Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2

Put on your seatbelts and brace yourself, for you will be taken on a rabidly-paced and concluding journey, slaloming through plot twists and character development at a tempo that will leave you longing for a new episode at the end of each one. Save a lot of time, for this is obnoxiously addictive. This is... Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch... R2! Did it jump the shark? Was it flawlessly executed? Could it have been improved on? Was it outright horrible? That I will not answer; such a question is for you to answer yourself. To me, it was great. It was awesome. While reluctant at first,I always ended up thinking that each change the series brought about, every little plot twist, every character development; it made the series even greater than it was. Every step that it took made it better; that is the undeniable truth for me. However, its pacing made it take too many steps in too short an amount of time, and it nearly stumbled at times. Details could be overlooked, minor events skipped, that wasn't too much of a problem. But it spent too little time on some of the major events, and in the end I'm not satisfied at all by that. The previous season took care of the introduction of most of the main cast, which left an opportunity to extensively develop the cast during the second season. This was an opportunity that the creators took, used and drained to its full potential. With its 25 episodes, it does of course not have time to develop the entirety of Code Geass' cast, which is extremely large for its length - close to 80 named primary, secondary and tertiary characters. However, they developed the main cast extensively, did a great job with the supporting characters, and the new ones that were introduced were really cool too. Some may classify Lelouch's development as jumping the shark, but personally I felt that they did a great job, and that he is a great character; one whom I could believe in when it came to his development and actions, all the way to - and especially during - the very end. Another aspect that Code Geass brings into perspective is love. There's a lot of loving going on between various characters, and this allowed for both drama and comedy to be played out, and it was done so in a very good fashion too. Several characters’ love stories revolve around Lelouch, most notably those of Shirley and Kallen; both who obviously like Lelouch quite a lot. This is given both comedic and dramatic effects, and eventually plays an important part in the plot. The animation superseded the previous season's, improving on nearly all points. By now you are probably used to the CLAMP-styled character designs, and who knows, you might've even grown to like them, in spite of their lankiness. Backgrounds and sceneries are done with good detail, and were enjoyable to behold, and the same can be said about the Knightmare battles. Animated in a perfect juxtapose of fluidity and chaos, mixed with great special- and ligthing effects, the battles were enjoyable aesthetically in addition to everything else they provided the viewer with. The soundtrack was perfect for the series, this season as well. Keeping some old ones, introducing new ones, the soundtrack was refreshed, yet it kept the same tone it had during the previous season. The background music, while nothing especially noteworthy, provided an amplifying effect to the atmosphere; be it battle, thought, love, comedy or something else. The opening and ending themes were good this season too, with the second opening theme standing out as the best one. The final episode ended nicely with an insert song that made the scenes that unfolded before my eyes make me cry - I'm a sensitive person. They did one mistake however, and that was by not ending it after that insert song; of all things they had to fire in the Ali Project ending, which completely ruined the poignancy that had been built up. Code Geass R2 provides an highly entertaining sequel that has fallen into the hit-or-miss pit-trap, with hating on one side and loving on the other. How you will react to it, only the gods know that, so all that I can say is: watch it to the very end and see for yourself. The constant plot twists may sway your opinion up and down multifarious times. It did with me, but in the end, everything fell to place and all went well.

*A great sequel to Code Geass, but not quite a masterpiece.* "Jaw dropping plot twists. Wonderful animation and soundtracks. Skillfully woven storyline with the first season. Cleverly executed ending." Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 is the long awaited sequel to the masterpiece Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch. Although it was generally perceived as a piece of trainwreck, especially during the latter half of the show, there is absolutely no doubt that it has made its mark in the anime industry. To be honest, I was pretty depressed after reading some of the interviews with director Taniguchi. He acknowledge the fact that Code Geass R2is a series of "not-as-planned" for him and his production crew due to demands from higher up contrasting with the original plot. However, from a business perspective, Taniguchi pointed out that R2 is very successful (with the Blu Ray/DVD sales and other miscellaneous merchandises). In brief, Code Geass R2 turned out to be FAR from what the director envisioned it to be. For instance, Rolo was a new character added not because Taniguchi wanted to, but rather it was due to pressure from the Sunrise executives to "ease new viewers". Also, Suzaku’s relation to the Geass which was suppose to be a lot deeper, Kallen’s father (who was mentioned in the first season), and Cecile’s relationship with Suzaku (there was evidently some sort of affection between them in season one).There are many many other things that can be added to the list, but you get the drift. Despite all these train wrecks, R2 is still considered extremely successful (just like Gundam SEED Destiny) in the world of business. The main reason is simply that the companies can milk money out of our pockets due to the FABULOUS models, DVD (and re-mastered Blu Ray DVD), and other accessories. However with all that being said, who is to say that we will actually like the "original" Code Geass R2 more? Story: Personally, I feel the story started out quite nicely following the events at the end of the first season. However, as the story progresses I get the feeling things are proceeding too rapidly (maybe due to time constrain?). This in turn leads to confusion for many viewers, especially those of us who rely on fansubs. Some viewers even claim that the anime is going overboard with the immense plot twists each episode. However, despite all these negative comments by some people, most fans still enjoy the "epic-ness" of R2 with its jaw-dropping episodes. Another way of saying it is the plot twists help drives the show! Animation: I assume most viewers of R2 have seen the first season and must have, to a certain degree, be familiar with the character designs by now (and hopefully have come to accept them as well, else it can be very painful to watch). Other aspects of the animation are also very amazing even when compared to the prequel. Great CG effects tie in with detailed character design, detailed environments, plus smooth fluid animation in HD all makes R2 an outstanding piece of art. *edit* Okay...ignore the animation for 20 episode, that episode deserves like 6/10... Sound: Blame ALI PROJECT for not getting a 10/10. Honestly, if they take them out, I would gladly give them perfect rating. The other OP and ED are all great and does not hurt your ears listening to them. Soundtrack-wise, they are all well done as with the first season. Sadly most of the amazing insert songs are near the end of the series though. Overall, if you liked the sound track from first season, you should not be disappointed with this. Character: Thanks to season one there weren't too many new characters that need to be introduced in great detail. Hence we get to see more character developments that was a bit lacking from the first season. It is always nice to see more "colour" added to each distinctive unique characters. Final Impression: Just because the story was completely re-rewritten for R2 doesn't mean it is horrible. In fact, I love the plot twists very much (though sometimes it does give me some overboard feel...like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann). Now let us all "play this game of democracy, shall we?"

Code Geass R2 is, in essence, the most resounding travesty in the history of Japanese animation, and proof that anime fans will watch anything if it panders to them enough. It is to anime what Heroes is to US television, except that when Heroes became terrible midway through the viewers abandoned the series. This monstrosity only got more popular in the same situation. It's truly baffling. To start, the story picks up right from R1(and by "pick up", I mean reset the whole plot), but manages to go absolutely nowhere for at least 10 episodes. The titular "rebellion" is cast aside into the domain of minorsub plots, like Ougi's relationship with that brown woman in the first season. Instead we get the genius Lelouch running around in meaningless fanservice episodes and battling characters with sorcerer's eyes. Remember how in season 1, the story revolved around interesting characters in a semi-realistic war in an alternate timeline of Earth? Ha. That much time into this season and the most important and game-changing thing you'll see is a C.C. upskirt. Then halfway through it meanders around some outlandish garbage in a plot entirely about two characters that for all intents and purposes died in the first season. Hell, the middle section of the show is so tacked on and meaningless I honestly can't comprehend why it was ever there to begin with. Finally, for the last half of the series the story turns at a 90 degree angle by the end of each and every episode. Lots of completely pointless and boring battles happen near the end, but it doesn't matter since the circumstances don't make much sense, no sane viewer has any emotion invested in the characters fighting, and the battle tactics that were once the high point of the series are now something you'd find Zapp Brannigan doing. This amazing torrent of plot holes, bad pacing and meaningless events reaches its climax in a contrived copout that probably wouldn't have even been that bad if the rest of the story were consistent. Or tolerable. Or comprehensible. Another horrific aspect of the series is its characters. Actually, this is probably the worst part of the whole thing. The entire cast of CGR2, save for roughly four characters, is so badly written that the people on the screen can't even stick to the single sentence that defines their whole persona. Or their character is moronic. Or their main purpose is to pander to a certain sect of otaku. Or they're just boring. Or they serve no established purpose in the series at all. If someone can comment on my profile and explain why Gino, Xing Ke and Jeremiah were in this show(Crispin Freeman shouting LOYALTY is not a valid excuse for Jeremiah. Even Crispin himself doesn't know why that guy exists or is popular), that would be dandy. Oh yeah, and no one dies in this show except for the obvious. Everyone else, be they exploded or hurled off a cliff, inexplicably lives for no reason other than to annoy the viewer. But let's discuss the good characters in this show: Lelouch, Suzaku, Rolo. Yes, that's correct. Out of CGR2's enormous cast of about 40 recurring characters, only three are anywhere near being decent. You'd think C.C. would be on this brief listing, but she doesn't exist for half of the series and as soon as she shows up her character is completely rewritten after her only story-relevant sequence. Code Geass R2 is Lelouch's story, first and foremost. He is the only consistent part that holds all of this garbage together. That might've been intentional, but I'm not entirely buying it. Even so, Lelouch's character is boring, his motivations change constantly and all of his "intelligence" from the first season has been relegated into performing "miracles"(cheap/contrived/ridiculous plot twists) and sending in waves of dudes to clog the enemies' cannons. His master plan and endgame strategy seemed genius enough to thousands of idiots across the internet to give him incredible praise, but it really was just as much of a joke as the rest of his iceberg summoning and floor collapsing antics. Think Watchmen, if it were written by a 12 year old. Next we have Suzaku. The Ryuho to Lelouch's Kazuma. He doesn't exist in this story until a little ways in, and doesn't do much until halfway through. He spends a lot of his time angry over what happened at the end of last season and struggling over his tool-ish idealism. In fact, all this guy does is angst about Lelouch for a majority of the time he's around. This one time he was told to protect someone, but she wandered off and died. So Suzy blamed Lelouch, because that's how he rolls. He's basically Kira Yamato with a bipolar personality and even more immortality. Suzaku's actually a rather unlikable character and his personality swings around like a pendulum, but that's about as good as it gets in this series. Except for Rolo. Rolo is the best thing to come out of this trainwreck. His character, despite being introduced solely as yaoi fanservice in Suzaku's absence, is the most consistent and well written in the series by a good distance. He develops, never contradicts his purpose, and was a key point in one of the most memorable and non-idiotic scenes. Ultimately Rolo was totally unimportant, almost as if the writers set him on a shelf next to the series so he didn't get covered in the sticky, smelly substance it was leaking all over the place. So sad. The final aspect of this tripe I'm going to talk about in detail is the focus. Code Geass has none. What is Code Geass about, in the end? What is its genre? Who is it marketed to? Respectively, those answers are: Nothing, All of them, and Everyone. The only unifying thing in Code Geass is Lelouch's character, but he isn't a good character. He's not as interesting as Light Yagami in terms of personality or his goals and he's not as well written as someone like Kenzou Tenma. So really, all you have is an entire story centered around this barely-above-shounen-writing guy with no prominent driving themes, commentary or anything like that. Code Geass also attempts, and apparently succeeded, in appealing to every kind of anime fan. The series was fairly consistent and balanced during its first season, but the follow-up did nothing but shine spotlights all over its cliches and pandering features. The character designs become more fanservicey and CLAMP-y, drawing in boys and girls. The robots suddenly evolve from bipedal tanks to laser-spamming, transforming, energy shield-bearing monstrosities. The genre fluctuates between melodrama, politics, comedy, fantasy, romance, science fiction, psychological thriller, school stories and what have you depending on the episode. It just doesn't work. Taniguchi and the writers had no interest in being original or telling a cohesive story here and instead set their eyes on making tons of cash for Sunrise. But yeah, the animation on the DVD versions are pretty good and the soundtrack is by one of the better guys in the business. At face value, Code Geass isn't a bad series. It's mindlessly entertaining, but the issue here is that so, so many think it's anything more than that, which does a disservice to people who watch good, original and well crafted Japanese animation and to the industry as a whole.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Review: Firstly I would like to say that this review is for the entire series as a whole, NOT just for season 2. Now then.... I am not a fan of mecha. There, I said it. This was the main reason why I ignored all of the suggestions and decided to put off this show for so long. However, this decision of mine to put off this show was just plain stupid and I now realize why everyone likes this show. Code Geass has become one of my favorite shows of all time and has joined Clannad and Steins;Gate on thelist of shows that I believe are truly on a different level from the rest. Story 9/10: Politics. The primary focus of the plot is politics. This is true with most shows in the mecha genre. However, Code Geass does not limit itself to just this focus. Code Geass dives into the morals of humans and the true nature of people. This is primarily seen with the main character Lelouch who is granted the ability to control other people that he makes eye contact with. With this power (and Lelouch's extremely high intelligence), Lelouch forms a rebel group known as the Black Knights to fight against the tyranny of Britannia. To add on to this, there are school life, and other non-war related plotlines that are well placed throughout the show to give you a break from the action. Now, before I watched this show I had already read about this, I thought I knew what the story was going to be like. I was wrong. The story isn't your typical rag tag group of kids trying to fight against an empire story. The story is about Lelouch. It's about Lelouch and his successes, struggles, mistakes, and changes. Although he basically IS the storyline, I will refrain from diving in further and go into more detail in the character section later. The story is one that is packed with plot twists and unexpected events (some admittedly can feel forced or leave plotholes, especially towards the end of season 2). This is more so in the first season, where the second season changes it up a bit and focuses more on the emotional aspect than the suspenseful one. Although the dynamic of the show changes between seasons, this change was necessary and really makes this show multidimensional. The writers tend to use the "because I said so" and "oh it all happened in the past and we just never told you guys" plot devices to explain a lot of events but for me this wasn't a big deal. However, I know that others absolutely hate this kind of writing so it does have to go into account in my review, dropping the story from a 10 to a 9. For all you fans of closure, the first season provides none, but the second season provides one of the greatest endings I have seen in a long time that is a lot more complex than one might first assume. The story was nothing short of brilliant, and the show's ending only justifies this, however the plot holes and poor explaining that went with some events prevent this story from being a perfect 10. Art 8/10: Another reason why I hesitated in watching this show was the art. I just didn't like the way all the characters looked. After watching it however, I have changed my mind. The art direction was very good, providing a wide array of characters, settings, and action. At times the action could suffer from the animation, but this was uncommon and for the most part the art was very good. Sound 8/10: Lelouch's voice actor was nothing short of brilliant. Without him, I'm not sure if Lelouch would have been as interesting of a character as he was. The rest of the voice acting was solid for the most part as well. The music for the most part did nothing to stand out in any particular way. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't anything special. It served its purpose effectively and that's all that matters. The exceptions were the vocal tracks in this anime such as "Stories" "Continued Story" and "Innocent Days" as well as "Madder Sky" due to it being used during a crucial part of the last episode. Overall the sound was very good due to the voice acting however the soundtrack was hit or miss, at times it was average or not good, while a few other tracks were actually fantastic. The inconsistency prevented the sound from getting a 9 but it was great none the less. Character 9/10: Everybody seems to want to compare Lelouch to Light from Death Note. I can see where they're coming from (extremely smart, granted amazing power, seemingly very selfish at times). However, Lelouch has a trait that Light seems to completely lack, Lelouch actually has morals. Sometimes it is hard to see, but Lelouch fully intends to make the world a better place. He makes countless mistakes that harm others throughout his journey, and when these kind of things happen, you can clearly see Lelouch being effected by these mistakes. He may put on a face as if it is all fine, but by paying attention to his initial reactions, and the final decisions that he makes towards the end, you can tell that he fully accepts his mistakes as sins that will most likely never be forgiven. But moving on from Lelouch there are plenty of other characters. Most notably there is Suzaku. Suzaku was a character that I had strong opinions towards. What was weird however was that the writers somehow made me like him one minute, hate his ass the next, sympathize with him another, and then love him again. This of course was intentional and very well done. Suzaku is similar to Lelouch in that he has good intentions but goes about the wrong way of trying to achieve them. It's hard talking about these two without any spoilers, but realize that they are without a doubt the two most important characters, and following them both was definitely a treat. Other important characters were C.C. (aka little miss plot hole maker) and Kallen (aka fanservice). Beyond these four characters the others weren't too developed due to the sheer fact that there were so many of them. However, none of the characters were really "bad" besides maybe Nina. Ok yeah, Nina was awful. The fact that Lelouch was so brilliant and that, for the most part, his supporting cast was relatively strong, I really can't give the character section anything less than a 9. Enjoyment 10/10: This may be because practically every episode ended in a cliffhanger, but I could not stop watching this show. From the first episode to the last I could not stop myself from watching. I wanted to know what happened next. I wanted to know the consequences of Lelouch's actions, and how he would respond. I wanted to see in what unique way he would tactically take down all of his opponents the next time. I wanted to see how Lelouch and Suzaku's friendship would pan out. The show provides you with countless small and large desires that can get fulfilled within minutes, or not be answered until the last episode. This recipe of teasing and rewarding made this show addicting as hell and was beautifully crafted. The intriguing plot, interesting politics, and fantastic characters were melded beautifully by the writers to create a show perfectly executed to entertain the viewer. The two seasons differ in their approach, but the basic tease and deliver equation was still in place throughout it all. The first season contained a stable goal for the characters filled with shocking surprises and twists. The second season was far more inconsistent with its objective, but really delivers massive emotional punches, and eventually steers itself up for the grande finale. Code Geass was filled with practically everything you could ask for in an entertaining anime, and all these tools were utilized perfectly with fantastic execution. If there's one thing Code Geass did right, it was that it kept me entertained. Overall 9.2/10: The plot, pacing, characters, emotions, and most importantly the execution of it all are what pull Code Geass out of the crowd and make it truly something else. The plot can push towards over the top at times and trip over itself, but the overall story and the characters within it make Code Geass one hell of a ride. This show has joined Clannad (10/10) and Steins;Gate (9.5/10) as the three lone anime series that I have given a 9 or higher rating to, and is a must watch for everyone. Verdict: More addicting than crack, and without the deadly side effects! Ranging from action packed, to funny, to convoluted, to tear jerking this show is something else. Truly a joy to watch and a must watch for all. Pros: + Main character is a legend + One of the greatest endings ever + Extremely addicting + Story is fantastic Cons: - Plot holes/Writers' tendency to use the "because i said so" explaination - There may have been too many different characters, resulting in some unnecessary or just plain weak/annoying characters (Nina) If you liked Code Geass, watch... Guilty Crown: The shows are extremely similar in almost every aspect and both are very entertaining. However, try to keep your brain shut down a bit while watching this show because there are plenty of plotholes. Death Note: The most obvious choice mainly because of the Light/Lelouch comparison. They are both extremely intelligent and enjoyable to watch, and the shows are both intense. 9.2/10 - Brilliant

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