[Klashikari]

Code Geass stirred a lot of reactions and praises for its bold plot and especially Lelouch's character.
The first season managed to get quite entertaining. Is the second season the proper sequel for CG? My answer below.

1) Image Quality:

Sakuga and animation
Even if I'm used to CLAMP character design, I must admit that Code Geass has often shown many exaggerated facial distorsions that almost reminded me of these atrocious ones from Higurashi first season. In a way, while it managed to give some charisma for many characters, it was extremely whacky at times (especially Lelouch's mouth, which its limits can even reach the edge of his jaw).
Faces aside, I must admit that Kallen's bust size was downright scary in many occasions... her breasts weren't exactly stable and could jump from D-cup to G cup between 2 episodes (I'm especially referring to the period she is abducted by the Empire)

The Animation doesn't have much to be criticized about, but Sakuga itself can be very debatable in the course of the second season. I will most likely mention Episode 15, with Charles having an EXTREMELY whacky character design, while Lelouch got oversimplified for many scenes.

Of course, such syndrome occurs in various episodes, but it isn't a major fault that would affect much the series itself. However, it is kinda questionable to see how it can go VERY wrong at times.
7.5/10


2) Sound Quality:

2.1 Voice Actors
I think this department for Code Geass is nothing to argue: they do have a lot of charismatic voice actors, especially Fukuyama and Wakomoto for their performances for respectively Lelouch and Charles.
Of course, if you add Yukana's alluring voice for C.C. and Nakata's usual "nonchalance" for Diethard, it does show how they didn't go wrong with the seiyuu.

Though I would argue that some of the voices were kinda average (Rivalz's, V.V's, etc), it is rather because they are rather too "normal and plain" in comparison with the guest stars already.

2.2 Opening / Ending
I will be quite short, but... I really didn't like much of these OP and ED at all. Granted, they weren't as bad as the first season second OP, I must say that almost none really gave me the "proper" vibes for the franchise.

2.3 BGM
Most of the ones used for Britannia were quite nice (chorus, quite the noble and military sides), while few mystic tracks (notably for C.C.) were quite good. However, the rest is pretty much too "discrete". Of course, one might argue that it prevents the tracks being invasive, but it also dampens the possible "pumped up" effect for certain key scenes.

8/10


3) Script:

3.1 Characters:
This point of the series is arguably shaky to be quite honest. As far as I can critic, the biggest problem for Code Geass is actually to portray a real evolution aside for our main tandem, Lelouch and Suzaku.

Lelouch was infact the most consistent character of the franchise: despite his lies and his "necessary evilness", he could prevent himself to set himself astray. One would expect him to be contradictory to his main objective, but there wasn't much possibility to use shortcuts or whatnot considering the trial.

This is quite a contrast with Suzaku who had to go on "trial-and-error" considering how his loyalty could only match the "winning" side, until he finally was able to attain the "best option", which was granted by Lelouch.

Now, the "bad" side of the characterization lies with the other characters, mainly the "antagonists" that didn't exactly earn well this title.
Charles was first portrayed as a totally ruthless regent, who could care less of his offsprings. Many times, he was shown doing some shady stuff with elements related to the Geass cult and the World of C. But then, as he is trying to outsmart Schneizel's plan, it is finally revealed that Charles tried in a very bad way (kinda similar to the Seele from Evangelion) to bring peace for his children.
This stirred a lot of debates, and personally, I couldn't swallow this switched description as it is literally a curve ball. Even if I can accept characters having a personal agenda, I'm really not keen to accept such switching role, especially if all odds proved otherwise (sending Nunally and Lelouch as political hostages, ordering Rollo to kill lelouch should the latter regain his memories of Zero, etc). To begin with, why did he use his own son for a mere witch hunt?

Schneizel wasn't exactly a climatic "final boss" either (the term quickly got proved wrong with episode 24). Despite Schneizel was almighty, he lacked a lot of passion or ambition. His objective turned to be extremely plain and didn't exactly match his apparent personality. Worse, it almost seemed a completely nonchalant pass time, a true lack of conviction.


Now, a lot of other characters were completely messed up with their "path". Betrayal, revelation, confession... A lot happened, yet, many characters didn't exactly meet their own expectations and went extremely wild to the point their decisions were pretty much debatable.

Kallen was quite difficult to gauge by the time she departed from Lelouch's side. Despite she is one of the few characters that knew him best, she was absolutely unable to do a decisive choice and went completely on a unreasonable passion. She basically didn't have much personality and almost followed the rest of the black knights.

Speaking of which, these guys were atrociously the helpless sheep. Despite they didn't exactly have an iron steel trust towards Zero, they couldn't do anything without him. Yet it is so unconvincing to see them forgetting everything Lelouch could set for them. The biggest point was how they could get approvement from the Kyoto's leader, despite they were present (which prevents lelouch to actually brainwash him as they would hear his command). This is where the problem lies: they don't have much a real conviction and follow the "dominating" leader that seemed the less evil... they utterly lack of their own judgment, which is proved by Schneizel's manipulation and Diethard's comments.
Kaname Ohgi was probably the most frustrating in the pack, along with Tamaki.

In the end, many characters were just flipping their coin as their conviction wavers quite a LOT. It is highly disappointing that most characters get caught by the tides of events and just shifted according to these, instead of going through the flow.

3.2 Story progression
Code Geass suffered a lot for its extremely shaky pace. At first, the second season was very slow, paying the luxury for having a parallelism with the first season.
However, the story quickly gets completely out of control as soon as the whole ordeal with the Chinese/UNF was set up. It became obviously apparent that the plot isn't going through some proper progression and goes into complete oscillating "spikes" which were the numerous plot twists here and there (Nunally becoming the new governor general, Suzaku/Lelouch, Fleia, etc).

At this point, the plot became a rolling stone, going downwards the hill, completely ignoring the "shortcuts" to the points of many things don't exactly go well with the pacing (for my part, I was so unconvinced by the betrayal of the Black Knights). This has been coupled with several ignored matter and times skips that didn't bring well the answers needed (especially how lelouch was able to convince Suzaku in joining him for the coup d'etat, etc).

In the end, after a lot of political puppeting and such, Code Geass rushed its penulimate conclusion with many plot twists that turned the whole deal downright inconsistent, which hurted the characterization a lot (notably the "antagonists", Kallen, Gino etc). Of course, some of them give a proper spice up (Nunally FIRST shifted side, Shirley's death, etc), but too much of them just turned the plot progression into something like a mere question of "how Code Geass will surprise me this week?", instead of "what it the story will unfold?".


In short, R2 didn't get its pace right (which wasn't anything better due of the fillers, especially the Love Attack, episode 12), and completely doesn't match the proper "theatral yet intriguing and intense" story telling that the first season was able to convey. As result, second season basically gave more what the "fans wanted in their wild speculations" instead of logical and normal story telling, which was sadly detrimental.

That said, the conclusion was appropriate, though "too easy" and rather unconclusive for the whole matter and ideal.

4/10

Conclusion
Code Geass was ambitious... well too much for its own good?
I would say yes, though it wasn't all that bad because it managed to be entertaining. However, because of its inherent storytelling, R2 had to deliver several things in a very specific way that did not work in the end, well at least for me.
Perhaps it was because of my expectations, but R2 failed to execute properly the events that would involve the world into a total war.

5/10 - below average

I have rated for myself the first season as 8,5. However, because of the fact R2 was meant to give all the answers (which is absolutely not the case here) and THE conclusion, its value has a bigger impact than the first season, and I would give the franchise a very "fragile" 6/10 in the end. This is basically showing how disappointed I'm.

This "essay" is of course my only opinion, and i don't pretend to get an appreciation more worthy than anyone else's.