Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Part 2 Episodes 6-9


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.

No comments:

Post a Comment