[Scherzo09]

Originally Posted by Xander

The first episode didn't exactly establish a single overwhelming hook yet, if you want to put things that way, but I believe there is some merit to its alternative approach. There are several smaller hooks present, whose collective and specific effectiveness varies greatly depending on what each individual person watching considers interesting. For example: there's the setting, the alternate history angle, the mecha action sequences, a couple of mysteries, what the characters from the original series shown in the preview will do and the larger question of how everything will tie back into the big picture knowing that the EU is essentially doomed. Like I've said before, some folks don't like that sort of story with a predetermined resolution, but many of the details are still unknown and I also appreciate the concept of fighting against a known or implied fate.

True, there are some interesting aspects about the movie and personally there's enough to make me excited about the next episode. I just also need to look at from a more objective standpoint, which means I can't simply overlook some of the OVAs flaws.

I agree that there wasn't a huge emphasis on characterization though, as opposed to presenting the general setting. I'm willing to give the show another episode to start focusing on the characters and bring other developments to light, after going through the purely introductory motions of placing them in the necessary positions. The question of the "dead air" is also debatable, since it's hard to swap out too many of those quiet moments in exchange for more content without hurting the atmosphere and running into other risks, such as inadvertently making the pacing feel too rushed or compressed. Not saying it can't be done, since there are ways to balance such factors, but I don't see spending time on what amounts to an atmosphere-heavy prologue as an objective flaw. Some people will snooze halfway through, but I certainly didn't.

I sorta see it as a movie's obligation to go out of it's way to introduce us to the characters. I just say this from the experience of sitting down a friend of mine who also sort of see's Geass as a guilty pleasure (though not as enthusiastically as I do), and he came out of it liking it alright but finding the movie a bit lacking, like considering Akito be a pretty boring protagonist and there being stretches of dull moments. And to me these are problems that can't just be ignored by saying "Well people have different tastes," these are structural problems that need to be addressed.

I'd say many would agree with that...but the curious thing is both this very thread and a couple of other comments I've seen elsewhere seem to suggest there are at least a handful of new viewers who, despite not caring much for Code Geass as a whole, seem positively enthusiastic about the project. That's actually a welcome surprise, in my opinion. On the other hand, there are also some people who love Code Geass and yet strongly dislike this.

Oh I don't deny that; I bet a lot of people would've dug the atmosphere this OVA created. I just think it would've been a stronger episode in its own right if it had tightened up its pacing and explored its characters a bit more.

Hopefully the recently announced delay from Spring to Summer 2013, aside from resolving whatever behind-the-scenes production and scheduling issues might also be involved, will also give them the opportunity to "step up their game" in more than one sense. In any case, I agree that episode 2 will be key to determining many things about this project, both inside and outside of the fictional universe itself.

I hope so too. I think at the very least it should be longer than 50 minutes.

By the same token, one could say to your friend that having too much of the opposite reaction is close to being overly tightfisted and unnecessarily cynical.



Can't say I found them too funny myself, but I didn't react with any disgust either. Humor is perhaps the most culturally subjective part of fiction in my experience and the Japanese seem to have more of a taste for slapstick than some of us do. In fact, Kazuya Murata, the person who did the storyboards for episode 6 (the cat chase), has said that he was going for a "classic" or "retro" style of comedy there and supposedly the Japanese viewers loved it. What was a failure of comedy for you apparently turned out to be a success for others.

Also, another comment someone from the staff has made is that after some internal discussion they decided to keep the ridiculous scene in R2 where the Emperor literally rockets across the screen because it was just too funny. In light of those and other pieces of evidence, the suggestion that the staff could never remotely recognize such over-the-top moments as being incongruously funny and somehow only left them in purely unintentionally seems rather...questionable. You could even argue that's in poor taste, rightfully so, but I still think it's not a case of self-absorbed blindness or total unawareness about the fact people would make memes out of such things.

To be completely honest, Geass is just a show I can't help but feel somewhat cynical about. A lot of it just strikes me as being a commercial product first and foremost, and in doing so tries to be all things for all people. And that's why to me it doesn't work a lot of the time. You make a fair point about them being a bit aware of silliness and honestly, I love the Writer and Director's work on Planetes. It's just a lot of the show has a sort of 'phoned in' quality to me, that they weren't really being all serious about it, not about serious tone but making a piece of media. This is probably something we'll have to agree to disagree on though.

And in terms of comedy; it's just I've seen shows like TTGL or Diebuster which do a really good job mixing comedy with drama. And when comparing them to Geass, Geass falls flat, imo.

I can see why it would be there, after reading your comments, even if I can't sincerely agree with some of the harsher ones.

But as for me, I feel no shame or guilt about liking Code Geass. I sure wouldn't be typing anything about it by now if I did.

It's weird for me, I use that term not to mean I feel guilt exactly for it but more that I don't think the media itself is all that good, but I still like it anyways, partly because there are moments that really do work (Most of CC's and Lulu's interaction for example) but a lot of it for the ideas that could've worked but were executed poorly.

That's a fair point. The scene was mostly used to confirm that the antagonist is going to be merciless, even if we felt no significant sympathy for his victim. I suppose that's something else we'll have to keep an eye out for in episode 2. Will there be another relatively reasonable Britannian? I hope so.

Just felt like a bit of a waste; dude seemed like a total Bro.