My favorite thing about Code Geass is how it did something better than Death Note. DN is supposed to be both a intellectual and moral battle, but I never saw any side the it besides the intellectual one. Light is clearly in the wrong here, and L for all his faults is the hero. CG has one morally gray intelligent protagonist who seems to have a better idea, and one misguided and naive average-smarts protagonist. Not only that, but the friendship between them is played really well, and it really hit me in the heart.
So after all that praise, why do I feel like the rain on everybody's parade? Well, first off most of the High School plot seemed really out of place, and I'm glad it was excised in the second season. It also peaved me that Lelouch, a freaking genius, could have made things infinitely easier at many points by revealing at least part of the truth to certain people. But no, he gets confronted and shuts up, making him seem worse than he really is. I have a friend who tells me it's part of his character, but to me that's like saying that part of a character is that despite being super-intelligent, he can't fix a hole that keeps appearing in his plans over and over despite them being his greatest problem. It's lazy writing. But the worst part has to be C.C. She should be the image for the Plot Tumor trope. Who could easily cut her out of the entire story, and I wouldn't notice. All the things that she did could easily be done by other people, and she could have just stayed dead in episode one. Still, despite these problems I have, the show is still Very Good, and I would recommend it to many. It's just begging for a Fan Edit though. Maybe one that ends at episode 22...
