Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Note: English is not my first language, so this text may contain some grammatical mistakes.

IMPORTANT: This review will contain spoilers about the work, so I will write it keeping in mind that anyone reading the review has already watched at least the first season, so I will not worry about summarizing the series or even presenting events in order, be warned.

First of all, I'll point out a few things: This will be an extremely negative review given how bad I think the work is, but in no way is it intended to provoke the fandom, just to present my point of view on the work.
I also feel I need to say that this review was made after my re-watch of the work, which I started about a month before writing this text, so it's not based on any vague memories I have about the anime.
And also, this is my first review, so I apologize for any amateurism it presents.

Well, let's start by giving Caesar what is Caesar's, Code Geass is extremely poorly done in almost every aspect, whether it's its plot, its direction, its aesthetic, its thematic approach, or its characters.
Starting with what I think is the elephant in the room, the plot. That's by far its worst aspect, even surpassing any other bad plot I've ever seen. A level of “bad” that crosses the fine line between horrendous and abject, is so poorly written that it offends me, either by the moments when it shows itself completely holed, or when it invents situations from absolute nothing to make the story go on, abusing the use of deus ex machinas. And it's not like it's in just a few moments, it's during the entire show and at key moments for the plot. For example, something that happens early on, when Lelouch gets the Geass. It is extremely convenient for him to know what his power does and how to use it soon after acquiring it without receiving any explanation, but for some reason, he does not know the limitations of his own power. Why? Because the plot needs it. Later this entails a bigger problem, and that exemplifies well how holed the plot of this anime is. Lelouch discovers that in order to use the Geass he needs to look directly into the person's eye, and that after the person receives the Geass, they forget what happened some time before and after receiving the power. However, because the plot calls for it, the character Villeta Nu, in whom Lelouch uses the Geass, starts to remember Lelouch's face later, breaking the rule that the work itself presented. Note, this doesn't happen to ANY other character at ANY other moment, just Villeta because the script needs someone to figure out Zero's identity.

Still talking about Villeta, I'll use one more moment with her to talk about the badness of the script. For SOME REASON she decides to follow Lelouch and takes Shirley along with her. Why take Shirley? What the hell does Villeta think Shirley, a completely normal schoolgirl, can do in the middle of a battlefield? There is no logic behind this action, the only justification is that the plot needs Shirley to find out that Lelouch is Zero because he killed her father. It's dumb, artificial and illogical that she's there, but the plot needs it, so she goes. And the resolution of this is even worse, since, even though she knows Lelouch is Zero, Shirley still loves him, and so shoots Villeta to prevent her from capturing Lelouch. After that, Villeta is dropped in the middle of nowhere with a shot in the belly, and stays there for hours, I repeat, HOURS, but, MIRACULOUSLY, Ougi finds her alive there and, for some reason, after receiving a shot in the belly, the sequel of her injury is... AMNESIA???

I can also quote the moment when Lelouch destroys the town's structure for using Geass on an officer. At WHAT POINT did he use Geass on this guy? HOW did he get in there? WHY can a guard who seems to have the function of a gatekeeper DESTROY the entire city structure at the push of a single button? In addition to the work not explaining how Lelouch architected his plan, it also sounds extremely ridiculous that a city is made in such a way as to allow its destruction with only one button that can be accessed by any guard. It's pathetic.

But let's talk about the worst scene of the first season, the moment when Lelouch causes a massacre in a stadium for having lost control of his Geass. This happens because he made a joke, which he NEVER DID BEFORE, being the most convenient joke possible, at the most convenient time possible, with the most convenient person possible, in the most convenient place possible. Do you realize how artificial and stupid this is? In addition to all the soldiers obeying an order from Euphy who was acting in a distinctly strange way, who just came out of a conversation with Zero and whose order makes NO sense, but with the exception of ONE GENERAL, NO ONE questions Euphy's order and ALL THE SOLDIERS AGREE TO MAKE A MASSACRE AGAINST CIVILIANS. And WORSE, moments after the Black Knights defeat Britain's troops, they, along with the civilians, decide to declare their independence in a ceremony IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE THEIR OWN FAMILY MEMBERS WERE MASSACRED. Frankly, it's almost offensive.

But calm down, there is still one more example in Mao's arc. In addition to being completely frivolous and being introduced out of nowhere (a fairly recurring problem in the work, by the way) it also ends up in a huge plot hole. Remember, Lelouch (with another inexplicable plan) defeats Mao by ordering cops to shoot him, and he gets numerous shots in that scene, but in the next episode, he COMES BACK with only a few bandages, as if he hadn't been shot by nearly a dozen cops. And right after the wonderful scene of Suzaku dodging shots from a machine gun running with extreme precision and cutting a moving wire in the air without cutting the wrong one, Mao is defeated... WITH A SHOT. Now, first the work shows him as a sponge of bullets, but soon after he dies from a gunshot wound to the neck??? WTF.

I think at this point it's already made explicit how poorly written Code Geass's plot is, I'm obviously not going to address EVERY scene where the plot proves flawed because it would overextend the review.
But going a little bit off the plot, let's talk about how bad its aesthetic is, a point that I see being little commented on by the way. It's not strange that the work is a war anime, which approaches ideological conflicts, prejudice, genocide, but its characters look like malnourished models, with clothes that look like they are from a fashion show or some episode of Jojo, and that the anime spends entire episodes with frivolous passages of slice of life comedy at school, while having an extremely appealing sexual fanservice? Seriously, does this really matches with an anime that's supposed to be about war and politics? OBVIOUSLY NOT, but they are elements that are popular, and since Code Geass is only concerned with selling, damn if there is no harmony between them.

And now, talking about the characters a little bit. But really, a little bit, as almost the entire cast can be summed up in poorly deepened one-dimensional doors. This applies perfectly to Kallen, C.C., Euphy, Cornelia, Schneizel, Charles, all of Lelouch's high school friends, and the vast majority of the cast, so I'm not going to waste my time talking about them. However, two in particular are worth my time to criticize them, Lelouch and Suzaku.

Lelouch is by far the most interesting character in Code Geass. His relationship with his sister and his obsession with her, his cool reactive moments when he starts questioning his own actions, all of this is interesting, but it's only interesting. At no point does the work bother to build a legitimate character arc for Lelouch, with his supposed arc summing up to reactive moments with a middle beginning and end in the same episode. It's not a singular arc that stretches across the entire series, he realizes something, gets affected by it and in the next episode HE GOES BACK TO BEING THE SAME PERSON. While I feel like I could value the work a little bit more because of these Lelouch moments, I also feel like I shouldn't, because the work takes all the potential that the character has and throws it in the trash, summarizing his arcs to small reactive moments that begin and end in the same episode. Why, Code Geass, why?

And now, the one that is THE WORST virus that the work has, my dear Suzaku. What if not the most contradictory, dumb, hypocritical character I've ever seen? In addition to not being well deepened, he should serve as a counterpoint to Lelouch, the "other side of the coin". But explain to me, how am I going to buy this character when he thinks that fighting against an invading country is wrong because it "only generates more violence" and because of that kills his own father, but the country he fights for COMMITS GENOCIDE??? There's no way to buy a character like that Code Geass, sorry, but it doesn't.

Taking advantage of the fact that I spoke of Suzaku, I would like to address another problem that Code Geass has, the artificiality of its thematic approach. It tries to sell itself as a deep war anime, which approach different ideals and politics, but the main villain has the most manichean and artificial villain speech possible, being put to tell the audience that "social inequality is good". Heck, can you make a villain more artificial than that? Better, is it possible to make a WORK more artificial than this. Maybe it does, but I haven't found any to this day.

Anyway, for the first season that's it, Code Geass sells itself as a mature war anime, but it doesn't address its theme in any depth, getting contradictory at times, doesn't have A SINGLE good character, and has the most holed, poorly written plot I've seen to date. An empty and extremely artificial work that is nothing more than an amalgamation of various elements that are successful and that does not care about anything but selling. And no, that's not because of any amateurism of whoever did the work. You have 50 EPISODES, more than enough to build a good story, a studio like SUNRISE, and directors who have worked on works considered good by critics. It's not for lack of ability, it's for lack of WILL to do something descent. I'd rather believe that this anime is a social experiment to prove that average otakus accept any crap, as I refuse to believe that it's possible to do something so bad unintentionally.