With one single act, the hopes for peace come crashing
down around everyone. There is only one
path now: an all out assault on the Britannian Forces occupying Area 11. This is the moment Lelouch has been working
towards since he first became Zero and now it looks like victory is within his
grasp. But new players and horrific
losses await, ones that will change the destinies of Lelouch and Suzaku
forever. When the two friends finally
confront each other, who will be left standing in the shocking season one
finale of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.
Well that just freaking happened.
You wanted a Season Finale of epic proportions, well it
didn’t get any more high stakes than here.
Just to get the ball rolling lets do a quick notes version: Lelouch lost
control of his power, Euphie caused a Genocide as a result, Lelouch killed
Euphie, the revolution began, Nina got her hands on a nuclear bomb and Lelouch
and Suzaku had a stand off as everything went to hell around them…hooooo deep
breaths. Let’s back it up and wrap this
first half of Code Geass up right.
We all knew something was bound to go wrong with
Lelouch’s Geass but man, even he couldn’t have forseen such a tragedy. Geassing Euphie at the wrong time and saying
the wrong thing in conjunction…he couldn’t have predicted that right? I mean yeah, Lelouch was against the Special
Zone all along and this push would be what he needed for his all out war…but
come on, he’s not that dastardly…is he?
That’ll be a question that plagues me for a long time to come. Honestly, im content with saying it was an
epic accident…but I guess we may never know.
Of all the characters I felt for following Euphie’s
death, I think I’d tie that with Suzaku and Cornelia. Suzaku got a tear worthy farewell with the
woman he loved. Cornelia, on the other
hand, only had a handful of quick glimpses, the amount of loss she felt ever
present on her face…and then she got back to work leading her troops. I feel truly sad for her, she’s one of my
favorite characters in this series but props to her…she can mourn later, it was
time to get to work. Which is more than
what I can say for Nina. You know even
if she hadn’t gone totally insane, im sure she would have gladly given the
Geass driven Euphie her nuclear bomb to kill the Japanese…ive hated a ton of
Anime characters but none nearly as much as ive hated her. God help Ashford Academy in the state we left
them.
This brought us to the two part finale where we finally
got the war Lelouch had been building toward since day one as Zero. The best action and animation had clearly
been saved for last. Mechs clashed and
sword were swung…and Suzaku was PISSED!!! (he even socked Lloyd good when the
stingy scientist wouldn’t give him the keys to his mech). He put that Lancelot through it’s paces and
we got some of it’s best action out of it.
Speaking of best action, ORANGE WAS BACK!!! Yep, reborn a Cyborg and given a Sonic the
Hedgehog style mech (ok it didn’t look like Sonic but it spun a lot), he tore
through the Black Knights just to get to Zero.
I was totally digging the unhinged Jeremiah. He’s only gotten more amusing as the shows
progressed, it was good to have him back.
This was war and even though it seemed things were going
Lelouch’s way, no one was really safe.
It was only a matter of time before something went wrong…but maybe too
wrong? Ok so I get that Lelouch is
basically the God Mode Cheat (ok that’s a bit much) to victory. But as soon as he checked out, everything
fell apart almost instantly. The Black
Knights became helpless, Todo was freaking out, Oghi got shot…ok don’t care too
much about that but I am glad Violetta got her memory back, ive missed that ice
queen…yeah. The Black Knights were on a
roll and they could have pushed forward on their own no problem. We left them all in dire straits, with the
outcome of the battle not revealed. Im
sure we can guess how it all goes though.
Which all lead to easily one of my favorite scenes in
Anime. I’ll get to the guy who kidnapped
Nunally in a sec but this paragraphs gonna be all about that perfect stand
off. Finally, after a season of waiting,
Lelouch and Suzaku confronted each other (with Kallen as an audience
cause…whatever?). The verbal backlash
each “friend” gave the other stung hard and when Suzaku told Lelouch that his
existence was a mistake…the time for talk was done. We’ve seen these two as the best of friends,
so kind to one another despite their positions.
To see them finally fall out with each other was huge. Not as huge as the gunshot that we had to leave
things on. No resolution, no victor,
only Nunally wailing in despair silently…THAT IS HOW YOU DO A FREAKING SEASON
FINALE!!!!! Man I cannot wait to start
up Code Geass R2 and see what happens next.
There were some problems with the finale and they all
kind of stemmed from the character department.
You know my thoughts on the size of this cast…so why add in a tiny
Chinese royal diplomat who we’ve seen sporadically throughout the season, has
barely said a word and suddenly appears just to tell Lelouch he’s gonna be her
wife? I’m sure Lelouch was being kind in
his reply, but I’m sure he and I were thinking the same thing, “Who the hell
are you and why should I care?” And then
there’s V.V. God I don’t think I’ve
automatically disliked a character so instantly before (at least with Nina I
needed an episode or two to see how despicable her racist tendencies
were). His arrogance is apparent even in
his couple of lines of dialogue and his character design strikes me as a
haughty kid who’s as old as C.C. and is even more snobbish…ugh he’s gonna be a
problem for me in Season 2 isnt he?
Lastly, after such a stellar intro last time, why wasn’t Schneizel
present for this battle? In fact he was
barely seen in these last few episodes.
I’m guessing theyre saving more for him to do in the next season…but it
seemed wrong to sideline him here at such an important point of the story.
And…well that’s it.
Season One of Code Geass COMPLETE.
What did I think? I think that
the cast could be trimmed down a little, along with a couple of pointless side plots. But this was a solid Anime and if it had just
been one season…well I’dve been upset cause of that cliffhanger but THAT
CLIFFHANGER was just too damn perfect.
Lelouch always amused no matter what he did. The Britannians had some strong stand out
figures in Euphie, Cornelia and Schneizel while others like Jeremiah got better
with time. This season knew how to end
episodes on the right notes, begging you to just marathon your way to the
end. Not a lot of Anime nowadays have
that type of binge quality to them. It’s
kind of refreshing really…and we’re only halfway done.
But I’m concluding this first season with a very solid
8/10
The continuation of the saga with Code Geass: Lelouch of
the Rebellion R2, kick off Monday.
“I Lelouch vi Britannia command you…See ya then.”
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