All Hail Britannia! – A Code Geass Review

Welcome back to my blog, and this time we’re talking Code Geass (full title Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion). This anime is longer than average, stretching over two seasons to make fifty episodes – and recently a third season has been announced! With something this popular, it must be good, right? Before I get started however, let me first just clarify that due to the length of the series, I will omit my usual randomness post and instead split Code Geass into two reviews, the first and second seasons. That’s twenty five episodes each. So, without further ado, let’s launch into the first one.

Code Geass is about a young prince of the empire of Britannia – true name Lelouch vi Britannia, but acting under the alias of Lelouch Lamperouge. This is because, despite being a part of the royal family, he hates his heritage and was exiled to Japan as a child along with his sister, Nunnally. When Britannia later invades Japan and most of those Lelouch loved are lost, he swears vengeance against his former homeland – a promise which he later gets to fulfill.

After an accident involving a run-in with terrorists, Lelouch stumbles across CC (known as C2) who grants him the mysterious power called geass – that lets him command anyone he chooses to obey his exact commands. It does have limitations – it will only work once on any given person, requires direct eye contact, etc, but still a formidable weapon. With this power, he forms a group of terrorists known as the Black Knights, and starts his plan to bring down the empire.

On the other hand we have Suzaku Kururugi, son to the prime minister of Japan before the Britannian take-over. To repent for sins in his past he joins the Britannian military – seeking the same goal as Lelouch, equality for all, but instead believing he will have more influence from the inside rather than through terrorism. Unlike Lelouch, he does not believe the ends justify the means.

Well with the basic premise set, let’s talk about the plot.

Plot 3/5

While the plot of Code Geass is interesting, it sadly is incredibly repetitive and simple. In a sense it reminds me of Cowboy Bebop in that every foe that Lelouch seems to come against, he just overpowers using exactly the same techniques as before, giving you no sense of any real threat at all. That is, until Suzaku shows up and starts smashing that smug grin off his face. Then at least, things start to get interesting.

A Sutherland, one of the more common Knightmare Frame variants.

That being said though, Code Geass has far too many deus ex machine moments – it tries to be clever in the same way as Death Note, but doesn’t quite manage it. Any problem Lelouch encounters can either be solved by use of the geass or by use of some new gadget he mysteriously acquires mere seconds before. For example, at one of the earlier battles, Lelouch is faced with apparently incredible odds against him. However, he just happens to have had a new Knightmare Frame donated to his cause (which are basically mechs used for war). This Knightmare Frame has a strange claw which apparently can do something; a quick explanation containing fictional techno-babble is apparently used as justification for its strange powers. They then instantly use it on the mountain that they fight on, which causes a suspiciously accurate landslide towards the mass of Britannian troops that have all grouped up in one spot and appear unable to move anywhere other than in a straight line for some reason.

I really didn’t buy this. Not only did they have plenty of time to move out the way, they also seemed to lose an incredible amount of forces for no reason – they were assaulting every side of the mountain, so surely the losses would be fairly small? It’s not like the avalanche affected the entire thing. Besides, how did the claw make this happen anyway? Introducing something to instantly solve a problem is… weak storytelling. But hey, I told myself, it’s not that bad. Maybe it was just used to show the claws abilities beyond the barely audible technical speak, and it’ll be clever in future. But no, it has these moments almost every time there’s a significant battle.

Another example is near the end of the season, during the Black Knights assault on Tokyo. This is probably the most extreme example, and I really can’t stress just how annoyed it made me. The Black Knights are apparently outnumbered incredibly, and assaulting an almost impregnable fortress, and so everyone calls it suicide. However, Lelouch, mere seconds before the assault begins, announces that the Tokyo Settlement is built on top of an earthquake proof structure. He has used his geass on someone inside (we don’t get to see how he gets in and does this, making it even more unexpected) who, typing a few things into a console, causes the entire structure to collapse.

Seriously.

We are now meant to appreciate Lelouch’s genius – apparently he had organised a miracle.

What. The. Hell.

Why would you include a device to trash this entire city?

That’s not genius, that’s just the most incompetent architect to ever walk the face of the planet. Seriously, self-destruct buttons are what you’d expect in a kids show like Dexter’s Laboratory – not something serious like this. What possible purpose could it serve on the structure? To be fair to the show, its not actually a self-destruct button – they justify it by saying whatever he does drastically weakens the structure, so the weight on it causes it to collapse. But then again, a program that deliberately weakens the structure seems even more pointless than a self-destruct button! No matter what way you look at this, it’s just a feeble attempt to make Lelouch look good. If you think about it, they didn’t even need to geass someone to do it – any covert agent would make short work of it too.

Still these things put aside, I must admit that the rules of the geass are generally followed in season 1, there’s no real event where the plot contradicts itself. For that at least I will give it a thumbs up – it may be repetitive at times but it is at least, consistent. However, there is one plot hole that I do have to address – at one point Lelouch fights a rival for CC’s attention. This man is named Mao, and despite being able to read minds, he is beaten in an episode or two. However, he makes a return later, despite being shot multiple times by armed police and left for dead in the middle of an empty amusement park. Upon his return, he claims “You have Britannian medical science to thank!” as an explanation as to how he returned so quickly. A bit far-fetched, but reasonable, yes?

Well wait until you hear more. Later on in the season, a Princess named Euphemia is geassed and forced to order the massacre of hundreds of unarmed civilians – the Black Knights respond by trying to assassinate her. Eventually catching up with her, Lelouch fires a single shot at medium range from a pistol – so light and compact it wasn’t detected by security. This would likely hamper its ability to kill. The bullet he fires hits Euphemia somewhere below the chest – she is then taken to hospital, but sadly dies as the doctors were unable to save her.

Now hang on a minute.

If Mao, one of the Chinese, whom Britannia apparently view as second class citizens in this show, gets so great medical treatment that he recovers from being shot so many times you could paint him yellow and market him as cheese, then why can’t a Princess of the realm survive? Surely the medical treatment the royal family received would be of a quality unmatched throughout the entire world – considering Britannia is the most technologically advanced nation. This just doesn’t make sense – it’s almost inconceivable that she dies.

Earl Lloyd Asplund - Since when did America have Earls?

I do have one more gripe with Code Geass, though honestly it’s more of a petty grudge than anything else. So, the dominant power on the planet is Britannia – which is fine. However, if you look at the map, you can clearly see that Britannia is actually composed of the Americas, which is just too weird. As a citizen of Britain myself, I was amused but surprised to find that in Code Geass, Britain (despite still being called that) is part of another group entirely – the EU. While I suppose that’s fairly accurate, it still seems very bizarre that the American empire is called Britannia despite that. Many of their traits and customs seem to fall in with old British traditions and myths too – for example, the order of elite soldiers is called the Knights of the Round. Their leader has a custom sword for his Knightmare Frame called Excalibur. Really.

One last thing I should probably mention (this time for real!) is the fact that Code Geass is one of those… naïve animes. One of the ones that labours under the false impression that it’s funny, when in reality the humour moments are almost as out of place as the ones in Hellsing. I guess some people might somehow like this stuff, but Code Geass only way of trying to be funny always seems to involve women taking their clothes off and being seen in public because they made a stupid decision. This is especially prominent in Kallen, who just doesn’t seem to want to stay dressed, I swear. Honestly, every time one of those Ashford Academy school episodes showed up, the friend and I watching at the time would groan. Fast forward, please…

Still that being said, excluding the filler episodes the plot is interesting, especially where character development is concerned. Speaking of which, let’s move onto characters and talk a bit more in-depth:

Characters 5/5

This one was actually a hard one to grade, as honestly despite the score, there are a lot of characters in Code Geass that make me want to tear my hair out. The worst culprit of all for this is Nunnally – Lelouch’s sister. She is both unable to walk and blind, meaning her brother has had to spend the last few years taking care of her, along with their maid. Sounds like someone you’d be sympathetic to, right?

Wrong.

She is just far too annoying – her voice is so high pitched and frail at times I wonder if she is trying to communicate with bats. She adds barely anything to the story, yet somehow the entire cast of characters love her so much it honestly shocks me that she hasn’t been proposed to by half the country yet. I’m sorry but I really just don’t buy the whole love thing – apparently Lelouch is even murdering all these people to create a brighter world for Nunnally. This seems incredibly hypocritical – Nunnally on several occasions voices her distaste against the actions of the Black Knights, and wishes they would stop. So yeah, Lelouch must just have completely the wrong idea of what she wants.

With a face like this, I find it hard to believe anyone could see Lelouch as good.

That being said, I gave Code Geass a perfect score for its sheer number of characters. This anime has characters coming out of its ears, and while at first I was rather sceptical it actually works just fine. Every character has enough development to give them their own personality, and at some point tend to play a role in the story – if only a minor one. All in all, despite there being many characters I dislike, there are just as many that I think are great. It strikes me a little like Death Note (before the introduction of the terrible two, Melo and Near) as it almost seems to have two main characters with conflicting ideals. Its up to the viewer to decide which one has the right of things, and I must admit that I’m firmly with Suzaku in this.

I suppose the reason why I didn’t feel justified in marking Code Geass down for its more annoying characters is because, with a couple of exceptions (Nunnally and Nina I’m looking at you) I can see why other people might enjoy them. It’s not often I think an anime can cater for all audiences but Code Geass certainly falls into that category. No matter what type of person you like, ranging from chivalric knights, schoolgirls, women who can give even the most experienced Knightmare pilots a run for their money, slightly mad scientists… you get the picture. I don’t think anyone could watch this and not like someone.

The voice acting in Code Geass is superb, and I thoroughly enjoyed the dubs. They definitely didn’t cheap out on getting some of the best names in voice acting in to do the job, even Crispin Freeman, one of my personal favourites, plays a role in Jeremiah Gottwald. His performance as Alucard from Hellsing was amazing, and it certainly didn’t diminish in quality here.

Is that a Geass? Luxury! Is that a Knightmare? Sloth! Is that a mask? Vanity!

Another I found mildly amusing actually was the Emperor of Britannia – while I can’t remember the voice actors name off the top of my head, I recognised it instantly. It’s the same guy who voiced Uther the Lightbringer in Warcraft 3, and you can really tell why he keeps getting these roles. When he wants to, he definitely sounds regal and intimidating enough to be an emperor, and so this role was perfect for him. Just a shame that the Emperor didn’t get much in the way of screen time.

Before moving on I do have to complain about one character in particular though, whom I mentioned briefly before: Nina. I honestly believe that no-one could possibly like or even appreciate this character. I suppose it is true that some characters are meant to be disliked, but Nina goes beyond the call of duty here making her every appearance agonising to sit through. For those that don’t know her, let me give you a brief explanation of her character, and maybe you’ll realise just why she’s such a pain.

She starts the game as a genius of sorts in her school, who despite her intellect is a rather overt racist – when a Japanese student enrols in her academy; she is very quick to voice her protest. This racist attitude is further compounded when, while on a trip, she and her classmates are held hostage by a Japanese terrorist group vying for power where she bawls like a baby and, once again, racially insults their captors. Then she’s surprised when they retaliate by threatening her. But no, it doesn’t end here – one of the captives actually turns out to be Princess Euphemia, who reveals herself to prevent Nina having the stuffing kicked out of her. Overwhelmed by gratitude for her saviour, Nina rushes straight back to her school where she touches herself while staring at a picture of the Princess – a scene we really didn’t need, or want to see. Nothing graphic mind you, but it doesn’t leave much to the imagination lets say. Still, you get the picture here – this girl is just really weird.

Go on Nina, do it, make us both happy.

But I’m not done yet. Later on in the anime, Euphemia dies – causing Nina to go even more batshit insane (if you can believe it). She somehow makes a massive bomb and straps it to a Knightmare that she happens to have lying around, and then near the end of the season claims she is going to blow herself up with it, taking the Black Knights, responsible for Euphemia’s death with her. Of course what she doesn’t mention is that it will also kill all of her school friends, hundreds of civilians, all the teachers… you get the idea. She’s absolutely stark raving mad, my blood pressure must double the second she steps on screen – she’s just that annoying.

Thank god the other characters make up for it. To be fair though, she thankfully doesn’t get much screen time.

Soundtrack 4/5

The soundtrack to Code Geass is decent, there isn’t a huge amount of music as far as it goes, but honestly it doesn’t really need it. What little music there is though fits perfectly, isn’t so loud that it’s overbearing but isn’t so quiet you don’t even notice it. Not really much to say or complain about here, bar the fact that it’s just what you would expect from such a high budget series.

Oddly, Code Geass seems to switch intro songs more than just once a season – there’s several for some reason. Fortunately, it doesn’t take a leaf out of Death Note’s book and have an intro song that makes your ears scream for mercy, but in all honesty none of them really jumped out at me either. The majority of the time I just found myself skipping through them entirely, as they weren’t very exciting and the video to go with it was just a few of the characters standing around as if they are for sale at a slave auction.

The same thing can be said about the ending themes too – they are passable but nothing worth waiting around for. They also have this very bizarre habit of drawing characters in a very strange way, such as giving Suzaku wings, for reasons I’ve never been able to fathom. Perhaps this is trying to hint at some deeper meaning to the plot of Code Geass but, in all honestly, its mostly mindless violence with nothing that seemed very clever to me. Anyway, going off track a bit here.

Strong score for Code Geass – now onto the final point.

Animation 4/5

Code Geass has its own bizarre, but eventually enjoyable style. It has a very strange method of drawing people – everyone seems a tad out of proportion, their arms and legs are too long and thin. The physique of most people in the show tends to be this spindly, it seems slightly like everyone in the Britannian Empire has the physique of a Greek God.

That being said, you do get used to it after a few episodes where it starts to grow on you. The style does fit the show, and it is nice to see someone trying something new – I must admit that much. It does creep me out a little sometimes though, especially as most of the male characters seem to be drawn with eyes the size of a small mountain as well as the girls, making quite a few of them look strangely feminine. Fortunately, most of the characters I like were spared this treatment (Go Prince Shniezel!).

I can’t give it full marks though because, like the plot, the animation for Code Geass is recycled so much I’m surprised it hasn’t won an eco-friendly award. There’s just certain sequences that get repeated so often in the show it does start to get dull after a while, where you end up wishing the scene would hurry up and conclude itself. A perfect example of this is Kallen and her Guren Knightmare Frame. Remember the claw I mentioned before? We’re led to believe Kallen is an unbelievably skilled Knightmare pilot – though she always seems to fight her battles in the same way. She sticks that claw in the opposing Knightmare’s face and explodes it in a scene that looks pretty much identical to all previous incarnations.

They do the same when Lelouch uses his geass. Every time he does so, he does this strange hand movement over his eyes, and then the camera zooms in on him until eventually you see a very odd mass of coloured lights move. Quite what this is supposed to represent I honestly don’t know – the obvious answer is it represents a brain function being changed, but if so the creators might want to research what neurons actually look like. Anyway, he does this almost every time he uses his geass – much like the claw, it looks suspiciously similar to the times before. I actually started to wonder if they just recycled the same three second clip and superimposed a background in to make it look authentic.

Had to dock a point for this.

The characters are so loyal to Pizza Hut, they get this fellow named Cheese-kun as a reward.

My final point is more of an observation rather than a complaint really – but am I the only one with a sneaking suspicion that Pizza Hut sponsored this show? It seems like almost every episode a subtle Pizza Hut advertisement is drawn in, taking the shape of a billboard in the background or a box left discarded at the side. It’s actually quite funny, although I do have to wonder if noticing all the Pizza Hut adverts speaks a bit negatively about how interesting the plot at these times are. Personally I never really enjoyed the Ashford Academy scenes, so maybe not that surprising.

Oh well.

Conclusion 16/20

A very high score for the first season of Code Geass, and that’s a high score well earned I’d say. Somehow, despite annoying characters, repetitive plot devices and animated sequences and a mediocre intro song, Code Geass managed to keep me incredibly entertained. That, I think, speaks volumes for just how good it really is. Especially as honestly, at first, I was certain I wouldn’t like it at all – giant mechs kicking the crud out of each other has never been remotely interesting to me. However, if you take the few fight scenes (which are rather obvious who will win at the time anyway, usually) with a pinch of salt, you’ll be fine.

Definitely worth watching, especially if you can endure the subliminal messages without rushing out to buy pizza in the middle. Somewhere in there will be a character that you like, I can guarantee that much.

So, with a score this high, we walk into the second season with pretty high expectations. While I won’t be rating the soundtrack or the animation any different, it’s the plot and character development we’ll be caring about – I wonder how it will go? Stay tuned for my next post, concluding this so far incredible anime. Season 1 ends on an expertly set up cliff-hanger, so l have high hopes.

BRB, off to Pizza Hut.

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