Revisting Code Geass

Every year I make I habit of rewatching some of my favorite animes. Typically each involves a rewatching of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Code Geass. The amount of times that I've watched both is staggering. Due to a combination of factors, rewatching Code Geass this year came a little earlier than I expected. Like I said before, I have watched Code Geass several times by this point, everytime picking up on something new that I didn't pick up before. Suddenly now, I feel that I've reached some clarity on the series.

Code Geass is a fantastic anime. It was full of twists and turns and featured a cast full of likable characters. It's hardly perfect, but then again what anime is? The main fault that people find with it is that it's second season, named R2, was weaker than that the first. This resulted in a rather uneven season that lacked much of the punch of the first season. The debate over the second season has made the Code Geass fanbase into one of the most Broken Bases in the industry. The second season introduced new characters, plenty of plot twists, and personnally the best ending I've seen in any anime. My theory on Code Geass, to quote The Dark Knight, was that it was the ending it deserved and not entirely the one it needed. I have always held onto my belief that the second season, while not of the same quality of it's predecessor is still a fantastic work in it's own right. This time around watching it, I've found a lot more to like about the series in general, so let's get down to business. (Spoilers here for those who haven't watched the series. You should by the way, it's really good)

1.) The second season should be judged as part of a whole, rather than individually.

I'm not blind to the fact that the second season has several plot points that are exceptionally weak; the Emperor's lame assimilation plot and the fact that the show refuses to let any character stay dead. However, other than those two points, when you watch the two seasons in one continuous run everything seems to fall into place. Lots of things from the first season come back into play over the second season's run and when looking back, the crafting of such a story goes back all the way to the earliest episodes. When the two are watched the way they were meant to be watched, in a continuous run, these connections become very apparent. This doesn't excuse the ass-pull plot devices (like Nunnally's not being dead) and the incredibly narmy scenes (Emperor rocket ftw, though I like to pretend that the whole assimilation plot never happened). So yes, it's a lesser product, that's been said enough, but as a whole work it succeeds.

Another criticism is that the second season has less signature moments than the first season did. The first season had several benchmark moments that were memorable (The Shirley saga, Euphemia's death, Battle of Narita, the confrontation between Suzaku and Lelouch, and the Black Rebellion). While I can name those moments it's also worth mentioning that the first season rarely wasted an episode, it's plot moved along at a steady clip and it never felt stagnant. The second season meanwhile wobbles it's way through the first half and by the time they're bunkered down in Chinese Federation it's a little confusing as to what the significance of it all is. Obviously, once you've finished the series and rewatched it enough like I have you can connect the dots much easier. The second half of the second season is certainly compelling as it begins racing towards it's conclusion. Code Geass is a work in which the situation constantly changes, which forces it's protagonist to adjust for said changes to move forward. When looking at it from that perspective, that's how the plot is able to move so quickly at the end. Not to mention that it does a great job bringing one of the show's central conflicts, Lelouch and Suzaku, full circle. That was most evident to me during this watch-through.

2.) It's a fictional work and characters will do things you don't approve of. That's how fiction, and many times real life, works.

Ohgi and Villetta's actions moved the plot to a inevitable outcome

The criticisms of the plot of the second season, I've found, are less with the plot itself and rather the actions that certain characters take. The most obvious three perpetrators of this are Ohgi, Viletta, and Rolo. Villetta and Ohgi are the most notable for their exposing Zero as Lelouch to the rest of the Black Knights, on what is largely circumstantial evidence. It's not as if Schneizel exactly had a great deal of hard evidence on Lelouch and it was very clear that he manipulated Todou and the others into turning on Lelouch. However, the scene makes much more sense when you consider that it was up in the air whether the characters themselves had ever been under the control of Geass. All the Black Knight members in the room had never had Geass used upon them, but of course only we know that. Then you consider that Zero's Geass caused Euphemia to order the massacre of a whole stadium of Japanese people. Ohgi and Villetta are certainly two of the one's to blame for turning on Zero but it's not as if they weren't justified. That added to the fact that Schneizel was manipulating them for his own purpose. When looked at from that perspective things make sense. After all, anyone watching this series  with two grains of common sense had to figure out at some point that they were going to figure out that Lelouch was Zero. My main problem with this is that this is a fictional work in which there are going to be characters you dislike and you won't like their actions. That's how fiction works; don't condemn a series just because you don't approve of what a character did.

3.) Rolo is a difficult one to pin down but I think I finally understand his purpose now.

The one anomaly to this is the presence of Rolo, Lelouch's stand-in younger brother. Rolo's story itself is actually very well done, even if his actions swiftly gained him Scrappy status. However, Rolo never felt like an essential part of the cast, though his presence does make sense. The Emperor of course realized that Lelouch and Nunnally needed to be separated since having her back would either bring back Lelouch's memories and there needed to be a safeguard in case Lelouch regained his memories. Of course, Rolo failed miserably at the second part. In the grand scheme of things, Rolo doesn't feel all too important but I did enjoy his character arc. He's a really broken character who enjoyed his role as a little brother a little too much than what was required for the job. He redeems himself at the end, when he saved Lelouch from the Black Knights. It's a pretty heartwarming scene and I'll admit, this time when I watched the show I actually liked Rolo as a character. His actions were representative of someone who just wanted to prove himself to his big brother. By no means does this vindicate him, killing Shirley was unforgivable, but this time around I felt that I understood Rolo's motivations as a character.

4.) Code Geass manages to stay true to itself.

I dare any other show to top this ending

The first season of Code Geass was always about the roles of good and evil. Was revolution just, what is the collateral damage, can one adopt a mask and truly protect the ones he loves or does it only drag them further into the conflict? These questions were always present during the first season, even when the action reached it's peak. Even in the second season, when some of the focus seemed fixed on the shiny new, overpowered robots; the messages remained clear. The final battle of the series itself was a battle of ideals, staying consistent with everything that preceded it. I always liked the idea that the fight for world peace was always a giant grey area and Code Geass executes it perfectly, especially in it's final scenes.  Like I said earlier, the ending is perfect. The series ends the way it should and that's the mark of a great series.

Like always, I really enjoyed rewatching this series again. Any series that you can rewatch over and over again and keep finding new things is something else. Whatever you think about Code Geass, I think everyone can agree it's a fantastic work. The fanbase will continue to argue about the second season, that enough is ensured. It should also be noted that the words above are simply my thoughts. This hardly means that I am claiming the second season to be better than the first. No, I've still resigned myself to the fact that the first season is stronger. However, I'm advocating for people to simply change their perspective on the second season and view Code Geass as a whole story from beginning to end, rather than dividing it in two. Sometimes a change in perspective is necessary to fully appreciate something. No matter what one thinks of Code Geass, that much is true.