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Far across the sky,
above the green rice paddies,
is the dwindling sun.

~~

One of the many reasons I watch anime is to experience the culture. It is my belief that the best way to understand a country is through the art the country's people have made. Sure, you can read the history, and talk to the country's people, but it is only through the art they produce you can truly appreciate the country's people, history, and culture.

That's why the art form of Haiku is so beautiful to me.
At least after watching this film.
...
The first thing the film is great at is the environment.

The colours really pop out along with the backgrounds. It somehow allows the mediocre CGI to fit in very well and sets the very soft summer background. Even very familiar sights like a mall feel much more nature-like, giving a sea of emotions similar to when you're walking through a field of flowers.

The music also pops out to me. Not because of the soundtrack, but because of how it plays around with quiet and loud sounds.

That's because Haiku in Japanese have two important parts that don't really translate to English well.

The first part is Kireji or 切れ字 which leaves a cutting effect on the Haiku allowing it to separate the two, almost independent lines, and form them into one.

The second is Kigo or 季語 which is a word that is associated with a season. Think of how a mall themes itself with Christmas lights or a melody that gives a certain tone through a track of music.

Going back to the music, it feels like a haiku throughout the film. It starts with setting the tone of a scene while emphasizing the summer touch, and then does a kireji, cutting into the scene to reveal the true part of that place in the story and the song itself before going back to the original tone, carrying the kigo along with it.

I honestly didn't notice it until a certain scene played out.
I won't spoil it, but Cherry (one of the dual main characters) has these headphones he wears to block out sound. In this scene, it has a tone of sadness to it and when Cherry couldn't deal with that emotion, he cuts (kireji) through it by placing his headphones on. Still, it doesn't take away that emotion and all you can hear is the soft tears dripping out.

It's beautiful.

Though, I should get on to what this film is about because that too is beautiful.

Essentially, it's a classic summer tale.
Through the unexpectedness of summer break, they go on about their lives as they would usually do until Cherry and Smile (The other dual main character) bump into each other, switching up phones.

After Cherry's friends and Smile's sisters pass through their nervousness by calling the lost phone, they become friends and spend the summer together by interacting and sharing their passions.

However, Cherry is moving out soon and decides to help an old man find his lost record at his part-time job with Smile as a memento to their final days of summer.

The plot feels so charming since it just screams adolescence. The characters too feel cute and enjoyable despite not being the most complex out there. Though the film has this slow pace that doesn't bother me until the characters start exhibiting it. Sometimes they start or say things slowly, and makes for a bit of an irritating watch when they do dumb mistakes. Not anything that ruins the story's flow or seems stupid. Just the kind of mistakes you want to shake your friend when they do something dumb like, "What the heckkkkkkkkkkkkk were you thinkingggggg?!"

Even so, it all lends to a pretty cute ending that almost made me squeal a bit. It's not like I didn't see it coming, but it feels nice to watch an ending that feels so wholesome.

Plus, the song that plays is so damn good, and no, I'm not going to tell you what it's called because if I had to wait an hour and thirty minutes, so do you.

All in all, it's a relaxing film that isn't the greatest, but you can tell the staff loved every minute of it. They simply wanted to tell a summer tale that everyone can relate to or has wished to happen before.

~~

Now instead of my usual ending note, I want to tell you, whoever is reading, a haiku.
Though give me some grace. I've never written one before, so I'm sorry if it sounds stupid.

AHEM...

Go forth, you lost soul
to the field of flowers who
grace the land with glee

-Kishbokai

I’m going to split this review into two parts.
The first part will be for those on their first watch of this anime.
The second part will be for those on their second watch or fans of the anime already.
You’ll understand why, newcomers, in a moment.


Serial Experiment Lain is quite an infamous anime. Known for being a favourite among elitists, it often gets tossed along with other anime like it (Evangelion, Welcome to the NHK, Ghost in the Shell, etc. )

Though unlike those anime, it is very different from them in the sense it is something you have to go into wanting to ... find a deeper message. Unlike those anime, they are usually some “surface level” enjoyment at first before you dive into the complex themes.

Lain is like a car that is already accelerating to the highest point it can go.

Because of this, I find it hard even to explain what it is about because the first episode is filled with symbolism and random meanings.

Serial Experiment Lain is tricky, but I will try my best to pitch it to the newcomers to this show.


The anime is about a 14-year-old girl called Lain Iwakura.
She isn’t exactly the most normal Japanese student. She seems very distant; hears voices, unable to read what is being written on the board and has trouble socializing with the few friends she has. Her family seems to ignore her a lot but provides for her. Her only real hobby is putting on teddy bear pyjamas while staring off into the void.

Yep, this is our protagonist.

But then, one day, a girl that goes to her school committed suicide.
If that wasn’t awful news enough, emails are being sent by her to many students in the school.

Oddly enough, Lain receives one.
When she opens it, the girl, Chisa Yomoda, seems to be able to talk to Lain in real time despite no longer living.
When Lain asks, why she killed herself, Chisa simply says, “God is here.”

From there, Lain becomes curious about computers, and The Wired, something similar to the internet in our world.

By the end of episode one, the whole world literally seems to tell her to come to The Wired for whatever reason.

So begins thirteen episodes of Lain becoming curious, and discovering The Wired.

One small note: Everything I told you may or may not be true.

You may be perplexed by that statement, but allow me to explain.

Serial Experiments Lain loves to do that.
It loves to confuse you by placing events that occur in an episode and then make you wonder if that’s even the case later on.

The biggest appeal of this anime is watching it, and trying to figure out the message and deeper meaning.

Which lies its biggest strength, but biggest weakness.
While it’s a lot of fun to discuss what the show could mean, a lot of it only comes down to that.
It’s hard to say if it has any other strengths because everything could be worked into a deeper message. But what I can objectively say is the anime feels like an art student tried to be so different, you can’t even tell if what they made is art or not.

A lot of this anime can be dismissed, and that could be the message to you.

It’s like a box of legos. It can be anything you want it to be even if the legos come from certain sets.
I use that example because there are commonly agreed-upon overarching messages, but that could also be completely wrong.

You just don’t know unlike Evangelion, Welcome to the NHK, Ghost in the Shell, etc.

Regardless of that, this anime does have a lot of charm.

The art style is very unique and cute, adding this sense of innocence to everything, but can easily turn dark and disturbing. The soundtrack fits the vibe of the show greatly with the opening song, Duvet being such a fire track. (There’s also a Cyberia mix that is even better than the soundtrack.)

Now the voice acting and animation is where it becomes up to interpretation.
A lot of the animation is pretty bland, and sometimes, just repeated shots or still images.
The voice acting works the best when the emotion starts to get high, but, when those scenes aren’t at play, it seems like a person trying their best to not wake up their parents.
Again, those aspects are up to interpretation.

I had a great time with this anime for my first watch since I do like figuring out my message. I can’t lie though, sometimes, I got extremely bored during episodes because of the randomness of it all. But if you’re a fan of that type of stuff or the fact my explanations may or may not be true intrigues you, I totally recommend you watch it.

When I first realised my message for the show, I was in such a weird mood like I had realised a dark truth.

My score for this anime is a
81/100

No need to look at the second part, just go watch it or exit the tab.

…
…
….

Are the newcomers gone now?
Okay, fans of the anime and second-time watchers.
I will tell you what I think the message is.
However, let me just say, this sucks to rewatch.

A lot of the charm gets completely lost on you as you realise how random some scenes are. Some scenes are fucking there for no reason at all.

For example, in episode four, Religion, that whole episode was a drag.
You start to realise how the episode directors must have added things in because they thought it was cool or interesting only for the next episode to disregard it.

It started to get mind-numbing to take my notes as I kept watching along only to have to figure out how on earth children looking at the sky fit into my message.

However, I did figure one out.

First, here’s a quote I found on the Wikipedia page for the show from an interview by the main director:
"a sort of cultural war against American culture and the American sense of values we [Japan] adopted after World War II".[10] He later explained in numerous interviews that he created Lain with a set of values he took as distinctly Japanese; he hoped Americans would not understand the series as the Japanese would. This would lead to a "war of ideas" over the meaning of the anime, hopefully culminating in new communication between the two cultures. When he discovered that the American audience held the same views on the series as the Japanese, he was disappointed

Keeping this in mind, I concluded this.

The Wired is something like Heaven. It is a place where you can do and say whatever you want, and become your true self. Realistically, you can become something so different that your online and real-life selves are two different people. The anime tries to show how dangerous a place that humans can access would be. That’s who the black suit guys are: The government trying to stop the danger coming from that place.
Then, the Knights are people who reach this twisted version of truth for the Wired. The Wired and the real world are one and the same in that has a God. So, they attempt to merge the two by doing twisted games for children from past experiments to have the next generation accept that truth. Although, they want the same pleasures from the real world to enter Wired as they can still see a difference.

Now Lain is someone that gets to that message but in a worse way.
Lain wants to be normal and accepted in life. She wants to be that cool girl for her friends, and for her family to care about her. She just naturally doesn’t know how. But the Wired helps her be happy. It helps her be in a reality that accepts her.

Unfortunately, this requires her to ignore reality itself.
At some point, I think the characters closer to her become representations of reality like her sister is how her reality is indifferent to her turning into this distorted version that shows Lain is ignoring reality.
By episode 5, everything after is Lain messing up her reality to the point she questions her own being because she has no idea what even is real.

But here’s what I think is real.

Lain is in her room and becomes hikikomori.
Her family, who adopted her, regrets their decision and leaves the house to her.
Accidentally or on purpose, she finds information about her only true friend and spreads it over the school resulting in that friendship being broken.

Thing is, Lain doesn’t see it like that. Instead, she sees it like an innocent child would and thinks she did nothing wrong but has to fix it somehow.
She starts to lose herself slowly with multiple parts of her personality coming in and out, and the pressure of being the head of this giant conspiracy gets to her.

Eventually, she meets “God” someone that help create the Wired and tries to use her to create an actual God, and acquire the Knights’ goal as Lain killed them out of spite to prove she is a God.
But she soon realises how miserable she has become.
Her life is now connected to this computer, becoming like a machine and wants to even commit suicide, but thinks that won’t even help because of her newfound knowledge.
So, what does she do?
Create a false reality in her head.
In this reality, she tries to help Arisu get rid of the rumours and succeeds in doing so. Though she had Arisu exactly like how she is in the real life.
Perhaps she wanted some reality after all?
Arisu visits her and sees the mess Lain is in only to realise that she is being used.

That’s when she creates another false reality where no one knows she even existed.
Everyone she loves, including the “God” lives happily, but Lain is even more miserable.

But, she is stuck in the Wired and reality that she doesn’t know if resetting would even work.

The show ends with her meeting Arisu as an adult, who doesn’t remember her.
But I think Lain is still in that false reality.

Because the whole theme of this show is a warning to the nations, Japan and America.
America, to not try to be this God, all-knowing being.
Japan, to not be absorbed in their own false reality.

But Lain as a character is a warning to everyone on the internet.
To save our reality before it’s too late.
There are a lot of moments that hit me when she is talking to online friends, and they feel straight out of my memories.
How she complains about reality but does nothing to change it.
How she feels accepted, yet realises how little she means to them.
How she regrets her actions, for she was too late to realise the truth.

Expect, Lain never got out of that, and now has to live with the consequences.

So Lain is Japan while “God” is America, and their relationship is how America treats Japan.

But on a wider scale, Lain is how people who are different in both countries are treated.

Lain ain’t a God.
She’s as human as one can be.
It's a lot to take in, I know, but that's what I think Serial Experiment Lain is about.

It's a cautionary tale.

I would add more of my notes or even how this anime was ahead of its time, but I rather not because how this rewatch bored me.

You really feel those episodes the second time around that you start to question why you’re doing it. The themes of the show start to speak to you more as you wonder why you’re spending your time on it.

For that reason, I have to give it a 69/100 for this part.

Therefore, my final score, to compare them, would be a 73/100.

It’s a great show if you’re the type to enjoy stuff like this, but on the second watch, it’s like doing homework.

Have a good day and keep trying to enjoy life
-Kishbokai

In this world, men are usually the most catered to. You could have any counter argument, but it's been a fact since medieval times that they have more power for whatever the excuse they gave at the time. Learning about all this, I've always wanted how things would be different if the roles were, reversed? What would it be like if men had the social roles that women had and vice versa?

To those asking that very question I have to myself for years, this manga may just be for you.

How it came to be:

Following his third ever release, this was Amahara first ever doujinshi with ... 6 chapters instead of the single ones'. Before he become known for Interspecies Reviewers or The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace, this was his first real dive into exploring ecchi concepts. Simply, the doujinshi was about a guy placed in a world of reversed roles where he started requesting money for sex. In our world, this would never fly, this world has the girls taking the nervous virgin role with a different girl each chapter. It was interesting to say the least, but nothing really mind blowing honestly. The art is well done enough, but very forgotten in the better artwork, doujinshi have.

This would have been long forgotten in my mind if not for the manga adaption, Mantarou, made themselves.

Surprisingly, well made world building:

In Mantarou's adaptation, we start off with a girl as the protagonist, and later on they adapted the hentai stuff (just not showing it, of course), and we not only get more world building, but some of the most funny, and kind of relatable, panels ever

I say relatable because guys would use the snow for making penises, and even GIntama reflects that. This manga becomes dive to showcase the truth behind our sexual urges in daily life. It also shows how kind of messed up this stuff is in reality. How could we let kids make this kind of stuff, but it would be weird for them to make it of the opposite gender? How is it, guys could make dirty jokes about their privates, but for girls to make jokes about guys' privates be odd depending on who hears it? This manga makes you think about this stuff while you laugh at the bizarreness of stuff like this, and question it.

Another example is how the economy affects this side of humanity. In this world, women's underwear is the stuff that are found in packets while men's underwear take up most of the stores.

I then start thinking why this is the case for women's underwear to be in so much variety? It is odd that we put so much focus on them when they're simply just protection of our must sensitive organs, on the outside at least. We shouldn't really get aroused or put thought into those things, but yet, both worlds do.

Then we have the concept of showing ourselves bare.

This is my favorite chapter in this manga because it not only has the most thought provoking questions, but the bizarreness of it is kicked up to the max.You start to wonder why it's okay for guys to take off their shirts, and not girls when we both have nipples, just more fat to women's breast area. Even the manga itself says, it really shouldn't be a problem if you're not thought of as a prevent or strange.

But to all these questions, a simple, but common answer pops to all our heads: Sexual Urges

As long as one gender has the most of that urge, stuff like this begins where it's only natural this stuff exists. Unless we're bought up in world where we can openly talk about it, not put such societal rules or pressure, and not shame others or ourselves, their world and ours will always be filled with this stuff. And behind all the funny jokes, and how bizzare things have reversed, that's this manga's core message

Closing statements:

Even beyond all that, humans are still the same no matter what. Even if roles are reversed, things like that will always be the same, and that's why this manga isn't really all that deep or worrying. I think it's true purpose is about showing off to both genders that we all have struggles despite having the same urge. And, as long as we can understand that one another, we could solve the simple and hilarious problem of our porn not matching our taste or more fashionable underwear. This manga ain't the best in the world, but I think it's worth reading just for the fun of it. Maybe you'll even learn something more about yourself or better accept others.

Have a good day and keep trying to enjoy life

-Kishbokai

I now arrive at the second and final season of Code Geass, where everyone says that one of the best endings in anime is shown and where it goes down in anime history. After hating the first season, I didn't really have any hopes except for the ending to be great, so I went in to have a clear mind about it. I was pleasantly surprised that the first 6 or 7 episodes were terrific, so I thought, maybe, just maybe, it would be good...but it turns out worst than the first season with a decent ending that was made a bit too obvious. Let's ... break down this story to explain why it's a pretty awful anime.

Things I finally noticed:
I realized a few things while watching that explain why things are written how they are, even if these are just my assumptions. I started to notice that Code Geass is written like a chess match mixed with a greek tragedy. Not because of the excessive usage of the word "pawn," but because of how obstacles came about. There's almost always a straightforward way to stop problems in how Lelcouh outsmarts his opponents. He comes up with no solution that includes complex planning over spans of episodes with problems besides the final plan he makes. Complex planning is an obstacle, but the solution includes multiple things before even reaching the first step of that big solution. Now there are times where that happens, but it's only two or three problems before everything goes really smoothly.
The Greek tragedy part comes in with how there are dilemmas in the show. For example, Lelouch and Suzaku's whole relationship is similar to something you would find in a greek tragedy, but this is a problem in the show itself. Greek tragedies are simple at their core and allow drama to happen mostly. It's kind of hard to do that in a series like Code Geass, where it has all this political talk and complex things happening with this straightforward drama that isn't that interesting half the time but also is exciting. It's a struggle that I see the series has between complex and simple.

With my assumptions out of the way, let's talk about the very few good things about season 2.

The good things in a terrible show:
The music and voice acting, as always, is still a great part of this and helps the unbearable moments feel a bit better. Even if I dislike a majority of characters and stories, the voice acting and the music still give me a bit of the emotion that they were trying to get me to feel in the first place.
While I don’t care for fights nor liked seeing the mecha fights since I was invested enough, they’re really well animated, and each fight is uniquely done for the most part. In fact, even the regular animation and facial animation are well done as well, and really show you what the character is feeling even without having to read/listen to the dialogue itself even though the voice acting does make it believable as well.
The slice of life parts are ;delightful even if they break the writing more and more. They're still pretty fun for what they're worth.
Suzaku is the only character with an arc that feels complete and worth it throughout the series. He starts out trying to redeem himself for his sin by trying to be on the "objectively right" side and change things from the inside out. This season is where he realizes that it's impossible not to commit sins when trying to change things for the better, so it goes down a path where he does whatever it takes to complete the last plan, which made me like the ending since his arc came to a great conclusion.

The things that make this a terrible show:

The story is structured in a way that makes it predictable and dull. Obstacles are placed, and Lelocuh must figure out how to stop it until he does something so bold; it ruins him later on until a giant mecha fight happens until Lelouch has another plan that wins him the day. Now, this is a gross generalization of how it's actually structured, but it sure feels this way a lot of the time since the mecha fights take so long. It always feels like there's no real danger in the show since Nunnally is the only thing Lelcouh cares about which is apart of his character, but makes everything feel less important since he doesn't care about any other character besides that. It makes us, the viewer, not care about them since why should we care if he doesn't care unless we have a personal liking to them or they affect Lelouch, which they mostly don't unless it's to be an obstacle for him to face later on. They feel like actual pawns, and it's not really interesting to watch that when the show is trying to make us feel for these characters when we already know it's pointless in the end. It's not like any of them actually get any consequence since most of the characters don't change in any way or lose/gain anything. This affects the story since its events are so depended on caring whether they will live or die, or who's going to change the outcome when you know only a select few actually do change the outcome. Some characters do give way to new plot points, but, as I said, there are only the select few. You then have this weird way of getting to Code Geass in the sense of what will actually change the country since it's a merry go around way of getting to certain stages of the plot. An example would be teaming up with the Chinese Federation and the making of the Untied Federation of Nations. They both feel like natural steps to take, but with how we got there, it doesn’t feel the least bit natural. Especially when the worldbuilding is poorly done in Code Geas where I have to wonder if this made logically sense in that world.To simply things, Code Geass’s story is where each set piece feels like the it makes sense but the buidlup and aftermath of it all never makes sense to me.

The characters have and still are a major problem with this anime. Already talking about how most feel like actual pawns themselves, the characters that do feel like ones are, sometimes, even worse. Firstly, I must address Lelouch as he’s arc does continue onward, but the one he has here doesn’t seem good either. If season one was about giving him setbacks but tons of victories that made him arrogant and insane, season two is more about crushing him with defeat after defeat to make him more sane but crush that ego he had before picking himself up to do what he has to do to save Japan. Writing it out like that makes it sound wonderful, but there’s only one problem. Because I just went through a season of seeing him success no matter what, and characters I couldn’t care less for, his defeats are meaningless to me because I know (with the result of not being invested because if I was, I won’t care about this) Lelouch will success and no one important, to him, will die because season one proved this fact, time and time again. There is one character that does die that could be used to counter this, but he already lost her once in a different way, so why should I care again when her character is still the same as ever? Rolo also dies but Lelouch starts to hate him as the season goes on, and even when he start to like him again, he’s not even close to his driving motivation (well, he technically is, but there probably was tons of other characters on his mind during that). When Nunnally “died,” it could have been that point where that idea could have changed in me, but she comes back with a lazy attempt to explain it away, and that was the point I lost all investment in this story or characters. Again, it repeats the problem that Lelouch (and the rest of the main cast besides best boy, Suzaku) where it does seem like a good route for that character, but once you start to see it unfold, it’s a mess. A side note are the two female characters Kallen and C.C. since those characters are ones that could have been more interesting, but, sadly, were half baked in this season.

The thing that was praised the most:

To finally say, the ending is good for a story. It ties up everything nicely and has a good conclusion to the whole series finally leaving it ended, and anyone that was invested and love the show throughout, completely satisfied. Not me though. Did I think it was bad? No, of course not, it’s the type of ending that anyone would want for their favorite story. Did I think it was amazing? No, of course not, I couldn’t care less for anything that happens at that point. Everyone could have died and Lelouch could have truly been a dictator, and I would still say it’s decent since I truly care no longer. That’s the thing about endings. The only way to say if they’re truly amazing or horrible is if you were invested in the first place. Endings are important since stories are technically waste of time and a distraction in life which is why we seek good stories or stories we find enjoyable so we don’t have to think like that. Endings are that final award to prove that the time we spent sitting in forward of that screen was truly worth it (I’m taking a jab at myself here since I put stories as my reason for living at this point), but if you just spent hours, not caring about what happened, the ending will naturally be something you don’t care for since it’s there only for the people that loved it. Hence, why I think it’s a mediocre ending and I feel I wasted my time on these two seasons.

Closing statements:

I like to believe I wanted to love Code Geass. No, I did because I love seeing a good story. No matter how popular, overhyped, old or new, simple or complex, I just want to see a good story unfold before my very eyes, and, if Code Geass was one, I would have wholeheartedly loved it. But, alas, I didn’t think it was good, and, even worse, thought it was so terrible that I’m still wondering why people enjoy it. I was going to watch the movie after this, but, at this point, I’m tired of Code Geas want nothing to do it with it no longer which brings me to giving this season a 2/10 for being worse then the previous one.
So long Code Geass.
I hope we never cross paths again.

Code Geass is an anime that everyone comes to find out in their anime journey sooner or later. It is in the top rank 50 in Ranked and Popularity, so it's understandable, so many people go to watch it and learn about it. Though it's odd how the main two things people really talk about are the legendary ending and Lelouch as the greatest protagonist. I find that odd only because when you watch it all, there's so much in one season that I can't imagine what's in the next season. But I did watch only the first season, and is it the amazing masterpiece ... people say it is? No, not at all. At first, you think it has so much potential, and with all its hype, it can't possibly fuck up...and then it does so hard that it becomes so odd no one talks about the many flaws of this anime. Let's go on a journey to understand why Code Geass is a very flawed and horrible anime.

The greatest strength and flaw is how many ideas this series has. It brings out so much potential in a singular season that you only get excited. Because of its multiple genres, you can only imagine how many directions it can go to. The issue with all this? Many ideas either feel unsatisfying when it is concluded, abandoned by the waste side, shoved in out of nowhere, or pushed to the next season. It's really frustrating to watch to see all this potential go to waste, but let me provide examples.

Many ideas feel unsatisfying when it is concluded: Lelouch's character feels like a good example. His whole arc is essentially a man trying to do some good in the world. He is given a power that leads him down a path where every time he gets into a moral dilemma, he has to decide whether or not he must sacrifice the moral choice for the logical choice, and this leads him to become insane. Nothing wrong with this idea on the surface, right? Here's the problem with a character arc lends us. We have to understand and care for what he is sacrificing. As a better example of this arc, look at Light Yagami as he goes through the same arc expect we do care for what he sacrifices because we have grown to care for it. Each side character in Death Note is developed enough when certain moral dilemmas cross Light's path, and we also begin to sweat with him. We have seen this character attachment to Light, and we deeply understand it, so when Light makes the logical choice, we are affected as a viewer, and seeing his fall to madness is heartbreaking, whereas Lelouch isn't. There are many and many side characters that are extremely underdeveloped, and that's already a problem, but with Lelouch's arc in mind, it's mind-numbing to go through it when we don't really care for these characters. Frenette's whole character is she's in love with Lelouch, and that's all. Anything shown through her is just done for Lelouch's development, and after she loses her memories, she's just a stock character. But how she loses her memories is because of Lelouch and his plans. This is supposed to affect Lelouch somehow and same with the viewer, but I hardly couldn't care less. I mean, she's practically cardboard at this point and now trying to make us feel something isn't really doing much. Even when that moment happens, it's quickly forgotten and most moments like this happen to Lelouch. Something that is supposed to affect, doesn't until near the end where the arc nears its climax as he truly goes insane. It doesn't feel earn and is unsatisfying for what's supposed to be one of the best protagonists.

Abandoned by the waste side: There's not a lot of examples of this but there are in here such as the whole school setting. It doesn't really add much to the show and is sort of there to make sure certain plot holes don't get bought up, but the school itself brings plot holes on its own like Mao somehow got inside the school without anyone noticing and kidnap Nunnally without any problems? But there's so much potential in a school setting in a story like this. Lelouch could get the school system on his side and have funding to help him on his way to taking down the empire, or they could be in the way of his plans. It's all exciting until you realize none of that happens, and the school is only there for the cat episode and the occasional fanservice (which is just annoying to be here in a story like this). There's also not to mention Cornelia and Lloyd's characters and how they're hyped up to have a bigger role, but mostly do nothing that really changes a whole lot. Disappointing to see honestly

Shoved in out of nowhere: Let's not mention the scene where Lelcouch tells Euphemia to kill all the Japanese out of nowhere as well written because it's not at all. Even if all the elements are in place to make it work are there, that doesn't mean it will work because it's so out of character for Lelcouh to even joke about that. Let alone use that as an example he can use the Geass in the first place. It's the important plot point yet it's so stupid and out of nowhere that you can't forgive. It would be different if at least it was something small that doesn't matter in the long run but that moment is very important to the whole series plot, that it ruins the story completely.

Pushed to the next season: So many ideas are set up that I assume they're there to be bought up later. The thing about that is if you have to set up so many things for later and tell the viewer to keep watching because "one day" it will come to an amazing ending is stupid. What you are watching at that very moment should be great enough that you don't have to wait to "get good." Just because it gets good at episode 10 doesn't mean it's a great show. It means it's secretly shit but you're telling yourself a lie. Near the end, tons of things are set up to be more important later on that it's kind of useless to watch the last few episodes that it's pretty much pointless to watch if you get the payoff later on.

I also forget to mention how the show is all over the place with these ideas. With all this setting up and having to conclude ideas in the same season, you run into a problem that the main plot sort of does nothing until specific moments near the end which is kind of boring when the characters are underdeveloped and the side stories have potential but are still bad. The island episode is a sad example of it because this could be a good time for the certain to be developed but also have a thematic debate, but it sort of restates its ideas and moves on. Most arcs are just there to foreshadow or set up things and not really make developments in the plot itself.

The themes of Code Geass are very fascinating and are done decently well. It's the matter of following the law or going against it to spark change in a directorship country, but the ideals of a directorship are done so well that it's sad to see it go nowhere. For the brief time that Charles zi Britannia has screentime, he's excellent at his speeches and pushes the themes well, but they are underdeveloped a bit with how it's pushed back a lot of times for the awful side stories and characters, but when it is bought, that's when Code Geass is at it's best.

Ah, sadly this anime is also a victim of bad romance as well. Joy to see! For some reason, there is romance in this show which could be an idea until you find out most of it isn't done well. The characters sort of get together without any onscreen development like Villetta and Kaname romance is sort of developed but because both of them side characters that aren't well written, so is their romance that we only get glimpses of but even then, that's really isn't a good romance isn't? Any other romance in the anime is just a character loving another one but no development happens, and it's just there as that whole characters' personality.

After explaining why the writing is bad, there must be other good qualities of Code Geass, right? Sort of. The animation is decent enough even if the characters look a bit overdesign and very sexualized. I mean, the animation can't be that amazing because it must be difficult enough animating most of the characters with how much detail there is. The music is pretty good actually and it made some of the stupid scenes bearable with that good soundtrack it has. Not the best one out there, but pretty good still. and the same with the voice acting.

That leaves us with a 3/10 for dear old Code Geass. Maybe season 2 is great as they say but even if it is, a bad first season is still a bad season and just because you have an amazing ending doesn't make anything else disappear beforehand.