Name: moistcritikal was right. drop everything
Item: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Rating: 97
Author: YTPizzer

Waifra

moistcritikal was right. drop everything · Waifora

There are a lot of comparisons you can draw between this and death note, and I think this might actually win. This is RAW cinema. Contender for my favourite anime now.

Everything marked as spoilers is actually spoilers but otherwise, you’re safe.

Pretty much everything here is firing at all cylinders. Characters are always acting in believable ways, there’s plenty of hidden things for you to unpack by paying attention to characters’ words, and the writing is all around good. Lelouch has charisma, Lelouch has aura, farms it like crazy.

The things happening are always interesting; they didn’t let it go longer than an episode before something very exciting or engaging would happen, and it always felt fresh. All the events felt justified and grounded within the rules of the world they had established. I can’t remember the last time a show kept me truly guessing where they were going to go next, like this one did. Yet, they manage to do that without pulling things out of their (ge)ass, which makes for some of the absolute highlights of this show. On that…

OST was great. They had some really great stuff there, and at those absolute highlights I just mentioned, it really worked. Music does a lot to really elevate the emotions of an important moment, and they just got that on lock here.

What are these absolute highlights? Their reveals.

They really figured out the formula here, they set up all their pieces, and right in the tensest moment, they drop a bombshell that they’ve completely justified, and it results in a massive shift in social dynamics, which is kinda the backbone of writing interesting scenes. This is the payoff; this is the europhic moment. The tension keeps mounting, the pressure building, the music is sparse or outright absent, and right at the point where things are going to burst, the tables flip, and everything is turned on its head. Check this shit out, my god it’s just so good.

Spoiler, click to view

▶ Video This is sort of our first taste of these moments, and it leaves a strong impression. It's like we're there with Lelouch, experiencing the same excitement he is. We've gotten our first taste of what the series will become. ▶ Video This moment not longer after is my favourite one of these reveals, though. The music is so good, and complements the reveal so well.

It's just beautifully storyboarded, you understand exactly where all the characters are leading up to it, and then you see all of them react as the tides change, they just get the full bang for their buck with payoff on their already great twists and turns. And the OST elevates the hell out of these moments. I live for this shit, man.

It’s not all this flashy shit too, there are plenty of moments that offer some genuine emotional depth, as well. I’ll highlight this one moment.

Spoiler, click to view

Lelouch has just caught up with Shirley, late for a concert. As he approaches her, something’s clearly wrong, he assumes it’s his fault for being late and leaving her out in the rain. It’s here we find out…

Spoiler, click to view

This is really great writing. Not only have we had this crazy bombshell dropped on us, we know Shirley clearly places the entire blame on Zero for this, and we see Shirley attaching herself even more to the man she doesn’t know is secretly also responsible for the death of her father.

It’s not even like Lelouch had no choice. This is a direct consequence of the way he chose to approach the battle. They pull an MGS3 on us, where they jumpscare us with the consequences of thinking of killing so casually. The blame is squarely on him.

I really thought that this was going to come to a head later on where Shirley would start to really date Lelouch and the double life would keep getting worse and worse until it eventually broke, but that’s the thing with this anime, they just don’t ever do what you’re expecting. I like where it went instead as well, and it lead to another great moment where we see just how far gone Lelouch had become, as well as his conviction toward his goal.

Spoiler, click to view

I lied, I’m gonna highlight another moment. This one was extremely mean of the writers. Like really, really mean. But also extremely fair, justified, and made everything interesting again. It’s the moment where Lelouch and the enemy had just made peace, the moment where he finally lets his guard down and accepts the good intentions of the enemy, only to accidentally ruin everything entirely by himself, and forces him to throw away what little redemption he had left.

Spoiler, click to view

This one stings so bad. The rollercoaster had been rapidly climbing, then started cruising up in the sky, only to instantly completely derail and land on 40 loop-de-loops in the pits of hell. But they foreshadowed it so well that if you can’t sue Six Flags for murdering your family like that. You already signed the waivers.

The other thing they did really well here was shifting character dynamics back and forth. At the heart of the dynamics here between Suzaku and Lelouch, and there are so many moments where they get a lot out of that.

Spoiler, click to view

I was really hoping they’d have some good moments where they would work together again amidst their secret rivalry, and they really delivered.

I really liked this light-burying-the-death-note-ahh plan here. I wasn’t prepared for it at all.

And then again, they beam us with the dopamine stream when these once-fiends seem to team in this scene. (sorry)

Now if I have to be extremely nit-picky, no, this isn’t perfect. It ends on a major cliffhanger. Death Note definitely had better intense mind battles and slightly higher overall tension. We don’t actually learn how any of the technology works, so a lot of the things happening are just arbitrary to serve the story. The governing body that overtook Japan is truly comically evil. There are a lot of different things that Lelouch could probably do with his power that he isn’t, like order people to indefinitely follow his commands, “I wish for more wishes” type shit. Does any of that matter? No. This is peak. Watch it.