Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Contract: Base Contract
Score:
Season 1: 8/10
Season 2: 5/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Contractor: Deleira
My contract was for season 1 of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. It is 25 episodes and therefore completes the minimum requirement for my contract. Will I watch season 2? Yes, likely. Will I have done it for overachiever points during this event? I hope so, but we will see. I have a lot of contracts to fulfill.
So I've now finished season 2. I won't have as detailed a review on it partially because I don't have the time/energy that I did in May and partially because I don't quite know what to say about it. Skip to page 11 below “Season 2 Score/Thoughts” for new review content.
Sitting down to write this review is a huge task for me. Season 1 of this series has a lot to take in and then delivers a lot in a completely different way than I expected. I don’t know how to do this tactfully so I’ll start with bullet points:
What I expected:
What I got:
*this would’ve become completely unnecessary after 88% of the season was through, which is maybe frustrating?
So, let’s get into it a bit.
Not much to say here other than both are great. As a magical girl fan raised on Cardcaptor Sakura, I love some CLAMP designs and I also enjoy Sunrise’s anime (such as Gundam, duh). The orchestral soundtrack they went with was excellent.
My only complaint is that the opening themes got progressively worse with each one. I think Colors is just too good an opener that the second and third (I was surprised there even WAS a third, honestly) just paled in comparison. They’re not really bad songs, though, just not Colors. The animations during the openings were also a little basic.
[Please see the hyperlink in the picture above for an explanation of Lelouch’s entire character base.]
Did you know that CHESS is a game of STRATEGY? Since it is one of the board games of the world, CHESS is a way to demonstrate a character is SMART and GOOD AT STRATEGY. This is a literary device used multiple times to establish Lelouch’s character. Except for the fact that Lelouch is actually not all that good at strategy when it comes to real-life. Yes, he had his moments, but he immediately followed up his master strategy used against Clovis with the exact same infiltration tactic against Cornelia and got his ass beaten immediately. This starts the cycle of C.C. warning Lelouch not to be stupid and get caught, Lelouch being stupid and getting caught, and C.C. coming to drag his ass out of the situation yet again.
Really, I think my biggest problem with this anime is the fact that I have to see it from Lelouch’s perspective. Maybe it’s because I’m twice the age for the target audience, but his teen boy angst was just… a lot. And I understand that may be an appeal, but it sure was grating at points. I feel like it wouldn’t be as bad if not for the fact that he also is so easily swayed in his mission. Please, I beg of you, just have some focus on your mission and stop hesitating.
[Please see the hyperlink in the picture above to understand the context of this meme]
I really have nothing to say about C.C. She’s a fantastic match for Lelouch in that they’re both so incredibly toxic so they deserve to suffer together.
It’s really quite amazing that I like this anime so much when I really can’t stand leading two characters… But luckily there’s way more characters to root for.
I used to go to Cici’s Pizza a lot after school in high school.
Suzaku is a precious bean of a hero and I love him so all the parts where he really got to shine were peak (especially the ending). Is he a bit silly for being so shocked when ordered to kill people as a military soldier? Yes. But he’s a good-boy hero and I love him. He is completely unwavering in his focus and I appreciate that about him. His path is unchanged, his creed sacrosanct.
It’s hard to talk about Euphemia when episode 22 exists. She was my favorite character. I really did enjoy the steps she took to actually try and use her power to change things. She was introspective and questioned the ideals she was given from birth. She is also very Star Wars pretty. I wish I had more to say about her. She and Suzaku were very cute together.
My bitch. Holy fuck Cornelia is so cool. She’s got the stupid cape, she’s got the lipstick on point, she’s got the cool-ass mech. She was the first to corner Lelouch. I know she was bleeding out in the final episode, but I hope she comes back in season 2 with an eyepatch or a cool-ass prosthetic or something. She’s just so COOL.
They really made Shirley lead the plot of Memento in the background and that’s pretty cool.
but also
Man, Nina did not get enough time in this show. Her big lesbian moment getting to talk with Euphie was literally cut away from so that Euphie could go tell Suzaku she loved him. Show really said “Out of the way, lesbian, you’re getting in the way of the hets.” Maybe she’ll do more in season 2… she’s certainly made her entrance in the finale of season 1.
[Please see the hyperlink in the picture above to learn about New Zealand's past time of Zorbing. I actually went to the original Zorb place in Rotarua in 2014]
Jeremiah will be the last character I talk about. What a comeback! My handwritten notes were the following:
Episode 10:
Episode 11:
Episode 24:
He got injected with goddamn nanotechnology and thrown into a zorb ball. Excellent. Fantastic. The character arc of the ages.
The points where the anime shined the most for me were during the battles. These were always very compelling and fun to watch. On the flip side, I just couldn’t fully get on board with the everyday school scenes. There were times where it was interesting knowing who knows who and what in any particular scene, but over all the shenanigans clashed too much for my liking.
There are three parts of the anime I want to talk about in particular: the “Mao arc,” episode 22 “Bloodstained Euphie,” and the final episode.
As stated above, I love Cornelia. I also adore her mech. It’s got a big-ass lance and a cape. It’s purple af and has antlers, big-ass shoulders, and like a loin piece thing? Excellent design.
Pretty much all the major mechs are A+, though. Choosing a favorite was quite hard.
8/10
Despite all odds, despite the frustration with the main characters, the arcs I didn’t care for, the over the top melodrama and edge, and the actually worst constructed twist I’ve seen in a while, I quite liked it and I’m VERY happy I watched it. It’s been on my to-watch list for a while and I’ve never gotten past the first episode. So, thank you Deleira, for the contract and I’ll let you know what I think of my challenge contract!
5/10
Well…….. I understand the overall arc. I just don't really care? I didn't feel like the series had much to say about anything. Themes were stated but there wasn't much exploration of those themes. It felt like ultimately instead of exploring political themes of, for example, external force (Lelouch's rebellion) versus internal change (Suzaku's plans for promotion), the show really just wanted to tell the story of Lelouch's anti-hero redemption arc with some flashy set pieces along the way.
There were also some attempts at more general themes of life and human nature, but again they didn't really provide any new exploration of the themes. They felt cliché and superficial, ultimately. “Life is more than just a collection of experiences.” Sure, yes, I agree. “People put up masks in public and aren't their authentic self.” Uhhh yes, yeah, that's a factual statement. I don't see HOW the story shows that life is more or WHY people wear masks or in what way we can get people to lower these masks. Or even if this is a bad thing at all, because I sure as hell don't think it is. The themes presented in the show are simply just statements.
The new characters felt more like plot points than characters. Rolo was pretty bland overall and the things he did were mostly there to just piss Lelouch off more. Anya was planted to be the most asspull of a reveal. She really just happened to be there and Marianne's highly specific Geass of “imbed my essence into this person, to only come out at this specific time she would be near C.C. 8 years in the future” felt, once again, contrived. I also don't get how Jeremiah reversing her (two?) Geass controls lead into them happily picking mandarins, but that's nice I guess.
Nina sure did not realize what nukes were, which was funny. She kept becoming increasingly shocked that her weapons of war that she specifically designed as WEAPONS OF WAR were being used as WEAPONS OF WAR. Yes, I realized it was a nuclear bomb allegory and they needed some sort of commentary on nuclear warfare, but like most theming of the show, they really just keep it as a few shocked faces, some “how could I have done that,” and then don’t talk about it any deeper than that. In fact, they just hand a blind and paralyzed girl the Nuke Button and call it.
The fan service also skyrocketed in season 2, which was bizarre. I saw Kallen's ass more times in the first like 2 eps of s2 than the entirety of s1. Outfits were bizarrely skimpy and characters even get called out for how they're dressed. Like, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate fan service. It’s fine. But the sudden increase of it really does make it feel like they weren’t quite sure how to attract eyeballs to the story they were constructing so they filled it with tits to supplement. They didn't even tie up Cornelia in either a functional OR pleasing way. A shame…
How do you fuck up bondage?
This made me HOOT AND HOLLER this damn building has more plot armor than anyone lmao
…
There were a lot of set pieces. Lots of moments created for emotional reactions instead of making logical sense. People were killed on-screen to be brought back immediately. It felt like every major character by the end had a grand death and subsequent survival reveal. It ultimately made none of anything matter anymore. Oh, Cornelia got shot? Doesn’t matter. Like, every major character caught in the NUKE was just… found later? They don’t explain how or why or what happened. Nunnally was shown to be caught in the pink nuke blast but we just found her later, it’s fine.
She got better.
….. and SPEAKING of- how the hell did this guy tell Lelouch to his face that they found Nunnaly and Lelouch to NOT REACT AT ALL only to be ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED that she's alive. We were so confused why he didn't know. He was TOLD. We went back the 2 eps to watch the scene where he was told and it just doesn't make sense. I thought it was weird he did not react at all. The only consistent thing with Lelouch was that he only cared about Nunnally so why did he not even pause at this?
Bruh, were you LISTENING?
…
If anyone could tell me a timeline of what happened a Marianne’s death, I’d appreciate it. I tried wiki diving into it but it still doesn’t make sense. V.V. shot Marianne, Marianne saw Alya and Geass’d her soul into her (an incredibly convenient power that she used only this single time as if it wasn’t thought out and simply was writer’s convenience). And then V.V. called for a cover up and then………. Nunnally was there?
How did we get from here….
…to here?
They don’t explain how or why they did this. V.V. doesn’t have the memory changing power so he was going to make her a witness by… dragging her out of bed and placing her under her already dead mother as the cover up? But she wasn’t blind at this time and would have witnessed the whole “grabbing her and placing her under her mother” bit???? So what was V.V.’s point of doing this???????
And then Charles later was like “yes, we changed her and Alya’s memory because reasons” and I CAN’T FIGURE OUT THE REASONS. Please PLEASE if someone can explain. I’ve wiki dived, I’ve now Reddit dived and it seems like no one knows. It wasn’t explained. It’s a bad reveal. The writers didn’t know what to do. AND THIS WAS, I’D ARGUE, THE BIGGEST PLOT SET UP OF THE ENTIRE SHOW.
…
A side note, the one thing they established well were the rules of Lelouch’s Geass. You ended direct eye contact to Geass someone. So when he decides to Geass the Collective Conscious, I really wish they used an eyeball to represent it instead of a cloud. It would’ve given that set up when he entered of “giant eyeball in the sky” and the viewer goes AWWW FUCK I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. But they didn’t and they ignored the direct eye contact rule. Maybe bc Lelouch upgraded his Geass to both eyes now so that means he has a new rule set, but we’re not going to talk about it or establish it, we’re just going to continue on because it really just doesn’t matter in the end.
I wish this….
….was this SO BAD.
……………………………………So yeah, things just kinda happened. I would call it a poorly constructed story. I do recognize what the overall arc was and it was… fine? Maybe just not for me? Ultimately the story just wanted to give Lelouch his redemption arc. He messed things up so bad he had no choice but to see it through and at least make people unify against a single villian. I GET it. I just don't buy into it. It's a fine arc, it didn't *hit* for me, though. I think this is simply a preference thing, however. I just can't care about the tortured and ultimately redeemed antihero. I don’t know why we needed 50 episodes of flubbed plot points and superficial thematic discussions, but that’s fine, I guess.
6.5/10
Averaging out the two scores, we get a 6.5/10. That’s probably accurate to how I feel the whole thing went. I honestly feel like there was nothing better than the s1 finale. It was such a perfect ride of chaotic fun with an ideal cliff hanger. Everything past that was poorly handled.
I’m still happy I finally watched it, overall. I just don’t think I would honestly recommend it to anyone.
