Review of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

This is a long, detailed review so congrats if you can make it to the end. Story 8:The series takes place in an alternate universe where Japan has been conquered by the “Holy Britannian Empire”, the world’s only superpower. Under Britannian rule, the native Japanese have been subjected to a cruel and oppressive foreign rule. At the heart of the conflict is the protagonist, Lelouch, who is a Britannian prince who hates the Empire. The story begins when he receives a special power from a mysterious girl. What I appreciated most about the story was the moral complexity and ambiguity. Nothing is clear cut and everyone(who survives) undergoes a significant character change. It’s one of those morally grey narratives where it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Britannia is an evil empire, yes. I mean they ruthlessly execute Japanese civilians and their soldiers follow orders like Nazis, yet many of the series’ most likeable characters are Britannian students/citizens. The Japanese resistance on the other hand may stand for a noble, underdog cause, but they conduct terroristic bombings and execute Britannian hostages too. Ok, so who’s the “good guy”? If that’s an answer you need to have then this is not the anime for you.
The story is exciting and engaging and it definitely does a good job combining action with strategy and intrigue.

Characters 9: It’s rare and great when you have an anime that has exciting and well-developed characters along with a very cool plot. Often you have to choose between one or the other…or neither. Code Geass has both. The characters are complicated and don’t follow typical anime clichés.
One of the predominant themes that keeps surfacing is the challenge of fighting evil without becoming evil.
I’m reminded of a famous quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago (which I was coincidentally reading at the time I watched this anime):
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
The protagonist, Lelouch, embodies this good/evil dichotomy. He is intelligent, self-righteous, ambitious, vicious and powerful. The viewer can’t help but respect him and his obsessive, driven personality. However, this admiration becomes progressively more uncomfortable for the viewer as Lelouch’s hands become bloodier and bloodier in his quest to eradicate the evil empire of Britannia. Can one fight evil without becoming corrupted? Is it wrong to kill in the name of a righteous cause? Are people guilty by association? What are the dangers of seeing the world in black and white? These are some of the questions that are explored in Lelouch’s journey and (in my humble opinion) allow the anime to transcend just being a cool story and, instead, give it some philosophical depth.
While Lelouch is the centerpiece, he is surrounded by very interesting characters too. And while these co-mains and supporting characters serve to give Lelouch more complexity, they are also very interesting and unique in their own right.
For example, when CC is rude or unreasonable it’s not part of some cutesy tsundere flirtation scheme…no, no, sometimes she can just be a major bitch…which is delightful to watch. Then there’s Suzaku, who I disliked at first for being a one of those over-powered, one-dimensional, annoying, simple-minded, pure-hearted idealists that pop up in anime so frequently, but even he turned out to be more complicated and flawed than I gave him credit for. And of course there’s Shirley, Episode 1: just the cheerful, preppy bimbo; Episode ???— Think again, she’s complicated too. Haha, I guess a good way to sum it up is that everyone in this anime has issues, which makes them interesting. And it’s through these unique characters that we get to see the different facets of Lelouch.

Art 9: the art is beautiful, from the action sequences to the futuristic/Victorian scenery to the characters themselves. The animation takes a very strange approach to depicting the human body. I noticed that most of the characters have very androgynous body frames and are usually tall and oddly slender. In faraway shots people look almost like well-drawn scarecrows. This isn’t good or bad but it’s unique. What’s not unique though is the absolutely shameless product placement. In an alternate universe where Britain rules the world, battles are fought using mechs and where magical powers shape the course of global events, only one thing remains constant…Pizza Hut. That’s right, kids eat Pizza Hut. CC eats it in 90% of the scenes she in and still manages to maintain that slender figure I was talking about earlier. And despite Pizza not even being Japanese or British, Pizza Hut still shows up on buildings, in parties, on desks and even as a password during a crucial moment. I was seriously waiting for the Mechs to start entering battles with NASCAR-style Pizza Hut logos slapped on their guns.

Sound 8: Catchy intro but not my favorite. None of the other music stood out in a big way for me.
Critiques:
At some point, every 17+ anime has to answer the simple question of how wrong is it to kill someone. Compare Elfen Lied and Psycho-Pass. Both are dark shows but Elfen Lied put very little moral weight on the masses of people Lucy slaughtered, and even portrayed her as a misunderstood and sympathetic character. Whereas, in Psycho-Pass, despite a great deal of violence and moral ambiguity, the death of a single anonymous person is still treated as something horrific, evil and thought-provoking. Code Geass is inconsistent and they kind of swing back and forth. Sometimes they’ll explore the psychological effects of a single death on different characters, but other times these same characters kill without so much as an afterthought and go on with their merry lives. I would have preferred more moral consistency.

Satisfaction/Overall 9: I was very satisfied with the first season. I'm looking forward to season 2.

Blood/gore: There is some. It’s not stylized or overdone but they are also not afraid to show death and violence.

Love/Romance: Lelouch develops special connections with a couple of girls throughout the series but the focus isn’t on developing a particular romance. As I said earlier, different characters = different sides of Lelouch and he’s able to interact with each of these girls in a different way. Likewise, these girls each see something different in him. I know it sounds weird but we bypass, a lot (but not all) of the jealousy/love-triangle/harem stuff despite everyone going to the same school. In my opinion, this is largely because these girls see Lelouch’s obsession with achieving his goal (rather than each other) as their greatest rival.

Sex/nudity: While there’s a fair amount of fan service in the form of “whoops, I didn’t realize I was naked”, there were a few (usually non-graphic) ‘mature situations’ where I had to ask myself what the fuck did I just hear/see? Seriously Nina, wtf…