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View Poll Results: Code Geass R2 Series Rating | |||
Perfect 10 | 365 | 44.95% | |
9 out of 10 : Excellent | 199 | 24.51% | |
8 out of 10 : Very Good | 92 | 11.33% | |
7 out of 10 : Good | 76 | 9.36% | |
6 out of 10 : Average | 31 | 3.82% | |
5 out of 10 : Below Average | 20 | 2.46% | |
4 out of 10 : Poor | 9 | 1.11% | |
3 out of 10 : Bad | 4 | 0.49% | |
2 out of 10 : Very Bad | 2 | 0.25% | |
1 out of 10 : Painful | 14 | 1.72% | |
Voters: 812. You may not vote on this poll |
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2008-10-04, 21:30 | Link #41 | |
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Lelouch is really kinky |
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2008-10-04, 22:33 | Link #42 |
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When this season started, there were two highly anticipated shows. One was Geass, the other was Macross. Both had a very solid footing. Macross had 25 years to build off of, Geass had a highly successful first season. But, in the end, Macross knew what to do, which Geass ran out of ideas.
Geass's strong point to me was the music. They stopped doing some of the non-traditional synth stuff and started working with a very traditional background. The song at the end of episode 25 was beautiful, the song at the exile was amazing, OP2 was really goot, etc. Season 1 sort of overdid everything music wise making it less amusing to listen to, but I was able to listen to this season a second time without problems. Yes, I do listen to anime without watching it the second time through. Visually, Geass was also superb. Going with full high deph video, and never really losing the art form, it was able to create a very appealing visual experiance for the viewer. So, the chips were well played, but it's plot was a complete trainwreck. At first, they made plot twists only happen at the end of the episodes. This is a nice tactic when working with a week to week fanbase, but it really failed to make the storyline progress. It was just filler-esque, where there was a problem, here's how Lelouche deals with it, onto the next episode. It also introduced a whole bunch of new characters that were un-needed, and would have been better if they developed them more. Gino, Anya, Xian-ke, Tianzi-sama. Yeah, Anya is cute, but it's hard to say they developed her like C.C. or Kallen in the first season. These were all static characters given too much screen time who served no real purpose in the end. Only Anya did, and she could have easily been replaced by someone else. One character I really got annoyed with was Kallen. Throughout the first season, they developed her, but once they got to this season she became nothing more than a hate machine. And then they had that whole captivity thing. I thought that would have been worth something in development, but instead she just went back to being nothing more than a ball of hate. By hate in here, I mean, her hate was what drove her. Another thing that really annoyed me was "Refrain". This could have been a REALLY big thing if they made more out of it. But instead, it wasn't developed. It just was there, and we knew what some characters thought of it. But, all of this could have been forgotten if Geass didn't have one fatal flaw. NOBODY CAN STAY DEAD! I wouldn't have minded a big revelation of somebody being alive at the end. Like, Marianne alone could have been fine. But if you kill a character off and bring them back, you lose credibility. It seems like Sunrise didn't realize this, so each one of their killings seemed so unlikely by the end. Heck, Suzaku wasn't even dead or 5 minutes. And not telling us C.C.'s real name was just stupid. Don't make a big deal out of it if it's not important. That's Geass in general. They made huge deals out of things that they failed to eventually develop. Geass was better suited for a 37 episode continuous run than 2 25 episode seasons. There was far too much stupidity in this season. It was a bad show, so I'll give it a 3.2 for bad.
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2008-10-04, 22:42 | Link #44 |
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Canada
Age: 39
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So just for sh*ts and giggles I decided to write my own wall texts about my thoughts of the series over all.
*Disclaimer* First though, I am going to assume that Lelouch is dead for all intents and purposes in this post unless Taniguchi himself comes out and say that Lelouch trolled everyone and he is indeed alive. Secondly, when I point out lingering plot points I will not mean romantic development and will for the most part turn a blind eye to it. Both of those reasons is to avoid some dragging in debate on whether Lelouch is alive or dead or any arguments from the romance thread. Also about how I generally rate things, unless something is absolutely perfect and I have no complaints no matter how small, nor any ways to feasibly improve it, I do not give a perfect score so the best is likely going to be a 9 out of 10. If you disagree with my line of thinking then it is likely best to just stop reading right here and save yourself a headache. Animation/Art Quality: 8/10 Well, I liked the Clamp designs, the characters were well animated for the most parts. However the most glaring flaw was the character art being off in some frames, though until it hit a certain episode it did not strike me as overly intrusive. However an entire episode of distorted character animation dragged the mark down for me as it looked like the episode did not even belong in the series. A few things I loved about Code Geass if nothing else are the mecha designs, especially the Rakshata originals, most notably the Guren. Also the land based battles with the land spinners were very well done and added a nice original touch to the mecha series, much like the underwater mecha fighting did in Mars Daybreak for me. However I was duly disappointed with the wide spread use of the float system turning the mecha action into almost standard Gundam-esque fairs. Not that it is bad per say, but it did take away from one of the things that attracted me to the series in it's land based engagments. All in all though despite some faults, the character and mecha designs and original concept carried it over. Music/Voice acting: 9/10 I have quite a few bones to pick with this series, and if you continue reading most of them will be in the plot section, but the music is one area where I just did not have much to complain about. I loved the majority of the tracks within the show, especially the Hitomi tracks and "All Hail Britannia!!!" which sometimes I still play on repeat. And notably in several of the more emotional scenes of the series, Shirley's and Rolo's death come to mind immediately, the music complimented the mood very well. The voice acting was very good over all, Lelouch, C.C, Suzaku and especially Kallen (biased fanboy mode on for a second there ) are a given. However, many of the side characters are also memorable, from Milly's playful tones in her performance to Loyd's quirky voice and screams. However there is one thing that annoyed me and that was in the Ashford episode, with the girl that was geassed into giving back Lelouch his hat. Admittedly it might be mainly personal preference here and it was just two or three short lines but really I found her performance to be especially subpar especially when compared to the others within the show. Overall, no big glaring faults so it is a solid 9. Story/Characters: 5/10 The crux of any entertainment medium aside from gaming, it is my view that no matter how well composed the musical score is, how fluid the animation or how pretty the characters, if the story falls flat on it's face, none of that matters. So how does R2 fair? To be honest, perhaps I went into this season with too high of an expectation, but for the most part it felt that almost the entire season they were trying to imitate R1 and some of the elements that made it successful to the detriment of the overall story. While the Ashford comedy was somewhat entertaining and let you see one part of Lelouch, the slow pace and focus of it early on could be blamed for much of the poor pacing and rushed, or I would say lack there of, developments on several key plots and characters. Most notably Charles, V.V and Marianne and their Ragnarok plan as well as Schneizel who was lackluster for a "final villain" type of character. I have brought this up many times but Marianne was a prime example of this as throughout the series we have met characters who knew her and literally almost worshiped the ground she walked on. She was set up on a silver pedestal, Charles loved her so much V.V was scared she may derail Charles from their promise, Jeremiah respected her so much that he betrayed Britannia for her children(and this guy rushed at Lelouch proclaiming "All Hail Britannia!", I wouldn't have been surprised if he started singing "All Hail Britannia!!!" in that scene), Bismark mentioned her skill and shouted her name right before his death, Cornelia personally investigated the circumstances of her death. While it may not be a lot of characters considering the size of the caste but factor in how many of that caste were Britannian and how many out of those actually know her. Then look back and lo and behold, the majority of the people that knew her respected her to some degree. However she was introduced and her personality completely derails the image that was established about her, without any development on the how and why it was so before her character was killed off. Also for a key player in what drove Lelouch down this path, her reasoning for agreeing to the Ragnarok plan was not even explained. At least we know why Charles and V.V decided on it, they were disillusioned with the world because of what they saw. Marianne did not even have that development. All in all, for a character that was so important to what drives Lelouch initially she was about as well developed as Rivalz. Many of the other characters and plots do not fair much better, like C.C who had her entire background shoved in our faces in one episode, Suzaku's connection to Geass that was brought up in R1 but apparently buried and forgotten, Kallen's drive to understand Lelouch only to fail despite knowing all three of the facets of his personality either through personal experience or through someone important to Lelouch, the origins or even some information of the world of C, the sword of Akasha and more notably Geass itself. Despite however the apparent lack of time to explain, develop and conclude those major plot points satisfactorily, they still felt that the slow pacing and the focus on Ashford to be justified. And for the most part, in place of proper development of those plot points, the show was too reliant on the big "oh my god" moments to move the plot along. In general, the show tried to go off in too many directions and in the end could not bring it all together satisfactorily and ended up wasting too much time early on because of it. Now how did it all wrap up? Looking at the ending, it was a beautiful scene with Lelouch's death and sacrifice. I'd say off the top of my head, that death scene was one of the best if not the best I have seen in a long while. Of course a certain G Gundam death scene tops it but I digress. Now why did I bring this up? It is because, the scene itself aside, there are a few glaring problems I have with the events. Firstly, the very core of Lelouch's character is that he is a realist. He may have some idealistic qualities in him, but at the very core he is a realist. What the ending spelled for me was that he turned more into the idealist that Suzaku was, even down to dieing to atone for his sins. Having someone to blame does not make every opportunistic, self serving person become a saint. If there is one thing history has taught us, it is that we humans have a knack for finding reasons to kill each other for power. One point that I thought really drove home in R1 was that dieing is not atonement, which was illustrated with Suzaku and what I thought was the reason for the Live Geass to be placed on him. That instead of dieing as you want, you have to live for others to atone. Another point is that by declaring that he deserves to die for all the sins he has made with Geass he deserves to die, he, in a way, in validates the good he has done with it as well. He may have trampled over the lives of others but if it was not for him, the Black Knights would not exist, and they would not have gotten as far as they did. Maintaining the peace he created while living and carrying their sins should be the burden of both Suzaku and Lelouch. Also the jump for Kallen from thinking Lelouch was the devil that must be stopped to suddenly knowing everything in his plans was a bit sudden, although perhaps I was hoping for one final encounter that seemed to be what her development was building up to but never was. While there were many elements I liked within the plot, R2 was just trying too hard to capitalize on the commercial success of R1 by forcing the elements of what initially drew viewers into the series and not doing a proper job of answering the questions raised in R1. I found that in this area, the good just could not outweighed the bad. Too many plot points remained unresolved and the general rushed pacing towards the end dragged the show down for me. Overall Score: 6.5/10 Overall, while I did have some major problems with the season, Code Geass was still a good series to me, it had the potential to be a great series but this season made it fall short of the mark. I would still recommend this series to people and the series itself had many interesting ideas. Now if only we can get a copy of what Taniguchi had originally planned for R2..... |
2008-10-04, 23:01 | Link #45 |
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Animation Quality: 10.
I never had any problems with the animation. Voice Acting: 10 I loved Lelouch's voice especially. So grand. Script: 8 I wished Code Geass R2 had at least more episodes. Felt condensed and in turn did not allow for further characterization. (-1) Fans are divided on the ending. Some opt for the realistic and tragic ending. While some prefer the 'happily-ever-after' ending where Lelouch lives. However, because the anime is full of symbolisms, it becomes easy to deduct that Lelouch is alive. (-1) Editing: 10 No problems here either. |
2008-10-04, 23:16 | Link #47 |
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I am going to have to agree with Kristen on the death thing. Code Geass makes Gundam Seed Destiny look good on the death department, at least when Gundam Seed Destiny brings you back you at least do more than just be a background character.
We don't even know if Guilford is blind, but for some reason he started wearing dark glasses when he returned. |
2008-10-04, 23:47 | Link #48 | |
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I think those glasses are special too. |
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2008-10-05, 00:10 | Link #49 |
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The second season of Code Geass was the first anime that I've watched week to week from the beginning. Prior to this, I had downloaded entire seasons and marathoned them until I had catched up with the releases. So, naturally, this has been quite the memorable experience for me.
When reviewing a series it's hard to determine how to gather up the entire experience and attach a number to it. Do you weigh every aspect of the show the same? Does personal emotion and satisfaction play a major part? Should one rank shows based on previous shows viewed (i.e. I gave show X an 8 so i must give show Y less)? Because of these variables I'll make sure to explain my scores to the best of my abilities and I'll be grading Code Geass independantly and not compare it to other series that I've seen. Animation Quality For the most part Code Geass was consistant with their animation. There were a few moments where character designs became inconsistant. One example that stands out is when Shirley slips off the ledge and Lelouche and Suzaku save her. In this scene, it looks like Lelouche has an extender arm that had doubled its length. For the most part though, the animation was consistant. During battle scenes there was never a significant drop off in quality or massively recycled scenes. score: 7.5/10 Sound This is by far the strongest point in Code Geass. The VA selection was fantastic. You could tell that this was a group of professionals with the emount of emotion and energy being channeled through the characters. A good example of this is during Lelouche's death scene, Nunally's VA did a phenominal job projecting her emotions. The soundtrack is also one of the best I've heard. I must admit, none of the OPs or EDs really grew on me but to this day I still have background songs from season one stuck in my head. score: 9/10 Characters This section is where i really cant make up my mind. On one hand you have a group of dynamic characters who's growth is what really makes Code Geass. On the other hand, you have a few static characters who dont do much but fill their role nicely. On another.... foot? you have several characters who's development sort of falls off the earth. The group of dynamic characters includes Lelouche, C.C., Villetta, Rolo, and Suzaku. These are the characters who are really developed the most throughout the story. Lelouche has a lot of depth in his character. Being the main character, he needs to be the most developed character and i think the writers really succeeded with him. C.C. could have been developed more for a major character but i think it was sufficient enough not to be seen as a weakness in the story. Viletta and Rolo were also very dynamic characters albeit minor ones. The static characters include Kaguya, Tamaki, Lloyd, Cecile, Bartley, Mao, most of the black knights, etc. These characters were developed properly. They fit into the story nicely and werent overly ambitious with their characters. development was minimal as it should be. Mao especially did a great job in this area. This third grouping was one area where Code Geass really failed. The sheer amount of characters in the story didn't allow for proper development for everyone of them. After Kallen was captured her development was over. Nothing ever came from Xingke's illness. Anya was used as a plot device and really nothing more. Nunally seemed to be nothing more than a FOIL for Lelouche. It seems that the writers had a lot planned with several characters that was left on the cutting room floor. There was a lot of development that went nowhere. Score: 5/10 Script/Plot Here you have a cohesive plot that was executed poorly. The acctual happenings in the story was good. The plot kept me entertained for its entire runtime. The dialogs/monologs (both internal and external) were well written and had purpose. The pacing reminds me of myself when writing an in class essay. I have great ideas, start off strong, zone out for a few minutes and lose my train of thought, zone out some more, realize i only have 10 minutes left and try to rush to get all of my great ideas down. There were several streaks of good episodes with good pacing but then you get the zoning out points (love attack/ school based episodes or calm before the storm episodes) that left them with little time to provide all of the climax in a coherent way. score: 5.5/10 Entertainment (probably going to skew the data) Everything else aside, Code Geass was very entertaining and always left me wanting more. There was never a point during the series when i wished it was over or skipped through boring parts. It was the first time I've ever watched an episode of a show 3 or 4 times within a few hours/days to make sure i didnt miss anything or to relive my favorite moments. I always know when I've really enjoyed a show based on how i feel when its over. After watching the finale I couldnt sleep that night, Continued Story and Madder Sky have crept into my mind periodicly throughout the past week, and I still have a craving to rewatch the series. Despite all of the anxiety that comes with finishing the show, I also got piece of mind from Lelouche's DEATH and the epilouge. I'm pleased with the conclusion and the meaning that the writers were trying to convey. score: 10/10 Overall Conventional Score: 6.75/10 Overall Score including enjoyment: 7.4/10 so 6.75-7.4. Prior to writing this review I was going to give it a 7.5-8 so I'm pretty pleased with myself. Of course if there is an OVA or DVD extra that improves development, this score could increase. |
2008-10-05, 03:14 | Link #50 |
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I'm getting rather annoyed by the fact that people are criticising Code Geass because Scheinzel was not a good "Final villain/boss" figure that they were expecting. Are you people just asking for clichés and formulaic stories or what? Scheinzel was never really a villain at all, he was an antagonist yes, but to me it felt a lot more original and believable that Scheinzel was just a man who's views conflicted with Lelouch.
If you spoon-fed kids want a "final villain" then you have to look no further than Lelouch himself, though in reality there are no "villains" in a story with good characters, just antagonists and conflicts. Nor do I get what the compliant of pacing is all about, it was never too fast, atleast not too fast for me to easily follow. |
2008-10-05, 03:19 | Link #51 | |
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2008-10-05, 03:49 | Link #53 | |
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One of the best things about MSG was how instead of having Amuro face one ace every episode, they created arcs where Amuro would duel an ace, and allow us to sympathize with the ace, give the sense that Amuro was fighting an ace worth fighting. When Amuro defeated the ace we had a feeling that Amuro did something great, and that Zeon was clearly a worth opponent. We simply don't get that feeling from Code Geass. Charles, and Schneizel where not on the level of Lelouch. Schneizel was barely an improvement over Mao, and Charles was a complete idiot with a childish idea cribbed from Evangelion. Instead of plots been giving time to unravel naturally Marianne shows up, and by the next episode she's dead, Charles reveals his plan and defeated in the same episode, Schneizel shows up and in a couple episodes he's geassed, the only thing that came out of the entire geass order is the fact that that Charles was immortal, and Lelouch had killed a bunch of children. Given time some of those ideas could have been interesting, as is, only Schneizel was very interesting, Marianne, and Charles came off like bafoons, and V.V is only useful for debating whether Lelouch lived or died. Every single Knight of Round not named Suzaku was not used for its full potential, even Gino was not shown to be on the level of Kallen or Suzaku. Compare that to once again MSG, where while Amuro was an excellent pilot, several pilots where on his level, in both the Federation, and Zeon, its just that Amuro and Char became more famous. At most their should have been 5 KoR, with Anya, and Gino getting more screentime, maybe showing their displeasure at Britannian aristocracy. The problem of having only good characters is quite simple instead of Schneizel, and Lelouch seeking peace, they instead seek war, Why? Because if both didn't act like complete idiots than their would be no Code Geass. If Schneizel or Lelouch where actually in office, both would be out of office by the time their term limit was over for being incompetent people who tried to force their ideas on other people. Schneizel didn't feel like a final boss, because like all the other villains, he was taken care of in the same amount of time as it took Lelouch to take care of Mao, the only difference is that Schneizel had FLEIJA, an advantage taken away by Nina. Also an Anti-villain isn't a unique character that's why TV tropes has an entire page of them. A unique character is someone like Micheal Wilson, if Code Geass replaced Lelouch with Micheal Wilson, I feel all complaints would go away. I want some intelligent debate, I want people to post their opinions. I want people to dissect their opinions before saying 10/10 "Best anime ever" and that's it. Last edited by Charred Knight; 2008-10-05 at 04:14. |
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2008-10-05, 05:36 | Link #55 | |
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It seems to me that Lelouch and Schneizel where seeking war, neither side never even gave peace a chance. When the oppurtunity rose Schneizel built a Doom Fortress while Lelouch brainwashed soldiers. Both saw fit to put their different view on the world by force without giving peace a chance. |
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2008-10-05, 05:42 | Link #56 |
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Age: 39
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For a non-devout watcher, I'll give it a 7. I find R2's links with R1 quite... questionable, at least those parts before the Massacre Princess incident. I didn't have a problem reading about the Mao incident (and that was just because of Orange-sama's undoing of Shirley's Geass).
Lelouch and Suzaku: Where do we start? All I can say is eventually, they turned out to be Not So Different after all. Plenty of Wham episodes towards the end of the season, which numb the senses. That's it for now. Oh, and I should be getting the yonkoma by As' Maria.
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2008-10-05, 05:42 | Link #57 | ||
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2008-10-05, 05:55 | Link #59 | |
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