Code Geass

You might want to spoiler that, for the first season watchers.

I actually liked the Instrumentality plot. Like everything that's good in Code Geass, it works because it's cranked up past eleven. If anything could make Lelouch realize that people are as important as Changing the World, it would be seeing his father attempt to abolish individuality. My sole problem with this particular Plot Tumor was that it was not big enough. It should have been the ending. For a brief, shining moment, Lelouch and Suzaku realized that there were more important things in the world than their schemes and emotional traumas.

The Zero Requiem plot ignores everything that Lelouch and Suzaku have learned about the unforeseen, horrific effects of conspiracy. It shouldn't work. Throughout the series, a running theme has been that people are more alike than they think, and do evil things for genuinely decent reasons. Turning Schniezel into a Complete Monster who wants to nuke the world was unneeded.

It's not as if this made the ending any more fun or awesome. It doesn't take a Magnificent Bastard to make himself an object of hatred, just an ordinary bastard. What happened to the idea that everybody was Zero, and nobody had to be hated?

edited Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:51:14 by Wellington

I liked Code Geass. It's not one of my favourites but it was good. It's just that I knew the ending before I watched the show, so all this wasn't really surprising. I guess had I not been spoilered, I would have liked the ending even more.

It certainly had it's flaws, but the overall presentation was great, most important characters were complex and interesting and you know what, I liked the fabulous stuff too.

Yeah, good thing Haven was at the bottom of the page or I'd have been hopping mad.

In somewhat related news- Adult Swim was apparently unable to broadcast episodes of Code Geass for the last few weeks. Presumably because Bandai hadn't given them the episodes yet. Which bummed me at first until I realized that these episodes were only released in Japan six months ago. That's a crazy fast TV broadcast time. Has anything else debuted faster from Japan to America?

See you in the discussion pages.

Sorry about that :o

In other news: I played Soul Calibur IV the other night with some friends, and realized that one of Talim's costumes has a hat that looks almost exactly like Emperor Lelouch's. I laughed, but no one else got it. :(

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

I too enjoyed Geass. There were evident plotting problems, like loads and loads of characters appearing only to die off shortly thereafter, allowing characters to live when they had no damn logical reason for doing so that nuke should have wiped damn near everyone off the face of the world- Nunally, Guilford, hell, even our heroes!, not much explanation of some freaking CRUCIAL plot points ( So mommy dearest was still alive after possessing someone else? AND she's a bitch after all? Why couldn;t we have had a few episodes of some soul-searched on behalf of that poor possessed girl? AND stupid filler episodes.

Yet I couldn't help but laugh heartily as Lelouch pulled off absurdly and brilliantly improibable schemes and melodramatically pranced across the screen. Clever and over-the-top, I nevertheless felt drawn to some of the characters. Lelouch was far more likable, even nearing the end of the series when he'd kicked a few puppies about, simply due to his ultimate commitment to his ideals. his actions at the Geass Directorate clearly marked him as a prick, and in need of some good ol' karmic retribution. But Zero Requiem? Would you be willing to kill yourself and forever villify your name to create a golden future? His overall goals, as well as his relationships with those around him, made much more likeable. Comforting C.C.? Lying to Kallen so that she may live on? The whole friendship speech at Ashford? The final scene with Rolo? Plus he was a HELL of a lot nicer to his sister than Light Yagami ever was.

An enjoyable series. Flawed as hell, but certainly fun. Not a classic, but worth watching.

edited 4th Mar '09 5:23:38 PM by Sneeb

an heroic gesture would do the world good

I loved season one. Season two can best be described as a Charlie Foxtrot. But it's still fun. My biggest complaint isn't that the plot got all convoluted or anything like that- it's that the giant robot fighting got boring.

My Blog thing

Okay, this is just a thought but...

Did anyone else get the vibe that Suzaku was suicidal for most of the second season? That he desperately wanted to die but couldn't?

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

There needs to be a trope called "In The Wrong Hands" or "In The Right Hands", just because of this anime, and yes, it's cousin Deathnote, because the plot starts out as, yes, a tremendous power not meant for mortal man lands squarely "In The Wrong/Right Hands". After all, what is Code Geass about? The power to manipulate people falling into the hands of the one person who is one of the smartest people in the world and has everything perfectly lined up so that all he needs is just this one little drop of power to start doings things, and once that power is in his hands. Deathnote? Similar setup: Light is set up so that, once the Deathnote is in his hands, he can do exactly what he does. If Lelouch was an ordinary commoner, or Light was an idiot, what would you get? A much shorter, much less entertaining anime.

I noticed something like that. But I could only think of the two examples; probably, there are others, but none occur to me.

I made a thread discussing the concept, anywho.

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

Arilou: I actually got that vibe throughout the first season too—he did have an air of Death Seeker about him the whole time (probably the first clue was how he agreed to pilot an experimental prototype without an eject mechanism), and I believe Mao actually explicitly called him out as one.

edited 6th May '09 7:23:12 AM by Haven

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

Yeah, he felt guilty about offing his old man, and I think a flashback showed a young Lelouch, Nunally, and Suzaku coming across a slaughtered village during the war, which seemed to really mess with Suzaku. After that, he desperately wanted to die saving other people, and even calls out Lelouch on casting the "Live" Geass, which went against his death-wish.

“This happy breed of men, this little world, this precious stone set in a silver’d sea.."

Watching the English dub of R2 episode 18 on Adult Swim. It's interesting how it affects my experience—I think Lelouch's Japanese voice is better, but being a native English speaker I pick up a few things in inflection & such that I missed the first time around.

Most characters have pretty good voice acting, although neither Lelouch nor the Emperor is half as good as their Japanese counterparts IMO. I kind of want to see Tamaki voiced by Dan Castenella and given all of Homer's mannerisms (though having seen a few episodes of season 20, that's kind of unfair to Homer). But the guy who's doing him is a great fit, though.

edited 16th May '09 1:54:28 AM by Haven

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

Adult Swim is being really weird with their schedule. After having missed several episodes because of dub speed failures now they're doing it double time, as near as I can tell, to make it synch up with their originally planned schedule better so they can put a new show in the Code Geass slot sooner.

In retrospect, it probably would have made more sense for them to rerun R1 first so they would have had plenty of time to get the R2 episodes. A second run of R1 would also have allowed them to try to get more viewers. I actually missed several of the early episodes simply because I didn't know much about the series.

Of course, this strategy would require Adult Swim to acknowledge that they can get get people to watch anime, which just isn't how they operate.

In a plot note, is Nunnally really dead?. Although since I'm going to see two new episodes in the next couple of days, it probably doesn't matter.

See you in the discussion pages.

Generally, I'll read spoilers for a show until I decide I actually want to watch it. So, I remember from one of the the pages here that she actually manages to survive the whole series.

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?

I actually like Lelouch and the Emperor's English voices over their Japanese ones. They just fit better to me.

edited 16th May '09 11:58:37 AM by Galeros

I haven't heard Lelouch's english voice, but I have a hard time thinking of ANYTHING that would work better for him than his japanese one.

The Emperor just sounds completely out of place though in the Japanese version. Maybe because I associate Norio Wakamoto with his role as narrator in Hayate No Gotoku

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Some Guy: Nunnally's not dead, though they don't reveal that she survived until episode 22 I think. I don't remember if they ever explain it; I read somewhere a decoy shuttle was involved, but I think that might have been Fan Wank.

Galeros: It lacks the...bombasticness of his Japanese voice, I guess. And the emperor is not nearly as badass, he just sounds like someone trying very hard to sound royal and aristocratic, and it doesn't work for me.

(I do love C.C. and Kallen's english voices, though. Incidentally, I think I ship Gino and Kallen. Lelouch and C.C. is a weird ship because she's Really 700 Years Old and knew his parents and all, but it has really sweet moments.)

edited 16th May '09 1:09:19 PM by Haven

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

Haven: His Japanese voice sounds too forced to me. His English voice acting sounds more natural. I can not say exactly why I like the Emperor's English voice better, I just do.

The only ship involving Lelouch I can stand is Lelouch/CC, and possibly him and Milly, because they are the only ones who don't take his crap and he can't play like a fiddle.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

I ship the Emperor/Table-Kun myself.

Arilou: I do agree that C.C. and Milly are the only ones he can not push around by being manipulative.

edited 16th May '09 2:19:09 PM by Galeros

Galeros: I think one thing I liked about his Japanese voice acting is there's a much greater difference between Lelouch's normal voice and his Zero voice, enough of one that it's actually plausible that Kallen wouldn't know it was him.

Also, it sounds a lot more badass (as does the emperor's).

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

I just found out today that all the Pizza Hut stuff was cut from the English broadcast.

Well, that sure explains a lot. I was wondering why everybody was always mocking the show for so much Pizza Hut when I never saw it in the show. Of course, now I'm a little scared to try and watch the subs, since having never seen egregious Pizza Hut, its appearance now would probably jar me considerably.

See you in the discussion pages.

Eh, the product placement basically amounted to C.C. ordering and then eating Pizza a couple times. And some internet service that is big in Japan showing up when people used a normal computer.

Yeah, it's not that egregious

 ^*—basically any time they show someone eating pizza, there's a Pizza Hut logo. So if you weren't already distracted by all the pizza, I don't think the logo would make a difference.

Having just watched episodes 19 and 20, I think I liked the scene between C.C. and Anya/Marianne in English better, because there's more of a difference when it goes between Anya and the psychic version of Marianne. (Also, it's funny because I had a Buffy marathon last night :D )

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

Hehe... just saw 21+22. That's how to pull off a trainwreck.

Do you highlight everything looking for secret messages?