Code Geass starts with off with such a bang and a memorable protagonist right from the beginning. It’s such a shame how close this series was to being great because I really do like it. It’s just that it’s not anywhere near to being perfect. There were so many flaws in its storytelling and characters with the plot driven many times by coincidence, I can’t help but think that the story was improvised half way through.
The anime starts off with revealing the setting in an alternate time course. The American’s lose in the revolution against the British, and now the British continues their reign of imperialism. The empire, Britannia (why the name change? I don’t know…), practically takes over the world and renames each country into an area. It brings up an interesting aspect of this show because of how the Britannian’s are portayed; they’re so unbelievably evil and proud in displaying their bigotry, I question why the main characters are the only ones in expressing the slightest bit of humanity to the Japanese, now renamed elevens. Like I hinted in the previous sentence, Code Geass takes place in Japan. Britannia continues their colonization and has taken over Japan after 200 years after the American’s defeat. Now the Elevens live in the ruins of their country, while the Britannians live wealthy lives in the colony. I’m just surprised on how quick it developed through immigration in just around 10 years.
Our protagonist, Lelouch Lamperouge, lives so lazily as if he has no purpose in life. The world is under so much inequality, Lelouch carelessly accepts it. We see that he is the typical lazy smart cool good-looking kid at school, all of it being revealed in just one episode: he ditches class to play chess where he easily wins against other renowned players, then leaves with his sidekick on a bike where he lays back reading Hamlet, later to receive a call from Shirley, the cute girl from his school’s student body who easily hints her crush on Lelouch (zomg popular guy!!!!). As he rides with his sidekick on that cool bike of theirs, Lelouch gets caught up in the middle of terrorist activity, meets his closest childhood friend, Suzaku, on the badguy’s side-a scene that closely resembles Gundam SEED-, and inherits powers that I will not reveal (though you’ll probably hear it from someone else); all of this being the first elaborate coincidence of the anime-we can let that slide. After Lelouch gets his new powers, the plot quickly shifts to tactical warfare and leads a rebellion against Britannia. With this promising premise (you have to watch it to overlook its ridiculousness. That’s how it is with animes), Lelouch’s rebellion is one hell of a show. This show features so much intense battles and tactical comebacks that it’s such a thrill to watch. Watching this is easily entertaining with its clean bright animation and likable character designs from CLAMP. Sunrise never disappoints with their budget in terms of animation and voice acting.
The plot reveals soon that Lelouch was actually a Britannian prince, but denounced his father for ignoring his mother’s death and so is thrown away along with his crippled sister, Nunnally. Under the care of the Prime Minister of Japan, Lelouch and Nunnally befriend the son of the Prime Minister, Suzaku. Britannia soon colonizes Japan (talk about evil), and war breaks away Lelouch from Suzaku. I’m glad that they don’t spend massive amount of episodes in revealing all of this like what many other animes tend to do, because that would definitely slow the pacing of the current plot, which is incredibly entertaining. Lelouch makes himself a memorable character with his villainous-like qualities and also benefits from his voice actor who gives a great enthusiastic performance.
Unfortunately, the story suddenly lags at the half point and relies on coincidences that are no longer elaborate. I can’t reveal the story but I’ll give an example: Lelouch and Kallen have no way to escape from the enemy and easily steal a powerful knightmare that benefits them greatly. There are other moments that are just so stupid that it almost ruins the entire anime for me.
The story also lags from smaller arcs that don’t add much to the plot except one small aspect, like the Shirley and Mao portion. Though mediocre at worst, it’s very disappointing because it cannot compare to the pacing from the beginning of the series. It feels as though this series is stalling a bit before it gets to the main point.
The series also features a huge cast that the subplots may get in the way. These subplots don’t add much to the main plot and don’t fulfill the task of character development. Because of the weak character development, the minor characters feel more like a cheap plot device rather than an important part of the show.
It’s an overall good series but its negatives bring down the series a lot that I don’t rank it up there along with other greats. Still, I recommend it as this is one of those series that you can’t really go against.
