TwiddleGeek

From the first episode, I must admit I don’t quite know what to make of Code Geass. A lot of things are thrown at us all at once, and not a lot of time is given to sort things out. The short version of things is that Japan has been invaded and is now ruled by the Britannia empire, Japan is now Area 11, and all Japanese are now known as 11’s and regarded as less than human.

Lelouch is fairly interesting so far. He seems the anti-hero type as he’s taking more of a role of destroyer than savior. After finding and attempting to save a strange girl, as these things often go, he is given powers in exchange for agreeing to a contract with her. His first act is to have a group of murdering soldiers shoot themselves in the neck. His rather dark nature and the bloody scenes in the anime are rather sharply (and a little strangely) contrasted by the somewhat cutesy CLAMP character designs.

Finding his powers useless unless directly looking at a subject, Lelouche obtains a mech and uses a squad of rebellion troops as human chess pieces in the battle against Britannia. His expert tacticts and genius strategies quickly decimate their forces. Britannia, though wounded, readies their own special weapon to strike. Suzaku, Lelouche’s childhood friend, becomes the pilot of a special mech for Britannia and in direct opposition of Lelouch as the two face off.

There’s a lot of good things happening so far in this anime. The animation is superb and the characters are thus far interesting. Lelouche and his tactical mind, Suzaku and his nobleness, and the rebellion troops trying to make a difference with whatever means they have. It’s always interesting when you give your main characters super powers in a modern world and simply unleash him to do as he pleases.

Through a small limitation in his powers, Kallen finds out a bit of information about Lelouch. It seems his eye doesn’t effect the same person more than once. The two play a small cat and mouse game around school, with each eventually resolving to find out what the other knows. If only all anime could have such resolute characters, these things could move much quicker.

The bloodiness and dark, brutal nature of the anime contrasted with CLAMP designs never stops throwing me off guard. That’s a good thing though, not a criticism. It’s kind of like Mononoke-Hime in that you simply don’t expect blood and gore from Ghibli of all people, but it’s not unwelcome. The big showdown between Kallen and Lelouch being set in the shower of all places was equally amusing.

Suzaku has the misfortune of being being tried for Lelouche’s crime, while Lelouche himself plans a showy rescue. Donning a fancy costume and calling himself Zero, Lelouche and two members of the resistance drive straight up to the media covered motorcade of mechs. Frankly, this episode takes a long time to say very little. It does show Lelouche’s flair for drama and theatrics fairly well though, as well as Suzaku’s unfaltering sense of justice under any circumstances.