harrize
Chiba Yuriko
Kimura Takahiro
Nakada Eiji
Nakatani Seiichi
Sakou Yukie
Taniguchi Gorou
It had been years since I last wrote a review on an anime series. To be frank, I gave up on it after wasting almost a day of my life on such an overrated piece of trash that is "Monster". Ho...
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29.05.2011 23:14 - direct link
(rs8009)
Rating
Average |
8.83 |
Animation |
9 |
Sound |
7 |
Story |
9 |
Character |
9 |
Value |
9 |
Enjoyment |
10 |
It had been years since I last wrote a review on an anime series. To be frank, I gave up on it after wasting almost a day of my life on such an overrated piece of trash that is "Monster". However, only recently I had been advised by a friend of mine to give "Code Geass" a shot. I am glad I did that. I might even start watching anime again.
I am not going to go into such trivial technicalities as animation and sound in a great detail. The animation is fluent and sharp. There is all well on the aesthetic front as well. The dubbed version has a voice acting that ranges from passable to good. Johnny Yong Bosch does his usual shtick as Lelouche. But that's okay, he is good at what he does, even if he doesn't deviate from that routine. Better ordinary than sorry. The main cast is pretty good, but side characters could be voiced better. The musical score is unremarkable and forgettable, but isn't as bad as to dissonate with the overall series. It is just passable, no more, no less.
Enough of the obligatory banalities. I warn you: this is a review of both seasons of the series. There is no need in reviewing them apart for the simple fact the they are two pieces of a greater whole. Storywise "Code Geass" is brilliant. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for its exterial integrity. Fortunately "Code Geass" is far better than the sum of its parts.
This anime series just touches so many fringes we face as a species: prejudice, discrimination, human suffering, hatred, genocide, evil, good, sacrifice, atonement, friendship, love and the universal human condition. And above all it challenges our perceptions on morality that had been grafted to us by our cruel and cold master, our society. It is without a doubt one of the smartest japanimations out there.
The protagonist, Zero, is the most complex character I had come across in an anime. He does what he must, even if it means sacrificing something or somebody dear to him. He is human, he is torn apart by what he does, yet he understands fully well that which ought to be done must be done. He is weak in both spirit and body, yet his intellect, his allies and the mask he wears, both figuratively and literally, balance him out into an unstoppable force. He strives to be a sociopath, yet he is not. There is an eternal struggle within, robbing him of his peace. Gradually his realizations expand, he learns and changes perspectives. All that makes him human. Something that most fictional characters, especially your run-of-the-mill everyday hero, shall never be able to achieve despite all the effort (or more common no effort at all) their creators put into them.
"Code Geass" burrows a lot of its ideas from "V for Vendetta" none the less managing to create something original and fresh. There was a twist in Zero's tactics in one of the episodes that closely resembled a similar event in the said film, yet its outcome set it apart. And that's just it with this series: it will keep on surprising and mentally stimulating you until the very end.
The only real trouble with the story is that there are too many unnecessary elements in it. You could cut a lot from it, without compromising its structural integrity. Remove the worthless villain of the emperor and a moronic "shamamalamanian" twist that goes along with him. Remove good for nothing A2. Remove the unlikely return of the "orange boy". Remove most of the useless characters. Yet you will still have a superb story. The overwhelming majority of the stuff that is good in this anime is really, really good. And the things that are not well explained or are not explained at all are not that important to the plot. Sure, you have your atypical typical, pardon the paradox, plot device (typical because it is a plot device, atypical because it is a very unusual one). But it is not important to explain it: the story is not about it. The ending is absolutely perfect. It's one of the best endings to an anime I had witnessed.
Still the second season is guilty of the gratuitous fan service, plot threads that lead nowhere, raw mecha power dominating over the tactical genius, nose running loaded with hormones angsty teenage girls and your usual anime stupidity, it spoils the overall package somewhat. To paraphrase one of the reviewers here: the suits turned its second season into a farce. But they always do, that is to be expected. Not many of the creators can create freely in the environment we live in. That is the harsh truth of modern life. There will be many that will not overlook the many flaws of the second season. I, for one, am willing to. There is a pure diamond buried underneath all the rubble here and I am willing to dig for it.
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