With the power of Geass at his disposal, Lelouch Vi
Britannia is now poised to enact his long held dream of revenge against the
Britannain Empire. His list of obstacles
are growing, however. His sister,
Cornelia, has come to Area 11 and has an intellect that matches his own. His best friend, Suzaku, who also pilots
Britannia’s ultimate new Knightmare Frame, the Lancelot, is coming to his
school at Ashford Academy. And there’s
the immortal witch, C.C. who gave Lelouch his powers, who is still an unclear
ally or enemy. If Lelouch is going to
make any headway in his revolution, he’ll have to do something big to change
the game…like start his own little army.
The world is about to bear witness to the birth of the Black Knights.
Gotta give some shout outs to the character
designers. The child versions of
Lelouch, Cornelia and Euphie we saw this set were incredibly adorable. They felt less CLAMP like than the main
character designs but still…cute is cute (CLAMP is the group responsible for
Card Captor Sakura, X, and Resevoir Chronicle: Tsubasa…amongst others if you
didn’t know).
Well we glimpsed the Emperor, Charles Vi Britannia, a
couple of times in the opening episodes, but here, he was out and in grand
fashion. Besides his “survival of the
fittest” stance of life, he basically says equality is a pretty crappy
ideal. Wow. No wonder Lelouch wants him gone…besides not
giving a crap about his moms murder. But
that pride, that arrogance. Yeah he’s
the man in charge but this guy…he may rank up there with Gilgamesh from
Fate/Stay as a character I cannot wait to see get the bullet to the head he
deserves.
It was good to see some shaking up for Lelouch this time
around. Power up a guy so much and give
him all the victories and you’ve got a very short series on your hands. Send in a foe, like Cornelia, to trip him up
and derail his plans, and the excitement is intact and kept fresh. Lelouch isn’t invincible, even with his Geass
(which I also should applaud is learning to use smartly rather than just rush
things). He’s gonna need more and in
this set, he took those steps. Though are
Oghi and his trash talking band of red shirts really the best candidates for a
start up group? Work with what you’re
given I guess.
Also, Euphie continued to step up and grow into a more
admirable voice for the Britannian side of things. Her taking charge during the hostage episode
was noble, gotta admire a girl who can stare down a gun for what she believes
in. She also seemed to catch the eye of
Nina…but I have a lot more to say about that character in a second…get ready
for a rant btw. Plus you know a
characters has a good effect when she can make one as cold as Cornelia
care. Lelouch sees it as a weakness to
exploit but it’s still cute seeing Cornelia show Eupie a little love.
You know I went through Part 1 and never said much about
C.C., the witch who gave Lelouch his powers, or Kallen. C.C. is a treat. This green haired, Pizza eating enigma
who…talks to herself (?) clearly knows how to push Lelouch’s buttons and get a
rise out of him. Plus she’s got the
added advantage of doubling for Lelouch as Zero if need be…that’s handy. As for Kallen, well she finally got a decent
story to herself that didn’t involve her in fanservice or mecha
fighting…exclusively, she had a couple moments of both but had more to do than
that. It tied into the 11’s becoming
addicted to a drug called Refrain that made them think about the past before
the Britannian occupation. This was
tough to observe. One of the harshest
realities is that people wills become so broken that they seek anyway possible
to relieve the pain, including narcotics.
At least Zero and his newly minted band of freedom fighters, THE BLACK
KNIGHTS, sought to play a little Batman role in taking it down.
So while the serious storylines were making progress,
what isn’t helping things are the Student Council plotlines. The humor may offer a chuckle but these feel
like they were ripped from another show.
There’s a difference between doing school and war scenes in this series
and doing them in, say, Full Metal Panic.
The high school comedy was a more integral part of that story, hell it
even got a spin off season centered on that element. But here, it’s feels out of place and
pointless amongst all the drama. I mean,
one episode is almost solely dedicated to Lelouch chasing down a cat that stole
his Zero mask. And at the same time, the
Student Council itself just pisses me off.
Which brings me back to Nina, who is the most Xenophobic, unlikeable
character of the bunch. Her
uncomfortableness around Suzaku was infuriating. “But he’s an 11…” FRAK YOU!!!!
In a way, im glad Lelouch made Suzaku a Student Council member. At this point I’ll take anything that
basically is a very loud and visible middle finger to Nina. Just don’t treat me to a scene where she
brushes Suzaku and then runs to the bathroom to wash her hands nervously, I’d
snap…sorry racism is a bit of a sore point with me. At least the rest of the Council seemed to
accept Suzaku…progress I guess.
One last note, it’s good we got to see the good, the bad,
and the ugly of both sides of the overall conflict. We had douchebag Emperor Charles and the
blood thirsty tactics of Cornelia while also seeing Euphie’s bravery and
compassion and Cornelia’s soft side. But
the Japanese made a bold move with their hostage scenario and even resorted to
offing a couple of hostages. Tactics
like this don’t help the matters of the slummed out people theyre trying to
protect…so thankfully Lelouch personally saw to performing Geass induced
Sepuku. Long analysis short, good and
bad aren’t always what they seem…thank you for that Mobile Suit Gundam.
More Code Geass in a couple of days. Hope you’re hanging in there like I am.
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