Turns out the anime wasn't much about giant robots anyway.
It is (or should've been) about a boy seeking revenge, using both his awesome intellect and a superpower he unexpectedly gained, but somehow the story kept getting derailed. There was an episode about a cat, and another about a school festival. Too much time was spent on a side-character that didn't add much to the plot.
Part of the problem for me was it felt like popular elements and plotlines from different stories and genres were thrown in and mixed liberally, trying to make sure there's something for everyone. Unfortunately, it mostly ended up with an incohesive, sprawling mess. At certain points of the show it could have easily been a slice-of-life/comedy anime dealing with school life, interspersed with secret phone calls arranging armed takeovers, keeping your secret identity from your best friend while he hides his from you, and all this while hiding your secret girlfriend in your bedroom. The only thing missing is political intrigue, and possibly secret samurais.
Here's my problem with Lelouch: everyone says he's very intelligent, but there's no real evidence of it. Sure, he does something and his side wins, and everyone goes, "Ah, that was very clever of him," but we really have no idea how the world works for his actions to be smart. The worldbuilding is pretty much non-existent. There's this powerful Holy Brittanian Empire which took over Japan, and presumably most of the known world (but, strangely, not the EU, despite being next-door neighbours). The Empire is a terrible thing because the writers say so. That's it.
Aside from Lelouch, the characters are static, cookie-cutter pieces though they fit their roles well enough — a sweet princess trying her best, a staunch knight, a charming little sister, a mad scientist, a slightly over-the-top student council president. Even in Lelouch, his growth is just a slowly shifting stance: from him not caring at all about the consequences of his actions to caring a little, and even then only when it affects those closest to him. It suits his personality, though; the ends justifies the means to him, as long as he can keep his sister safe and happy. Suzaku gave me a headache; he's full of good intentions and I understand where he's coming from, but he could do with being a little less unbending and start considering other point of views.
Faults aside, I did enjoy it enough to finish watching the whole series. The animation was fluid and nicely done, and the character designs pretty much what you'd expect from CLAMP. The way they looked a lot like other CLAMP characters threw me off a little — I kept forgetting Suzaku's name because my mind had immediately labelled him as 'Syaoran'.
I didn't care much for any of the opening or ending themes, and didn't notice much of the soundtrack. I actually found Lelouch's voice slightly jarring — it sounded too deep, especially when he was in Batman-mode — but it was something that grew on me after a while.
The plot, when it actually moved, did take a few interesting and unexpected turns, though I found the whole thing rather melodramatic. I do take issue with the cliffhanger ending — it felt like nothing major had been resolved and the audience is left hanging with no sense of closure.
Obviously I'm late to the party and there's a sequel now I could jump right into, but at the moment I don't feel much like it. Maybe I'm just being snobbish and turning my nose up at the cliffhanger, but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.
