Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Part 5 Episodes 18-21


With Mao out of the picture at last, Lelouch returns his attention to his campaign against Britannia.  Adding the scientist Rakshata and the military legend Todo to his forces, the Black Knights are stronger than ever.  Suzaku, meanwhile, finds himself elevated to one of this highest positions imaginable: personal Knight to Princess Euphemia.  When the two friends reunite on Kaname Island, will Lelouch jeopardize all he’s built in order to bring Suzaku over to his side?  Or will the arrival of his older brother, the legendary Schniezel, crush the Black Knights and their allies in one fell swoop?  Whatever the outcome, the winds of change are upon Japan.  All it needs is one more push for an all out revolt to begin.

Is it really a thing where royals hijack military coms to tell their Knights that they love them?  It is so out there you cant help but be amused when Euphie does this with Suzaku.  It’s like, “Is this really the time for this?  I mean yeah I love you too but trying to stay alive here.” 

Kind of a random point to start at.  But this was a busy set of episodes.  Unlike the partly unnecessary but interesting Mao diversion, this set of episodes wasn’t as directly focused and kind of all over the place in terms of developments. The Black Knights helped Suzaku stop a rebellion; we discovered ancient technology on an island that probably has to do with Geass; Lelouch’s brother, Schneizel, finally arrived; Nina risked her life to see Euphie…busy, busy, busy.  Oh and we got a school festival added to the mix.  I felt just as exhausted as Lelouch by the time it was all over.

I’ll say this for Lelouch, he’s certainly persistent.  Even after learning Suzaku is his enemy and the pilot of the Lancelot, he STILL keeps trying to bring him over to the Black Knights.  He’s gotta know that’s a lost cause by this point right?  I’m not saying kill him like some of the Black Knights are suggesting.  Just knock him out and throw him in some random place until the revolution is over.  Still, seeing Lelouch and Suzaku team up to stop a premature rebellion at Kyushu kind of puts and damper on that mindset.  Last time we saw them in action as normal students.  Here we saw them take to the battlefield in two powerful Knightmare Frames…the results speak for themselves: they’re an effective team.

The Kaname Island stuff was a good breather for things following everything that’s come so far and I liked it far better than the School Festival episode (more on that in a second).  Euphie may seem a bit naieve at times but I’m glad she figured out that Lelouch was Zero.  This allowed for the man behind the mask to chill for a rare second and we even got to see some fun at his expense, trying to dig a hole to catch food for Euphie.  Suzaku trying to sway Kallen over to his side was a little less successful, if only for the viewers to get some full nude footage of Kallen (this shows main fan service girl, there’s no getting around that).  As for that stuff Lloyd and his team found under the island, I’m not sure how much detail we’re going to get out of that this close to the end of Season One.  It had a reaction with Lelouch’s Geass so it must be important.

The arrival of Schneizel has been a long time coming (he’s been popping up in the intros since the get go).  Any Gundam Wing fans out there will be pleased to hear me say this is as close to a successor to Treize as we might get outside of that show.  Schneizel is charming and ruthless, soft spoken but with a dark edge.  He’ll sacrifice Suzaku at the drop of a dime to kill Zero, but he genuinely cares about Cornelia and Euphie (and got Cornelia flustered…if he wasn’t her brother I’d be jealous).  If it weren’t for the rarely seen Emperor Charles, Schneizel would make a really great central baddie for Code Geass and I cant wait to see more of him down the line.  Plus he’s got plans for Jeremiah it seems.  Cant wait to see what kind of a state that guy is in when he comes out of the…orange tank haha.

Speaking of all over the place, EVERYONE seemed to converge on the school festival: Lelouch, Suzaku, Euphie, Nunally, Kallen, Oghi and Violetta (are we really supposed to care about them?  I miss the old, cold hearted hottie that is Violetta, not this peace loving one who’s falling for Oghi), Lloyd and Cecil, this is probably the closest to seeing all of these characters interact in unique ways as we’ll get for a bit.  Still, the humor was really, really weak.  I mean the world’s largest pizza?  There’s time for this?  I suppose it was worth it to see C.C.’s reaction when the dough got tossed into a tree by accident…pure sadness and disappointment.  But that was nothing compared to Euphie’s bombshell: establishing the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan where 11’s can be called Japanese and can co-exist with Britannian’s as equals.  Boy did that get a reaction…mostly WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING??!!  This just feels wrong, even though Euphie’s trying to bring back the good days for her, Lelouch and Nunally.  Lelouch is pissed though and I get the feeling any semblance of peace he bore towards his sister just went right out the window.  That look in his eye…I don’t think Euphie’s got a lot of time left.

I gotta say, the look on Nina’s face when Euphie dropped this news was about what I’d expect from her at this point.  She looks horrified.  A unified world where Britannian’s and Japanese co-exist?  That’s her ultimate nightmare.  And this news came from the mouth of the girl she’s madly in love with?  If anything Euphie’s idea is an amusing one just to watch Nina squirm at the thought of a world of equality.

The balls in Lelouch’s court now and next time we hit the Season One finale.  I’d say anything is game at this point.  I think I say this a lot but most certainly for Code Geass, this is gonna be one helluva finale coming up.

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