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REVIEW: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Blu-Ray


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Ajc228



Joined: 29 Dec 2015
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:13 am Reply with quote
I'm surprised there was no mention of the audio quality of the release. I recall people were complaining about the audio quality of one of the seasons. I think it was only in mono but I don't recall.
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JacobC
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Joined: 15 Jan 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:14 am Reply with quote
Ajc228 wrote:
I'm surprised there was no mention of the audio quality of the release. I recall people were complaining about the audio quality of one of the seasons. I think it was only in mono but I don't recall.


Ah right, you mean this: animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-10-17/funimation-addresses-audio-issues-on-code-geass-r2-release/.107770

I'll put a reference to that in the review, you're right, it is an important detail.
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KH91



Joined: 17 May 2013
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:20 am Reply with quote
Season 1 of CG is my favorite anime ever. Introduced me to my #1 waifu in anime, Kallen.

Quote:
Plot completely falls apart throughout the second season...


Absolutely right due to what happened.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:23 am Reply with quote
I tried to watch this and quit after 15 episodes of season one it just got too silly in some writing although if I'm honest I watched more for the Clamp character designs than the actual story.
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Gemnist



Joined: 10 Feb 2016
Posts: 1754
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:56 am Reply with quote
This is actually the most accurate review of Code Geass to my own view I have ever read. Kudos to saying that R2 rips-off R1, and that the finale feels out-of-place.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:57 am Reply with quote
This and Death Note are two series that had me thinking, "Has it really been that long?" since both had recent 10-year anniversary releases. I've had the Bandai discs since they came out, so I don't have much incentive to double dip, but it is interesting that Code Geass has exhibited as much staying power as it has.

Also, I didn't know that a new season was in the works. Considering the title, how things ended, and the fact that it has been quite a while since the show ended, I am curious to see what happens.


Last edited by Greed1914 on Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:14 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Akamaru_Inu
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Joined: 31 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:14 am Reply with quote
It wasn't that it was intended to be one season that contributed to R2 feeling rushed and flimsy, it was actually that the show's second season got moved to an earlier timeslot because of how popular it was. The network essentially told the team they needed to change things to make it easier for new viewers to watch (somehow...??) and they had new content restrictions in place so they had to shuffle around a lot of their original plans for S2.

This was my first anime watching week-to-week from Japan and I still love it, even if it is a trainwreck.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:20 am Reply with quote
I liked the series finale, but I hated the animation of the series finale. Don't know if they were running out of money, or were rushed, but in the final act the animation was crappy.

Looking forward to the new season.
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NJ_



Joined: 31 Oct 2009
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:27 am Reply with quote
Since FUNi did manage to release corrected R2 discs for their recent reprint of the Collector's Edition, I hope they eventually do the same for R2's Regular Edition as well. Unlike with the Haruhi-chan BD only being in Haruhi's UCE, Code Geass' CE does not have anything worth spending that much money & keeping so I was planning on buying both REs instead but the R2 dub issues & certain Bandai extras being missing has delayed those plans right now.

Akamaru_Inu wrote:
It wasn't that it was intended to be one season that contributed to R2 feeling rushed and flimsy, it was actually that the show's second season got moved to an earlier timeslot because of how popular it was. The network essentially told the team they needed to change things to make it easier for new viewers to watch (somehow...??) and they had new content restrictions in place so they had to shuffle around a lot of their original plans for S2.


Yeah, I believe R2 was the first to air on the Nichigo timeslot which would also later air season 2 of both Gundam 00 & Sengoku Basara.
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 11:36 am Reply with quote
Love the series but, If there was something really convenient in season 1, it was Lelouch's accidental order to one of his sisters.
Shocked
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5294
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:19 pm Reply with quote
KH91 wrote:
Season 1 of CG is my favorite anime ever. Introduced me to my #1 waifu in anime, Kallen.

Quote:
Plot completely falls apart throughout the second season...


Absolutely right due to what happened.
True, but at least the first of season 2 is pretty good.
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pajmo9



Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 630
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:36 pm Reply with quote
Still one of my favorite series. Loved how the story was woven together and how things that were hinted at early on didn't come into play until much later. I'm a little worried about where their going with this second season though.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:52 pm Reply with quote
tintor2 wrote:
Love the series but, If there was something really convenient in season 1, it was Lelouch's accidental order to one of his sisters.
Shocked


Yeah, I think Code Geass rely a lot less on the "that's convenient" moment to move the plot forward than most anime with a strategist/tactical main character, but that moment was really over the top and "convenient". I get what they were trying to do, but they could have done it differently spoiler[(say the person was supposed to be the older sister but the younger one wanted to meet Lelouch so she hid behind a mask that still left her eyes visible so Lelouch used his power to order her to kill the eleven without realizing it was actually the younger one, and that's just what I can come up on the spot, there were many better alternative)]

Otherwise I think the show is pretty good, 70% of S2 not withstanding. I also don't understand why having a new season is controversial due to the ending, spoiler[it's not like the show didn't have resurrection and a longstanding explanation for how Lelouch might still be alive.]
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 1:13 pm Reply with quote
I have a love/hate relationship with this series; I loved the first season and started my hatred with the second season with how it was split over 4 double DVD sets and only got stronger when I started to watch it.

I could mention plot twist after plot twist... especially that one regarding "loyalty"... but it would seem the latest one trumps them all. I prefer to think that the second season was one long joke played on the audience, starting with Rolo and ending...

Well, scratch that.
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jroa



Joined: 08 Aug 2012
Posts: 537
PostPosted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:01 pm Reply with quote
That's an interesting perspective and not a bad reflection on the rollercoaster that was Code Geass, although I feel there's still more left to be said. In fact, too much for just one forum post. Laughing

Curiously enough, this review oddly represents its own version of one of the show's traits in that there's a lot of bird's eye talk and references about the "what!?" of having plot twists and melodrama in a general sense and how this serves to create excitement as well as a few problems later on, something that is not inaccurate, but there is not a ton of concern or attention given to explaining exactly "why?" much of the audience cared at the time and arguably still does.

To be completely fair, Jacob does seem to acknowledge that there's a little more for people to grab onto than just the crazy twists and their theatrical presentation, at least in passing, yet a quick reader would be forgiven for not noticing. But my point is that's far from insignificant.

And what is that? It's the strong personalities and a few of their character arcs, with Lelouch himself clearly being the core attraction. Take that away and all the twists in the world would never produce these results. In that sense, I would say the existing evidence overwhelmingly suggests many people legitimately enjoyed that central aspect of the series and it may well be the chief argument why the upcoming sequel will be about Lelouch. Forget the memes, you just can't fake the way the public viewing the new PV spontaneously cheered during the announcement event.

Only the passage of time will tell if his "Resurrection" was truly a good or bad idea from a purely analytical perspective, but in practice he's proven to be as vital to this property, for both superficial and non-superficial reasons, as Kotetsu is to Tiger & Bunny, Subaru is to Re:Zero and Saber is to Fate.

I've said this before, but the presence of superior direction and audiovisual artistry can only go so far. It did not prevent the likes of Guilty Crown or Valvrave from being far less successful than Code Geass when examined under almost any possible metric, whether commercial or critical. All of them share a preference for style over substance and spectacle over depth, right, but they stumble when it comes to giving the audience at least a few compelling characters. People are, by and large, far more uniformly cynical towards those shows and I'd say that sort of reaction is not undeserved.

Even Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, as much as I found it to be a decent mecha OVA series in its own right and a pretty interesting experiment colored by Kazuki Akane's own virtues and vices as a director/co-writer, would have benefitted from a more charismatic cast of characters. He might even have tried to be a little too artsy for his own good, I guess, but that's a discussion for another day.

Finally, there's the question of enjoyment and whether or not it is "intended" to derive amusement and fun factor from the crazier or more ridiculous elements of the production. Like Pizza Hut and Spinzaku. Considering both Taniguchi and Okouchi have stated on the record that the search for entertainment value was always one of the main objectives of the series, not so much making a truly serious drama with a totally straight face, I'd argue that characteristic was a double-edged sword rather than any sort of accident or mistake.

Code Geass may have earned more traditional critical praise if it hadn't gone all the way into that territory, but fully cutting back would have also made it lose camp flavor. Could we really want to live in a world without Orange-kun? And after all, even the high school comedy sequences have their fans. I didn't care too much for those, with exceptions like the brilliant timing of C.C.'s reaction to the destruction of the giant pizza, but I didn't find myself hating them either.

NJ_ wrote:
Yeah, I believe R2 was the first to air on the Nichigo timeslot which would also later air season 2 of both Gundam 00 & Sengoku Basara.


There's also a fully translated official script dated February 20th, 2006 which continues right after the cliffhanger ending of season one, instead of what happened in early R2 due to the time slot change, which proves that the storyline was already planned to continue beyond said point before the show had even premiered. In short...unless the TV series had flopped, it wasn't going to end with one season. I don't think S1 Lelouch was prepared to go as far as he did by the end of R2 either.
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