[DISCLAIMER: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO EITHER HAVEN’T SEEN THE SERIES OR ARE STILL WATCHING IT. ALSO COVERS THE MAJORITY OF CODE GEASS, NOT JUST SEASON 2]
Ah Code Geass, the one show that is most well-known for its MC and its ending as well as being a mix of drama and action. Characters going out for war while wearing some of the fanciest clothing CLAMP can ever come up with. Making poses like you threaten civilians in such a flawless fashion. Mechs having such a unique design in both looks and equipment. There's nothing else to put other than to give out my thoughts for each element of the show. Let's get started.
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STORY: 81% The story is portrayed as a war drama with our main protagonist, Lelouch, solving how to end the cycle of hatred without his identity being shown. He gains the ability to mind-control people all thanks to C.C., an immortal witch who grants people a handful of powers. Lelouch uses his power as carefully as he can. Lelouch explored Knightmare Frames, a type of mech that can come with different equipment, and uses one of them. He struggles to fight against Suzaku, a boy who he was best friends with during their childhood, and because of this, he then created his own army and named himself “Zero”. Code Geass has an interesting take on war drama because the show gives time to explore its characters. While it feels very refreshing, sometimes, it can be off-putting with a few odd moments; an example of that being that one episode dedicated to chasing a cat. While I do understand where this is going, it’s awkward to see an entire episode where the characters are chasing a cat just for Lelouch to return his helmet. Can’t Lelouch just place his helmet somewhere safe? Of course, there’s the one scene where Euphemia was out of control due to Lelouch’s mistake and killed the Japanese. Lelouch ends up killing Euphemia because there’s nothing he can do to fix it all because of his Geass being unstable after he used it on MAO, who was one of the villains of the show and has a fully-experienced Geass. While I don’t think it’s the best, it was at least realistic considering it shows how much Lelouch screwed up. Overall, R1 was a great way to show a series with just a few problems holding it back a little.
Then there’s R2, which extrapinates some of the problems R1 had and called them a day. Lelouch once again continued his plans after he regained his memories. He also has an illogical brother named Rolo, who has the ability to stop time within a small radius. While R1 made a lot of sense, R2 quickly became so chaotic that some events ended up being seen as comedy, especially once Lelouch dethroned his father and became the emperor of the entire world. There are so many plot twists around I can’t even count properly. Thankfully, these problems were fixed by the show’s ending. The ending revolves with Lelouch sacrificing himself just to end the war and the war finally stopped. Everyone achieved their freedom. I’ll be explaining this further in the characters section.
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CHARACTERS: 72% There are some characters who we love. There are others who we hate. Personally, I have my own thoughts for each. Before that, I just wanted to explain each characteristic for the main cast.
Lelouch is a student quickly-turned rebellious leader who sets up his own plans in order to free everyone from chaos, especially his sister.
Suzaku is a soldier who follows orders from the Holy Britannian Empire. He is also both best friends and rivals with Lelouch.
C.C. is the immortal witch who grants people the power of Geass, each type of Geass providing different abilities.
Kallen is an individual and one of Lelouch’s subordinates. She is a tsundere but despite that, she can be quite sensitive, compassionate, and gentle at times.
For my thoughts, I’d say the main cast had a lot going for the plot. They have their own spotlights and they have their dynamics with one another. But with R2 going, I can only name 2 major characters that are considered actually fleshed out. Lelouch is the obvious stand-out, with his motives, relationships, and how he attempts to achieve his goal while struggling to do so. Suzaku, despite what others think of, is also a major driving force of the story. He can be idiotic and he can be annoying but his characterization, like Lelouch, felt very realistic and it shows how he tries to fight against his problems. Both Lelouch and Suzaku are trapped in their own issues and they still keep on moving forward. As for C.C. and Kallen, they’re fine characters. They have their own moments and they can bring impact sometimes but their characters suffer due to them being sex objects for certain scenarios.
For the side characters, they’re also fine. I don’t have strong opinions on them but they at least contribute to the plot. The worst character for this, however, is none-other than Lelouch’s father, Charles. As the main villain of the series, Charles didn’t do right for me. At some times, he is shown where he is an interesting source of intimidation when we look at his backstory. Most of the time though, he feels like a generic tyrannic doomsday device throughout the series. The side characters do have potential to be very interesting but they somehow look like fodder for Lelouch. Perhaps one side character manages to be fleshed out compared to the others and that I’m talking about is Jeremiah (better known as Orange Boy). I didn’t care for him either but he eventually grew on me at the end with his loyalty.
Now back to the ending. Every character in the show is no longer a killing machine during war. They really knew what was happening and they decided to find better things to do. Lelouch sacrificed himself because he was the mastermind behind the chaos he created after dethroning Charles and he wanted to in order to solve his and everyone’s problems.
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ART: 77-82% (character designs), 94% (mecha designs) The artstyle for the characters are weird. Characters look too lanky to match their actual sizes that they may end up looking like glorified stickmen. The fashion, however, more than made up for it. Fashion sense in Code Geass is stylish and fancy. The best example for that is Lelouch as Zero in R2 where he looks like a badass leader who acts like a threat.
The Knightmare Frames were one of my favorite mech designs in all of mecha. Rollerblades, ejectable seats and grappling hooks as the base kit, truly made for dynamic action scenes. Their base designs are also lit-looking.
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SOUND: 77% The OPs and EDs are iconic and put effort into their music designs. The OST behind it is good but at times can be unfitting, especially with that salsa music for action and drama scenes.
The voice acting is great in both sub and dub, with occasions with scenes where we switch so we can hear which is fitting for certain scenes. For normal Lelouch, I’ll stick with Johnny Yong Bosch. For Zero, Jun Fukuyama.
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ENJOYMENT: 84% Code Geass is fun and engaging. But sometimes, it can be hard to take some things seriously. I don’t know what else to say… Clearly if you want to see characters for your preference no matter if you love or hate any, this is a solid watch for you. Otherwise, it’s more advisable if you watch it for both Lelouch and the ending. Not saying that it may look bad, just that we have our own views on how we watch it.
