Lelouch was a prince until the day his mother was murdered and his sister Nunnally was paralyzed and blinded. Now in high school he's bored with life, playing Chess with rich aristocrats to stave off boredom while caring for his little sister. Then one day he meets a mysterious woman named C.C. who offers him power. He accepts and with this power he calls Geass, he adorns a mask calling himself Zero. He then begins to gather warriors calling themselves the Black Knights. His ultimate goal to overthrow Britannia and recreate a perfect utopia where his sister can live a life of peace.

R2 is a direct sequel to the main series. Lelouch is back to his old ways of playing chess with aristocrats. His life and memories of being Zero suppressed. His sister Nunnally somehow replaced with a brother named Rolo. C.C. finds him a year later and is able to restore his memories and his power with it. Remembering who is really is, he's determined to get back to doing what he'd started a year ago as well as find out what happen to his sister!

Tip: Use the alias 'cg' when adding this tag to a submission for convenience.

Story & Characters

Review of the first season of Gundam... er uh Code Geass (real easy to get the two confused) can be found here: http://reviews.minitokyo.net/1293/code-geass-lelouch-rebellion

Watching season 2 of Code Geass has been a monkey that just won't stop clawing at my back. Between people dropping spoilers on me assuming I had seen it and another who simply would not leave me alone until I stepped back into this world, I've been just saying "I'll get to it." The ending to season 1 left me unfulfilled and I'd just as soon jump into another series than watch season 2. Alas the monkey just won't leave me be. So, does season 2 renew my faith in Code Geass? *Note, if you expect me to say "All Hail Lelouch" at any point (like a lot of you reviewers out there), hit your back button now.

Code Geass season 2 picks up right where season 1 left off... kinda. Last we saw Lelouch Lamperouge he was face to face with Suzaku in a showdown to end it all. We start with him in season 2 back in school a year later? Well, the standoff between Suzuaku and Lelouch ended with Lelouch being captured and brought face to face with his father, the emperor. Instead of the emperor doing the logical thing and imprisoning Lelouch or killing him, he took the plot extending route and erased his memories and sent him on his merry way back to school. But the Black Knights didn't forget about their hero Zero and neither did CC. They want Zero back and for the rebellion to begin once again.

Only one word is necessary to describe Code Geass season 2; disastrous. All of the fun that came in the first season of following a global chess match between Lelouch and the Brittanian empire was abandoned about halfway through this season in lieu of an incoherent sci-fi story that centers on the Geass. The Geass was a glorious plot device through the entire series, one that was shrouded in mystery and intrigue. The smart thing to do would to have given a short explanation on it's origins and purpose as part of the overall plot. Instead the Geass BECAME the plot. Apparently everybody and their grandmother has a different Geass and there's even an underground city full of users and shrines to destroy Gods and all kinds of other gibberish. Instead of sticking with what made the show a blast to watch, they instead decided to take it into the realm of the absurd and ruined what could have been a masterpiece.

Rating: 3

Art

The same praises I had for the animation in season 1 remain for season 2, since uh nothing was changed. Still quite evident are the character designs headed up by CLAMP with Lelouch looking like pretty much every other tall, lanky, dark-haired protagonist in every CLAMP anime. Not to say that's a bad thing, it works quite well for his character.

Of course the main attraction to this show for a lot are the ladies. I'm fairly certain the animators got a memo after season 1 saying "show more flesh" as that has made itself far more abundant than before. Honestly, what academy would allow their students to dress up in skimpy swimsuits for a festival or have a cosplay seduction club? None! But the animators want to grab eyeballs, so they did it. But I digress, animation was solid from top to bottom and in fact looked better from my experience from season 1, probably cause I actually had this in HD. You still have the same solid framerate in animation and smooth as butter battles on an epic scale.

BUT, just like I did for season 1, I'll be taking one point away for product placement. Pizza Hut, stay the hell out of my fantasy world ok?

Rating: 9

Sound

Opening #1: "O2" by ORANGE RANGE
Ending #1: "Shiawase Neiro" by ORANGE RANGE
Opening #2: "WORLD END" by FLOW
Ending #2: "Waga Routashi Aku no Hana" by ALI PROJECT

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not much of an ORANGE RANGE fan, but their music was a step up from the vocals used in season 1. It has that same type of flow and atmosphere as those songs that open up Gundam shows (another one of their similarities). Of course anybody who ever reads my reviews knows that I'm going to rave more about Ali Project than anyone. I love their music and somehow the song chosen for any show always fits.

Again, no noticeable difference in terms of the BGM from season to season. In fact, I would really say there is no real standout in the crowd of music aside of the music that sometimes accompanies a scene with CC. I would kind of expect there to be a memorable soundtrack with this type of show that consists of high-flying mech combat and drama, but on the whole the soundtrack remained rather light.

The reason for this may be the stellar voice acting and it's ability to overshadow music. Season 2 is far more emotional than the first since there is so much more going on. Between identities being revealed, close friends dying, plans coming together and how drastically the world changed, the need to provide a convincing character was multiplied exponentially. Just as I praised Jun Fukuyama in the first season, I will do just the same here. Lelouch is still that same maniacal bastard he was before and probably even moreso now. But the one actor that really came to the surface this time around was Ami Koshimizu as Kallen (or Karen). Now that she knows Zero's true identity and has really become the go to person in the Black Knight's rebellion, her part in the show has grown considerably. As the series progresses Kallen is put in difficult situations from being a hostage to knowing the feeling of betrayal and Ami Koshimizu pulls off a convincing act.

Rating: 8

Presentation

Code Geass is another one of those shows that has an almost ravenous following. After season 1, I kind of understood that. It was a borderline brilliant anime that was only missing a few elements to make it a masterpiece. But after season 2, I honestly wonder if it gained more of a following just because of the Lelouch and CC obsession instead of the plot it was trying to pull off. I expected at any moment that this show would just knock my socks off and make me shiver with excitement once again, but instead I found myself counting down the episodes until it was all over. Some may argue that the ending brought the whole thing together, but there's only one problem with that; I saw the whole thing coming about 5 episodes before. I couldn't predict the method by which it would happen, but I knew the end result and that seriously takes away from an impactful ending.

Is Code Geass a victim of it's high episode count? Hype? It's obvious comparison to it's Gundam counterparts? Or after all is said and done, is it a victim of just trying to be more than it was? To me it fell into the same pitfalls that ruined Death Note. It took what worked, what made it great and threw it out the window and instead tried to milk a story out of a dried up cow.

I fully intend on staring into a mirror and praying I can cast a Geass on myself to forget I ever saw this. And yes, this isn't as lengthy as my normal reviews. But considering if you are reading this, you've probably already seen the show, that shouldn't be necessary now should it? Of course, now that I've disagreed with you, I'm sure you'll let me know right?

Rating: 4

Final Verdict

5.17 (moderate)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, 38wk 5d ago

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