Undoubtedly the most anticipated series this spring, for reasons which I don’t really understand…but more on that later. Code Geass is back with its second season. Pretty good opening episode actually, there wasn’t much explaining in terms of plot or character elements, but I thought the amnesia deal was pulled off decently, and the whole mirroring of the first episode of Code Geass season 1 was neat…

…actually, I’m just a sucker for recursion functions and the effective use of coming full circle.

It’s been approximately a year since Zero’s final stand against Britannia failed and his uprising, known in history as the Black Rebellion, ended. Officially, Zero has been declared dead, executed, and the Order of the Black Knights isn’t even a shadow of its former self. Toudou, Ougi and the gang are locked under Britannian lock and key, the mad scientist Lakshata is on the run as a fugitive, the rebellion is scattered. However, it’s apparent that not all is lost as we’re given a shot of C.C. leading the remnants of the Order of the Black Knights into an operation.

Meanwhile, Lelouch is back at school living a seemingly normal life, not exactly what you would expect from the former leader of the greatest uprising against the Britannian army. Playing hooky with his brother, Rollo, Lelouch has seemingly fallen back into the mundaneness of everyday life, lamenting the politics of the world and his lack of motivation and power to do anything about it. Deriving what little fun he can from the world he’s in, he returns to tumbling chess masters at their own game to kill the time.

However, chaos seems to find Lelouch once again, as on his way to the casino, it’s revealed that he’s being watched by the Britanian army. Normality further evades him when we see that Kallen just so happens to be working at the casino.

And sure enough, soon after Lelouch finishes his game, an easy victory as usual. C.C. swings into action, landing a blimp full of the Order’s few remaining knightmare pilots, initiating their attack on the casino. With that, Kallen springs into action, punching the chess master Lelouch was playing in the face, knocking him out cold. She grabs Lelouch and runs off with him, making it clear that this attack is little more than a rescue operation, to bring him back to his senses as Zero, the leader of the Order of the Black Knights. However, Rollo, grabs a hold of Lelouch, whose memories have yet to return and the two run for it.

They’re confronted by one of the Order’s knightmares, and much to their surprise, aren’t fired upon, the knightmare actually extends an allied hand toward Lelouch, and protects him from stray fire when the Britannian army arrives. The two are eventually separated when the shock from an explosion sends Lelouch plummeting down the building’s support structure. When he comes to, he struggles to find his brother, thinking that even a powerless student like him should at the very least be able to protect his brother.

But instead, he finds the knightmare who earlier extended its hand towards him, the cockpit opens and C.C. emerges, claiming to be his ally and the only one who knows his true self. Their conversation is cut short when the Britannian army catches up with them and puts a bullet through C.C.’s heart. Holding what he thinks to be her corpse in his arms, Lelouch is then forced to swallow the explanation of the Britannians, how he was merely bait to draw out C.C. and with his death the situation will be wrapped up leaving no witnesses behind.

As he once again curses his powerlessness, C.C. kisses him, sending a message deep inside his mind, telling him that now is the time to remember, that the power he seeks is already within him, waiting to be unlocked. Seems to do the trick, as Lelouch reverts to his “normal” self, reawakens his Geass and tells the Britannians “NO U!”, commanding them to suicide.

Various background plots show their beginnings as all this is happening, the Chinese Union visiting area 11 on the premise of establishing political ties. And just when I thought we might get through an episode without having to see that faggot Suzaku (excuse the language, I really hate the guy) he makes an appearance at the end, along with two other knights, looking pretty spiffy, taking orders directly from the Emperor himself.

First Impressions

As I was going through this, my first reaction was to dismiss the over played amnesia crap and scoff at the laziness of copy+pasting the first episode of the first season with some minor tweaks. But for some reason it didn’t bug me all that much and by the end of it I found the whole ordeal to be pretty fitting. There are still a bunch of holes that need to be filled in, like how Lelouch ended up as a normal kid again, what happened in the cave with Suzaku, why Villeta is teaching at Ashford, etc. But I guess that’ll be filled in as we go along.

Technicals were nice, one of the few shows whose OP/ED kept me entertained long enough to watch the whole thing, it’s too bad my j-pop phase has long since past or I would have appreciated the Orange Range much more. Animation was up to par with what we saw last year, does the job very well for its purposes, if only slightly inconsistent and too reliant on lighting effects at times. Character designs are same old same old, return of the noodle limbs, I thought Rollo was a girl the first time I saw him, didn’t help that he’s yet to be given a backstory. But hey, the show has Kallen, who I’m fond of, in a bunny suit no less! So all is well.

And that about does it for my praise, time to rant: I’ve never understood Code Geass’ popularity. When I began to watch the first season I praised it for drawing me into the story because I’m not exactly the greatest mecha fan on the planet, I usually abhor the genre. But the initial excitement died down and it became just another show to me, nothing particularly bad, but not exceptionally good either. Yet, its popularity exploded, people started praising it like it was the return of the Jesus or something. lolikit says that the bandwagon started with Jason Miao of Derailed by Darry, formerly AoMM, I wouldn’t know, I never read his blog. But I do know that it got to the point where I saw it at the top of a lot of people’s “Best Anime of 2007″ lists, undeservingly so in my opinion, when you consider that shows like Dennou Coil and Gurren Lagann, to name a few, shone above it.

While the foundations of Code Geass are fairly well rooted, ie. characters and plot are interesting, when you get down to it, it’s a simple story of vengeance and rebellion with characters who do little but push their own ideals of justice, just like hundreds of anime in the past. And unlike Gurren Lagann, which I picked out as the best 2007 had to offer, it didn’t have over the top action and an animation budget to compensate for its rather generic base content.

tl;dr: Code Geass is a good anime, but worthy of the hype and its ability to make anime fans cream their pants at its mere mention? I think not.

You know…my consumption of Pizza Hut pizza has actually seen quite the increase since I watched CG, I’m such a tool ;_;

~ Shirukii ~