the infected into flesh-eating zombies called Kabane, who have strange steel cage-like structures around their glowing hearts – a feature that has made them very difficult to kill. In order to protect themselves from the Kabane threat, residents of the island of Hinomoto have managed to build a walls around their various settlements, accessible only by heavily-armoured trains. Ikoma, an engineer who services these trains, has been working on a weapon which will give humanity the upper hand against the Kabane, a weapon he had to employ soon after completing it, because on that day, mankind received a grim reminder…

Seeing that they’re set in a dystopian setting with the guillotine of the end hanging firmly over the world’s hypothetical head, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri and Guilty Crown are cut from the same highly infected cloth. That’s not to say we don’t love them, we’re just able to see that both shows share striking similarities in setting and in major features of the plot, mainly the viruses which send the world into chaos. Like Guilty Crown, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri boasts absolutely incredible animation and artwork, crazy action sequences and of course… a female companion to the male protagonist. It must be difficult finding the right item to silence your noisy flesh-eating neighbours – Koutetsujou no Kabaneri just made the search much, much easier.

14-year-old Igarashi Ganta’s middle school class has a scheduled field trip to Deadman Wonderland, a prison which doubles as an amusement park where prisoners participate in sadistic death games for the entertainment of the general public. Unfortunately for Ganta, on the day of the trip, his entire class was massacred by strange entity dressed in red. Being the only survivor, Ganta was accused of the crime and sentenced to death, serving his sentence at the infamous Deadman Wonderland. Determined to clear his name, Ganta has to survive in a brutal world no 14-year-old has to endure.

A fairly dark title, Deadman Wonderland is a gory rollercoaster where, much like in Guilty Crown, a young and weak protagonist is thrown into a turbulent world, in possession of a power they barely understand. Where Ganta possesses the “Branches of Sin”, a power that allows the user to bend their own blood to their will and form weapons, Ouma Shu has the “Power of Kings” which lets him draw out people’s “Voids”. Another similarity between the two shows is the presence of a female protagonist and companion leagues stronger than the show’s main character.

In a world where the Japanese Government was saved from financial collapse by an entity known as the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the lives of Japanese citizens have not improved much and the general outlook on life is bleak. 19-year-old Yoga Kimimaro is a college student who is one day approached by a strange man who offers him a deal: he will offer Kimimaro a large sum of money if his future can be used as collateral. When Kimimaro accepts the deal, his normal life is changed forever as he is exposed to the realm known as the Financial District, where people compete in weekly tournaments using avatars in order to keep earning money and maintain their futures.

A largely unknown gem from 2011, C: is the brilliant story of a young protagonist who, with the help of his female companion, finds himself aligned with an organisation the nature of which he does not completely understand – much like with Ouma Shu in Guilty Crown. While both protagonists do not deal with the same types of problems, they are both pressed to make decisions that will, in the long run, be either to the benefit or the detriment of scores of people. Artistically, both shows exhibit vibrant colours and awesome fight scenes, and both shows bring to light various questions on human nature. Whoever said “money makes the world go round” probably had C: in mind.

14-year-old Renton Thurston lives with his grandfather in the small uneventful town of Bellforest, where he spends his days daydreaming about becoming a member of the rebel group Gekkostate, a faction which is the subject of his intense admiration and obsession. When a beautiful girl called Eureka, piloting a mech known as the Nirvash TypeZERO, crashes into his house, Renton is caught between living up to his grandfather’s wishes and becoming a mechanic, or joining up with Gekkostate. Tired of his boring old life, Renton decides to join Gekkostate as the co-pilot of the Nirvash, a decision that changes his life forever.

Probably the closest to Guilty Crown as you can get without actually having Guilty Crown, Eureka Seven is a story bearing so many of the same elements, from having a similar snot-nosed protagonist, similar stoic heroine with very odd tendencies, an emphasis on warfare fought through the use of robots and mechs, both anime have a futuristic setting and come in packing quite a bit of romance. It is safe to say that a lot of what Guilty Crown has, Eureka Seven has in abundance.

Both are incredible anime with immense character development in the protagonist himself and in surrounding characters, and the biggest similarity lies in the protagonists: both come from fairly mundane lives in order to rapidly become central figures in the worlds in which they live. Long story short, if you loved Guilty Crown at all, fate dictates that you leave your mundane lives behind and join up with Gekkostate in Eureka Seven.