Most people will tell you that Code Geass is Gundam and Death Note’s love child. I really think it is much more than that. The basic storyline is as follows: Guy wants revenge for his dead mother and forgotten sister. Guy meets girl with power and he in turn gets a power. Guy starts up an organization to fight THE ENEMY. Guys old best friend ends up on the other side of this dispute. Insert mechas and different fractions of powers coming together to fight in a war where the intentions of those in charge are not known. Also insert a few love interests with questionable size breasts. All and all, many people can see parts of this anime and say, yep, been there, done that, nothing new there. Well, while it might sound like a cookie cutter anime, I find it far from it.
Spoilers ahead...
Let’s take the revenge aspect. Lelouch, the main character, wants revenge on the Emperor of Britannia for the death of his mother and the treatment of his sister. However, Lelouch is the CROWNED PRINCE of Britannia and the person he is after the most is his father. However, he spends a great deal of the series trying to kill all his other siblings (the Emperor has like 15 kids it seems like!) so it makes me wonder why he only loves the one, Nunnally. It just seems odd that he can pick and choose who he loves in his family, because had he and Nunnally stayed within the royal family, I am sure they would have been brought up with the same ideal system. But I quite enjoy the son trying to kill his father aspect of this show.
The guy meets girl with power part was not as typical either. Most of the time the girl runs up to the guy and says I have been looking for you all my life, you are the one!!! Nope, C.C. gets her happy self SHOT IN THE HEAD. 0_o The best friend, Suzaku, also gets shot! This first episode was having a high death count and it just started! Then C.C., the girl with POWER, gets up and makes a contract with Lelouch. He then receives a Geass. A geass is also referred to the Power of the Kings and each geass is different. Most geasses start in one eye to activate it’s power and in most instances, you have to look at your victim to activate it. There are different rules and limitations to each geass. Lelouch’s geass is the ability to tell a person to do something. For instance, he first used his power to tell the soldiers to kill themselves and they all pulled out guns and shot themselves. Another geass used in the series is the ability to rewrite people’s memories. Most geasses tend to mess with the mind. In a typical scenario, having this new power takes practice and by the end of a series, the person has mastered it. In Code Geass, your power can kill you. After repeat use, you are unable to control it and that can lead to the accidental massacre of many people. Lelouch has to wear contacts and hide his eyes a great deal of the time. Also, these Geasses have many limitations. Lelouch’s geass is discussed most in the series and a great number of limitations are placed on him, the biggest being he can only use this power once per person. He cannot continuously tell people what to do. People can also have to be able to answer his question and it frustrates him at times when he continuously asks people who killed his mother and they simply DO NOT KNOW. He has to have eye contact with a person and he cannot use his ability over television or radio waves. There have also been some problems with people not completely following his commands, as they go too far from the victim’s moral stand point. At best, his Geass gives him a heads up, but in some instances, it screws over his plans.
Now Lelouch is not your typical leader. In reality, he really does suck. The anime opens up with a chess match and that is how Lelouch sees his organization, as a pawn to use to reach HIS goal, not the goal of the collective (borg moment :O). The organization he ends up running is a resistant group. 7 years ago, Japan was taken over by the Britannian Empire and they are forced to life as second class citizens known as Elevens. They are fighting to get their rights and land back. Lelouch uses their goals for better life and to regain what was taken from them to his advantage to destroy the people he feels has wronged him. Of course, he has to hide his indentify, because…you know…the Elevens are not really keen on Britannian citizens, let alone a crown prince. This group starts off with a few rag tag individuals who can barely steal one mecha and soon he gains the power of all resistant groups in Japan (area 11) and of what use to be China. They are renamed the Black Knights and become an actual enemy worth fighting. Behind the scenes though, it is mostly Lelouch’s geass that turns the tide in their favor. Without his geass, their group had no chance of surviving.
So, Lelouch’s childhood friend, Suzaku, ends up on the side of the Britannian Empire. But in reality, Suzaku is the LAST person who should be supporting the Empire. His father was the Prime Minister of Japan before the takeover. His home land and way of life has been infringed by these invaders, yet he wishes to support them. He starts off as a regular solider in the military and through a series of events, he ends up being a Knight. He is still considered by most an untrustworthy Eleven (most Britannians use the word Eleven as a very derogatory word). But he still thinks he is doing the right thing. He acknowledges that the Empire’s ways are wrong, but he is under the delusional impression if he can work for the Empire, he can help work towards change. In most cases, I feel as if he thinks that the Japanese people should just stop fighting and all become honorary citizens to avoid further bloodshed. He wants to fight to avoid more countless deaths, yet it is revealed later his intentions are less than stellar and have changed the entire course of history (he KILLED his dad so Japan would not fight back in the initial attack of Britannian. Mmm, so he wanted to save lives by killing a countries leader….sounds like someone else we know.) Suzaku is often used a pawn in people’s plans and he gets bounced around a lot. Currently he is serving under the NEW emperor.
Again, one might think this is a typical mecha show with all the different sides fighting each other. However, I tend to think these mechas are more unique than others I have seen in the past. The basic ones are called Knightmares and are the typical soldier ones, aka those in red shirts and are expendable. The more “main characters” get custom mechas that have something special about them. Oh, and all these special mechas have different names, so it can get a little confusing as this series has MANY individuals with their own special mechas. This series also differs in the aspect of what is really possible. I realize that sentence might be a little ridiculous considering I am talking about mechas in the first place. But some of the mechas in Code Geass are…really unfair. :P One particular model gets an upgrade that has the power to obliterate a huge area (it killed over 25 million with one blow). Sorta hard to fight a machine with that kind of power. But as long as both sides get these “unfair” mechas, it all evens out in the end (well, except for those 25 million normal citizens who had no time to run, I guess it is not fair to them :P). In the end though, having this many special mechas is a great marketing idea and the model kits should be endless.
As for the fractions of power, in most mecha animes, people are fighting for control over a certain land or resource. They feel as if their nation/group deserves to be in charge and they will fight to overthrow the current power/faction. The Britannian Empire seems to be a power that just wants to take over the entire world, to have all the countries and resources for themselves and that the people that inhabited those areas before can be spared as long as they give up their identity and national pride. The Black Knights think they are trying to win back their independence and later, help fight to overthrow the oppressive Britannian Empire. In reality, that is not what the leaders have planned. I have already discussed what Lelouch’s main goal was, to avenge (find out) his mother’s death and create a world where people like his sister can live in peace (although, I am sure should would want her siblings alive too). Perhaps he feels his father’s ways are wrong, but most of the time he really does not care what happens to Area 11, as long as HIS goal is reached. Now, it has been revealed recently that the Emperor, Lelouch’s father, had a different goal in mind than simply taking over the world. When he was younger, the Emperor Charles and his brother lived in a world where everyone was killing each other to try to take over the throne. They decided to make a promise to work towards making a world where there are no lies and people would not hurt each other (this of course, epically FAILS when V.V, the brother, goes and shoots up Charles’ wife and Lelouch’s mother, Marianne for apparently distracting Charles, but in actually, she was ruining the potential contract between the brothers.). The show takes a supernatural turn (in case it wasn’t supernatural enough with the geasses) when Charles is able to go to the Sword of Akasha, part of or actually the land of C, it being the will of mankind (yeah, it gets a little complicated so forgive me with how I choose to break it down). This place is where the gods control our life and Charles, Marianne, and V.V. (also to an extent C.C.) were planning to somehow pull an Evangelion on our butts (minus the orange tang) and create world where everything is connected and nothing is hidden. In this magical world, those who were lost can be bought back and time apparently will just stay still, there will be no progression. Now, with all that confusion SAID, the main reason Charles is trying to blow up the black knights and most of Japan is not because he cares they are trying to overthrow him, but he is trying to find C.C. to get her code. A code is basically the immortality of the person who gave you the geass in the first place. Once your geass reaches an advanced stage, the person who gave you the geass can give you their immortality in exchange for the geass you got (then the giver dies, happily I might add cause they get sick of living. That is what the CONTRACT is between the giver and taker, that one day the taker will kill the giver, awesome.) Yes, if you are still following me, this actually does make sense if you watch the entire series (even if most of this information came from one episode). So while 99 percent of the world thinks they are fighting a war to gain some land and natural resources, it is actually a plot to turn almost turn us into tang babies. :O
Ah, the love interests. It is not your typical boy meets girl, boy rejects girl because of his dangerous position in life, girl pursues boy and in the end they ride off into the sunset. First of all, CLAMP has it’s hands on this people, you know that is a happy ending is not in the cards for most of these people. For both boys, Suzaku and Lelouch, there are a number of possible love interests. The two girls that both expressed in words their love for the boys and a willingness to help them with their cause…died. Accidentally. And meaningless. Lelouch’s geass goes out of control when talking to his one SANE sibling, Euphemia, who wanted to help the Japanese people out and work for peace. On the day of her plan to give the Japanese people back some of her land, Lelouch joked about killing them all…and suddenly, his geass goes insane and off Euphemia goes, on a happy killing spree, ordering her soldiers to kill a stadium full of innocent people. Lelouch, as Zero, ends up killing her to stop the madness and Suzaku is beyond pissed. Why Zero/Lelouch never tells the people close to him it is an accident it is beyond me. Now, Lelouch’s possible love interest was a Shirley, a useless girl whom I wanted to die since the moment she sent food on the screen, she gave me nightmares of Relena reincarnated. Earlier in the series, Zero leads the Black Knights on some missions and one of these missions kills her father. Through another character, Shirley learns that Zero is Lelouch and basically goes to crazy town. After an encounter with another geass user, Lelouch erases her memories so she does not have to suffer. Then, right when she finds out once again about Zero’s true identity, everyone’s memories get erased due to another geass user! During the second season, she runs into ANOTHER geass user who undoes all the geasses put on her (I am surprised her mind is not soup now or something), but she resolves this time to actually help Lelouch, that she loves him no matter what. Then enter another character, who thinks he is acting in Zero’s best interests, shoots and kills her. To the best of my knowledge, Shirley has had the most geasses used on her out of all the characters, despite not being able to fight or provide anything useful to Lelouch. Fear not though, Lelouch still have two possible love interests, even if one of them is currently pissed at him and the other’s main wish in life is to die. Suzaku might have had a chance with Lelouch’s OTHER sister Nunnally, but he might have killed her along with those other 25 million people. That and this author thinks that there is an attraction between the two boys anyway, that these girls are out of luck no matter what.
So, there is my reasoning on why this show is NOT just another mecha show with a familiar plot. This is my first anime review, so be kind to me please :P I wrote what I thought was a basic outline of the plot, it goes MUCH deeper into issues than this brief overview. For a more neutral explanation, I suggest you search it on Wiki. :P
Do I think you should pick up Code Geass (or find it from some NAUGHTY illegal source) and watch it? Yes I do! It has a lot to offer, it reaches many different audiences. There is romance, fighting, plot twists, perhaps a few ecchi moments, eye candy characters, scifi, comedy, ect! Be prepared to have to remember a lot of characters names. I also suggest watching this series for 1-2 block hours at a time, so you can better remember the events. No matter how awesome an anime series is, there are things that make people go 0_o, so here are a few things you should watch out for:
The crazy girl masturbation scene. Now most guys would find that pretty hot, but it wasn’t. The character Nina is creepy and hopefully will die really soon for putting those images in my head.
Random filler episodes. This anime has a lot of plot and action, so when all of a sudden people are running around with heart hats on their heads, it takes away from the..um there is a WAR going on aspect.
Pizza hut has survived the global take over and it is all the rage for immortal witches.
Fast pace plot. I found myself having to pause the computer at times so I could read all the information being given to me :O
If you can handle those few issues, then you are set to go (except for the masturbation scene..that is creepy no matter how you cut it and it is beyond random :P). This series is very good and I think it is too unique to be called the next Gundam Seed or Death Note. Anyone who reads this, please take an hour or two, watch a few episodes, and decide for yourself. Hope you have enjoyed my random overview of this series and I am sure I will write a conclusion blog when the series ends.
On a side note, I saw these really cute charms at AFO and I thought they were on the pricy side. Come to find out, they were reasonably priced and the girl who bought the entire box was right to buy them all. :( let me cry in the corner now!
The guy meets girl with power part was not as typical either. Most of the time the girl runs up to the guy and says I have been looking for you all my life, you are the one!!! Nope, C.C. gets her happy self SHOT IN THE HEAD. 0_o The best friend, Suzaku, also gets shot! This first episode was having a high death count and it just started! Then C.C., the girl with POWER, gets up and makes a contract with Lelouch. He then receives a Geass. A geass is also referred to the Power of the Kings and each geass is different. Most geasses start in one eye to activate it’s power and in most instances, you have to look at your victim to activate it. There are different rules and limitations to each geass. Lelouch’s geass is the ability to tell a person to do something. For instance, he first used his power to tell the soldiers to kill themselves and they all pulled out guns and shot themselves. Another geass used in the series is the ability to rewrite people’s memories. Most geasses tend to mess with the mind. In a typical scenario, having this new power takes practice and by the end of a series, the person has mastered it. In Code Geass, your power can kill you. After repeat use, you are unable to control it and that can lead to the accidental massacre of many people. Lelouch has to wear contacts and hide his eyes a great deal of the time. Also, these Geasses have many limitations. Lelouch’s geass is discussed most in the series and a great number of limitations are placed on him, the biggest being he can only use this power once per person. He cannot continuously tell people what to do. People can also have to be able to answer his question and it frustrates him at times when he continuously asks people who killed his mother and they simply DO NOT KNOW. He has to have eye contact with a person and he cannot use his ability over television or radio waves. There have also been some problems with people not completely following his commands, as they go too far from the victim’s moral stand point. At best, his Geass gives him a heads up, but in some instances, it screws over his plans.
So, Lelouch’s childhood friend, Suzaku, ends up on the side of the Britannian Empire. But in reality, Suzaku is the LAST person who should be supporting the Empire. His father was the Prime Minister of Japan before the takeover. His home land and way of life has been infringed by these invaders, yet he wishes to support them. He starts off as a regular solider in the military and through a series of events, he ends up being a Knight. He is still considered by most an untrustworthy Eleven (most Britannians use the word Eleven as a very derogatory word). But he still thinks he is doing the right thing. He acknowledges that the Empire’s ways are wrong, but he is under the delusional impression if he can work for the Empire, he can help work towards change. In most cases, I feel as if he thinks that the Japanese people should just stop fighting and all become honorary citizens to avoid further bloodshed. He wants to fight to avoid more countless deaths, yet it is revealed later his intentions are less than stellar and have changed the entire course of history (he KILLED his dad so Japan would not fight back in the initial attack of Britannian. Mmm, so he wanted to save lives by killing a countries leader….sounds like someone else we know.) Suzaku is often used a pawn in people’s plans and he gets bounced around a lot. Currently he is serving under the NEW emperor.
Again, one might think this is a typical mecha show with all the different sides fighting each other. However, I tend to think these mechas are more unique than others I have seen in the past. The basic ones are called Knightmares and are the typical soldier ones, aka those in red shirts and are expendable. The more “main characters” get custom mechas that have something special about them. Oh, and all these special mechas have different names, so it can get a little confusing as this series has MANY individuals with their own special mechas. This series also differs in the aspect of what is really possible. I realize that sentence might be a little ridiculous considering I am talking about mechas in the first place. But some of the mechas in Code Geass are…really unfair. :P One particular model gets an upgrade that has the power to obliterate a huge area (it killed over 25 million with one blow). Sorta hard to fight a machine with that kind of power. But as long as both sides get these “unfair” mechas, it all evens out in the end (well, except for those 25 million normal citizens who had no time to run, I guess it is not fair to them :P). In the end though, having this many special mechas is a great marketing idea and the model kits should be endless.
As for the fractions of power, in most mecha animes, people are fighting for control over a certain land or resource. They feel as if their nation/group deserves to be in charge and they will fight to overthrow the current power/faction. The Britannian Empire seems to be a power that just wants to take over the entire world, to have all the countries and resources for themselves and that the people that inhabited those areas before can be spared as long as they give up their identity and national pride. The Black Knights think they are trying to win back their independence and later, help fight to overthrow the oppressive Britannian Empire. In reality, that is not what the leaders have planned. I have already discussed what Lelouch’s main goal was, to avenge (find out) his mother’s death and create a world where people like his sister can live in peace (although, I am sure should would want her siblings alive too). Perhaps he feels his father’s ways are wrong, but most of the time he really does not care what happens to Area 11, as long as HIS goal is reached. Now, it has been revealed recently that the Emperor, Lelouch’s father, had a different goal in mind than simply taking over the world. When he was younger, the Emperor Charles and his brother lived in a world where everyone was killing each other to try to take over the throne. They decided to make a promise to work towards making a world where there are no lies and people would not hurt each other (this of course, epically FAILS when V.V, the brother, goes and shoots up Charles’ wife and Lelouch’s mother, Marianne for apparently distracting Charles, but in actually, she was ruining the potential contract between the brothers.). The show takes a supernatural turn (in case it wasn’t supernatural enough with the geasses) when Charles is able to go to the Sword of Akasha, part of or actually the land of C, it being the will of mankind (yeah, it gets a little complicated so forgive me with how I choose to break it down). This place is where the gods control our life and Charles, Marianne, and V.V. (also to an extent C.C.) were planning to somehow pull an Evangelion on our butts (minus the orange tang) and create world where everything is connected and nothing is hidden. In this magical world, those who were lost can be bought back and time apparently will just stay still, there will be no progression. Now, with all that confusion SAID, the main reason Charles is trying to blow up the black knights and most of Japan is not because he cares they are trying to overthrow him, but he is trying to find C.C. to get her code. A code is basically the immortality of the person who gave you the geass in the first place. Once your geass reaches an advanced stage, the person who gave you the geass can give you their immortality in exchange for the geass you got (then the giver dies, happily I might add cause they get sick of living. That is what the CONTRACT is between the giver and taker, that one day the taker will kill the giver, awesome.) Yes, if you are still following me, this actually does make sense if you watch the entire series (even if most of this information came from one episode). So while 99 percent of the world thinks they are fighting a war to gain some land and natural resources, it is actually a plot to turn almost turn us into tang babies. :O
Ah, the love interests. It is not your typical boy meets girl, boy rejects girl because of his dangerous position in life, girl pursues boy and in the end they ride off into the sunset. First of all, CLAMP has it’s hands on this people, you know that is a happy ending is not in the cards for most of these people. For both boys, Suzaku and Lelouch, there are a number of possible love interests. The two girls that both expressed in words their love for the boys and a willingness to help them with their cause…died. Accidentally. And meaningless. Lelouch’s geass goes out of control when talking to his one SANE sibling, Euphemia, who wanted to help the Japanese people out and work for peace. On the day of her plan to give the Japanese people back some of her land, Lelouch joked about killing them all…and suddenly, his geass goes insane and off Euphemia goes, on a happy killing spree, ordering her soldiers to kill a stadium full of innocent people. Lelouch, as Zero, ends up killing her to stop the madness and Suzaku is beyond pissed. Why Zero/Lelouch never tells the people close to him it is an accident it is beyond me. Now, Lelouch’s possible love interest was a Shirley, a useless girl whom I wanted to die since the moment she sent food on the screen, she gave me nightmares of Relena reincarnated. Earlier in the series, Zero leads the Black Knights on some missions and one of these missions kills her father. Through another character, Shirley learns that Zero is Lelouch and basically goes to crazy town. After an encounter with another geass user, Lelouch erases her memories so she does not have to suffer. Then, right when she finds out once again about Zero’s true identity, everyone’s memories get erased due to another geass user! During the second season, she runs into ANOTHER geass user who undoes all the geasses put on her (I am surprised her mind is not soup now or something), but she resolves this time to actually help Lelouch, that she loves him no matter what. Then enter another character, who thinks he is acting in Zero’s best interests, shoots and kills her. To the best of my knowledge, Shirley has had the most geasses used on her out of all the characters, despite not being able to fight or provide anything useful to Lelouch. Fear not though, Lelouch still have two possible love interests, even if one of them is currently pissed at him and the other’s main wish in life is to die. Suzaku might have had a chance with Lelouch’s OTHER sister Nunnally, but he might have killed her along with those other 25 million people. That and this author thinks that there is an attraction between the two boys anyway, that these girls are out of luck no matter what.
So, there is my reasoning on why this show is NOT just another mecha show with a familiar plot. This is my first anime review, so be kind to me please :P I wrote what I thought was a basic outline of the plot, it goes MUCH deeper into issues than this brief overview. For a more neutral explanation, I suggest you search it on Wiki. :P
Do I think you should pick up Code Geass (or find it from some NAUGHTY illegal source) and watch it? Yes I do! It has a lot to offer, it reaches many different audiences. There is romance, fighting, plot twists, perhaps a few ecchi moments, eye candy characters, scifi, comedy, ect! Be prepared to have to remember a lot of characters names. I also suggest watching this series for 1-2 block hours at a time, so you can better remember the events. No matter how awesome an anime series is, there are things that make people go 0_o, so here are a few things you should watch out for:
The crazy girl masturbation scene. Now most guys would find that pretty hot, but it wasn’t. The character Nina is creepy and hopefully will die really soon for putting those images in my head.
Random filler episodes. This anime has a lot of plot and action, so when all of a sudden people are running around with heart hats on their heads, it takes away from the..um there is a WAR going on aspect.
Pizza hut has survived the global take over and it is all the rage for immortal witches.
Fast pace plot. I found myself having to pause the computer at times so I could read all the information being given to me :O
If you can handle those few issues, then you are set to go (except for the masturbation scene..that is creepy no matter how you cut it and it is beyond random :P). This series is very good and I think it is too unique to be called the next Gundam Seed or Death Note. Anyone who reads this, please take an hour or two, watch a few episodes, and decide for yourself. Hope you have enjoyed my random overview of this series and I am sure I will write a conclusion blog when the series ends.
On a side note, I saw these really cute charms at AFO and I thought they were on the pricy side. Come to find out, they were reasonably priced and the girl who bought the entire box was right to buy them all. :( let me cry in the corner now!
4 comments:
You make this sound very interesting. I had never heard of anime until I met you. But the way you describe it make's is sound like something I might really be able to get into. Thank's and I will be back for more interesting reads.
that anonymous person above, is me. damn it. I'm learning. lmao
my goal is to spread the love of anime to all. i try to add my own flare on to my posts and you know i fail at sugar coating things. :)
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