[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Jarmel

Code Geass the first few episodes in, wasn't exactly an insane affair either except for the "Shoot yourself" part by Lelouch. Gai is a toned down version of Lelouch and I wouldn't be surprised if Shouma turns out to be a toned down version of Spinzaku.

Except Gai *isn't* Lelouch. He's a long haired handsome blonde dude with an agenda. We've seen countless of those in anime, and while they can occasionally be awesome (The Wizard in Ben-To is totally rad), I'm not getting into this guy's charisma at all.

You also have to remember that Brittania was full of kick the puppy moments and was NEVER depicted in a grey light.

Yes, but Britannia was a racist, imperialistic Evil Empire. There was no question about this. This series has a...weird sort of occupational forces working in Japan (they even name dropped a GHQ), which is somehow utterly evil to the core, or at least retarded, given how it had a "petty aristocrat"/psychopath operate in civilian quarters.

The Japan under the historical GHQ was not exactly the kindest of places, nor was the GHQ's record spotless, but it wasn't an evil force intent upon slaughtering hapless Japanese civilians because it could. What's more, it was an occupational power after a brutal world war. This one came in because of a...plague? A plague I'm 99.99% sure had something to do with an evil conspiracy somewhere.

Also, since there was also a comparison to Ghost in the Shell; you know what that series is great for? For all the questionably-dressed cyborg action and high-minded philosopher-terrorists, it felt plausible. It was the near-future of our very own societies, troubled, politick'd, and nonetheless with people acting like people.

This series would have been served much better in a more fantasy setting...as Geass was.

Spinzaku was a horrible character for the reason that the audience was supposed to root for a backstabbing traitor. We're not supposed to root for Daryl. Brittania was full of characters just as bad as Daryl.

...and I disliked every one of them? Code Geass was far, far from perfect and this sort of shallow characterization is part of my annoyances for it. The problem so far is that despite the great production values this series is already showing itself to be worse in many respects.

Suzaku at least had plenty of internal conflicts; he was a rounded character. Hate him or love him, hypocrite, traitor, etc., we saw his viewpoint and understood his emotions. And even if we consider from the perspective of the first two episodes of Geass versus this one's (we should in any case), his introduction was nonetheless as a sympathetic friend-turned-shounen-rival. We were expected to see the tragedy between the "best friends" pan out, for good or ill.

Blondie here? He can f' off. If a character's worth is determined by his rivals, then poor Hero boy is being cruelly insulted.

As for Inori, she again reminds of a toned down C.C. without any of the personality quirks. I wouldn't be surprised though if they explained something in her past which completely traumatized her to the point of stunting her emotional development.

Well, they better hurry up with it. Right now the princess acts a like doormat to a boy she barely knows, apparently because she can smell out his Hero Protagonist status. If this is fanservice then I feel...dirtied, cheapened. Insulted.

There are ways you can create a "broken" sort of "personality-less" character without making her a suspiciously fanservice-y doormat. See Eureka from Eureka 7. Or the legendary Ayanami Rei...ignoring how Eva fans made the director fall into depression by idolizing her nonetheless.