Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

With striking character designs, adrenaline inducing pacing and epic battles, Code Geass is basically a versing in making exciting, highly watchable shounen anime. Plot-10/10 My highest score would undoubtedly have to be for the plot of Code Geass. It immediately gives an interesting premise: Japan has became a social darwinist state, ran by the xenophobic britannians who dub it "Area 11". The Britannians are shown to be cruel and racist: their actions in the first episode of the anime is enough to get us on the side of Lelouch. The anime, thankfully, does not divert too much from the original plot. There are only really two orthree episodes that are not totally pivotal to the outcome of the anime, and these are important as they divulge some of the secrets of Lelouch's new found powers. The pacing is fantastic: for someone like me, who has a hatred of filler episodes, the plot was concise and steady, it did not diverge in to useless flashbacks or mini-arcs. Code Gass works just as well as a drama as it does as an action movie: the interactions between characters are just as interesting as the mecha scenes. In fact, Code Geass does not behave like a stereotypical gundam series at all: at times, I forgot that this was a giant robot anime-it is far more Death Note than Gundam Suite.

Characters-8/10
Most of these points are solely for Lelouch-one of the most three dimensional anime characters I have seen for a long shot. Sure, he is supposed to be a genius, but he is a relatable one at that: he makes enough mistakes for the viewer to see him as a human being, rather than something invincible. Despite comparisons to Light Yagami, for me Lelouch does not tread in to "despicable anti-hero" territory: he is driven by his love of his family, and in fact, his empathy with others often prevents him from fulfilling his plans to their full extent. Lelouch is a true deconstruction of the "infallible badass" character: his flaws make him likeable and it is not hard to root for him as he dotes on Nunally.
Code Geass has a massive cast, and due to this, many are pretty 1D. But the characters that are fleshed out properly make an interesting bunch: Karen is a total action girl from the start, Euphie makes for a realistic beautiful princess, with enough flaws to not fall into Mary sue category. Suzaku is believable as Lelouch's counterpart: He has a massive guilt complex, and turns out to be not all that he seems: he is basically a breakdown of the classic mecha pilot.

Art-9/10
Clamp's character designs are gorgeous. I was initially a little bit thrown by the noodle like proportions of the cast, but give it time! Eventually your eyes will adjust to the anatomical weirdness. The characters were certainly all very different: the beautiful attention to detail in clothes, hair and eyes make this series a cosplayer or fanartist's dream. The striking differences in each member of the cast made it easy to tell who was who, essential in an anime that features so many people.
The backgrounds were pretty standard fare, as were the giant robots. But the obvious nod to Victorian style and architecture gave the series a feel unique to typical mecha and also fitted the essence of the ostentatious Britannian rulers.

Sound-8/10
I watched the subbed version, so all this will refer to the original Japanese.
No real complaints here. Lelouch's voice actor was awesome, and his changes in tone were excellent in showing the differences between Lulu and Zero. I thought Nanally's voice was adorable. The differences in chosen pronouns were pretty interesting: Lelouch uses "ore", Suzaku uses "boku", Euphie talks using the extremely formal "Watakushi". It's practically worth learning a bit about Japanese pronouns before watching as these nunances make such a nice touch. The creepy gospel music that plays during fight scenes wasn't dissonant to the general atmosphere of the fights, and suited it quite nicely actually. The rest of the background music went unnoticed.
There are two different ops: the first one was a standard shounen op, the second seemed to be from the Blink 182 of Japan. I thought the ending songs were actually better: the first one is a real challenge for any karaoke fans, the second stays in the head all day.

Enjoyment-9/10
Code Geass is enjoyable as it doesn't pretend to be something that it's not: sure, it has a crazy plot, everyone has neon hair and school boys piloting giant robots doesn't even turn heads. But that's the fun in it! Anime is supposed to be pure escapism, something often forgotten by those craving more and more realistic plots. As soon as you let go of any pretensions, Code Geass becomes a very fun ride indeed: it is bright, with many twists and turns and leaves you with a feeling of satisfaction when it's finished.