2 words = UTTER FAILURE
I.G. had everything right before the premiere, supercell's musc and songs with redjuice original character designs; solid production team, directors, screenwriter and other staff; a decent seiyuu cast; awesome sounding theme of the show; and lovable and delightful visual characters in Inori and others; and THAT HYPE before the premiere. Everything was right, until the actual thing hit us.
The show failed all expectations, failed to deliver a commendable storyline, failed to connect us with the characters, failed in character development, and THUS, this franchise/project failed in my eyes. Why? Easily summarised with the points I have below:
1. Ouma Shu - Never will I want to see anyone similar to this guy anymore. The early disappointment of his failed characterisation in the first few episodes drew many references to other characters, but I forgave because I thought he would grow. Half-way through, for 1 or 2 episodes when I knew he was better, I.G. turned him into a barbaric king, and got overthrown in the process. Everything after that was half-assed, crystal arm and copy voids, AND A AUTOMAIL AT THE END? Pfft, thats how to do a main character failure, excellent example. His complete reluctance in his "I dont want to get involved" to the end "I will kill/stop you, Gai." really just does not click. Granted with such a power in the series, I.G. failed to even cash in on his powers and showing some fancy stuff, while Gai's short reign as King brought extracting and combining voids for more abilities. Why? I dont know. Ask I.G.
2. Yuzuriha Inori - I will be subjective about Inori. I DEEMED HER AS THE ULTIMATE CASH BAG FOR FANSERVICE. Look at her design, listen to her voice/songs, look at that dress. Its criminal. Do some fanservice shots or release some promos with Inori inside, its bound to sell. What I.G. do? Nothing. Inori ended too, failing in the character development section, SHE DOESNT EVEN HAVE enough lines. Why do this to her? Poor girl already poor for falling for a complete idiot in Shu, cant you at least do something else? Giving her some guerilla like skills in battle and eventually Mana in the end, she is just a subject of 'We need plot. Let's use her.' kind of thing. Poor girl eventually lost all her charms as a character to me in the end.
3. Noitamina block expectations - Say noitamina and everyone should expect something. In this case, everyone over expected. GC failed to solidify its hold on the noitamina block, deemed as unfit in certain cases. Personally, no comments whatsoever, but being late night show, it should give a darker and have more unconventional plot twists. GC probably had little to none.
4. Failure of usage of more interesting sub-characters - Sub characters were more interesting in the show, and I.G. completely failed to make use of them. They killed Hare for absolutely nothing, and it just went to increase my hate/love for the screenwriter who previously killed my Shirley in Code Geass. Poor girl did nothing wrong, falling for a complete idiot (again) was bad enough already, they made the death to tell everyone 'When void broken, you die', when everyone discovered it 5 minutes ago in that very episode. They kill Scarface, Eagleman and the poor spectacle guy in the end. Eagleman forever remains good for me, saving Haruka and firing missiles in the most craziest methods. Scarface was a good antagonist, going his way to backstab people just for his personal enjoyment, it was fun watching him even when he did repulsive things. The entire funeral parlour was wasted, characters like Ayase and Tsugumi was just dieing to let them into the action, so I.G. threw them to school. Dont know what to say further. And, my poor Arisa. Overthrown from her position as student president, then traumatised by a Mana-possessed Inori, and lastly whoring herself while plotting a coup de tat with help from Gai externally. The whole whoring thing left an incredibly bad aftertaste in my opinion, it should have never been done, especially not with a stupid randomly drawn character who dies the very next episode. Arisa's character got completely thrown out of the window, poor girl made to look and suffer so much in the end, I felt it was the most unnecessary thing done in the entire series.
5. Voids - Everyone has it, but why Shu didnt use even half of it. Some voids were also too 'at that point', eg. Ayase lament about her inabilities, so Shu gives her legs. Think. Dont write anyhow.
Overall, can only say I am completely disappointed. I cant even bring myself to recommend the show to my friends and others. A failure of epic proportions, its really for the best no one picks up this show, even at 22 episodes, its not worth any time invested to watching and UNDERSTANDING what the writers want to tell you.