So after a very high score for the first season of Code Geass, we walk into the next with pretty high expectations. Can the next season live up to our expectations? We will shortly find out.
I remind you that at the end of season one, a pretty incredible cliffhanger is left open – and so I do pity those who watched it when the show first came out. It must have been pretty frustrating to not know what happened. Who wins out, Lelouch or Suzaku?
Please note however that this review will be considerably shorter than my usual ones as the basic premise has already been established in the first one. Plus I don’t need to comment on animation or music this time around, as it’s pretty much the same. But enough of this, let’s leap right in!
Plot 1/5
Ouch, yeah that is not good at all. Don’t fret too much here though, as it isn’t quite as bad as the scoring suggests. Despite the number I’ve given it, it still remains interesting and watchable – but I have no choice but to mark it down due to lack of continuity, and most importantly, making the plot go unintelligibly crazy. Seriously, some parts of this second season make very little sense and are incredibly confusing.
All throughout season one we are hinted at the Emperor having some kind of secret plan going on behind the scenes, with his frequent appearances in the strange world that seems to be called the ‘Sword of Akasha’. Constantly, I asked myself, what is this place? What purpose does it serve? Is it related to geass somehow? I guessed it was. So when this was finally coming to a conclusion I couldn’t wait for these questions to be answered – there’s nothing wrong with being bizarre, just as long as it is explained in the end. Final Fantasy for example often has incredibly weird plots, but in the end there is a reason for everything.
How disappointed I was.
Apparently god is ... Jupiter? I really wish this made sense.
This is my first and one of the major criticisms of this season – even after the Emperor is killed, we never find out what that thing even was. Apparently, just to make things even more confusing, it was created specifically to slay God. What the hell? Not only that, but God is actually a manifestation of all of the dead people’s thoughts, and by killing it they will prevent people lying and bring people back from the dead and …. What? To be honest I’m not even sure if any of what I’ve just said about the ‘God’ is true, but it’s just the impression I got from the small amount of information we were given. Apparently God can also be geassed, even though it needs direct eye contact – God has no visible eyes I might add. Or anything really, its hard to tell what it is honestly. This part was a severe disappointment.
As for the continuity, they finally did it – they broke the rules of the geass. I had a feeling they might try and make Lelouch so clever that they accidentally overstepped the boundaries they laid down for themselves – and sure enough they walked right into it. About the same time as the bit with God actually is a good example – Lelouch fires a missile that explodes into shards of broken glass – using his geass, he reflects his power onto the Emperor without looking at him. Firstly, this is so convenient that he would have this installed on his Knightmare for such a specific occasion – I really don’t believe it would happen. But that’s a lesser point.
Need I remind you, Code Geass, that the geass specifically requires direct eye contact? This was clearly established in season one, even with an example where it wouldn’t work. Remember the psycho, Mao? He wore a slightly shrouded visor which prevented him from being geassed – so why did a reflection work? If reflections work, why wouldn’t looking someone directly in the eye who is wearing glasses of some sort? This throws out a lot of questions for sure.
Moving on, in season two, the fight scenes which I tended to find were predictable are back with a vengeance – and more predictable than ever I should add. The unnamed soldiers are even less effective than ever, dying by the thousands to characters who actually have a point. It’s pretty much a guaranteed thing that extras in these types of anime will die, but it spirals a bit out of control. Eventually this is culminated in a plot to launch a F.L.E.I.J.A missile (which causes a large amount of matter to implode) onto every capital city on the planet. Really, getting a bit ridiculous now – as Lord Ilpalazzo would say, “They intend to conquer the entire planet at once, do they? I can only say it’s an idea for fools, who can only grasp the most generalised of concepts.” Hear hear.
But anyway, the ace Knightmare pilots are back with a few extra others in this season, blown even more out of proportion than before. There’s even an organisation called the Knights of the Round who are the best pilots in the Britannian Empire – though oddly despite this name, the majority of them are terrible. They tend to be beaten by several of the untrained terrorists with regular ease, in fact one of them is even beaten by Jeremiah Gottwald – a previous member of the Britannian Army as a Lord. If he was better than one of the Knights of the Round, then logic tells me he should be one of them, doesn’t it you? But yeah, these scenes really get boring.
Next up is the fanservice – there was plenty of fanservice in season one don’t get me wrong, but in season two it goes overboard. There’s even a scene where Kallen goes into battle wearing a bunny outfit, you’d think she would at least throw something over it before getting in her Knightmare. A lot of ladies in anime do tend to be sexualised but still, let them keep some dignity for the collective unconsciousness of all human’s sake (see what I did there?).
Finally, I need to talk about the ending. The great plan that will stop all war, that will save all of humanity from itself, and the plan that will make us all weep for the great martyr, Lelouch. Apparently he makes the world hate him specifically, and then has himself assassinated – thus ending all wars. As he becomes the Emperor of Britannia, the next in the heirachy would be Schniezel – who has been geassed to listen to Zero, who is Suzaku in disguise. Apparently, this will somehow end all wars, because Suzaku can now effectively lead the empire with Schniezel as his puppet. Oh what a hero, let us all remember him fondly – but hang on. This plan has more holes in it than a mole exhibit at the local animal sanctuary. What experience does Suzaku have with leading an empire? He’s never led anything in his life, and suddenly he’s thrown into control of a gigantic empire? What about the other Britannian nobles? They probably won’t be satisfied with
All hail Schniezel!
discarding their might for peace after a lifetime of conquest. Many of Schniezel’s followers also know about geass and so would be able to guess what happened – they also developed a geass remover. Need I say more? Of course, Zero has enemies too, a lot of enemies in fact. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few assassins go after him too. There are just so many things that could go wrong that it almost certainly would not work. I keep seeing these random theories online that Lelouch doesn’t actually die – so I think to myself, people are making the ending up for themselves eh?
Well then, if the ending is left open, here’s my interpretation. Schniezel’s dedicated assistant whose name escapes me creates a new geass remover. He then uses said geass remover to free the master whom he has been so loyal to over the series, and so a plan is set on motion. Schniezel, being the genius he is, pretends to go along with Suzaku’s orders until his plan is into motion – Zero is assassinated along with the few sympathisers he has gained. Schiezel then conquers the world, and so Lelouch only delayed the inevitable.
All hail Britannia, I suppose.
Characters 3/5
A slightly disappointing score for the characters again sadly – while they are by no means bad, series two does several things wrong in this regard. Firstly, it introduces a lot of new characters – the majority of whom are a massive pain in the rear. For example, the opening scene introduces Rolo – a boy pretending to be the little brother of Lelouch to spy on him for the past year. Later on in the series he betrays his empire and masters because of the cheesy little bastard he is – he actually loves his fake big brother. Ugh, the entire thing wants to make me vomit. Despite being an assassin in the employ of the empire, he is just so innocent it makes you cringe. I was pretty glad when I saw the back of him.
Code Geass also falls into the ‘little girl’ trap that you know I hate so much, if you read my five most annoying characters post a while back. This time it’s the Empress and her… friend of some sort in the Chinese Federation. These two brats are excruciatingly annoying whenever they appear, especially the Empress – I know I just complained that Rolo was innocent but wow. She really goes beyond the call of duty there. She strikes me as the kind of girl who wouldn’t take a step forward without checking the ground for ants. The entire Chinese Federation subplot is just a bit dull if you ask me, and it was nice when they finally got back to Japan.
The rivals fight - Kallen vs Suzaku, Lelouch vs Schniezel and Nunally faces her worst foe - the stairs.
My next reason for downrating this section is that the characters that were less likeable in season one returned – this time with a lot more screen time and importance for some reason. For example, Nina, the most annoying of them all, is revealed to be an incredible scientist and genius. I also recently found out that her full name is Nina Einstein – that’s the least subtle thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Anyway, as crazy as ever, Nina waltzes onto the scene and everyone treats her like she’s important because she designed a weapon. Really wish she would just get lost to be honest. She even has a morality clash at one point – she has to choose between giving herself to science, or keeping her heart (apparently). Sadly, death didn’t seem to be an option. After such a crazed stunt like in season one, trying to make us feel sorry for her now really was never going to work.
Nunally also makes an appearance – as Viceroy for Japan no less. Seeing such a pathetic character in a position of authority is a little unbelievable – especially when she starts to perform feats that not even the strongest characters appear to be capable of. I of course speak of her breaking the geass used on her through sheer will – how this miracle was achieved I don’t know, but I honestly find it hard to believe such a broken girl would have more willpower than say – Cornelia. Nonetheless, she does break it – presumably we are meant to think she is stronger than meets the eye. However, after she is successfully manipulated by Lelouch, Schniezel, Suzaku, even her assistant… well that’s pretty hard to believe.
The other thing that really annoyed me is that the characters stabbed their own ideology in the back. Pretty much every major character goes against all they were fighting for in the beginning. Lelouch, who swore to bring down Britannia in vengeance for his mother and sister, ends up joining them and becoming their Emperor. He claims to have done this to solve the problem from the inside – but for the last forty episodes he has laughed at Suzaku for trying to do exactly that.
Suzaku on the other hand ditches that exact ideology, and instead adopts a “the end justifies the means” approach on the situation – so exactly what Lelouch was doing before. This whole thing just blows my mind really, that they spend such a long time criticising each other and then all switch their stance. I imagine this is meant to be a clever thing by the producers, but honestly it just makes all the characters you liked before lose all the positive features.
Even Schniezel, who has been built up as a threat to Zero all this time, goes against his previous personality. Originally he was built up as a hero of Britannia who is even more of a genius than Lelouch, and so rather than fight with weapons, he uses a more compassionate approach. He obtains the loyalty of many of Zero’s followers by promising a brighter future, by sending Nunnally – a peaceful viceroy instead of warmongering one – generally taking a more friendly approach. This way, Zero loses popularity for his militant group, a clever plan indeed. Then at the end of season two he wants to destroy every capital city on the planet.
What. The. Hell.
That being said, not everything new is bad. I actually really like Schniezel, so him getting more screen-time was good. I was pleased to see Cornelia made a return, and even Sir Guilford survived. And of course, Jeremiah Gottwald makes his best appearance in the series here. So it’s definitely not all bad, you just need to bear in mind that I rated both this and the plot compared to season one – not as a standalone show. That’s why they came out so low.
Conclusion 12/20
The ending is so "happily ever after" it makes you cringe.
Well as the animation and the soundtrack haven’t changed score-wise, we can finally ask the question – is season two as good as season one? No is the answer, not by quite a long way. Perhaps now the significance of the title makes more sense (Save Me by Queen by the way) – it may have started out perfectly, but it didn’t end on such a good note. However, despite that, it is by no means bad. You might be disappointed by the ending, sure, but if you sat through all of the first season you will definitely make it through this one.
Code Geass has achieved quite significant popularity over the years though, and as is to be expected from such an achievement, spinoffs have been spawned. I cannot stress enough how much these should be avoided – many of them completely rewrite the story, and definitely not for the better. My minor complaints here pale in comparison to some of the butchery that has been commited against the Code Geass storyline, the likes of which I haven’t seen since I read the Twilight saga.
So despite my many complaints, season two is still fairly good – and I highly recommend it if you watched all of the original series. Sadly, to those who were excited to see the conclusion of the cliffhanger at the end of season one, it doesn’t get resolved for a good long while. Oh well, after so many complaints, I still enjoyed myself thoroughly sitting through most of Code Geass.
JudgeReviews commands you – watch it now!
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