Hi guys!
This is my first and SPOILER-FREE review on MAL. I would love for you to read it if you're looking to watch this anime as it will explain it a lot. Code Geass is one of the best animes I've ever seen that was cleverly and nicely thought-ought..This review will give a synopsis and explain the perks and bad things to the anime.
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[This is a synopsis for if you don't fully understand MAL's synopsis, drop down a couple paragraphs to skip it.]
The Holy Britannian Empire is a very dystopian power-hungry dictatorship led by a leader who cares of destruction and the rule of his
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empire. This Empire has it's destructive grip around Japan, enslaving their people and objectifying them. Japan is considered "Area 11", and Japanese people are to be labeled as "Elevens." They are looked at as dirt to the Brits.
This is where prince Lelouch Lamperouge of the Holy Britannian Empire, the main protagonist of Code Geass, comes in. As he is son of the dictator-heavy emperor Charles Lamperouge, that means Lelouch is a prince of Britannia and a part of the royal family. Emperor Charles cares very much about his empire and therefore he neglects his family, which Lelouch hated. Charles couldn't care less about Lelouch's mother, Lelouch's handicapped sisterm Nunally, or Lelouch hisself. He even directly told the young Lelouch that he is only a pawn.
Lelouch hated this very much so. It enraged him that his father didn't care about his family. This drove Lelouch with a hate to his father and the Britannian Empire as a whole. He wanted a changed world, and so with this new-found hatred and fire in his soul he acted on this pipe dream of his. He wanted a better world of peace and equality for his family, the Japanese, and the Brits. With that he makes a deal with a girl to obtain the power called "Geass" and creates a rebellion of his own to become a powerful force against the Britannian Empire. The anime revolves around Lelouch's rebellion and Lelouch hisself.
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That being said, Lelouch brilliantly thought-out character. He bears great finesse, cleverness, intellect, drive, and charisma. Lelouch is one of the greatest protagonists I have seen in anime history.
But one of the best things about Lelouch is that he hisself can't really be categorized as good or evil. He possesses actions and traits to which are good, he possesses some that are evil, and some that are anti-hero. This heavily diversifies Lelouch and just makes him a beautiful character. This is something very unique and is not very common in anime..
To conceal his identity as he fights against his bretheren, he creates an alternate identity/second life, Zero. As Zero, he wears a a very evil-looking cowl/cape over a matching uniform. But more importantly Lelouch wears a high-tech helmet to conceal his face. There is a compartment that opens up a slit for his right eye so he can make eye-contact with his victims and use his Geass ability..
The power of Geass. Lelouch's best weapons are indeed his brains and finesse, but he also has an ability which heavily propels and supports his rebellion and the plot of the anime, which is his Geass power.
Geass is given through a mutual contract or covenant. It doesn't have a set-in-stone ability; it resides in every user differently and is very diverse. Every user's eyes will turn red and have a bird symbol on their iris' when they trigger their ability..I will say the power of Geass will violently change the user's lives, whether it be good or evil.
In Lelouch's case, his Geass power is very potent and helpful for his aspirations. With one look into the person's eyes, Lelouch can order the victim to do anything he desires. His Geass power definetly has a great impact onto the plot and stirs many issues.
(For those of you who think "Why can't he just order everyone to submit to him?" It's not that simple. There are many reasons to this which I will explain some below.)
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A big point to add in are the mechas, or coined "Knightmares" in the anime. They are big, humanoid mechanized fighters-vehicles that are heavily used in the military of the Holy Britannian Empire. But more importantly there are Knightmares that have a heavy effect onto the plot.. There are monotone, standard-issue Knightmares piloted by regular soldiers that serve to fight and control, and then there are also a few very unique, powerful and colorful Knightmares piloted by important characters that have heavy impact onto the fights, skrimishes and friendships. These are the hearts of the combat in Code Geass.
A great example to go in-depth on the "important Knightmares" fiasco would be to bring up one Knightmare dubbed "Lancelot." A white and gold, sword-weilding Knightmare that is very highly acrobatic, fast, flexible, and skilled in combat. Lancelot is a trump card of the Britannian Empire and he is used skillfully by Britannian commanders to fight against the rebellion.
(This is all I will go into detail about the important Knightmare pilots as I believe it is a badass and cool aspect of Code Geass and so I am gonna let you discover the rest.)
There is one very important detail to the pilot of Lancelot. The pilot is Suzaku Kururugi, a friend of Lelouch in school. This creates a lot of issues with Lelouch concealing hisself as the Rebellion leader and has to fight a friend. More issues come too that I am not going to spoil.
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Suzaku isn't the only friend of Lelouch's that know eachother in school and in greek life but unknowingly are adversaries in war. There are a few more people that are like this to Lelouch. As I don't want to spoil, I will not go into it too deeply. All I will say is that it adds a whole new layer of issues and conflicts that will become big roadblocks to Lelouch's friendships and his rebellion.
This is a very big aspect to the whole plot and heavily drives it. It stems a lot more issues in general. I love it.
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There is a lot of good things to say about Code Geass which I have listed above. You should definetly watch it. But of course, all animes have it's flaws and Code Geass does too. These couple issues will probably bother you if you are very critique-heavy..otherwise they won't really have much of an issue to you.
Essentially, there were a couple times the anime brought in a couple issues abruptly. If you watched the anime, you'd probably know. But since this is a spoiler-free review I am not going to talk about it.
Another thing I didn't like, is how much loopholes the Geass power has, mainly Lelouch's Geass power. (As you know, he can order anyone to do anything he desires and they oblige and fulfill his order to the utmost extent.) There are a lot of questions arise the more he uses it, like "What would happen exactly if you obstruct the victim from doing his/her order?" "What can stop or cancel the order given by Lelouch?" and such. There's more questions than answers..
I will be honest I am not too sure on the above statement. I haven't seen Part 2 of Code Geass as of this writing and so I don't know if they explain these things or not later on..
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This is not only it to the story that is Code Geass (part 1)..People will die, things will happen, jaws will drop..It's just a beautiful anime and it's so high on the charts for a reason.
There's also things like romance between Lelouch and such, which I did not cover in my review but will also impact the plot.
Thanks for reading my first review and I hope you watch Code Geass now :]
Apr 2, 2017
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch
(Anime)
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Hi guys!
This is my first and SPOILER-FREE review on MAL. I would love for you to read it if you're looking to watch this anime as it will explain it a lot. Code Geass is one of the best animes I've ever seen that was cleverly and nicely thought-ought..This review will give a synopsis and explain the perks and bad things to the anime. -- [This is a synopsis for if you don't fully understand MAL's synopsis, drop down a couple paragraphs to skip it.] The Holy Britannian Empire is a very dystopian power-hungry dictatorship led by a leader who cares of destruction and the rule of his ... |
