Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2

Nothing really to see here. This is a series that lost much of it's potential due to the creators becoming so focused on just throwing in twists and changes to try to trick the viewer. In the end, you get to watch a character partially develop relationships with other, likeable, characters in the first season just to be a jerk to them in the second one.
It seemed in the end like many of the characters didn't really GROW in any way (except for one or two, who grew in ways that the viewer isn't supposed to understand until the show tells them), but just the ... world around them changed.
Watching the show itself, I found nearly no enjoyment, as it was mostly just based around the main character emotionally hurting other characters. Of course this can be justified by the fact that it was for "the greater good", but that's not why I watch shows.

"We will show them the difference between strategy and tactics."

This is an actual line from this season spoken by the ever-so-clever and philosophical Lelouch under the guise of the masked vigilante Zero. Shall we look up the definitions of strategy and tactics together?

strategy. NOUN: the art of planning and directing overall military operations and movements in a war or battle. Often contrasted with TACTICS.

tactic. NOUN: an action or STRATEGY carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

Any adult with an average intelligence knows the two words are interchangeable. In fact, it's safe to say that most children with an ounce of logic and reasoning skills knows ... this fact, as well. This quote perhaps summarizes the final season of this abominably rushed series better than any other piece of pseudo-philosophical gibberish plastered around this entire series in a grand proclamation of its soaring intellect we common plebes of the anime community could never fathom.

While the first season was enjoyable to a certain degree just because the viewer became more and more absorbed in the rising conflict, no matter how many plot holes or character inconsistencies there were, not to mention seeing Lelouch finally crack from causing himself to lose so much of what he loved, from the memory of the girl he maybe does/maybe doesn't love because of his own extremely destructive tactic that killed Shirley's father, forcing him to command her to forget that even Lelouch himself existed (something I forgot to mention in the last review, another dumb moment that confused everyone why Shirley didn't even know that she and Lelouch are friends) to his half-sister Euphemia who he is forced to kill because his own sudden dark sense of humor caused her to massacre thousands of Japanese, the ending of season 1 had me eager to see what would happen next!

Begin the conclusion of the most disappointing anime ever made. And dare I say it--one of the worst anime ever made.

It is a far greater waste of storytelling to botch an epic premise and setup versus the usual seasonal garbage the viewer may get an occasional laugh or tearful moment from, which is probably the primary reason for my extreme dislike for this series. Heck, my profile picture is the very avatar of that wasted potential, a character who, despite her fantastic and frankly adorable design, was ultimately created specifically to be incinerated point-blank by someone she trusted and had known for over a year. But more on that later. Oh, you'll be getting your just desserts from me, Suzaku.

This entire season is about "plot twists." And I don't mean the mildly confusing but at times still reasonable twists of the first season. I mean the kind of plot twists that define the newest additions to the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. Plot twists that are so bad that the writers genuinely expect the audience to be either stupid or too enamored with Lelouch to care, ones that almost make me wonder if J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson might have taken queues from this absurdly dumb Frankenstein's Monster-of-a-series. Well, not that you should avoid "Knives Out" since it is a great movie (don't judge a Director purely off of one bad movie!) but I digress.

Let's start, not at the moment where Season 1 left off, but at the beginning. That's right, the literal beginning. One year after the Black Rebellion began, Lelouch's memories have been rewritten and Nunnally is nowhere to be found, replaced by an obvious imposter brother Rolo Lamperouge. I'm not going to heavily detail the plot, obviously, so I'll give a summation of every clear plot hole and out-of-character moment I can remember. Because, I swear on Monica Krushevsky's, Dorothea Ernst's, and Bismark Waldstein's charred, metallic graves, I have never seen a series with this many inconsistences. To try to avoid more plot holes, most of the "strategizing" is merely done by one-upping the other side by whoever has the cooler or stronger weaponry. While it technically avoids more headaches by not having to think as much, it's still an obvious shift from the original and commendable attempts at intelligence in the first season, and the amount of pomp and swagger the characters go through to show off their weapons with traditional anime fight move callouts actually made me laugh at their ridiculousness.

Unfortunately, the trademark failures at intelligence cannot be avoided by these writers. For starters, to point out the first painful plot hole, once Lelouch is found by C.C. to regain his memories and finds out he was a lure all along to trap her and kill her and she gives him his memories and power back (WITH A KISS!!!!) the soldiers are so shocked to see that C.C. is still alive after she is shot that they just stand there with their guns pointed at Lelouch. Just because someone is charismatic and obviously crazy should not be enough to make you frozen with fear! If just ONE of them had used his head, Lelouch would have been dead in an instant and the series would have been mercifully over!

But like most of the time, Lelouch gains the bloody victory just because his enemies are so stupid. One big Knightmare fight later, and part of the building is collapsing on the main force against the Black Knights, killing the new Viceroy of the Area and giving them access to travel the innards of the collapsed building to ask for asylum in the Chinese Consulate. Evidently the writers also forgot that hundreds if not thousands of tons of steel, concrete, and glass will completely collapse under its own weight, making this strategy completely moot.

And do you know what the worst part of this scene is? This is the one time we hear Lelouch's iconic laugh in the proper context this season. Because he's sane now. The very first thing he says when he regains his memories and power is, "It was not I who was wrong, but the world!" And that is the tail end of the deliciously insane Lelouch we came to both hate and love at the end of Season 1.

So. The most compelling aspect of our dull, one-dimensional protagonist who is always right regardless of the means he uses to achieve his goals is now a purely just freedom fighter. What was it that pulled us viewers into this story in the first place? The unconventional protagonist who is neither hero, villain, or possibly even anti-hero or anti-villain. His gradual descent into insanity that genuinely tore at your heartstrings (despite the only real lead-up being him cackling after finding out his best friend is his mortal enemy, but it's poignant enough) while simultaneously disturbing you. Now, he's always kind to his friends at school and almost never shows even a trace of selfishness or madness.

It was during one of this season's annoyingly drawn-out rom-com episodes that I realized something. After a goofy chase scene involving a shipping crate full of tomato paste which C.C. is inside, as well as Villetta (who is now Lelouch's gym coach to keep an eye on him) wearing an unnecessarily skimpy bikini for the school festival that is so revealing that it shows literally all of her butt, and Kallen bumping into her for yet more goofy antics and to show off more of the female characters' bodies in agonizingly gratuitous shots, Milly, the class president, looks directly at the camera after saying, "These filler moments are what make life worth living."

This entire season is one big troll against the critics.

Think about it: The tone deaf slice-of-life moments are multiplied by a factor of two; any semblance of cleverness is replaced by mindless missile and beam spamming; the single trait of Lelouch that made him so compelling is gone and what remains is a hollow shell of an all-around swell guy who just has very, VERY bad Daddy Issues; and utterly fantastically designed characters are cast aside to either get completely no development or be cooked alive by their so-called friend or murdered by a hypocritically racist scumbag who obviously enjoyed killing them like every other one of her victims ("This is why I hate Britannians! DIE!!!!") when they were completely outmatched not by skill but weapon power and their helpless circumstances.

This brings me to my favorite Code Geass characters: The Knights of the Round and the Valkyrie Squadron. I can't help but gush over each and every one of their character designs. CLAMP really knocked it out of the park with these eight plus two we don't see, from Liliana's beautiful, blonde hair and giant, green eyes; Marika's fiery, auburn hair and blue eyes like innocent sapphires (only seen filled with terror); Monica's thick bangs and subtle red ribbons she wears around some locks of her hair in front of her shoulders; Luciano's pointy red hair and angular chin that perfectly characterize his gleeful insanity; Dorothea's dark skin and raven hair that make her equally gorgeous green eyes utterly pop, I could go on and on about how absolutely fantastic their designs are.

Why do I like them so much? Because for as amazing as their designs are, the only reason their characters are never ruined is because they either get no development despite surviving to the end, murdered after a few seconds of screen time, or only get a few lines of dialogue before being slaughtered by their own comrade two episodes later. The Knights of the Round and Valkyrie Squadron are a prime example of wasted story potential, the victims of confirmed corporate sabotage and a script and by extension a gullible and narcissistic fandom too absorbed in its own worship of its now-dull protagonist.

Anyway, I'll be fuming about Suzaku's selfish and out-of-character actions and Kallen's cowardly hypocrisy later, but I still need to point out a few other gripes before delving more into that. Where can I begin? The arc with the new Special Administrative Zone contains that terrible "one million Zeros" plot twist, where even a knight as supposedly unprejudiced and honorable as Gino Weinberg is willing to nearly wipe out a million people if it means stopping a riot. And there was absolutely no security to check people's bags? And later, during the political wedding arc, Gino, Anya, and Suzaku, who sold out Lelouch to become a Knight of the Round after capturing him just after the events of the first season, are more than willing to try to kill a child to keep relations friendly between the Chinese Federation and Britannia. Now, I love Gino's design just as much as any of the Knights of the Round, which exudes a lot of boyish charm along with his personality, but it's moments like this that also make me wonder why the heck Suzaku spared him when all of the Knights but Anya and Nonette attacked the capital when Lelouch took over. The honorable Knight of Twelve to the Chinese Federation, please! Monica Krushevsky, please proceed with diplomatic action, stat! (No wonder she was only the Knight of Twelve. She might have been the only one to not do anything like this for a political alliance.)

The pacing is all over the place, crawling to a snail's pace during the rom-com episodes and important events are stacked one on top of another at a break-neck speed, as if the writers knew that if they made the story move fast enough, people would be too thrilled by the action to think about how bad the so-called tactics and plotting is. Lelouch later massacres a city of civilian scientists who experiment with Geass just because he is enraged that his fake brother Rolo (who always has some extremely creepy yaoi incest energy with him) killed Shirley after she regained her memories. ("Britannia will pay for disregarding the sanctity of life!" You're one to talk, you moronic hypocrite!) Right after this, Lelouch's father randomly shows up and a ridiculous plot twist involving Lelouch's Geass perfectly reflecting off of multiple scattered glass shards happens, showing that despite there being absolutely no indication whatsoever beforehand, Lelouch knew that his father was going to be there.

The last eight episodes are unquestionably where the show finally trips over its own ambitions and not only does a faceplant, but causes a concussion so bad there would surely be permeant brain damage. Nina, who now works for Britannia to perfect her idiotic Weapon of Mass Obsession, stupidly has Suzaku take the F.L.I.E.J.A. warhead to the second battle for the Tokyo settlement which only ends up getting detonated because of Lelouch's "Live" command given to Suzaku in Season 1, making Lelouch ultimately responsible for the deaths of possibly 25 million people. It's also important to note that this kind of thing wasn't even a factor in Suzaku's Geass effect last season, meaning that the writers made up this entire scenario specifically for this particular plot twist and they just expected everyone to accept it like it had been. It finally gives the plot point a purpose, but even then the setup is so ridiculously stupid and again shatters any iota of consistency.

Before this, Lelouch is caught between the Valkyrie Squadron and Luciano Bradley, the sadistic Knight of Ten who is so dishonorable and murderous that none of the other Knights trust him (why is he ranked above Monica, even if she is young?). Lelouch's Knightmare is strung up between the Valkyries--all 15-year-old child soldiers who probably didn't have a choice to join the military with how young they are--and he is saved by a Deus Ex Machina as the dishonorable Ace of the Black Knights Kallen blows the poor girls who are utterly defenseless and immobile away. Okay, to be honest, I can't ENTIRELY blame Kallen for this action when considering that her leader was tied up (despite him very much deserving to die) and she is known for being impulsive to the point of genuine stupidity, but it's a VERY lazy way to get rid of unused characters like a whole lot of others met their fates in this rapid-fire trash heap of a series, especially when the Valkyries were shown to have had extremely miserable existences while serving under Bradley in expanded content and never knew that their abuser got what he deserved. But the worst thing about this part is that Kallen is still portrayed as "cool," with totally unfitting music for the cowardly slaughter as Marika, the younger sister of Kewell Soresi--who Kallen killed last season--clumsily calls out her brother's name before allegedly being burned alive--and Lloyd and Cecile practically make a joke about the situation! Except it is revealed in the manga "Oz the Reflection" that she miraculously survives her Knightmare's explosion and is saved from falling to her death by her fiancé. I can only hope that she got to bring Kallen to justice someday. I don't know what the writers' thought process was for this scene, as it isn't even portrayed as tragic and just makes me want Kallen to die even more. Ironically, they could have used this moment to develop Kallen's character, making her be confronted by Marika when the Black Knights and Britannia team up against Lelouch so she realizes that she should get over her hatred and fight more ethically so that those who may be more innocent can have a chance to see tomorrow. But Kallen wouldn't be a tsundere then.

So some empty philosophy is exchanged between Kallen and her potentially fascinating foil, she lectures him about honor despite being the perfect wife for him, and he dies so unceremoniously.

Soon after the warhead is detonated, Nina is somehow shocked that it could have happened despite what nukes are made for and Suzaku suddenly goes crazy, laughing like Lelouch before stating that detonating the warhead makes him worthy of the title of the Knight of One, despite one of Bismarck's mottos being, "Strength that knows no bounds is merely violence."

So he goes to assassinate the Emperor, who has begun his grand plan and is stopped by Bismarck, who lectures him a little bit before getting ready to kill Suzaku, who was loyal to him and the other Knights up to that point, but Suzaku is saved by C.C.

Okay, I'm really babbling about the plot now, but it coalesces into such a disaster. I'll just skip to the main points before wrapping up because there is way too much wrong with this season.

Lelouch's father may be wrong to wipe away humanity's individuality, but Lelouch is still justifying every innocent life he took as well, claiming that he is the one reaching for tomorrow with his actions despite greatly enjoying killing people last season. Also, another plot hole to point out is Lelouch's parents sending him away "to be safe" in a country they are about to invade. It's too stupid for words and is ultimately what gets him to kill them. Hysterically, the height of Lelouch's hypocrisy is shown during this scene as well, when Lelouch states to his parents, "Forcing your own good intentions on someone is no different from an evil act." PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF!!!!!! Taniguchi, stop pretending that Lelouch was always so noble from the start. The audience isn't stupid! Well, not all of us . . .

Lelouch takes over the country and wants to join the United Federation of Nations that he ratified (because that was totally what he was working toward last season when crushing entire city blocks of residents) but the Knights of the Round are working to depose the usurper emperor (ODYSYUSS IS THE LEGAL EMPEROR!!!!! And may have been a good one with the right councilors . . .) with Lelouch's half-brother Schneizel, who it later turns out is scheming against them all to bring about world peace through terror by nuking all of the world's major cities with Nina's WMD and becoming an absolute dictator. Stupid, right? It turns out Lelouch has the same idea, though he wants to kill himself so everyone remembers him alone as a monster, making everyone mAgIcAlLy forget their racism toward each other.

Racism and prejudice never ended when World War 2 ended and the United Nations was founded! This is not "deep," it's pretentiously pandering and appeals to people who are genuinely not smart enough to use simple logic!

Anyway, on to the part which solidified my hatred for the series: The murder of the Knights of the Round. It takes Suzaku mere seconds to wipe them all out and spare Gino for unspecified reasons. I'll never forget the look of terror on poor Monica's face when the person she trusted so dearly and held no prejudices toward pointed a Knightmare gun right in her face and pulled the trigger. I can't blame him for killing Bismarck since Bismarck recognized how dishonorable he was and the man would never have cooperated and was in on the Ragnorok Connection, but there is absolutely no way Suzaku wouldn't have gotten to know all of the Knights of the Round and knew who he could trust to either help bring about Lelouch's ridiculous attempt at peace or just spare them because they were his FRIENDS. Suzaku is even scummier than Kallen, and by the time he sinks his sword into Lelouch's chest, I was so disappointed he was never cooked alive when his Knightmare was defeated by her--which comes right after they're both showing their disgusting hypocrisy with the back-stabbing racist Kallen claiming she fights for justice and Suzaku having the audacity to say, "What about those who don't have a choice?" when at least two of those he knew didn't have a choice were scattered to the wind as ash by his own hand. He's a false hero, a fraud who could be unmasked at any moment and destroy this so-called "peace" of Lelouch's fragile lie.

I can think of a much better use for the KotR than to be slaughtered or become a tragic love interest for Orpheus (Monica truly is Best Girl) in "Oz." Make them a key part of Lelouch's past. Bismarck could have been a replacement father figure for him who is desperately trying to dissuade the emperor with his own political influence to stop the war (like he did ONE time; just where were you before season one, Bismarck???), Dorothea could have been the one to help him see that Numbers are also human, Gino could have been his best childhood friend trying to reform Britannia from the inside instead of the awfully out-of-place Suzaku, and Monica could have been the very first girl he loved as a boy. And as he descends deeper into insanity, he either starts killing them out of necessity or by accident, and his mind frays more and more until he is at last the Demon Emperor, who takes Monica by force as his bride and completes his hypocritical character arc to become the man he so despised.

A funny thing, but in "Lelouch of the Resurrection," there's a throwaway line where Gino says (quite smugly) that the others might not have been able to change--which he says right in front of Nonette, who didn't have a choice about which battle she would have fought. This is, ironically. a subtle insult at Nonette fans, too, because of this fact, as the writers only came up with Dorothea to replace Nonette's death in the manga since she became a fan favorite thanks to the game "Code Geass: Lost Colors," and her VA was upset she couldn't voice her character's final words in the anime due to not being able to make her last recording session. It's also a sign that the writers know that a lot of the show's fans are so unhealthily obsessed with Lelouch that they are entirely convinced that he is right and never think about who the minor characters are or their circumstances at any given time, and that the writers only see the most hardcore of fans who consumed every scrap of content as bags of money to be discarded when the popular opinion changed so they can empty the more stuffed and ignorant ones. At this point, I hope that the new writers recognize Monica and Dorothea's cult following (as Monica is clearly the fan-favorite Knight of the Round if you look at all of the fanart of her on Pixiv) and bring their traitorous friend to justice and expose him as a fraud Zero.

Code Geass, like its protagonist, is the greatest pretender in all of anime. It bathes itself in the idea that it is deeper than the common viewer can see but is insultingly shallow. It justifies shock value as plot twists and has some of the worst character writing I have ever seen. If not for the hope that the new writers can improve the series in the upcoming season in the alternate universe where Kallen is not a child murderer (but is still a dishonorable, racist sow) and that Monica and Dorothea could be resurrected by some miracle from the sheer strength of their cult following, I'd have continued to forget it since the first time the end credits rolled.

This series doesn't need a continuation, it needs a reboot. A fresh start. Only then can its lies and sins against good storytelling and the sanctity of life be washed away. How ironic. Maybe there was some truth in Charles zi Britannia's beliefs after all.

As long as you're consistent, stay crazy everyone! Just don't massacre a city over its work indirectly killing your girlfriend. 😨

Oh, and a few more things: The only thing needed to break Geass effects are lots and lots of willpower. They knew their audience is simple-minded enough to accept that for a plot twist. And they knew that Lelouch is so beloved by them that an actual war criminal who suddenly switches his "LOYALTY!" to him despite Lelouch ruining his life is entirely forgiven for his atrocities--because if he's loyal to Lelouch, he must not actually be bad. That's the Code Geass fandom in a nutshell.

Alright, folks, it's time to unleash the fury of a fan scorned! You see, I sat down, hoping for a season 2 that would carry the brilliance of the first season. Instead, I was met with... this. A monstrosity that not only went rogue with its storyline but committed the unforgivable sin of sidelining our precious children's romantic arcs. I mean, honestly!

First off, whose idea was it to concoct a jumbled mess of politics and warfare when they could've been focusing on the REAL stars? The children! Ah, the innocence of youthful romances – the blushing cheeks, the stolen glances, the first awkward confessions. Instead, ... we're treated to Lelouch's convoluted schemes and unnecessary new characters, when there should've been a middle school dance!

Did the writers forget that the heart of any story, especially an anime, lies in its ability to evoke emotions? And what's more emotional than watching youngsters navigate the murky waters of first love? But NO! They decided to throw all that potential down the drain!

Every episode I watched, I was shouting at my screen: "WHERE ARE THE KIDS?!" I was waiting, no, praying for that lovely teenage angst, the heartbreak, and the emotional rollercoasters of young love. But, nada. Zilch. Zero. We get adult intrigues instead. Yawn.

And can we talk about the sheer lack of playground scenes? Or the absence of those critical moments where kids just talk about their feelings on a rooftop? This show went from a potential Romeo-Juliet (junior edition) masterpiece to a monologue on geopolitics.

I don't know who needs to hear this (maybe the entire Season 2 production team?!), but children are the beating heart of any narrative! Give them their spotlight, let them take the lead. We want drama, we want tears, and most of all, we want LOVE. If I wanted a lecture on strategy and war, I'd read a history book, thank you very much.

In conclusion, Code Geass Season 2, you robbed us. Instead of treasuring the emotional goldmine of young love, you decided to bore us with adult affairs. I, for one, am deeply disappointed and demand compensation in the form of an OVA focused solely on the kids. Until then, my verdict is clear: Season 2, you let the children down! Shame on you.