Review – Rate – Recommend

I’m still not sure if I truly loved the second season for Code Geass. But it certainly didn’t live up to the epic-ness that is the first season.

It was interesting and fun at first. Mostly because I get to see innocent and amnesiac Lelouch and have a glimpse of his school life. Oh and it started with Lelouch showing off his athletic side- or lack thereof- so of course, fangirl that I am, it sat well with me. I have very high expectations for this anime. And who wouldn’t? People are giving it praises, Lelouch is hot and the first season was just amazing. But it started going downhill after Lelouch became greedy.

That might just be my personal bias. I would choose the kind character over the heartless one, after all (Except for Light Yagami’s case because the bastard is an interesting man.) so Lelouch’s disregard for all the people he has trampled on did nothing to make up for all the long-ass, complicated politics talk. It would be unfair to say that his heartless talk didn’t give me tension like a good anime should. I was rooting for him the whole time. Every time he took responsibility for the things that he did not do, I wanted to go mental and throw the laptop because sometimes he is too damn stubborn. Am I contradicting myself, yet?

I guess I didn’t like how the Zero that we all love suddenly turned into Charles the second and wanted to conquer the whole world. It’s all just part of all his grand scheme but must he do it the hard way? Really, Lelouch just wants some style and class into the way he changes the world, don’t you think? That’s not hard to think. Especially if you consider his elaborate hand movements. But his grand scheme still ends in his death so what the hell.

Not that I didn’t love the ending. The ending was probably the best thing in the second season. It was so beautiful. I got teary-eyed. The only time that has ever happened was when I watched Clannad. Even lovely, evil Light’s death didn’t make this girl cry. But damn it. For countless episodes I was screaming for Lelouch to just go buy a heart since he’s so rich and then the ending reveals that he had a heart after all? Carefully concealed in his good acting prowess. And Nunnally’s cries…that set me off like a bomb. I don’t like the girl. She’s clingy and weak at best but I love the whole siblings love in there. If the ending is the only basis, I would treat this as a masterpiece and worship it everyday. Unless Lelouch was that guy driving that wagon or something then I’ll just wallow in self-pity for ever thinking that the ending is epic.

Probably what pissed me off the most is that everyone’s just going back to life. You think this annoying guy is already dead and then he appears and makes some grand, elaborate scheme to go against Lelouch or to side with Lelouch. I honestly thought Cornelia was dead. I don’t particularly hate her but she came back to life 2 times already! Is she immortal? Does her breasts cushion the bullets? I wouldn’t know. But seriously, if they’re going to kill someone and decide that they want them back after all, can’t they just do it once? And if there’s someone that needs to die more than anyone else, it’s Nina. Because she’s a stupid lesbian. I don’t hate lesbians. I’m not against Yuri. You can even say that, despite my gender, I find it entertaining if not done too much. But Nina is just delusional. She’s not even best friends with Euphy but she thinks she is so special and that it’s her duty to protect the princess’ will. The hell, qurl.

But let’s end this review in a positive note, why don’t we?

Code Geass R2 succeeded in diminishing my hate for some of the characters. (except for Suzaku because the guy just can’t make up his mind. And for all his talk about fairness, he sure wants power.)

Take Shirley, for example. My feelings for her were quite conflicted. She’s cute and she clearly loves Lelouch. It would be really easy to ship them. But I wasn’t sure if I truly liked her in the first season. I thought her love was shallow. But her death proved otherwise. It was really a beautiful scene. For me, it showed how deep her love is. Perfect selflessness, as I would like to call it. She knew that Lelouch is Zero and that Zero killed her father but that didn’t stop her from loving Lelouch. You may call it stupidity but I call it love. I don’t want to preach but Shirley is officially my favorite female character in Code Geass (Sorry, president!). After all, don’t we all end up being blind to the bad points of the ones we love?

I must have had some inkling that Rolo was going to kill Shirley. Maybe that was why I hated the guy from the beginning. Or maybe it’s because he looks ugly. I don’t know. It’s certainly one of the two. His death was sad but nothing special. In fact, if I am allowed to say this, I laughed. I mean seriously, Lelouch was talking and he kept using that time Geass and cutting Lelouch off. It was like some bad reception in a telephone conversation. Choppy.

Everything considered, Code Geass R2 is not a complete failure. Wait, scratch that. It was a success. But if you put it side by side with the first season, it becomes slightly annoying in comparison. If you have watched the first season though, I suggest you watch the second season, too. Forget my bitching because despite all the complaining I did, I don’t think I would have been truly happy if I didn’t watch the second season.

Rated 4.5/5