ART. Studio is Sunrise, the studio that did Cowboy Bebop, Gintama, InuYasha. The characters here are uniquely drawn - they're quite lean, except the occasional fat ones, but Lelouch and his friends and enemies are for the most part pretty slim. The hair is also unique. Overall the art is quite distinctive, not super awesome like that of ufotable but pretty good. It's quite different from that of Cowboy Bebop though.
SOUND. Without a doubt one of my favorite soundtracks out there. Kotaro Nakagawa brilliantly does an orchestral-esque symphony of sound with brass fanfare to punctuate the climactic moments. Percussion and what I think is guitar make this OST even more awesome.
CHARACTER. Who is Lelouch Lamperouge? He is the ultimate mastermind, the one who calls himself Zero who commands the resistance as a chessmaster moves the pieces. His moves to topple the empire are brilliant. Reminiscent of Light Yagami, but better I think, for Lelouch is not entirely good nor evii but more of an anti-hero. You encounter quite a few morally ambiguous questions in this anime, some morally ambiguous characters. The characterization is not entirely brilliant as is that for Clannad or FMAB and would normally merit an 8, but because of who Lelouch is, I give it a 9.
ENJOYMENT. I saw episode 1 and didn't find it particularly awesome, so I entered a hiatus, but after seeing Code Geass on so many top 10 lists I saw episode 2 and was hooked. For Lelouch has the Geass -- what's that, I wonder?
one word to describe this anime: brilliant
