Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

"Think of how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are even stupider than that."--George Carlin "If it is so wrong to be powerless, does having power make you right?" So you're saying your father is right, you stupid, pseudo-intellectual hypocrite? Welp, after years of mulling over the wasted potential of this series, I've finally decided to bite the bullet and watch it again to view it less casually and more analytically. I think that's the general appeal this series has: As smart as it tries to be, a lot of people will only be able to enjoy it if it is theirfirst foray into anime or they prefer to not think about certain circumstances and just want to have fun.

Even when I initially went into it with this mindset, distinct flaws easily showed themselves here and there and eventually sapped my enjoyment of it. But then, at the end of the season, it pulled me back in like many times before where I was just eager to see what would happen next. But until that thrilling seasonal conclusion that made me quickly click on the Next Episode button, I was stumped many, many times as to why certain strategies just so happened to work or why a particular event was happening despite there being no buildup or explanation for it besides an offhanded remark.

Let's start with the theme which I oddly enough didn't think about until recently. This may be the very first series I have ever seen that carries such a descriptor as "thematic hypocrisy." Japan, a country that is historically known to have been Imperialist and Fascist (and, by all accounts, way, WAY worse than Britannia is ever shown to be--Chinese baby kababs, anyone? 🤢🤮) before it was defeated in World War 2 and eventually Westernized, and before even that was the most isolationist and xenophobic nation on the planet--and segregation and racism against foreigners is STILL practiced in shockingly blatant ways all around the country--is already a neutral country in the conflict between the major superpowers. It's possible they may have changed some time over the course of history, but it is never mentioned despite World War 2 never happening in this timeline to disillusion the Japanese people. And it is essentially confirmed that they were once of like mind with Britannia in the spinoff Akito the Exiled when a racist (European, who are supposed to be democratic and merciful toward Numbers but of course even they are racist against the poor, victimized Japanese) goes off on a tirade about how the Japanese found honor in Kamikaze attacks so it is okay if they die as long as they take all of the Britannians with them. So, strangely enough, knowing how the Japanese unfortunately but truthfully were at one time and how their own history is majorly censored in their schooling curriculums and their own government meddles in international affairs to cover up their ancestors' atrocities in desperate attempts to make the world forget them, I have a hard time taking Britannia's domination over the Japanese seriously. I know it is obviously based on ignorance that the writers presented the relationship between Britannia and Japan in this way, but seeing certain characters being incredibly patriotic and displaying traits that distinctly resemble romanticized samurai (who in truth were usually as selfish and opportunistic as European knights) seriously made me question certain characters' values. This major oversight would have worked if they had ever addressed that historical reality in the series properly, even leading to some genuinely fascinating political and ethical discussions; but it isn't brought up until Akito the Exiled, made in 2012, and even then it is glazed over to only show how deplorable a certain character is.

Now, on to the story and characters themselves. From the first episode, it was clear the plot would largely fly by the seat of its pants. A few lucky contrivances happen and some bad dialogue is thrown around to look cool ("You fellas know full well what this badass mother can do!" Kallen, please shut up. Your voice is grating on my ears and I can already tell what your trope stereotype is going to be.) and then on episode 2 the arguably worst Code Geass character Suzaku Kururugi happens to be saved from certain death by yet another lucky contrivance before immediately getting thrown into the cockpit of a mech (which all use wheels, not their legs; lazy animation or an unconventional design choice?) despite having absolutely no prior battle experience aside from simulations, yet he is able to utterly kick the terrorists' butts with barely any effort. Actually, he is inexplicably able to perform ridiculous feats with his own body in later episodes, like literally dodge bullets one after another or defuse a bomb by matching his exact velocity with it so he can cut the right wire (which he figured out off-screen) so it doesn't explode when it stops moving. Contrived writing at its finest.

Which brings up what many consider to be Suzaku's worst character flaw: His strange dichotomy between being a member of an oppressed race and actively serving in their military as an Honorary Britannian. Despite being beaten by his superior officers and still being looked down on in general, he can't understand how serving them does little good to make others see him as an equal--initially. Strangely enough, I can actually understand his views once his eventual girlfriend Euphemia gains enough influence to try to make the Japanese officially recognized as people again. It's an unfortunate reality that only those with enough political influence would be able to make such a dream happen, but it eventually goes up in smoke when one of the series' most imfamous plot twists happens thanks to an out-of-character joke made by Lelouch, which comes immediately after he is actively trying to sabotage her good intentions because he is too self-centered and wrapped up in his narcissistic pursuit of revenge to see the other side's point of view.

Which brings the other main hypocrite of the series to the stand, the naïve Suzaku's foil, Lelouch vi Britannia. While this series presents itself as a struggle between ideology versus ethics, it eventually degrades into a contest between ignorant foolishness and maniacal nihilism. Lelouch is the iconic exiled prince of Britannia, cast out of his family for unspecified reasons aside from his father being a jerk. Some time in the past, the Kururugi family take in the misplaced Britannian siblings Lelouch and his blind and crippled sister Nunnally and care for them, thus Lelouch and Suzaku become friends and witness the Britannian takeover of the island nation.

So, a battle of ideologies between old friends, one who wants to protect Britannia so it can improve itself and the other who wants to destroy it primarily out of vengeance. Sounds epic, right? Well, any plot holes, bad character moments, and obnoxiously tone-deaf comedic episodes completely sap the potential this story could have. For starters, Lelouch is presented as compassionate, but when he is eventually confronted with needing to care for the girl who gave him his Geass power, whom he saved, he prudishly wants to throw her back out on the street. Throughout the season, he expresses extreme mistrust for her despite figuring out that she is in no way on the side of his enemies, yet by the end she has fallen in love with him even though he still sometimes makes snide remarks about her reliability.

And speaking of Lelouch's unlikable character traits, let's have a look at his intelligence. A lot of times, he is only able to beat his opponents because they make such an obvious mistake or a convenience shows up at the proper time to save him when he forgot to make a Plan B. At one point, he even intentionally sets a bomb on a spot where he knew his own allies would be to give the appearance that they made a noble sacrifice--all to rally more people behind the Resistance when it was a strategically bad move since the Black Knights and the Japan Liberation Front clearly already had the upper hand and the JLF were carrying an extremely valuable resource the rebellion could have used.

Actually, there are a lot of times where Lelouch not only did something utterly horrible that is awfully out-of-character for someone who is supposedly not yet succumbing to madness, but where he is somehow able to predict the exact instance something will happen even HOURS beforehand, like synching a pawn's (RIP best forgotten adoptive dad Darlton) arrival to a time when Lelouch already knew he himself would be there for the plan despite happenstances of battle getting in the way, or the proper distribution of enemy troops so he can wipe most of them out in an instant to predicting exactly what someone will say while making a video recording because his opponent was "simple-minded." By the end of the season, he has very suddenly shifted personalities from a relatively just freedom fighter (aside from killing his allies for his "greater cause" that time and using tactics that count as war crimes) to a cackling psychopath who is willing to wipe out THOUSANDS of civilians all to get to a single key opponent. This may look morally ambiguous and cool to the common teenager who is just watching to see a massive political drama, but to the experienced viewer it just comes across as weirdly self-gratifying and edgy, like the writers knew that some people would just love to see a protagonist who is "different" while obviously being in the right in the broader perspective the entire time (uh, no Lelouch, you're just making other people suffer and die for your own personal vengeance).

Now that the headache-inducing main duo have mostly been analyzed thoroughly, the side characters might actually be worse than them and don't serve much purpose to the story. Lelouch's classmates (since he is a high school student who is somehow still at the top of his class despite being consistently absent) are mostly just around for the tone-deaf high school rom-com episodes that could have cut a lot of unnecessary runtime from the series had they not been present. From the annoying Rivalz to the creepy stalker of Princess Euphemia, Nina, who eventually becomes a key player in the plot all thanks to her obsession with her, creating a weapon of mass destruction that coalesces into one of the dumbest moments of the even worse season 2 (oh yes, I'll be getting there), virtually all of Lelouch's friends are just there to ensure the series doesn't get too wrapped up in its own nihilistic tone, but they end up getting caught in the middle of it anyway. In addition, far too much time is spent on every main female's obsession with Lelouch, as he is portrayed as extremely handsome but the series' mostly gross anorexic male character designs (and especially Kallen's design in addition to her gratingly tropey tsundere personality--blegh!) make it incredibly hard for their swooning to seem real. And there's Lelouch's sister Nunnally, his one true love in the world and manipulatively sweet plot device that we are supposed to accept as the reason he is deluding himself into wanting to take revenge on pretty much his entire family. She's there to be kidnapped to raise the stakes for certain episodes and unknowingly urge Lelouch to his frankly hypocritical goal, nothing more.

The side characters of the rebellion are also quite flat, as well. Tamaki is a selfish prick who seems to think he should be the one leading despite him being a complete idiot (but it's funny, see?) and Kallen, who is also part of the resistance since she is a half-Japanese-Britannian hybrid (who eventually utterly rejects her foreign half without ever going through any arc to learn that not all Britannians want her subjugated, assimilated, or dead--great message to alienated hafus in your home country, writers) to this day grinds my gears as one of the most hideously designed and mouthy tsunderes in anime history. You aren't Taiga, Kallen. Taiga actually grows from her selfish and violent personality. Oh, and I should mention Kallen is incredibly racist toward Britannians, as well--which is played for laughs! (I'm supposed to sympathize with her, right?) I don't really understand the hate Ohgi gets, though. He's kind of clueless, but he's the one main Resistance fighter who doesn't feel like an annoying trope. Unfortunately, his romantic relationship with an enemy--Villetta Nu--who lost her memory (and is the Best Girl of the season from her gorgeous design alone) is painfully forced, as it evidently happens off-screen since they are only shown in the same room five times before her memory is inexplicably jostled back (off-screen, duh).

The side characters on the antagonists side are actually quite likable. Imagine that! The supposed villains have the most likable personalities of the entire cast. Lloyd and Cecile, engineers working for the military along with Suzaku to ensure his inexplicably OP abilities are always ready and raring to go to be a thorn in Lelouch's side, serve as a bridge between the two opposing ideologies. Despite being Britannian, they aren't racist in the slightest yet are confusingly working for a regime that actively oppresses Numbers. Evidently they are meant to serve as an upstanding example for the audience to see that not every Britannian is a bigot. There are people like them in real life, obviously, but it is never actually explained why they are working for the military and have to watch from the sidelines while Numbers are slaughtered. I guess there just wasn't time for that. (Seeing whatever ca-raazzzzy shenanigans Lelouch and his buddies were getting up to took precedence.) The conflict is meant to appear two-sided, but we never really see that until Lelouch starts going crazy.

And ah, the plot twists! Characters show up in the perfect place for the plot to continue along, and when one villain is somehow miraculously saved through the miracle of Britannian medical science despite being shot EVERYWHERE ("You told them to shoot me, not kill me!" You would have bled to death regardless of the Geass's order!) one character who is killed can later not be saved despite only being shot with a single bullet. But it leads to the season's giant conclusion, right? And in practically every episode, vital information is most often revealed with flashbacks instead of giving it to the audience with the natural flow of the plot when we would need it to figure out some kind of allegedly clever plan before it happened, as if the writers hadn't actually thought of how the characters came up with something until AFTER the initial idea was in the script but didn't want to bother having to rewrite certain past parts before production.

As I said before, this series has a propensity to grab the viewer and not let go, no matter how bad the writing is or how annoying the characters are. It FEELS epic and massive, and the occasionally fantastic animation and set scale are the key ingredients of that. Despite the rocky lead-up, the viewer is genuinely pulled into the concluding showdown. An ending is truly what makes a story worth it. If it can't land the ending, the viewer feels completely cheated and won't be willing to continue to the next season or will just want to forget the story ever existed.

AND THEY BAIL ON IT.

I'm not talking about the end of the season itself (which had my mouth agape in anticipation!), I'm talking about the payoff--the payoff of the utterly disastrous second season of Code Geass. It gets so much worse and wastes absolute HEAPS of character potential and makes the main ones even more unlikable. And remember when I said that the ending is what makes any story ultimately worth it, like season 1? Oooooohhhh boy . . .