AnimeSuki Forum - View Single Post - Code Geass R2 - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

wingdarkness · 2008-10-04, 20:32

Eyes: 8.21/10...

Spoiler for thoughts:

Ears: 9.25/10...

Spoiler for thoughts:

Brains: 5.66/10

Spoiler for thoughts:

Well this is the part of the show with the most contention among fans and for good reason...Like I've said before we all have different reasons for watching//loving//following anime, and each man can be different from the other....So if you watched this show with just an interest in Lulu's antics, or the visual fun of Clamp, or cool hax0r mecha action I'm not gonna beat you over the head for enjoying or just looking past the incredible amount of literary problems R2 had, but for those of us who watch the show with good deal sophistication and merit, this script had HUGE problems from the beginning...

First was the reboot...Reboots are a big-middle finger to those who do watch for the relative intellectual nature the show seemed to have had..I remember plenty of times while watching S1 I would think to myself "Damn this show is so much more discipline than I thought it would be...", or "Damn this show is pretty smart", but R2 threw the contained smartness down the drain for the gimmicky plot-twist route...Season 1 was Style over substance hiding the fact that it was really substance over style (I'd say Gundam 00 S1 does the same), but R2was style over substance hiding substance...I mean to leave this show with almost no understanding of why a f*cking chain THRU THE HEART OF JUPITER is connected to a borg-like mental consciousness is just either bad writing or circumstances off-screen that someone couldn't control...

Season 1 was a micro-story...Far more introspective and told in a first-person style...That's why people who loved Deathnote (like myself) really dug S1 because of the first-person nature of the main character and being able to watch major parts of the story unfold with you being the characters' eyes and ears, but r2 was far more of a macro-story...It was basically a narrative that sprinkled bits and pieces of important first-person information and forsake'd that element of the story to tell a far more grand over-arching plot (Good vs. Evil, future of mankind, all that jazz)...It totally lost that quaint and exhilarating atmosphere it created in S1 and traded it in for HUUUUGE network-television-like plot-twists that sometimes were brilliant and other times flat as a busted Knightmare frame tire...

Another troubling aspect of R2 was how it betrayed it's own established atmosphere...Now I can easily go from first generation, ground-unit KMF's to soopal33t float-systems, to ENTIRE FLOATING CASTLES that shoot spicy FEJITA burritos, but that didn't even bother me that much (As CG never EVER tried to be overtly strict about it's technology), my problems were more with aesthetic things that didn't make sense....The episode where all the BK's dressed up in A MILLION zero-outfits to a cloud of circus-smoke was quite frankly the "Jump the shark" moment for me...I couldn't imagine a scene that retarded being in S1...

Then the most penultimate scenes in the show were simply re-used or rehashed ideas already used (Which makes all the plot-twists lose their charm at a point)...When Lulu beat Mao it was cool how he tricked him with the video, but by the time you get to him tricking V.V. in kinda the same derivative it's lost it's charm a bit...but that wasn't bad enuff, they took a basic combination of Mao and V.V. trickery and used that to beat the endboss in Schnizel...It was far too indulgent and uncreative a way to win in what is suppose to be the crescendo of the entire series...For me the moment Charles vaporized I was simply no longer invested that much emotionally in the story..I pretty much saw how everything else would go and what disappoints me still is that Suzaku and lulu's final moments of understanding one another is never really shown to the audience...We get the quick flashback of Zero-Requiem thru Nunally's eyes, and Suzaku crying in the end for killing Lulu, but what led to that is a scene I think the series should have shown given the fact these are the 2 main characters...

Obviously there is more I can get into (Suzaku's connection to geass, C.C.'s name, history behind Code or Geass [notably immortality], mismanagement of all the KoR's including KoR #9!?!, horrendous pacing at-times between the first and second half of the season, ambiguos ending that played right into the hands of the zealots), but at the end of the day it seems this show got trapped between being a Pop-show and a seriously unique show and the pop-culture side won out; whether it be by Sunrise's hands or the writers...I do believe the director though because his words just makes sense, however that's for everyone to judge...My final score would be 6.59 outta 10, but Ill round that up to a 7 since I don't watch 50 eps of a show that's just average or below unless it's GSD just to bash it until my masochistic tendency stops kicking in...I also think the most underrated aspect of the show was the mecha-fighting and over the last 10 eps it was incredible at-times and visually stunning which added some points to my final appraisal...Overall though, I'd have to say CG R2 had a chance to be one of those rare finds, but winds up being just another cool anime that's big now but unfortunately will be atop a haywagon cart tommorrow...

2008-10-04, 20:32	Link #35
wingdarkness Retweet Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: ニュー・オーリンズ、LA	Eyes: 8.21/10... Spoiler for thoughts: Hey I like cool and over exaggerated facial expressions...I honestly wish there were more shows out there that gave their characters this type of emo-ness (not of the kiddy-shonen or comedic variety as much though)...CLAMP really did a good job IMO and in the episodes that were by the "A" team i'd say most of it was satisfying...If there are any fans of Yugioh's animation up in here (OMG he compared something in CG to Yugioh!! ), you can really appreciate the detail in-terms of expressionism when it came to simple stuff like hand-gestures and theatrical physical movements of certain characters (Lulu mostly)...When Lulu would do one of those dope finger expressions I'd have immediate flashbacks of Kaiba doing a hand-swirl or something before he drew his ultimate card or something...Yeah probably lame if you don't know what I'm talking about, but if you do (and if you like that kinda thing) CG R2 had a good deal of it... The mecha designs, while some being extremely weird were able to counter-balance their crazy-looks with fluidity and tactical amenities you never thought was possible...Tristen for example looks extremely clumsy at a glance but how it moves it's parts to engage in battle was something very fun to look at...Yeah Modrad and a few of the BK's upgrades were a bit plain for my tastes, but once the float system came into play, an almost eerie and imperfect style of fighting was produced (I'll cite the Guren's first upgrade ep as an example)...I really like those imperfect, frenetic types of battle engagements that trade looking perfect for a chaotic feel and pace to the battle that requires your full attention...I do miss the GAWAIN and thought Lulu's new mech was a clear downgrade in symbolism, but I can't deny the cheap-trick modes that thing had--Most quite cool to watch... Ears: 9.25/10... Spoiler for thoughts: For the most part I think it was good, but I remember being more engaged by a few bgms in S1 over R2...One of the biggest disappointments was that the main-battle track from s1 (The Spanish influenced fight BGM) was almost non-existent in r2..I only remember hearing it like 2 or 3 times the entire season...It was my favorite BGM and totally underused in R2...But honestly though I can't say the Sdtk pi$$ed me off that much other than the pretty horrid Ali Project End themes that often times had the lyrical pace of someone recording it while falling off of a skyscraper...All in all though, not bad... Voice acting was excellent, in-terms of nearly every main character...Charles and Lulu in particular just had epic overtones in the way they would express themselves...Charles definatly would give my chills whenever he forcefully screamed at Lulu...He really made me emotionally invested in everything he had to say...Lulu was just all kinda vocal epicness that I don't even have to describe...Other characters like Suzaku had a perfect voice to fit his indifference and indecisiveness, Nunally's mary-sue nicety came out, Lloyd's snarky arrogance was always a treat, and Diethart's quasi-important ways of conducting himself was always welcomed to me...The female voices were all pretty good too..Nothing here that warrants harsh criticism though...I mean the only character who I kinda WTF'd at would probably have been Marianne, because to be such an important character she really sounded like a twit in her 2 only episodes... Brains: 5.66/10 Spoiler for thoughts: Well this is the part of the show with the most contention among fans and for good reason...Like I've said before we all have different reasons for watching//loving//following anime, and each man can be different from the other....So if you watched this show with just an interest in Lulu's antics, or the visual fun of Clamp, or cool hax0r mecha action I'm not gonna beat you over the head for enjoying or just looking past the incredible amount of literary problems R2 had, but for those of us who watch the show with good deal sophistication and merit, this script had HUGE problems from the beginning... First was the reboot...Reboots are a big-middle finger to those who do watch for the relative intellectual nature the show seemed to have had..I remember plenty of times while watching S1 I would think to myself "Damn this show is so much more discipline than I thought it would be...", or "Damn this show is pretty smart", but R2 threw the contained smartness down the drain for the gimmicky plot-twist route...Season 1 was Style over substance hiding the fact that it was really substance over style (I'd say Gundam 00 S1 does the same), but R2was style over substance hiding substance...I mean to leave this show with almost no understanding of *why a fcking chain THRU THE HEART OF JUPITER is connected to a borg-like mental consciousness is just either bad writing or circumstances off-screen that someone couldn't control... Season 1 was a micro-story...Far more introspective and told in a first-person style...That's why people who loved Deathnote (like myself) really dug S1 because of the first-person nature of the main character and being able to watch major parts of the story unfold with you being the characters' eyes and ears, but r2 was far more of a macro-story...It was basically a narrative that sprinkled bits and pieces of important first-person information and forsake'd that element of the story to tell a far more grand over-arching plot (Good vs. Evil, future of mankind, all that jazz)...It totally lost that quaint and exhilarating atmosphere it created in S1 and traded it in for HUUUUGE network-television-like plot-twists that sometimes were brilliant and other times flat as a busted Knightmare frame tire... Another troubling aspect of R2 was how it betrayed it's own established atmosphere...Now I can easily go from first generation, ground-unit KMF's to soopal33t float-systems, to ENTIRE FLOATING CASTLES that shoot spicy FEJITA burritos, but that didn't even bother me that much (As CG never EVER tried to be overtly strict about it's technology), my problems were more with aesthetic things that didn't make sense....The episode where all the BK's dressed up in A MILLION zero-outfits to a cloud of circus-smoke was quite frankly the "Jump the shark" moment for me...I couldn't imagine a scene that retarded being in S1... Then the most penultimate scenes in the show were simply re-used or rehashed ideas already used (Which makes all the plot-twists lose their charm at a point)...When Lulu beat Mao it was cool how he tricked him with the video, but by the time you get to him tricking V.V. in kinda the same derivative it's lost it's charm a bit...but that wasn't bad enuff, they took a basic combination of Mao and V.V. trickery and used that to beat the endboss in Schnizel...It was far too indulgent and uncreative a way to win in what is suppose to be the crescendo of the entire series...For me the moment Charles vaporized I was simply no longer invested that much emotionally in the story..I pretty much saw how everything else would go and what disappoints me still is that Suzaku and lulu's final moments of understanding one another is never really shown to the audience...We get the quick flashback of Zero-Requiem thru Nunally's eyes, and Suzaku crying in the end for killing Lulu, but what led to that is a scene I think the series should have shown given the fact these are the 2 main characters... Obviously there is more I can get into (Suzaku's connection to geass, C.C.'s name, history behind Code or Geass [notably immortality], mismanagement of all the KoR's including KoR #9!?!, horrendous pacing at-times between the first and second half of the season, ambiguos ending that played right into the hands of the zealots), but at the end of the day it seems this show got trapped between being a Pop-show and a seriously unique show and the pop-culture side won out; whether it be by Sunrise's hands or the writers...I do believe the director though because his words just makes sense, however that's for everyone to judge...My final score would be 6.59 outta 10*, but Ill round that up to a 7 since I don't watch 50 eps of a show that's just average or below unless it's GSD just to bash it until my masochistic tendency stops kicking in...I also think the most underrated aspect of the show was the mecha-fighting and over the last 10 eps it was incredible at-times and visually stunning which added some points to my final appraisal...Overall though, I'd have to say CG R2 had a chance to be one of those rare finds, but winds up being just another cool anime that's big now but unfortunately will be atop a haywagon cart tommorrow... __________________ Fly* since ↔... Last edited by wingdarkness; 2008-10-04 at 21:52.