Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

This review covers both the first and the second season of Code Geass. Code Geass is one of the most enjoyable anime I've ever seen. It's addictive, has awesome mecha fights, great music and an interesting main character. But it's also one of the most overrated anime ever created. "What! Code Geass, overrated? Blasphemy! How dare you to insult one of the most popular and amazing anime this way, you just didn't understand this masterpiece!" Well, Code Geass is not a masterpiece, the first season was pretty good, but the second season was just retarded. Why? ~Story~ 4/10 Our main character Lelouch is an exiled Britannian prince,who wants to avenge his dead mother and disabled sister. And (of course) the evil Britannian empire occupied Japan (again) and (of course) our hero joins with the brave rebels who want to free poor Japan (again). In exactly how many anime is Japan occupied by a foreign nation? It's not even funny anymore, do Japanese people have some kind of victim-syndrome?
But okay, our hero accidentally meets C.C. a pretty, mysterious girl who gives him superpowers, Geass. Now, Lelouch has to ability to control the will of everyone he sees, of course there are some limitations but Geass is extremely strong. This raises the question: Why did it take Lelouch so many episodes to achieve his goals? He did some things in the least effective way possible so the viewer could see more mecha fights and bombastic speeches, this is fun but it just doesn't make sense. Another problem with the story is that it doesn't really knows if it wants to be a high-school comedy or a serious and dramatic mecha anime with politics. You can't mix these two ideas and expect them to work, it is really weird that the viewers are supposed to care about stupid high-school drama after they have seen wars in which a lot of people died. Well, we see our protagonist in high-school and he teams up with the rebels and he tries to free Japan while having fun with the school council. The story progresses, apparently everyone in his school is either a rebel or part of the military and Lelouche wins every fight because of his "brilliant" strategies or Geass. There is a lot of melodrama, Lelouche has a harem, there is fanservice and he wins more battles, that's pretty much the first season. Then comes the second season, which is rated higher then the first, WHY? There were a few plot holes during the first season but during the second season there were plot holes everywhere. There were even more stupid comedic filler episodes and "awesome" new characters no one cared about (Rollo). Oh and almost every character aside from Lelouch and Suzaku became useless and added nothing to the plot, because of this there was almost no character development. And a lot of people have Geass-power because... Actually, I don't really know why. And Geass is now an explanation for everything. How did Lelouch win this fight against a stronger army? Geass. Why was his mother alive out of nowhere in a random supernatural Geass-world? Geass. A serious problem? Lelouch will Geass ex machina himself out of it. Also the fact that C.C. turned into a fanservice object because of amnesia is not okay. And then the ending, the greatest anime ending ever made! Haha no, the ending didn't make sense, Lelouch is not a hero, his behavior was out of character and this is not how world peace or politics works. But it's sad and there are feels, so everyone loved it *sigh*.
[CONCLUSION]
The first season was decent, but the second season was a train wreck. At first Lelouch used Geass, but the power of Geass was limited and he tried to use cool strategies (though a bit stupid at times), but after a while every battle is won because of Geass and plot convience. And I'm not going to talk about the ridiculous amount of plot holes or the dead mother of Lelouch who appears in some kind of supernatural Geass-world for no good reason. Also the combination of high-school comedy and dramatic war scenes did not work, the same goes for Lelouche's bombastic speeches and hand gestures. And there are more explosions then in a Michael Bay movie, why? Because it looks cool and it's fun. That's exactly the problem with this anime, they try desperately to make everything look cool and fun while the plot is a mess.

~Art~ 6/10
I'm not a fan of this art style, CLAMP's character designs look ridiculous. Every girl has big boobs and every guy looks like a bishie. Also it was too colorful during the more dramatic and the darker parts of the story. And the facial expressions are a bit over-the-top at times, I don't think that the makers were trying to make me laugh when the characters were sad or angry, but their facial expressions were so stupid now and then. Though I have to admit, the animation was original and the battles looked very nice.
[CONCLUSION]
I hated the character designs, but that is something personal. It was a little bit too colorful and Lelouch looked like a clown when he was sad or angry. Still, I think that the animation was pretty good.

~Music~ 8/10
The opening were all in between average and good, they were not extremely special, but they were fitting. I really liked 'COLORS' by FLOW, but it wasn't very original. The same thing goes for the ending songs. The background music was very good but a little bit too bombastic at times. There was nothing wrong with the (Japanese) voice acting, actually it was very good.
[CONCLUSION]
The music was great, the opening and ending song were fitting and there wasn't one bad opening or ending song. Also, the background music and the voice acting were very good.

~Characters~ 3/10
Lelouch is an interesting character, everyone else isn't. Literally no one aside from Lelouch is interesting, let alone well-written. Suzaku is just an annoying, hypocritical whiner, Nunnaly is the useless, cute little sister in a wheelchair, C.C went from a powerful mysterious women to a fanservice object with amnesia, Shirley was just fanservice combined with forced drama and she kept screaming 'Lulu' at Lelouch in the most annoying way possible, Charles Vi Britannia is a stereotypical cartoon villain, Kallen was just part of Lelouche's stupid harem, what was actually the purpose of Rollo aside from annoying the viewers? Euphemia was a bland cute and nice girl and some girls were just in there for fanservice. I almost believed that Nina was the most interesting character of the whole supporting cast.... ok never mind, I take that back, poor table *shiver*.
But even the best character of this show, Lelouch, is not that good. His motivations and behavior keeps changing when the plot needs them to change. And everyone thinks that Lelouch is a genius, why actually? Because he plays chess or comes up with farfetched strategies that magically work? Lelouch is a perfect, pretty boy who is supposed to be smart and has a harem, when I think about it, he reminds me of Kirito from Sword Art Online.... ok, I also take that back, he's a better character than Kirito (not like that's saying much), but still he is not a brilliantly written character like his enormous fan base claims. His character development is inconsistent and the fact that during the final episode he stops behaving like an enormous jerk, doesn't turn him into a hero, this jerk started a war that killed millions of humans for the sake of his stupid revenge and his stupid sister. He's either an anti-hero or just a villain, so please stop with the "All hail Lelouch, he's the savior of mankind"-crap.
[CONCLUSION]
The characters were so damn bland. Most of them were annoying or useless, some of them were quite decent during the first season, but during the second season everyone aside from Lelouch and Suzaku turned into furniture, they just were there without contributing anything to the plot. We also got a bunch of new characters during the second season where no one asked for (yes Rollo, I'm talking about you). But the worst thing was what they did with C.C. She lost her memories and went from a supernatural and powerful women to dumb little girl who was constantly half-naked for the sake of fanservice, this annoyed the heck out of me. Good job writers, good job!

~Enjoyment~ 9/10
Bombastic speeches with over-the-top arm gestures and dramatic background music, epic mecha battles, a lot of explosions and an awesome though ridiculous ending: this show is extremely enjoyable. I was entertained from the first till the last episode, yes this show had a lot of problems but it was never boring. I can understand why people like this show so much, it's plain fun!
[CONCLUSION]
An enjoyable show with a lot of problems, if you love Michael Bay movies, you'll also love Code Geass. If you just want to have fun and turn your brain off, then go watch this show. But if you prefer well-written characters, consistent story lines and if you hate plot holes and characters that are nothing more than plot devices or fanservice, go watch something else, you'll wast your time on Code Geass. Peace!