Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

From my Instagram (covering both seasons): Code Geass Analysis: Part 1: The first season of Code Geass is perhaps my favourite anime of all time. Aside from one episode, it is 25 episodes of pure perfection. Code Geass S1 ensures to have at least one 10/10 moment every episode. It is a series that very much lives for its big moments, there are a countless number of scenes that I could point to as being absolutely perfect. Even though it puts a lot of emphasis on its big scenes, what fills the gaps in between those scenes is just as substantial. The student council scenes may be made funoff but they serve a crucial narrative purpose, it is these scenes that serve to humanise Lelouch, which is very much needed when every other scene involving him portrays him as a ruthless terrorist. However, the scenes in which Lelouch takes on the role of Zero are what really shine in Code Geass. Watching Lelouch give up his quiet life for the sake of his younger sister and in turn the whole of Japan show not only his strong will and compassion, but more importantly his absolute selflessness. I will save any further analysis of Lelouch for a seperate post but needless to say, I can’t fault a single aspect of his character.
To briefly touch on the mecha element of Code Geass. While there may be mecha, they merely serve as a plot device and more or less add nothing to the story. This allows for some genuinely great mecha fights to be present but ensures that they don’t outshine the brilliant narrative and characters, but rather support them. Watching Lelouch employ his brilliant tactics is always a pleasure. Lelouch is able to use underhanded tactics without feeling any guilt over it, since his opponent is an entire empire. This means that the strategies he has to come up with have to be increasingly sly as the series goes on. In season one, the writers were able to keep coming up with new and inventive strategies consistently throughout, which is a very impressive feat. (Season one part two analysis coming soon)
Part 2:
To think that I wrote an entire post on everything great about the first season of Code Geass without even mentioning the power of geass itself. Lelouch is the perfect character to be given the power of geass, by its very nature, even the physically weak can use geass. Lelouch is shown to be physically weak, however, where his strength lies is in his intelligence. This means that, unlike in a lot of other anime, Lelouch’s most powerful weapon is his mind, and the addition of geass makes him all the more powerful. Geass is very interesting as it is used to raise a very profound question, what is the morality of controlling others? Lelouch does use his geass to control his comrades, which could be viewed as morally corrupt, however, the fact that Lelouch is controlling his comrades for the sake of their dream brings about a great ambiguity on the matter. This question is never truly answered in season one but does lead to a great conflict between Lelouch and Suzaku, although I will save that for my post on the character dynamic between Lelouch and Suzaku. To summarise, while the first season does not answer the question on the morality of controlling others, it does not need to. Perhaps the fact that it does not answer is an answer in itself, perhaps no one has the right to judge the morality of such a thing. It is clear to me that all of this was intentional.
The moral ambiguity of geass as a power also works wonders when it comes to Lelouch’s character arc. Lelouch sets out to be a hero, to save Japan from Britannia. While this may be the case, he also desires to see the Britannian Empire completely obliterated. On one hand, he selflessly wishes to destroy Britannia, but on the other hand, he wishes to see it destroyed for the sake of his own revenge. Lelouch is torn. This is where geass comes in, obtaining this power enables him to fulfil any selfish desire that he happens to have, at first, he refrains from using his power so irresponsibly. However, as the series goes on, and as the tremendous pressure that he has on his shoulders increases, he uses his geass to satisfy himself. (Running out of room, swipe across to see an example of this)
Part 3:
To me, the appeal of Code Geass’ first season was never the mecha battles, the mecha designs, or even anything to do with the mecha element whatsoever. It was the brilliantly complex strategies, the ideological battles, the immense sense of never knowing what would happen next, and finally, the characters. The second season of Code Geass seemed to misunderstand what the appeal of Code Geass was to non mecha fans in the first place. My absolute biggest problem with the second season of Code Geass is anything to do with the nightmares. As I mentioned in a previous post, the mecha aspect of Code Geass was fun, but never a part of the story that was emphasised in any meaningful way. However, the second season of Code Geass goes out of its way to constantly introduce new nightmare designs and such. The believability of it all lessens as the season goes on. The need to come up with intelligent strategies are more or less completely gone, when the enemy could introduce a new nightmare model at any moment, completely changing the course of battle. Yes, this happened in the first season, however, that was always with Suzaku piloting the Lancelot. Understanding the difference between these is crucial. Suzaku being the one to interfere with Lelouch’s plans served a narrative purpose other than just to make things harder for Lelouch. The fact that it was Lelouch’s childhood friend stopping him without either of them realising worked wonders in building tension between them, but then simultaneously showing them being friendly at school. This was an excellent part of season one and was a crucial element to the story. Season two misunderstands this. Plus, in my opinion the nightmare designs aren’t even that appealing in Code Geass, so to put more emphasis on them was always going to be to the show’s detriment.
Despite having said so much negative about season two, it’s still far better than most anime I’ve seen and a strong 9/10. It’s just a shame that I didn’t find it as good as the first season. I should also clarify that I am aware that the last ~five episodes of season two are some of the best episodes in the history of anime, I’ll be covering them in a separate post.