After almost two years after the actual series premiered, I finally checked out the first episode of Code Geass. Yes, it took me that long. Tired of not getting all the jokes about Pizza Hut and wondering who CC is, who the hell the late Shirly is, etc, I finally just decided to watch the damn thing. Though I still haven’t gotten to the second episode…
Because of the sheer popularity of the anime, I figured I better up my knowledge of Geass. Currently, Code Geass (and its second season) is the most written-about series on Anime Nano! More popular than Haruhi, more popular than Lucky Star, and more popular than Naruto! Sure, the accuracy of predicting the popularity of a series by the times it shows up in Anime Nano might be imperfect, but I think it’s a fairly good metric to use, especially when you have a really big sample size.
I actually wrote about considering watching this more than a year ago but I guess I couldn’t be persuaded. Really, the only reason I finally ended up seeing it was that I loaded it on my iPhone in preparation for a long plane flight.
I guess I should say something about what I thought of the first episode. I realize this post is going to resemble some kind of weird time warp. Like if a recently unfrozen caveman started writing about what he thought of automobiles or something.
Code Geass: the plot is insanely ridiculous and funny at the same time. I like how Britannia (the United States?) attacked Japan and called it zone 11. This must be an alternate universe because I don’t think we’d turn into a monarchy + empire so quickly (by the year 2010 or so?). Lelouch seems like a cool strategist type dude who gets the power to command people to kill themselves (and do other stuff too, probably). Kind of like that Gennosuke guy from Basilisk. I suppose the series will center around Geass leading a rebellion of some sort against Britannia (plot-describing subtitles FTW).
I’m not sure I like it yet, but Code Geass seems to be so integral to a well rounded knowledge of anime and weeaboo culture that I’m basically being forced to watch it. Hopefully I’ll start getting more of DiGiKerot’s unfunny comics.
Sold out to the masses!
>>I don’t think we’d turn into a monarchy + empire so quickly
It’s possible. But anyway. Alternate universe, not the USA, etc.
keep watching….once you end season 1 you’ll be so pissed off that you just HAVE to start season 2 and it only gets more ridiculous from there.
For seriously, the plot ridiculousness is like a 10-car pile up on the freeway that sucks in 10 more cars per episode…sometimes 20!
And you’ll never wish for a fictional character to die more than Rolo (Season2).
I figure there has to be something that is making this series stick so much. Plot ridiculousness is fine. But do I want to watch a series because it will piss me off? I better just preload the entire thing on my iPhone and pray for downtime…
It’s alternate universe - it all started verging off real-world history when the Romans failed to get a foothold in Britain, but the only really relevant part is that, whilst a successful civil war never took place in the States, such a thing on the British Isles forced the movement of the empires capital to the Americas. As such, the British Isles is one of the territories not actually under British rule in Geass.
Season One won’t really piss you off now that R2 is already around. The frustration with it was, because the broadcast schedule was pushed out by two episodes for various reasons, the season ended two episodes worth of plot short on it’s original run - on a massive cliffhanger to boot. A few months later, mercifully, they managed to broadcast a double-bill of the final two episodes. Not so mercifully, it ended on an even worse cliffhanger than the previous one. Given that the air date for R2 wasn’t confirmed at the time, it was beyond horrific.
Oh, and most of my comics don’t make a huge amount of sense even if you have been watching Geass, though they have enough semblance to the series to at least spoil it for you.
I already know who dies, but I don’t know who they are yet. So I guess that’s spoiling? Maybe I’ll enjoy it more since I can anticipate sweet, sweet death for Rolo and Stacy, or whatever her name is.
It’s a ridiculous, over-the-top series that rivals both Mai-Hime and Mai-Otome in its ridiculousness. Of course this also means that it attracts the same kind of fans who think that trainwrecks are awesome (the lowest common denominators).
Good luck Hung! I tried to watch Code GayAss too and I could’t get half way through the first season.
Like Naruto, and other modern popular anime titles, it derails pretty early which caused me to drop it like the wretched, overblown, by-the-numbers merchandising driven fodder it truly is.
So what that I’m going to be missing out on a lot of the references and in-jokes of recent anime culture due to me ditching this crap. Sometimes ignorance is truly bliss.
Not that this makes much of a difference at all, but I still felt like saying something different.
There are actually some of us out there that, while we laugh at the in-jokes and internet memes and ridiculous stunts like almost everyone else does, also genuinely like the series and don’t need to use the word “trainwreck” or go into permanent LOL-mode in order to justify why we watch it.
Strange, huh?
Code Geass is no masterpiece and I can think of more than a dozen different series that are much, much better than it ever will be. I am not blind. But I still enjoy it and for more than one reason.
Good luck, in any case.
PS: Unlike Naruto (or Gundam, technically), Code Geass is actually going to end some time soon. That also implies a few other things, if you think about it.
season one’s real good and the only reason i’m watching the second season is because i just wanna know how it ends since the first season was a freaking cliffhanger. if you continue to watch it you will see a distinct change from good to selout between the two seasons. i think that the current season’s own appeal is based on the fact that they are throwing all the things that anyone needs (to the point that it’s practically begging) to be make fun of it - apart from a few people who are so into the genre that they take it seriously. personally, i just think it’s funny and it’s entertainment.
Many comparisons have been made between cg 1 and death note. As far as mind games go, that’s supposed to be one of the most entertaining parts of cg, at least in season 1. the strategy and general intelligence of the show kinda dies in r2, though. still, it has much better looking characters than death note, even if they are clamp-two-millimeters thin anorexic homos.
Great. Just Great. Code Geass is being seen as a symbol of weeabos now? I have been following it since the beginning and I have to say, I cannot accept this. I see Code Geass as not a symbol of weeabos, no, but rather as a complex matrix that must be carefully sifted through. The dark plot shows a slow decay of the mind, only to be redeemed through death. I pity those that cannot see the true Code Geass, but instead focus on the mecha and the ‘emo facial expressions’.
I am glad i am not the only one who was confused at the amount of pizza boxes at anime conventions! I was feeling out of the loop.
Despite the insane amount of crazy fans out there that make the rest of us who like this series look bad, Code Geass is a pretty decent show. Just be careful what you post about the very last episode in the series.
It seems to start war world three. 
I hope you enjoy the series.