[Xfer] Code Geass [Season 1 + 2]

Original Post Date: 4/22/2009 on Anti Strife

Head’s Up

In the world of motion pictures, there are two types of anime: anime and Anime – Code Geass is most certainly the latter. I’m about to dive deep into Code Geass R1/R2, but before I do I just want to express my absolute admiration for Code Geass. It explores the swirling staircases of love, the slithery depths of hate, the distant world of the Gods, the length of human compassion, the grace of forgiveness, the sadness within the hearts of many, the pride of a country, the deceitfulness of words, the ideas of a symbol, the resolution of human greed, the cost of war, the cost of peace, the tragedy of loneliness, and ultimately – the question of truth and righteousness. I’m head over heels in love with Code Geass. Honestly, I have never experienced such a romantic anime – not romantic as in “romantic love” – that shouldered such large questions about existence itself. Code Geass was relatable on so many levels that it pained me to side with one person over the other. The ending of the anime was so necessary and complete, yet I found myself saddened by what I knew had to be done. Haha, maybe I’ve developed too much of an attachment to the characters in the series, but I really do love exploring the ideas behind the series.

Code Geass R1 + R2

Initial Impressions Prior

A while back I asked my friends for a list of animes that they would recommend watching, and Code Geass was at the very top of that list with deeply etched, bold underlines and exclamation marks. Needless to say, I had very high expectations for Code Geass, especially after watching Chrono Crusade and Full Metal Panic! To be honest, I was putting so much emphasis on Code Geass after the last two animes I watched because I was so disappointed. I had high hopes for Chrono Crusade and FMP! but was terribly disappointed in either the execution or the portrayal of some of the themes. In essence, I was betting all my chips on Code Geass to raise me up out of this anime slump and propel my imagination to new heights. And to my surprise, I was not disappointed in the least.

Enjoyment

After watching the first episode of Code Geass, I was completely hooked. But that shouldn’t be a surprise, as the unanimous reception of the anime has almost certainly been positive. Let’s just put it this way,

“When the first episode was shown during a special test screening, which was attended by Ōkawa, other members of the series’ staff, as well as several journalists and other media-related personnel in response to the hype surrounding the series’ upcoming release, the audience fell into immediate silence after it ended, followed by ‘tremendous applause.'”

And it’s no wonder, the series is so hypnotizing and deep that I nearly cried with joy at the end of the series. There wasn’t one second of the anime that I found unpleasurable – the smooth and detailed visual effects and animation were extremely attractive and fluid, which was only furthered by the switch to 720p in the second season.

Final Impressions

After I had watched all the way through the first and second season of Code Geass, my impressions of it had changed from,

“This had better be good”

to

“Oh My God! This is AMAZING!”

And the only word I kept screaming as I gorged into the series was,

“WHAT??!”

Seriously, the series gets so incredibly insane and powerful, that you willingly suspend all belief, rise into the clouds of vertigo, and absorb the chaos that is unleashed in your mind by the twists this anime makes.

Type | Genre

I don’t even know if this anime falls neatly into any genre. Honestly, this anime is popular because it doesn’t fall into just one category. The producers even changed the overall outlook of the anime when it was rescheduled from the prime-time Saturday time-slot to the late-night Thursday time-slot. But if I were to quickly tag-word this anime, I would probably attach the categories:

1. Action/Adventure
2. Mecha
3. Drama
4. Romance
5. Comedy

In that order of relative predominance in the series.

Plot

Ah, the plot of Code Geass is remarkable. And I don’t just mean that the events that occur, I’m talking about the techniques used to reveal the plot employed by the animators to create tension and excitement. For example, the animators made great use of flashbacks during battle sequences or high-pressure confrontations between the main character, Zero or Lelouch, and someone of consequence. Now, on paper it might seem outlandish and campy to give the main character a predetermined exit, but it actually pans out to make Lelouch look incredibly intelligent – which he is. Some – including myself – actually comment on the resemblance between Lelouch and Light-kun in Death Note – particularly the means by which both character proceed to do “good” for the world and their incredible ability to predict and analyze their situation as well as their enemies. As with most anime there is very little foreshadowing, but in the opening and ending sequences of the show, you can see that the main character and his childhood friend, Suzaku Kururugi, end up working together. Other than that, there’s definitely some mirroring that occurs throughout the entire series. It’s really interesting to see how the roles of so many characters reverse and a thought you held about certain people is completely reversed when shown in a new light. As the anime barrel-rolls, you begin to twist and turn your view on the situations and characters. It would be as if those you once thought as powerful become mere specs of dust as the weak suddenly rise up to become your worst nightmare. It’s quite refreshing.

Part of the magic though is the suspense created by the fact that Suzaku and Lelouch don’t realize that they are fighting each other in this war. It’s furthered by the fact that Kallen Stadtfeld is working under Lelouch and doesn’t even realize it and Suzaku doesn’t know that she’s a rebel herself. So, most of the tension is actually wrapped up in everyone’s struggle to maintain their facade and live their alternate life at the same time. What really makes this so delightful is that the whole message behind this is that, there is no possible way that friendship can bloom if there is no communication. The whole theme of “putting on mask to please the world” and “not telling your friends the truth out of fear” is what really propels this to the audience’s forehead. Can you imagine if you were a high school student by day and a rebel operative by night? And not only that, but also be working with fellow classmates and not even realize it? That’s just incredible! To see everyone struggling to just maintain their composure while juggling a billion tasks mostly mirrors…us. Honestly, everyone in society is always so busy with their work, their girlfriends, their boyfriends, their friends, etc that they begin to smudge the boundaries between their personalities. Everyone acts differently according to their surroundings – for instance, you’re always on your best behavior when you’re taking a girl out on a date, given that you are actually interested. But if you’re around your friends, all bets are off – if you can act like a jackass and get away with it, then you will. And even though life doesn’t really throw you into situations where you must study for your final exam for next Thursday and blow up a munitions storage facility the night before, it does tend to put you in many socially conflicting situations. For instance, what if you run into a close friend while you’re on a date with your girlfriend? I know friends who act totally different around their girlfriends and it’s so interesting to see how they handle the differential between their behavior as a friend and a boyfriend. But, it is these situations that allow us to relate to the characters in Code Geass. Albeit, the situations are highly exaggerated, but nonetheless it really does call to the double, triple personalities we must live out in front of others – and what’s truly tragic is that no one ever gets a chance to see what’s behind our mask, which is shown in the series as well.

Despite the screaming you will be doing at the beginning, you will almost certainly drop your jaw when you see the end – followed by tears. The ending is an absolute success. The anime is full of surprise twists, yet somehow the ending is remarkably satisfying and justified. Code Geass effectively culminates the conflicting ideas, thoughts, and emotions of everyone and embodies them into the characters. There is a pervasive sense of sadness, happiness, joy, hope, and distraught that runs through your veins during the last 10 minutes of the show. As you see Lelouch riding down the street as the emperor of the world, he is killed by his friend Suzaku in disguise as Zero in what was previously agreed upon by the two. After all of the hatred, blood, and tears that are spilled upon their world, all of those who are smart enough begin to grasp the price that Lelouch paid in order to give them a better world – a world that he wanted for his little sister. The saddest part is when you see his sister cry for him even though he chained her up in order to make the world hate him. But his sister is dupe – she immediately realizes that Lelouch put on this show to make her world kind, warm, and welcoming – something he could never have. And he gave his life for her world. Realizing this, she immediately breaks out into tears and says,

“It isn’t fair! I would’ve been happy…with you”

In the previous episode she calls her brother the devil. A murderer. But then realizes that he is actually the same angel who loved her and cared for her crippled body for the past 5-10 years. That same soft-hearted brother who just wanted his little sister to be happy. But the only way he could give her a world that she deserved to live in, was if he took on the world’s hate and killed it with his very life – something that mimics Christ becoming sin on the cross and dying for all of mankind. Such sacrifice for someone so dear is noble, which is why the ending is surge of every emotion you could ever have.

Characters

Oh God, the characters…the characters in Code Geass are absolutely gorgeous. Yes they’re attractive physically, but I meant that they’re so deep and filled that it really draws the audience into them – they’re not the flat stereotypes that you can pick off the shelf in any anime you watch. Each of the characters that spend a decent amount of screen time is so rich with history, character, and emotion that it’s almost too easy to become attached to the characters. It’s almost impossible not to become connected with the characters because they’re so tragically romantic that it just warms your heart to see them strive so hard to fulfill their dreams – whatever they might be.

I’ll just quickly go over the four main characters of the series that I felt deserve mentioning. That’s not to say that I didn’t find myself liking other characters in the series, but these four are just absolutely adorable.

1. Lelouch Lamperouge | Zero: Lelouch is the result of the contradiction we call reality. He embodies the collision of good and evil in the world by doing good through evil means – or rather, he’s where the rubber meets the road. He’s a brilliant student capable of advanced prediction, path finding, and clockwork planning. Seriously, he’s basically like Light-kun in the sense that he carries values of good and evil, right and wrong, but realizes that in order to do good, one must stain their hands with evil. I must say though, if I were to choose who I’d side with in a game of chess, they’re both absolutely great strategists, but Light-kun tends to analyze the psychology of most people, while Lelouch tends to predict the movements of people. In short, Lelouch is about the economy (the choices people make), Light-kun is about the sociology (why people make the choices they do).
2. Kallen Stadtfeld: Kallen comes in right at the beginning and doesn’t make a particularly large impact until she begins to interact with Lelouch, who is in disguise as Zero. She’s unbelievably loyal, loving, and conflicted. She has emotions of care, love, and attachment stapled on her mother and Lelouch, but always ends up with conflicting emotions that are usually attached to a past event. To be honest, she’s my favorite character in the entire series because she is like everyone else – living a double or triple personality that fronts her soft and lonely nature beneath. Not to mention that she is also participating in the resistance of a world-wide government entity, so disguises are absolutely necessary for that as well.
3. C.C.: C.C. is Lelouch’s benefactor and accomplice. She’s usually shown as a stoic and cold person, but when she uses a mental disruption technique she unintentionally reveals who she is beneath her hardened skin. At heart, she’s a lonely girl who just wants to be loved. Her Geass ability was to make others love her and usually Geass abilities are manifested as “over-compensations” of weaknesses that are found in the user. Thusly, C.C.’s greatest weakness was that she never knew what it felt like to be loved. This aspect of her just makes her character all that more loveable – the audience can’t help but fall for a girl who’s heart is tender from the world trampling all over it. One scene made me cry was the one where C.C. losses her memory, but not her Geass or her immortality, and she reverts to her old-self – a slave girl who knows only simple things in life and believes herself to be worthless. How can you not love her?
4. Suzaku Kururugi: To tell you the truth, Suzaku is my least favorite character. And he was meant to be, actually. If you look at the way the animators portray him, he’s seen as idealistic and unrealistic. He believes that the means by which something is achieved must meet the ends that are achieved. In essence, he wants to do the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. The problem is, I believe his sense of right and wrong are completely off base. How can you possibly believe you can change an evil empire, by using the empire’s own circulatory system to do it? Unlike a body, you cannot bring down an empire from the inside, which he learns during the last 5 episodes of Code Geass R2, after he pairs up with Lelouch to reshape the entire world. Even then, his time on screen as a complete douche overshadow his contribution to shaping the new world – yet I do have respect for Suzaku. The animators portrayed him to be that kid that everyone hates in school – the one that would tell on you if you bulled someone else. The one who would always say, “don’t do that” or “I’m telling!” But to be fair, he’s the type of person who’s reliable, honest, and true to the values held by most – yet the animators took into account that he isn’t invincible. He eventually succumbs to the methods of Zero by trying to force Kallen to take a drug called Refrain in order to interrogate her.

Themes

If I were to say that there were only one or two prevalent themes displayed in Code Geass, I’d be lying. The reason why Code Geass was such a major success was because it hit upon several different topics. I mean, the anime was this huge shotgun effect of themes and ideas that raptured anime fans left and right. Honestly, this anime is one of the most well rounded series you’ll ever get to experience. From the dizzying heights of the Godly realms to the stone-cold depths of poverty, this anime touches on all of the themes and genres of every great anime series that has come into being. Even super-powers and super-weapons are given their time in the limelight, but what really brings it home in the end is the characters and how their actions exemplify themes that are expressed throughout the series. I can’t even begin to name all the themes this series brings together, but I must say that the ones that stood out the most were the themes of faith, trust, self sacrifice, and good vs. evil – the strongest being the last. What exactly constitutes as evil and if something is evil, is it possible to get rid of it using good deeds? Or is it impossible to fight evil without getting your hands dirty? All of the questions that this anime explores are deep, riveting, and discussion-worthy. If the characters themselves lacked in anyway, the themes would more than make up for the appetite of the audience.

Final thoughts

The best part about this anime is that the scope of the anime goes from focusing on a single student’s game of chess to his game of world domination. The width, height, and depth of the scope in this series exponentially widens to engulf worlds that are beyond Earth, or even this material plane! What’s even more interesting is the world of the secondary characters that you don’t get to see as often. To be honest, I wanted to know more – a lot more – about Kallen. I really wanted to see her on screen, showing off her character. She always appears to be quite static, but she’s actually a very dynamic character – at least by the end of the series. She’s intense and deep. She needs to be on screen more often! Nothing is more intriguing than the thoughts of a conflicted high school girl who’s unwavering loyalty is shattered by the thought of betrayal only to have all of her thoughts and expectations shattered by what was really at the end of the race: a world she had hoped for. Honestly, to see Kallen follow Lelouch without knowing it, then falling in love with him, followed by betraying him because she misunderstood his motives, to finally realizing that everything Lelouch did was planned and meant to ensure that this world would be kind enough for his sister and her. So that she might come to terms with life itself. And that, my friends, is what makes this anime so satisfying. The themes, the action, the dialogue, and the plot are nothing without the cast of characters that really paint this series as a complete and utter MASTERPIECE!

UP NEXT

Next, we march right into the comedy of Seto no Hanayome and then into the swordmasters of Shakugan no Shana! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! FULL STEAM AHEAD!

P.S. – TSR review coming up within the next few days. Resuming the intensity study of the Second Season of FMP! once I get my laptop fixed (which should be tonight).