Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Code Geass is definitely a very popular anime, no denying that, but I wouldn't exactly call it a master piece, but it is however, a fun and entertaining show, you just don't need to put too much thought into it. STORY: Once upon a time, there was a famous animation company that decided to mash up as many genres as they can to make an anime that would try to appeal to as many anime fans as possible. The end result was Code Geass, and it was a success, popularity wise. But before I get on to the actual review I have to say honestly, I really likethis anime, but it can pretty much ruin the fun of the anime if you try to look at it objectively, but that being said, it's hard not to since this anime tries way too hard to appeal to too many genres that fans are into.

Admittedly, the story itself is quite interesting, an alternate reality where England, now named Brittania, has taken over the world and just really hates Japan to the point of ethnic cleansing (It's a little unsettling to say the least). But the main focus of the anime is about a royal family member castaway, Lelouch Lamperouge, trying to get revenge on his father, the leader/king of Brittania for the murder of his mother. So yeah, essentially the story is just another revenge story, nothing too original (How are revenge stories so damn popular I will never know).

But the anime starts to show its short comings, and really early on. The anime tries to make you assume that Lelouch is a genius solely upon him being good at chess, with no other reason, he's genius cause he's a beast at chess, that's it.
There's no character build up to show he's a genius other than playing chess (But I would not know since I don't play chess, maybe it really does make you a genius, maybe I need to try it out before making this judgement).

And besides being a genius, he receives a power which allows him to control people's minds, once per person, called Geass (Get it? Because the show is also called Code "Geass"), which by the way, is the best used character/plot device in the anime, and it's entertaining how Lelouch uses it in dangerous situations or when he's trying to outsmart his foes.
However, the way he obtains just seems that not enough thought was put into it, in other words, kinda lazy, he meets a girl in a strait jacket being chased by the military, and bam! Mind control powers.

This is also where you also should realize a major plot hole in the early episodes, with his mind controlling powers, he could get his revenge in a heart beat, but that's not fun to watch at all, but if he could simply kill off one of his family members easily in less than three episodes (Don'y worry, that character's death is just another way to advance the plot), what's keeping him from getting his father like that too?

Additionally, Lelouch isn't really a likable character (His comes off being arrogant and is just a calculating and sadistic bastard), but the rest of the cast though, have a little more going on for them.

The benefactor of Lelouch's power, C.C. (Pronounced C2) may not be terribly interesting herself, but like myself, she's just there to watch the whole show play out and snack on pizza (Fun fact, this anime was endorsed/sponsored by a pizza company).
In fact I would've been fine if her character just died on the first episode (Spoiler: she gets shot in the head), it would've been more interesting to see Lelouch figure his powers all on his own anyway. But apparently, she must have been a favorite of the creators of the anime, enough so they keep her to mess a round with Lelouch and eat pizza, so at least she's amusing.

Childhood friend and some what frienemy of Lelouch, Suzaku, is arguably a better protagonist than Lelouch and was developed into his character much better than Lelouch too, but his focus on what he wants to do isn't exactly clear (I want to save Japan/I want to be a knight for britiania, blah, blah, blah), and though his character development is better than what Lelouch's was, it can be arguably be called lazy, because most of it was through flashbacks to his past, though later episodes are more enjoyable due a girlfriend he gets.

But, the real stars of the anime are the genres that are ungracefully crammed together.

It tries to be school life anime, a harem, an action anime, ecchi anime, psychological anime (TRIES to, it isn't), romance anime, and a mecha anime all at the same time, but if you look down at the core of this anime and try to piece it together, you'll realize it's a gigantic mess.

Especially how this anime tries to integrate mecha (Get it? Because it's called Code Geas... wait, don't the majority of mecha anime have the name of a mecha in it's title? Gurren Lagann or any Gundam for example) into the story, they're just literally there to just be cool and to be used as weapons of war, nothing more, absolutely nothing more. Shallow is a better word to describe it than lazy.
The anime would honestly be just as effective without the mechs (Apparently the creators are aware of this because two of the manga series have no mechas in them), in fact, it isn't a mecha anime.
A mecha anime is a mecha cause one of it's major focuses is on it's robots, Code Geass focuses on anything else but the mechas, they're there just to appeal to mecha fans, so really there's no point what so ever for the mechas to even exist in this anime, they're just cool to throw in because they're giant robots.

But, there is one thing this anime knows what it is, a loud cluster f**k of many gernres, and despite that it's not a great anime, it's fun to watch and at least pretend that it knows what it's trying to be.

ANIMATION: For me, this is best part of the whole anime, it looks great, the girls are hot, the boys are pretty, everyone wins, plenty of eye candy for all.
Especially for fans of clamp, who were generous enough to do the character designs.
The mechas look cool enough, but the stupidest parts on them are the wheels slapped on them, they look so ridiculous. But the action scenes more than compensate for them.
But other than that, this a gorgeous looking show.

SOUND: Both the Japanese and English voices are great, but I only watched the english dubbed due to my own preferences.
Johnny Young Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal, Michelle Ruff, Steven Blum, Kate Higgins, and so many more top notch notable voice actors are in this anime, but of all of them, Johnny is damn good as Lelouch and Yuri's Suzaku is a great compliment to Johnny's performance.
Each theme music is enjoyable and what you'll except for a mainstream anime, though the back ground music doesn't really stand out.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Very entertaining and fun to watch.
+ Good looking characters designed by Clamp, and great animation overall.
+ Good english dub, Johnny Bosch's Lelouch is arguably one of his best performances.

The Bad:
- Can be faulted for trying too hard to appeal to multiple audiences by shallowly cramming genres together.
- There's honestly there's no point of the mechas other than to be used as weapons to fight.
- Weak character development, C.C. honestly feels thrown in.
- Lots of plot holes

Despite what I have said in this review I would still recommend this to any one.
And I'm surprised I didn't reference Death Note once in this review... Wait a minute... Damn, so close.