LZH Watches Code Geass Episodes 1-5 || 4/30 - 5/6

[Championbeef]

Code Geass is one of my personal favorite anime, the first anime I actually watched online, and the anime that got me into anime. Since this one is a little longer spanning about 52 episodes across 2 seasons, we will be watching 5 episodes a week. I know it's a lot but its really only 1 episode a day, less than that even. I HIGHLY encourage participation on this anime. I know some people haven't seen it so feel free to post speculation on what you think will happen, but if you know that happens please don't spoil it. Watching ahead is allowed, but please keep discussion to the first 5 episodes, or post after watching them with your speculation and then continue watching. Let's Watch this amazing anime guys, I have never heard of anyone who dislikes this show.

CODE GEASS After the invasion of Japan by the Brittannian Empire, the country is renamed to "Area 11". The young Lelouch, a Brittannian student living in Japan, accidentally gets caught up in a local terrorist attack against Brittannia, reuniting with his childhood friend Suzaku as well as meeting the mysterious girl C.C. Cornered in a life and death situation, Lelouch accepts a power C.C. offers to him, the ability to order anyone to do anything. Harboring a thirst for revenge against the Brittanian Empire for their actions against his family, Lelouch wages war against the Empire. Using his newfound power and tactical ability, Lelouch goes under the alias Zero in attempts to fulfill his childhood vow, to destroy Brittannia!

[CarNage64]

really enjoyed code geass and looking forward to the rest, I like the characters but atm im still confused on how they all fit together with everone being related to one another in some kind of family bloodline but hopefully it becomes clearer!

[Championbeef]

It definitely does become clearer, since the whole anime the characters generally stay the same. It is confusing at first, but eventually you'll learn who is who pretty easily. You've basically got the 11's which are the resistance group, the classmates and school mates that are britainians, the royalty that is lelouch's target, and then the rest of the britainian forces.

[Championbeef]

So the first episode in my opinion is one of the worst. Though, it redeems itself towards the end when lelouch gets his power.

In episode 2, the series truly begins where Lelouch begins to take command of the Japanese terrorists and leads them. This is pretty much what he does for the whole series. YOu can really get a feel for just how wonderfully strategic he is as he issues his commands. We also get the setup of friend vs friend as we see Suzaku mount the White Nightmare. Also, pay attention to Jeremiah, he's my favorite character.

Episode 3 is a little more laid back. We see Lelouch learning about his power and how he also is just a normal student. We also meet Naunnally more who becomes a major character since she is Lelouch's sister and all and the reason he is doing everything.

Episode 4 is amazing. We get the full creation of the mastermind Zero, and trust me, that eventually goes nuts. Also, god damn Orange. I LOVE THAT PART. The masses just believe it because they dont know what it actually is, and Jeremiah can't say. He's so trapped just by a completely made up story about poison gas. We really get to see again, how much of a mastermind Lelouch is and how he can use any and every situation to his advantage.

In 5, we get Euphie. I don't like her too much. Shes very naive and it gets in the way of the awesomeness that is Lelouch. We also get CC, who is well, unique to say the least. We'll get to know a lot more about her so don't worry too much. As this episodes plays out we can clearly see that Euphie x Suzaku is cannon as is Lelouch x CC Kappa. This episode also goes to show how Lelouch wishes to keep his school life and Zero life completely separate, which is pretty important. It shows that not only does he want to protect naunnally, but he doesn't want his friends involved either.

[Katzman79]

Episode 1 - The Day A New Demon Was Born: From the moment I saw the word CLAMP on the opening titles I knew some of what was to come, and boy did they not surprise me. CLAMP have always had a distinct art style of long limbs, tapered faces, and androgynous males. Code Geass certainly has all of this in spades. Beyond that though the first episode is certainly a confused mess and a rather bad first episode of a show. The episode jumps from scene to scene, character to character and is filled with exposition. There's nothing at all to move the characters forward and the villains are rather one-dimensional through out only coming across as being evil for evil's sake. The mech designs are decent, if a little generic, but the concept of the stabilisers on the heels is interesting. The power bestowed on Lelouch (the main character) by a strange green-haired girl initially seems very over powered indeed, almost on the level of Charles Xavier or Jean Grey.

Episode 2 - The White Knight Awakens: The episode follows on directly from the previous one with the main character learning about the mysterious powers he's just been granted. And I will admit the first half of this episode has a pretty good action scene going on. The battle of the Nightmares and their systematic defeat by Lelouch is well choreographed. Throughout though Lelouch is portrayed as a tactical genius, foreshadowed by his skill with chess in the previous episode. However he completely fails to spot the similar attack on him by his childhood friend Suzaku in the Lancelot mech to the attack in the first episode. I will give it a pass given they were sudden attacks. The design of the Lancelot gets a thumbs up from me however (though it's not the Escaflowne.) The ending of the episode is terrible though in my opinion. It's a surprise ending, but only because there was nothing at all to hint at it. It feels like it's been pulled out of someones arse.

Episode 3 - The False Classmate: Time for a change of pace, and this is a more serene and sedate episode dealing with Lelouch in school and his powers. Finally they are given some kind of limit as the ability "brain wash" someone only works once. It's an interesting twist on a often used power. There's the usual of the two main characters, in this case Lelouch and Kallen (the leader of the rebellion) being in the same class which is a rather tired cliche. As too is the shower scene of Kallen (there has to be one somewhere in an anime.) When you get down to it though a lot of my complaints from Episode 1 fall into place here. There's a lot of exposition and 75% of the episode seems to be Lelouche's internal monologue. As a side note Lelouch's sister, Nunally, has a very, very annoying voice over in the dub.

Episode 4 - His Name Is Zero: Well, this is awkward. I've been trying to give my views on the show without too many spoilers, but this one has proven very difficult to do and I feel there will be quite a few. The first half of the episode is slow paced like the previous episode and revolves around Lelouch making official contact with the leaders of the rebellion under the alter ego of Zero. In order to disguise his features from Kallen he shows himself in a long cloak and metallic mask. Not really a whole lot more to say about it. Some exposition, mistrust, the usual spiel. The second half cranks it up though with the rescue of Suzaku from what is essentially a kangaroo court (watch the show to find out what he's accused of.) Of course Lelouch manages to rescue Suzaku and prove that Suzaku didn't commit the crime he was to be branded with. Lelouch tries to convince Suzaku to join the rebels, but fails.

Episode 5 - The Witch and the Princess: Well, damn. Another episode where it's hard to avoid spoilers. Episode 5 is what you might call an information dump episode, one that fills in a few of the gaps of the previous episodes and sort of recaps things as well. An episode to get people back up to speed. The green-haired girl from the start returns and reveals her name as C.C. or C2 (and causes problems for Lelouch.) Suzaku gets let off for lack of evidence and a pink-haired woman, named Euphie, falls into his life (literally.) And that's it for the story of this episode. It's as close to a filler as a series likes this gets. And that's it really for this episode apart from a brief action scene at the end.


Overall: From my mostly negative views of the first five episodes you probably think I am hating this show, but I'm not.... kinda. I'm finding it, so far at least, to be a mixed bag with some plus points and some negative points. The action is generally good and there's a few characters that are endearing and charming. The scenes where Lelouch is trying to have a normal school life are rather entertaining too, and they have provided me with one or two laughs as well. The problem with these first five episodes for me though is they are dragged down by too much dialogue that is exposition rather than natural conversation. Lelouch's constant monologues are rather frustrating as well. Lastly is the rushed pace of the episodes so far. A character is introduced and then either killed or written out within two or three episodes. It is also a series that has to be watched multiple times to pick things up as the storyline and character connections can be confusing and easily missed. I am intrigued enough to continue as there's something there though.

[Championbeef]

Well, i hope in the later episodes you can enjoy them some more. some of the characters you meet now don't really get written out anymore, most of them come back unless their dead. I do agree that the first 5 episodes are kinda slow, but they do a good job at establishing the characters which is really all they are there for. As we go on, you'll see how things develop, and there does become a lot more Lelouch epicness and fighting stuff. Unfortunately, you won't ever really escape the Lelouch monologue.