This was one of the most polarising experiences I had while consuming any media, like it's hard to describe the hate and love I have for this series.

Saying it's flawed is an understatement, saying it's a masterpiece is just an overevaluation. Is it good or is it bad ? I dunno, for one thing I loved it. Because of this amalgamation of feelings it made for a memorable watch.
If you consider only the last episodes canon and the rest filler, yeah certified masterpiece.
This of course if a review of both seasons, but since R2 got such a reaction out of me it'll be the main topic. I'll also try to be as spoiler free as possible. Even the spoilers are skippable, you can still get an overall idea without reading my complaining/praising.

Animation/Art

If I had to describe it into a single word, it would be consistent. Personally I didn't have any expectations for it so I didn't try and look out for problems visually but, I was surprised in the quality it had to offer. The art style isn't amazing, for some people it might be a turn off but it was quite charming, at the very least it made the series stand out. Now to the part that everyone cares about, is the animation sakugasbroosu?? no. While it is good and like I said consistent I can't say I was blown away, even so all the fights were fluid and I didn't notice many corners that were cut, and personally I think it's really important to have something consistently good than a few godly moments where the animators got 10 yen extra for their work.

Audio The voice actors did a good job, but the one thing that stood out the most was Charles's "ALL HAIL BRITANNIA". For more times than I'd like to admit I felt my right had rising while hearing it. Norio Wakamoto did a stellar job selling the charisma of the emperor. Another thing I noticed, while the use of English terms was limited to the aformentioned and "YES, MY MAJESTY/LORD" and a few others, the pronunciation was good, I know being able to say a few words in English shouldn't be such a big achievement but for me it was, all these moments got me hyped for some weird reason and it wouldn't have been possible if it was botched. On the side of music, the ops/eds didn't surprise me in any way, probably not my type of songs, visually too they were disappointing. BUT, ost throughout the series was baller, at points it reminded me of Nier: Automata, and for me that's a great sign. Like other things the ost really stood out at the end of R2. Story/Episodes # My opinion basically is R1 until the last episode was a solid beginning, the last episode of R1 and everything in R2 until episode 19, was me basically questioning the rating capabilities of the anime community. I won't talk about the famous cat episode in R1, yeah it's really slow at points. I'd say one of the big problems of Geass is the episodes that seem to serve no purpose and even if they do, it could've been done in a better way to save time and make it more engaging. I say it's a big problem but it's passable, a lot of series I love have these type of episodes and I overlooked them. The one thing that makes these episodes pure hell, is one of the worst problems this series faces, the school setting. People have been complaining about the school settings in anime that exist for no reason except making the high schoolers or any young demographic relate, (there's also the ecchi, I love my ecchi moments but they can be introduced even if the girls aren't in high school as far as I'm aware.), but here it's even more painful to watch since you have such an interesting world introduced, politics, effects from actions, but they take a back seat for fanservice and uhh school activities, you get my point. I craved to see more of the innerworkings of Britannia, the aristocrats, the other important powers in the world. The double life that Lelouch lives is interesting at the beginning but after a while it's so annoying. This brings me to another 2 big problems, the R2 twist, from the opening episode and Nunnally. I'll be short with the first problem, if you actually liked that twist please send me your death threats so I know who to avoid, it might've introduced a cool character but it also made R1 feel useless. The character that was introduced could've been introduced in other ways, and still create a relationship between him and Lelouch. Nunnally as a character, isn't bad, it's ok, but it ties with my first problem, the school setting. The story could've advanced but Lelouch is always back for at least one episode at school for Nunnally, and you are left waiting for a full episode for some crumbs about any developments. For one season is fine but this continues until the 2nd half of R2. I don't think a military themed show should waste so much time on things like haha funny run after Lelouch to be in a relationship with him. There are always OVAs for that, just saying. In R2 it gets so bad that

Spoiler, click to view

I waited for Nunally to die, like when she "did" I felt like my favourite football team finally scored after hours of running in circles

I understand that Nunnally is the thing that drives Lelouch but there've been cases of main characters fueled to conquer whole worlds for their sisters and it didn't make me rip my eyes out whenever their safety was in question (Legend of the Galactic Heroes). My hate for all these "trivial problems" is only fueled by THE MASTEPIECE THAT IS EPISODES 19-25 I know at this point I just joined the sheeple, but even with my pride shattered I have to admit I loved these episodes to no end, but at the same time it's also a testimony of the missed opportunity with the rest of the series. Characters that I used to detest I started to admire them or just purely admit that maybe it was wrong of me to wish death upon them, talking specifically about Nina right now. I watched these episodes on Christmas Day, and no joke it felt like Santa bent space and time to make the show listen to nearly all my pleads towards this show. Santa deniers please stop reading btw. Even if it was for a short while we got strategic battles, no more ha I actually had something prepared for this, it devolved into bombs and retreat but I really appreciated the effort. While the actual battle was good the ideology and thought battles is where it made the difference. This is just me gushing about the last episodes, if you didn't watch it yet I suggest skipping over it since it would just ruin the experience

Spoiler, click to view

The rivalry between Lelouch and Schneizel was so beautifully built up, and considering their opposing opinions it just made for such an interesting battle of wits. I also loved that Schneizel wasn't so 2 dimensional as he seemed, once again making him a good matchup for Lelouch. In terms of themes,_ forcing your love onto others_, was once again something built up that I didn't realize until the end, and it also helped making Lelouch and Suzaku more human, it made us aware of the hypocrisy Lelouch is guilty off, while he accusing his parents he still continues forcing his ideal world on Nunnally. Just an overall good message that was well written into the circumstances of the story. And the twist at the end, it was as much tragic as it was brilliant. I kept wondering why isn't Lelouch just coming out, yeah btw I'm Zero just to turn the Order into disarray, but the reason was made clear to me. And both Suzaku and Lelouch giving up their life, one of them just technically speaking, was rather poetic. It was obvious thinking back on it but it was the cherry on top of the cake. (At the same time I have to give credit to the awful beginning of the season that it made me stop thinking about what will happen, so maybe it was all planned.) The part that rubbed me off the worst was the epilogue that started after Zero Requiem. It might be just me, but feels wrong to see everyone happy go lucky after the characters you actually cared about "died". Would've been better to do it without the narrator, just show some shots of their new life. I'm rambling right now but at the same time, I have to talk about it since it influenced my rating, it really just shat on the whole vibe the episode created.

There were also other problems with characters just being immune to dying for some reason, twists that felt a bit forced but going that much in depth is just nitpicking. If I had to quote one of my friends > Code Geass has some of the highest highs yet some of the lowest lowsCharacters And to go by the quote mentioned above, I'll start with one of the worst characters, at least in R1, Nina. While I talked about the show, I just called her racist lesbian since that's all there was to her in the first half of the series. What they tried to do with the character was pretty clear, it was either redemption in the future or small petty villain that gets rid of at one point. The problem is, she is part of the main cast in the school part, so you have to deal with her pretty often, most of her growth happens off screen so she doesn't do anything valuable in R1 except hate the Japanese. I'd say it's quite funny that she gets cucked but it might be of poor taste. In R2 she gets her redemption I guess especially after she realizes she is the Robert Oppenheimer of the geassverse, but if I remember correctly she just doesn't try to kill Lelouch anymore, really can't say if her racism is gone since he is British so yeah. I think that gay>hetero in basically any relationship in anime, so it's really disappointing to see them just make her so two dimensional.Now to the character that surprised me the most, Suzaku. If I have to be honest, I didn't hope for much from Suzaku in R1 he seemed the exact carbon copy of all virgin idealistic MCs that go against the chad I'll do whatever to get what I want MCs. But after, a certain, thing exploded, everything started to connect. It was such a satisfying resolution that came after times and times where he was broken. Nearly everything about him was changed except his determination, in the masterpiece part, his determination is at it's highest. It finally feels he knows what he has to do, in like 40 + episodes he just reacted to everything that happened around him, talking about ideals and to do it the right way, but in reality he didn't do much, he was just a cog that thought he'd bring the change in the big machine that was Britannia. It was an interesting conclusion, or idea about how idealistic people could end up. His story is a tragedy that gets worse and worse but while at it's peak you can't stop but admire him. I personally, I'm fascinated by him, and the finale, him and Lelouch arrived at. In the end, the difference between him and Lelouch was the determination, his will to see their promise to it's end.

Other things I guess I want to talk about is, how much ecchi there's in this series, like R1 has just tits, quite a lot of them, then in R2 there's the cam shots in the robots that probably inspired Darling in the Franxx. Like yeah Kallen is hot same for C.C. but I kinda feel it takes away from the seriousness the show tries to have

Conclusions If I had to describe my whole experience, it would be a toxic relationship. The show keeps treating me like shit, then at times it's a bit nice, shows me some interesting politics cool fights, then beats me again, and then when I'm nearly about to drop them, leave them for good and not look back, they become everything I've ever dreamed of. Where I'm probably at fault is my expectations. I went in expecting some really serious military themed show, with a very smart MC, something along the lines of legend of the galactic heroes but with robots and high school. But it wasn't that. Considering the ending I understand anyone that considers it a masterpiece but I will still not shut up about my opinions