I’m going to preface this review with this statement: I don’t like Evil Empire stories. Never have, never will; I don't like the shallow conflict and the obnoxious implication that once the Evil Empire goes away, all the problems of the world pretty much just disappear. Now, there are exceptions to this, namely if the story allows the Evil Empire in question to be more than just that, and takes steps to showcase its virtues as well as its vices. And, to be honest, ‘’in my opinion’’, this show isn’t an example of that. I'm going to focus mostly on the story for this series, since as a mecha anime alone, it works perfectly fine, but it's trying to be more than that.
I’ve seen so many people hold this up as a masterwork of gray morality and ambiguous heroes, but after watching it, I just don’t see it. When I think of gray morality in fiction, I think of stories like Legend of the Galactic Heroes where we see both sides, understand their motivations, and aren’t given a definitive answer on who’s right. The issue here, is that it seems to be trying to set up gray morality, when most of the Britannians are basically Nazis. There is a simple fact in story telling: you can't claim gray morality when one side is trying to free an oppressed nation, and the other side commits mass murder without any hesitation. So why are you trying so hard to have it?
In this, Britannia is entirely defined as the “evil empire”; by and large devoid of real virtue, and completely defined by its vices, where soldiers commit mass atrocities without question, and the Britannians abuse locals for no real reason, and there is no doubt or ambiguity as to who’s “wrong” and who’s “right” in this, and at the end of the day, Lelouch’s viewpoint and approach is the one that’s validated. The scene where Lelouch is confronted by Shirley (who lost her father in one battle due to Lelouch’s strategy) is there, sure, but it doesn’t seem to really affect much; he doesn’t change his outlook or his strategy, and when one character actually confronts him about it, he just offers grim justification, and from there, it doesn’t remain especially relevant in the story. There’s also the scene where the Japanese resistance takes Britannian civilians hostages, and the Black Knights save them, but that’s pretty much the only time we’re presented with the Japanese being the antagonists, and the Britannians being the victims.
Perhaps if the show gave some more legitimacy to Suzaku’s viewpoint, it would offer some more depth, but his view is repeatedly proven to be the wrong one, as he makes no progress in make Britannia any better, causing him to come across as naive at best, and downright malicious at worst. Almost no Britannians express real opposition to what's happening, or any real desire to reform, and those few that do are generally denied the chance, as if the writers are scared the audience will lose interest if they give Lelouch's view any less legitimacy. On that note, the series’ tendency to utilize Diabolus ex Machina to keep the conflict going in one direction wears thin as the story goes on.
I could go on about the ending, but even those this series is more than a decade old at this point, I’ll still spare those who haven't seen it yet. Needless to say, though, I have the same problems other people have about it.
In all, while I certainly don’t argue that ‘’Code Geass’’ isn’t a bad series, it doesn’t do much for me personally. If you’re not as hung up on the Evil Empire story as I am, maybe you’ll get more out of it, but for me, it just doesn’t bring that much new to the table.
Good, but not for me
I’m going to preface this review with this statement: I don’t like Evil Empire stories. Never have, never will; I don't like the shallow conflict and the obnoxious implication that once the Evil Empire goes away, all the problems of the world pretty much just disappear. Now, there are exceptions to this, namely if the story allows the Evil Empire in question to be more than just that, and takes steps to showcase its virtues as well as its vices. And, to be honest, ‘’in my opinion’’, this show isn’t an example of that. I'm going to focus mostly on the story for this series, since as a mecha anime alone, it works perfectly fine, but it's trying to be more than that.
I’ve seen so many people hold this up as a masterwork of gray morality and ambiguous heroes, but after watching it, I just don’t see it. When I think of gray morality in fiction, I think of stories like Legend of the Galactic Heroes where we see both sides, understand their motivations, and aren’t given a definitive answer on who’s right. The issue here, is that it seems to be trying to set up gray morality, when most of the Britannians are basically Nazis. There is a simple fact in story telling: you can't claim gray morality when one side is trying to free an oppressed nation, and the other side commits mass murder without any hesitation. So why are you trying so hard to have it?
In this, Britannia is entirely defined as the “evil empire”; by and large devoid of real virtue, and completely defined by its vices, where soldiers commit mass atrocities without question, and the Britannians abuse locals for no real reason, and there is no doubt or ambiguity as to who’s “wrong” and who’s “right” in this, and at the end of the day, Lelouch’s viewpoint and approach is the one that’s validated. The scene where Lelouch is confronted by Shirley (who lost her father in one battle due to Lelouch’s strategy) is there, sure, but it doesn’t seem to really affect much; he doesn’t change his outlook or his strategy, and when one character actually confronts him about it, he just offers grim justification, and from there, it doesn’t remain especially relevant in the story. There’s also the scene where the Japanese resistance takes Britannian civilians hostages, and the Black Knights save them, but that’s pretty much the only time we’re presented with the Japanese being the antagonists, and the Britannians being the victims.
Perhaps if the show gave some more legitimacy to Suzaku’s viewpoint, it would offer some more depth, but his view is repeatedly proven to be the wrong one, as he makes no progress in make Britannia any better, causing him to come across as naive at best, and downright malicious at worst. Almost no Britannians express real opposition to what's happening, or any real desire to reform, and those few that do are generally denied the chance, as if the writers are scared the audience will lose interest if they give Lelouch's view any less legitimacy. On that note, the series’ tendency to utilize Diabolus ex Machina to keep the conflict going in one direction wears thin as the story goes on.
I could go on about the ending, but even those this series is more than a decade old at this point, I’ll still spare those who haven't seen it yet. Needless to say, though, I have the same problems other people have about it.
In all, while I certainly don’t argue that ‘’Code Geass’’ isn’t a bad series, it doesn’t do much for me personally. If you’re not as hung up on the Evil Empire story as I am, maybe you’ll get more out of it, but for me, it just doesn’t bring that much new to the table.