Code Geass is a sinking ship that sorta makes it to port
So I just finished watching Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Season 1 and Season 2. It was one of those quests of where I knew this was a beloved show and that it created a ton of buzz in it’s heyday. Season 1 aired from October 6, 2006 — July 29, 2007, while season 2 aired from April 6, 2008-September 28, 2008. The show, is not based off a manga adaptation but is in fact a show first and light novel second. Less common these days are anime that are created in the that absence of a manga source material. Something to note from above is that there are only 8 months between the ending of season 1 and the beginning of season 2, and that small time between seasons shows that their writers either didn’t have enough time to craft a proper continuation of the story, or that the production house Sunrise, simply didn’t hire any.
My thoughts on Season 1 are mostly positive. The show has our protagonist portrayed as quasi-psychopath genius. He has one goal, at the outset of the show, he wants to create a world where Nunnally, his crippled and blind sister, can live in peace. He also carries a grudge against the Holy Britannia Empire, which rules 1/3 of the world, and he and his sister are a former member of the Royal Family. The portrayal of Britannia is a stark one of domination and fascism. We have an episode open with the emperor, Charles zi Britannia giving a speech to other royals of the empire. It is a celebratory speech over the conquest in Europe where they have annexed swaths of land, and a reaffirmation of the guiding principals of the empire. Inequality is the natural order of things, our goal is to conquer and enslave other nations to enrich our own. We will not stop until we have subjugated all. Part of this is displayed in the fact that Japan, recently conquered is referred to as area 11 and the citizens of Japan are referred to and forced to referred to each others as 11’s. Calling oneself Japanese, is a crime. Lelouch, does not necessarily care about these injustices, it is perhaps this view which the show up front doesn’t do the best job with. We get a scene where one of Lelouch’s classmates is in danger of getting murdered by terrorists, he is shown to care but is trying to think of way to save his classmate & accomplish his goal in that episode. So he’s not heartless. It’s unclear how manipulative and heartless Lelouch actually is towards accomplishing his goal of transforming the world.
Through circumstances, he sees utilizing the rebellion of the Japanese against their occupying as a way for him to fight Britanna directly. He announces himself to be Zero, and that his identity must remain secret and his force, “the black knights”, will only attack against injustice. He gets a magical power, meets a mysterious and seemingly immortal girl, and hence begins the show. We also see, that Lelouch is not perfect and underestimates his situations. Probably the best episode the series is episode 7 “Attack Cornelia”. Part of what sells this show, is we are privy to all the innerworkings of Lelouch’s planning. When he is in battle, and faced with a challenge/puzzle we get to hear his thoughts and how he logically works through to a solution. In this episode, he gets into a pinch when Cornelia outsmarts him, and starts panicking running through several scenarios of actions he could take to get out of the corner Cornelia has put him in. Lelouch has lost … and then gets saved by plot armor. You know what, plot armor is freaking lame, but using it once is ok.
Alright, so either way, season one, we get this character who is a quasi-psycopath, he uses people to achieve what he needs, he casts his Geass on people as mere experiments, he behaves like a different person to Suzaku & Nunnaly, to his classmates, to the black nights, to C.C, to himself. And, he makes mistakes, a grave one later in the show that permanently puts him and the black knights down a path that he cannot course correct. But the show is, overall executed well, with mostly well done characters, tragedy, and action. I haven’t even mentioned the mechs, which well, their fine but not the focus of the show, and present themselves as a way to have compelling shonen action. We also get mystery about the magical power of the Geass, C.C.’s origin and, full stop, weird space ladder than Lelouch’s Dad, the emperor, is doing something bad with.
Season 1, despite having a lot going on, is overall an enjoyable romp that ends on cliffhanger appropriate for a show that may or may not get a second season. A solid 4/5 ★s in my book.
So what happens in the second season? Well, It feels a lot like game of thrones Season 6 — 8.
One of the most frustrating things that happens in stories is when characters that you’e grown to know and love start to not behave with what seems reasonable or consistent. Or in a story, when the main things that attracted you to the story stop showing up. Or, when characters and their motives that matter to you are mistreated by the writer. So in no particular order here are major highlights of why Season 2 starts to fall off the tracks
Reuse of major scenes & plot devices from season 1
Parallels are a common story implement. It’s gives a story this rhythmic feeling that what has happened before will happen again, or be referenced. In Code Geass S2, it starts exactly the same way S1 did, with albeit a different path taken to get there. This, my initial reaction to was a feeling of nostalgia and “aw yah, here we go”. The show has been on a break, it’s been months since the first season and here is a familiar beginning to Lelouch’s conquest of creating the world he desires for Nunnally. That’s cool … but then it keeps happening.
The school cooking festival, where Lelouch has to use a distraction to protect his identity. The use of mt fuji and explosives as a military tactic, the scene where the emperor or Britannia addresses his subjects, the swimsuit contest, the use a of pre-recorded video to trick someone into thinking something is live when it isn’t, the use of C.C. to be a decoy Zero, the use of exploding a hotel to yield an outcome favorable for Lelouch, choosing of a painting to give away at an awards ceremony, a funeral that effects everyone we care about at ashford academy, a threat of prisoner execution. By halfway through season 2 it’s as though you’ve rewatched season 1 where major mechanics are reused and the guts around them are slightly different. To have these many parallels, reuse of ideas and scenes, it comes off a REALLY lazy writing. Instead of new situations or encounters, we literally see a bulk of the previous season play out again, with slight modifications. It’s clear they didn’t bother to put effort into the writing of what should happen to make the story interesting
The fan service is 10x for no reason
The characters are CLAMP design in the show and they are all draw relatively attractive. Everyone has massive chests, perfect hair, and inviting eyes. But in season 2 the level of fan service gets to a point of disrespect. C.C. is an immortal witch with a personal goal and world goal in mind. Kallen is a character that is a nationalist and cares deeply for the Japanese people and is fighting in anyway she can so that her people and her nation can retain their identity. Shirley is the girl next door that really just wants to fall in love with a man who doesn’t seem notice her. I care about these characters, and the show cares about selling sex.
We get all these gross scenes of Kallen’s boobs just hanging out for the audience to gawk at. We get these cockpit scenes, that for some reason Kallen’s Knightmare alone has to be ridden like a motor cycle instead of a sitting in a standard chair, where we see her breasts wedged over her console or a shot of where we can see her skin tight pilot uniform over her but, while still seeing her breasts dangle.
There is a scene, which jeeze is both gross and an obvious cost saver, where they pan across C.C. in her white thong unitard from the backside view while Lelouch talks to her across the room, and they poorly animate his mouth flapping. Lazy, gross.
There is a swim suit episode where all the major female characters Shirely, Kallen, Villetta, are put in the skimpiest swimsuits possible. There a multiple episodes of Kallen in an exposing dress tied up … cause this is how one would dress a prisoner.
People join Lelouch’s side for really, no reason
Oh boy, this is one of the more painful issues that happens 3 times in season 2. In season 1 Lelouch is either mind controlling people with his Geass, or using his psychopathic tendencies to manipulate them into doing his bidding. When Lelouch does manipulate people though it’s very calculated and thought through and we get to see how he is able to convince others. In season 2, he just … gets … lucky. The first issue is Rolo. Another geass user sent to monitor Lelouch while he has forgotten about Zero. Rolo, corners Lelouch and has his orders to kill him, but through minimal effort on Lelouch’s part Rolo comes to the conclusion that he loved having an actual brother, as Lelouch, and would rather betray his nation and those that have trained him to be an assassin than kill his “only” brother. Lelouch immediately thinks of how he will manipulate Rolo until he is no longer useful and then kill him. This change of allegiance that Rolo goes through … just sorta happens and doesn’t feel justified.
Another example is Nina Einstein, side note that name is hot garbage, she hates Zero, because Zero killed Princess Euphy. But then, Lelouch convinces Nina that he is driving towards creating the world that Princess Euphemia wanted and she helps him by developing a technology to combat what essentially becomes a nuke in the world of Code Geass. But this conversion of allegiance is done off screen, we never see it. And then Lelouch and Nina exchange some words of respect but it’s nonsense to the audience cause we don’t have context.
Then there is Jeremiah who …what does this dude have telepathy … figures out that Zero is Lelouch and is actually sworn fealty to Marianne and is resolute to help Lelouch achieve whatever his goal may be. It’s total luck nonsense, and doesn’t make that threat of the Geass canceller matter at all.
Character inconsistency is the bane of good writing
This is a huge one that breaks season 2 in so many ways. It manifests itself in Viletta, Suzaku, Nunnally, Rolo, Charles zi Britannia, and primarily Lelouch. Viletta loses her memory, and then starts to fall in love with Ohgi while he is protecting her. She gets her memory back and is immediately disgusted with herself and attacks Ohgi. She keeps this stance of being a Britannian through and through and not caring for Ohgi, but then at some point she seems like she’s changed sides … then back again … then eventually finds she is in love with Ohgi and wants to be with him. It’s possible Code Geass suffers from too many plots going on at the same time, that this is one of those the writers didn’t care to flesh out, but we don’t see why this character changes their approach, it just feels random and on a whim.
Nunally is this meek, caring person the entire show. We are never privy to her intelligence or if she is aware of the larger problems looming around her. She gives us some indication that she is aware when Lelouch & Suzaku are lying to her, but never takes any action on it. Then IN THE LAST episode, she’s a completely different character to stand up to Lelouch. It’s extremely off putting. Literally in the episode before she drops the very important thing she is holding and then bashfully grocks around for it. Also she … has the same goal as Lelouch all the sudden? What are we doing?
Rolo has a weird obsession with Lelouch and is protective of him. OK great, but we never get the sense that Rolo will just take actions by himself that he believes will protect Lelouch. Or rather, that Rolo has a warped way of thinking about the world. His conclusion to axe a main character because they may be a threat to Lelouch doesn’t feel justified, and feels out of character for Rolo even. It’s just there to create a tragic moment and create another parallel in the show.
And then Lelouch. There is so much to write to list every single instance where the Lelouch from S1 is not the same character in S2. But instead of this calculated strategist, we get this increasingly emotional mess that gets lucky from challenge to challenge. We don’t get to see the innerworkings of his planning, and the back 1/4th of the show the audience is completely cut out of the larger plan that Lelouch is trying to accomplish. Lelouch hates Rolo, but then he cares about him. Lelouch hesitates when he has the chance. Lelouch NEVER seems to predict a stronger mech could show up.
Characters behave to fit the scene, it’s awful
Characters coming to conclusions, cause the plot needs them to
Just, “oh I get it”, but how did you get it? Why? lazy.
Kallen &Lelouch or C.C. & Lelouch or Shirley&Lelouch could be in love, but it never goes anywhere
At one point Lelouch asks Kallen if she would go with him back to Ashford Academy after all of this is done, but then he changes the plan later and locks Kallen out of what his final plan is. But why? Cause he doesn’t want to hurt her anymore? There is a classic character A is taking away agency from character B but we don’t see that thought process so it’s just frustrating. I feel like I need to state, a lot of my issues is the audience being locked out from Lelouch’s mind in season 2. This is because, we’re always privy to his mind in season 1. It feels like an entirely different show.
In this same area, Lelouch at once point makes an advance on Kallen, because he is so distraught he’s turned to drug use and abusing his power. But how Lelouch gets there just … what is this character? We’ve never been given the indication he is even that stressed, it’s just so not consistent with that framework we’ve been given to see, and we don’t get enough justification for why this character is acting the way they are.
The audience no longer knows Lelouch’s plan
What is he thinking? What is his goal? I knew in season 1, I don’t in season 2
The whole Charles, Marianne, and V.V, plot doesn’t work
It was all for Lelouch? Also we ripped off human instrumentality from Evangelion with zero run up that we were trying to accomplish this, and it’s all for peace. Yah, this is just bad.
I’m supposed to care that Lelouch commits a massacre, but I don’t
Lelouch has the black knights attack the facility where kids are being given Geass by V.V and trained to be the next generation of soldiers. This makes strategic sense, but yet some of the black knights have issue, and I as the audience am supposed to feel this “oh no Lelouch is doing something evil” … but he’s been getting people killed for like 40 episodes, this doesn’t really have any impact, and it’s clear the writers thought it would.
Ohgi and Villetta get together for no reason
it’s that simple & lame.
The Geass will drive you mad plot point is stated and used … kinda?
At some point, actually over ~3–4 episodes we’re introduced to Mao, a Geass user that lost control of his Geass and his mind has been poisoned by the Geass. He is also obsessed with C.C and will do whatever it takes to be with her. The seed is planted, that if you use the Geass too much, you lose control over it and maybe it starts to drive you crazy. We increasingly see Lelouch become an emotional mess over season 2 and not fully think things through and go into a panic when encountering a set back. The calm and calculated psycopath is being replaced with an increasingly emotionally unstable character. So, I thought this could be a story of how Geass, absolute power, not only corrupts but in a more literal sense drives one mad… but then it doesn’t. That’s not the direction the show takes, and instead it’s just “we wrote the character different”. Ugh.
The Geass canceller could of been used on Nunnally
Then she could walk again … why wouldn’t this be done?
Nunnally fully understands Lelouch after he is dead?
What is this shitty writing? Who believed this scene?
Shirely’s death
It’s bullshit, she could of been a good character as part of Lelouch’s love triangle, and multiple life living. You could see a script where Lelouch, in his emotional state, takes comfort from all 3 female leads at the same time, since they are all in different lives that Lelouch is living. Instead, we’re expected to believe Lelouch really cares, when he barely cares to ever spend time with her. Like, whatever man!
C.C. loses a century of memory, and then gains it back
This happens, it barely matters cause it get reversed. what’s the point?
A repeat of good plot points, but horrid execution
There are parts of Code Geass of where I could see how this plot point is good, but the writers don’t know how to get the chess pieces to be there, and they just make the characters make it happen to reuse things they’ve already used. The 2nd to last episode is literally a reuse of the pre-recorded video mechanic and another implementation of a “canceller” to nullify a weapon. It’s lazy and is not the puzzle solving show we enjoyed in the beginning.
In conclusion, season 2, I found enjoyable enough while wholly frustrating. The end, is also sorta flimsy that it would yield what Lelouch’s goal was and not more violence. *sigh* I don’t do half points. but there’s just enough that is enjoyable its worth seeing the story through, even if the characters fall from their once lovable pedestals. 3/5 ★s. If you really enjoyed season 1 you’ll probably get enough out of season 2 that it’s worth the time.
