[!]THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS[!]
What happens when you combine Legend of the Galactic Heroes with Gundam? You get Code Geass. Created by the same studio that created the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Gintama, and Gundam, Code Geass is one of the most interesting series when it comes to combining multiple genres into one - telling a story about war drama while having other elements to keep certain characters developing ideals and such. This was once one of my favorite anime of all time all because of the protagonist fighting evil by dressing up as evil and the whole war thing. It looks really epic. Looking back on it though, I can certainly tell that this series is so uncertain… Not bad, but something’s off with it.
If you read my previous reviews, you may already know what I’m talking about before I review things. But for beginners around:
All of these are 100% opinion-based. What you’ll see is very subjective and therefore, shouldn’t be taken seriously.
I have no problems with anyone liking the series. If you’re a fan of the series, feel free to share why you think it’s better than what I said.
Without further ado, let’s jump into my reasonings, shall we?
---
Like I said already, Code Geass is a war drama. It’s a story that focuses on a vengeful prince named ‘Lelouch’ who disguises himself as evil to fight his deceiving family after obtaining the ability to mind-control people for once from an immortal witch named ‘C.C.’. Both Lelouch and C.C. fight against the corrupted government alongside their friends, Suzaku, and Kallen. This series has such an immaculate premise. A battle between empires in the modern world while being affected by the ancients is surely something to be excited about. It’s very complex for what it is but it makes a surprising amount of sense. The first season presented pretty well. It’s not the best thing ever. There were twists that felt either stupid or rushed. But nonetheless, it did a good catch. Then there’s the second season, which makes the whole series really problematic.
The biggest issue with Code Geass’ second season is how it tries to emulate the previous by being more over-the-top with drama and action. While I do think it’s more fun than the first season in terms of surface-level entertainment all thanks to the mad choreography it contains, what’s kind of unapologetic is how it reuses the problematic twists in R1 and think they could be better by extrapolating them; they’re not. They’re possibly the same thing. It makes shows like this more embarrassing. Another big issue I see is how the series tries to toy with the characters with said twists. I don’t know if this feels like a redundant argument but in my opinion, the empires already have their chances to show their true strengths or power so I don’t get why the story shoves more drama to it. Unless one character or a few more needed some kind of secondary plan, it really comes off as amateur if you ask me.
---
Speaking of which, the cast also comes off as amateur. What we have for the main cast is Lelouch, a vengeful prince trying to save the world by being evil, Suzaku, an honorary knight who is willing to bow down to his superiors, C.C., a witch who grants people the ability to mind control, and Kallen, a Britannian-Eleven girl. While the main characters have their moments, a lot of them aren’t really anything exciting to talk about. I really like Lelouch. His path to achieving world peace makes him a truly engaging character. His method of fighting all of evil by dressing up as evil isn’t the most unique thing ever but hey, it would make for solid writing. As for the rest, I don’t think they could even come close to being engaging. I mean… I guess Suzaku is an okay character. I like how he interacts with Lelouch on most occasions. But for the most part, I feel like he’s unreasonably idiotic. Him being the biggest hypocrite in the whole show doesn’t really add much to the imagination.
The other two main characters are pretty bad. Not terrible, but still mildly inconsistent. C.C. may be the sole reason why Lelouch fights against the will of evil but she’s only really there to push the plot forward. I feel like Kallen has very little purpose to the story besides the mech fight scenes. I mean, her interactions with Lelouch are okay but she’s still a flat character mostly used for fanservice (well, both C.C. and Kallen are mostly the main fanservice girls for the whole show). The side characters are pretty bad too. With the possible exception of Orange Boy, who’s pretty much a decent definition of loyalty, most of the side characters are either mindless lunatics or just simply plot devices. The worst character overall has to be Nina though. At least Suzaku’s obsession with Euphemia can ‘tell something’, but Nina’s obsession makes zero sense and should never exist. As for the main villain, Charles was a big letdown. He’s kinda interesting in terms of motives but he doesn’t really add up as a character. He only exists for Lelouch to seek what he wants.
---
Oh, wait, I shouldn’t forget the most important part of the whole series: the ending. Despite the unintentional hassle, this show has gone through, the ending is really good and keeps it from being bad. It’s not the best ending in anime ever. Hell, I’ve seen better ones (LotGH’s ending and 86(anime)’s ending, just to name a few), but at least it fixes the problems with the story and characters. What makes the ending great is it shows how Lelouch ruined a lot of things after taking his father’s throne. As soon as he ruled Britannia for a few days, he realized that it wasn’t part of his overall goal and thus, bringing people in the world into the even more wrong sides. So instead, what he did was sacrifice his entire life for the greater good and bring everyone to peace. That, to me, is one of the best ways to fix all problems. Instead of power-ups or something like that, Lelouch thought he would never be friendly to the people around him so what he did was erase his life from existence. But again, just because the ending is really good, doesn’t mean the series is good as well.
---
For the miscellaneous, the animation was ahead of its time. Not the best thing ever, but it remains quite consistent. I’m personally not a fan of the character designs. Even with the best clothing in the series like Lelouch’s Zero outfit in R2, they look WAY too tall to match their canon height. They might look like glorified stickmen if anything. The mech designs though are amazing. Rollerblades, ejectable seats, and grappling hooks as the base kit make for very exciting action sequences. The chess scenes are horrible. As someone who plays chess with elders sometimes, I find it insulting that Lelouch can get away with an absurd mindset on chess. I just don’t think it works like that. The music is decent but the salsa theme in fight scenes doesn’t really click well with me. The OP and ED are great though. The voice-acting in Japanese is great but the English voice-acting is on a different level. Johnny Yong Bosch’s Lelouch may not be as deep or epic as FukuJun’s but his role is incredibly dynamic and works extremely well with how Lelouch approaches certain things.
---
Overall, again, it’s not a bad series by any means. It’s okay. It has its moments where it can feel intriguing. But it could have been way better if it wasn’t for idiotic drama shoving. The twists can be interesting but there are way too many of them to the extent that it doesn’t feel any natural. The characters, with the exceptions of Lelouch and possibly Suzaku and Jeremiah, felt really flat. The best thing this show has ever done is the ending. It’s embarrassing to see how this show turned out. As interesting as this is, it doesn’t really do justice to its themes and such. To think it could become unreasonably idiotic only for it to show any sign at the very end, I never expected this to be like that. Oh well, it’s still really fun to watch. Thanks for reading! 
