What makes a good anime?
This is something that you have to think about
if you're in my position for any length of time.
Is it purely the story?
Is it relatable characters?
Could it be the animation regardless of when it was actually made
or is it a combination of all of these things?
Don't think so.
Thankfully it is also very subjective which means I can say things like that
And then people can disagree.
Now there are many ways you can tell whether or not an anime is actually good.
Some of them, you can tell without even having seen the show yet.
One of my favorites of which is when you have a show that is six years old,
but it was so good when it was released that people are still talking about it now
And they talk about it almost as if nothing good has come since.
Ladies gentlemen and others my name is Arkada.
And welcome to glass reflection.
today
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Let's Jam
Not to make you think that everything can be fine and dandy,
the story of code geass begins in the totalitarian run alternate history,
country of area 11, formerly known as Japan.
Before a brutal defeat in a war, hands of the holy, Britannian Empire.
Our main character Lelouch was once a prince 14th in line to the crown of the Empire,
before the assassination of his mother.
And thereafter disowned meant by his father
left him and his sister going into hiding at a protagonist somewhere in area 11.
With no obvious recourse against his father,
the emperor Lelouch is content to live his life hiding.
That is of course until he accidentally gets involved with a terrorist plot
that leads him to meet the mysterious woman C.C.
who gives him the power of geass.
This new power allows him to speak one command
and have anyone he makes eye contact with
obey him.
He then uses this ability to launch the aforementioned rebellion
using his newly crafted identity of the masked man zero.
What makes the story of code geass great is how the main plot line
continually builds upon itself with each new episode.
It's a show that has like many cliffhangers
that make you really want to come back next week and watch what happens next.
It's just the feeling of excitement.
You just like yes
Maybe not that excited, but you get my point.
Geass also feels very much like a thriller series.
You can see similarities to other shows like Death Note,
where everything feels like one giant chess game.
thing is you never know who the other players?
And every once in a while the table will be flipped?
And when all's settled down and the pieces are back on the board,
you look at it and realize that
the Tables have turned drastically.
Our main character is, of course:
Lelouch VI Britannia
And yes, you have to speak his name like it's always written in all caps
Why because lelouch is one big giant ham?
like I can be pretty bad,
like, like, like, real talk, real talk,
I could be pretty horrible
But when lulu starts talking about his amazing plans
with wide sweeping arm motions and our big booming vote.
Yeah, I just I can't hold a candle to that
So after obtaining a superpower that allows him to temporarily mind-control people for a single purpose
and then using it to start a rebellion.
What do you think his goal is?
Well, actually the basics of his goal are fairly simple:
he wants World Peace.
Specifically though he wants a world in which his blind sister can live in peace,
without fear of the britannia government forcing them into hiding.
Now like other shows where they give the protagonists a superpower
and tasks him with changing the world,
lelouch does so with the best of intentions.
However his methods are executed under the belief that the ends justify the means.
Now while he does his best to avoid civilian casualties,
especially as the show continues on.
He is very much not against
either killing or using his geass on any singular person
that happens to be directly in his way.
and this is of course his major problem,
a problem that continually bites him in the ass,
all the way to the end of the show.
As his actions have consequences,
and you can even feel them 24 episodes later at the end of the second season.
Now his companions and enemies vary drastically,
mainly because there are a lot of them.
you have the very well-endowed ace pilot Karen.
The (I'm so freakin serious pay attention to me and feed me pizza) CC,
and various members of the Prytania Royal family
that all come with their own increasingly insane psychological traits.
Of course because it's not always serious.
And lelouch had the misfortune of choosing a Japanese high school as his hideout.
there is of course the ragtag band of student Council members
that consist of the idiot the extremely, happy one and the quiet Batshit insane girl.
Of course I am dancing around mentioning one particular character
Suzaku is Lelouch's "friend",
and of course I have the word "friend" in massive air quotes.
They both share childhood memories
but after being separated for a very long time and then finally reunited,
they find that, wow, they would vote very much like the Britannian government to not rule with an iron fist.
They both have very different ways of trying to change things.
Suzaku with his very much lawful good mindset feels that
he can change Britannia by joining its military and somehow changing it from the inside,
without realizing that this puts him in direct confrontation with lelouch of Rebellion persona Zero.
My problem with him is not his mindset because it is a very noble Mindset
I could appreciate that, but his actions don't always fall under that mindset.
And he always tries to rationalize them like they were the right thing to do.
In other words, he and Lelouch doing the exact same thing,
except Suzaku pretends that he is morally right for doing them.
And then he criticizes lelouch for doing the exact same thing.
Oh, and there's also...
There's... there's also this
The animation is not the interesting thing here
because A it's sunrise and B It's mechs.
like they made gundam,
there's a particular level of quality that of course they meet.
But the thing you should have noticed by now is the shows rather unique art style.
It's actually not unique
'cause I can point out several shows that I'll have the same
Jack Skellington character designs
but on all these shows are rather unique to a particular group
known as clamp the creators of TSUbasa holic obits and Cardcaptor Sakura.
What I found interesting with their involvement in code geass
is that to my knowledge they had absolutely no input in the story of code geass
unlike everything else, they've ever been involved with granted.
That's probably because unlike everything else they've ever been involved with
they did not write the original Manga
Surprisingly though the designs do fit the world of geass rather nicely.
The music was done by Kotaro Nakagawa
He is a composer that has done the music for two shows that I have reviewed previously.
Ghost sick and planets
What I like about his work Is that I can really appreciate
Just how well he is able to keep up with the pace of the plot
in a bombastic nature of the characters?
He's made tracks that make randomly and possibly stupid situations sound epic.
For example, for breakfast tomorrow, should I have toast or oatmeal?
The Dub however...
You see this is where my normal dub problem... comes into play.
See I originally watched code geass in Japanese
back when it aired in Japan, like number of Years back
and it's only recently then I've been able to actually sit down and watch the dub.
But every time I try to
It just doesn't feel like the same show.
Johnny yong bosch is a great voice actor
But he doesn't have the same amount of ham that jun Fukuyama has.
Hell I think the only one other person in existence that could have done justice to lelouch is Mamoru Miyano.
The thing is he is also Japanese, so that doesn't really help our dub problem.
Overall the dub is passable,
but there are times when I really feel like
they don't nail the tone of the show like they should.
I'm not against the dub and it's not on my short list of dubs.
I absolutely refuse to listen to but if given the choice,
Japanese all the way
Finally it comes down to the very simple question of:
will I give this show my recommendation?
And it is not without its flaws.
The character designs, well, beautiful and
rather unique,
that might turn off some people.
The characters can range from Brilliant: Oh my God
How did you even learn to breathe!
And of course because of the existence of some mystical magical power.
The overall realism of the show is non-existent though.
Did the mechs don't help that either.
Because of this though the writers can just hand wave away complicated situations and likewise
seemingly make things up as they go all for the sake of drama.
But at the end of the day what you have is a series that is worth talking about and we're still doing
Granted that may be in part because of its rather
beautiful ending
But I digress
It is something that is definitely worth watching.
And so with all that in mind
I have meticulous ALL HAIL LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA 10 out of 10.
Buy it now! Buy it now! Buy it now!
Yeah no, it's not that good.
However, it is still worth a very reputable 8.28/10,
because I don't throw the vibrating around lightly we will leave that there.
As it really does deserve a place on your shelf if you have something like that anyways.
At the time of this video code geass has been licensed twice if you are lucky enough.
You can find an old bandai copy floating around the internet,
though getting a hold of both seasons for a decent price might be rather difficult.
However it was announced in August of 2013 that
funimation had acquired the rights the show though.
It is not appeared for streaming on their website
as of yet nor has any DVD or Blu-ray release dates been announced.
And I am hopeful however that they will come up with that soon enough
for alternate anime recommendations
I first point you towards the very obvious death note,
because it is very similar in narrative with one guy getting a magical power that
he uses to attempt to change the world.
However, if you're in more of a mech mood than I can recommend that you watch Gundam OO
Now it is very much a gundam show,
so that may dissuade you,
but there are enough similarities between this and that
That you might find it's interesting enough to watch.
Between those two, I hope you find something to your life,
and that's it from me
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And until next time, ladies gentlemen and others,
stay frosty.