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When I went back and watched season one after watching R2, I had a realization that R2 was less of a sequel to the original Code Geass and more like a story based off of what they already created. Somewhere during the gap, the pacing and mind games that made Code Geass such a great series were lost. R2 was less about the characters and more about giving the fans what they want (a Lelouch that is not concretely dead or alive, a major battle with no major character deaths, a battle where no one comes out the winner, kissing scenes with all love interests but no victor)... basically, R2 gave fans everything they wanted and took away any plot elements that would anger fans of x, y or z. It was fanfare done in the best possible way, and enjoyable while watching (but significantly less enjoyable looking back and thinking about it.
We wound up with an ending that was like candy for babies to not get fans of any character angry. It's insulting that they couldn't write a concrete ending for the series without fearing they would anger someone. Most of the plot was completely left out if it didn't concern Lelouch (what is Geass? what is that Jupiter planet? who/what are the gods? what does Geass have to do with the beginning of the world?). The story was incredibly rushed... there was more time devoted to Shirley's death (3 episodes) as the Zero Requiem (which might explain why it was such a silly, half-thought out plan). The Zero Requiem was so hyped up that they made it impossible for themselves to create a Zero Requiem that lived up to what everyone had decided in their minds and opted for the worst possible route... making it obvious. But too many strings were left untied.... Lelouch, atleast a character painted with his intelligence, would no the peace he created is fragile at best; Kanon is still wandering around somewhere and knows the truth about everything, including what Schneizel's Geass is and could derail the whole Zero Requiem by sewing a cape and buying a mask; no political ending was given, just a shot of Ohgi shaking hands with Nunnally... is there even a Britannia anymore?... I could go on and on.
So 8/10, because the art direction, music, and all of those goodies. Each episode was like a jewel that kept you hanging on till the next week... but somehow at the end, you didn't wind up with a treasure. Just another slightly above average anime. Maybe it would have been impossible to end Code Geass in a way that gave justice to the entire series and was as good as watching the whole show. But this ending certainly wasn't it.... it seemed like Tanaguchi gave up on Code Geass a long time ago.
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