code geass 8

Has Code Geass jumped the shark? I say yes. I can tolerate the Suzaku x Lulu angle. I can tolerate the Pizza Hut references. I can tolerate the recap episode so early on. What I can’t tolerate? This ridiculous rewriting of the plot. Maybe Code Geass hasn’t jumped the shark– maybe going destiny would be more appropriate.

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Okay, so all along, I thought that Lulu was out to overthrow Britannia. Heck, even the full title of the show is Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. So now he’s an “Order of the Black Knights,” protector of the weak? Ugh. So he’s out playing superhero now? Knowing Sunrise, I knew the show would make an inexplicable turn, and it has. I secretly hoped it wouldn’t, but it looks like Lulu has just unnecessarily complicated the whole mess. Why mess around with an already winning formula? Pizza Hut + C.C.’s ass + the Zero mask + Karen’s rack + Suzaku’s “Itsuki-ness” + rollerblading mecha + Jealous Shirley = win. Sometimes, all a team needs to do is run up the middle to win a game.

The whole hostage thing was just so transparent. After seeing Shirley and Ashford headed out with Nina being inexplicably terrified of Elevens, I knew something was going to happen. And, yep, in predictable Sunrise style, they all get taken hostage. And guess what? Princess Yuffie is also a hostage. A pink-haired empresses getting kidnapped in a Sunrise anime? Why, that’s never happened! Suzaku manages to pwn the rebels with Lancelot when the normal Sutherlands couldn’t. The Zaku is almost entirely useless? News to me! I’m just disappointed that no one died or was impaled.

I was even more disappointed that Lulu didn’t pretend that he was a Pizza Hut delivery man to save the hostages. Who wouldn’t enjoy a piping hot stuffed crust pizza in the middle of a hostage situation? In quasi-related news, I think most people enjoy their pizza with either a Diet Pepsi or a clasp of beer. I have a suggestion idea: how about tea? A cup of brewed tea is known to have over four thousand chemicals, most of which fall into the “flavonoid” category. No, it’s not what steals Domino’s pizzas, but rather flavonoids are almost an antioxident that has potentially man positive health effects including anti-cancer and anti-allergies. Tea has, by far, more flavonoids that most other types of food. While most benefits from tea aren’t obvious, there’s one that is: tea naturally has fluoride, which slows cavity formation.

While black, green, and oolong teas all have similar health benefits, it’s import to note that true tea comes from the evergreen camellia sinensis. Many “herbal teas” that do not originate from this evergreen are not true teas and do not have the same health benefits. Personally, I prefer more Chinese-styled green teas versus the more bitter Japanese-stypled versions. Chilled light green tea goes great with pizza as well as Chinese food.

For more European-styled teas, I prefer the more fragrant darjeeling over earl grey and English breakfast. English breakfast tastes better with finger sandwiches than pizza, I concede.

Back to Code Geass, some quickie awards:

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Best Bluetooth Device

Suzaku’s bluetooth headset is huge. Nothing says “dork” and “tool” at the same time than a hugely obnoxious bluetooth headset.

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Plot That Most Needs To Happen

Seeing Shirley in this outfit that makes her look four months pregnant, I was thinking how awesome Code Geass would become if only if she were pregnant with Lulu being the father. It’s bad enough that Lulu may have eyes for C.C., Nanali, and Karen, but how would Shirley deal with losing the father of her child to be to Suzaku, when she’s developing a crush on Suzaku herself? Not even 90210 would dare to go here, but I think Sunrise should.

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Best Party Van

Next time on Pimp My Ride, Zero rebels against Britannia in style! Seriously, after getting routed the previous episode, he’s thinking, “Well, these peons aren’t very good– but maybe, just maybe– if I get a pimped out RV for them, they’ll turn into super soldiers! Who needs training or weapons when you have an RV with two plasma TVs?”

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Largest Amount of Innocence Lost

Um, these two will grow up and become the ruthless princesses of Britannia? And both are Lulu’s sisters, only they can’t seem to recognize him? And if they are his sisters, why are they so much less special to him than Nanali? Or is Nanali secretly a cousin/little sister/childhood friend/promised one?

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Best Crossover

Hellooooooooo Bartender! Now if we can only Shirley and Karen to run a shady yakisoba room for the school festival where they’re dressed up as waitress meido who dispense 25 yen off… err… 25 cents off coupons. (I’m assuming Brittania uses dollars and not yen.)

Next time on AoMM’s coverage of Code Geass: I create a post cut and pasted from all other posts. I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. No way there’s a coherent plot here. None. I won’t accept it.

(Okay, maybe that’s not too different from what I normally do… OTL…)

31 Responses to “code geass 8”

  1. Seek Us, Fear Us!!!

  2. This is the first time I think I’ve seen one of your posts diverge so drastically away from anime-of-topic onto anything, much less onto tea. Informative, though

  3. “So now he’s an “Order of the Black Knights,” protector of the weak? Ugh. So he’s out playing superhero now?”

    Nope. ^_^ I can’t believe so many bloggers took Lelouch’s public speech seriously… The fact that he had blown up the hotel before the speech for the sake of dramatic effect should have given you a clue.

    This is just one big public-relations exercise. Lelouch had just given himself the mandate to kill anybody who has military might… Guess what? That includes the entire British royal family. Treat Lelouch like your average home-grown politician; don’t just hear what he appeared to be saying, but hear what he is ACTUALLY saying. ^_^_^

  4. >>This is just one big public-relations exercise. Lelouch had just given himself the mandate to kill anybody who has military might… Guess what? That includes the entire British royal family. Treat Lelouch like your average home-grown politician; don’t just hear what he appeared to be saying, but hear what he is ACTUALLY saying. ^_^_^

    Considering Lulu is a master tactician and all that jazz, this could be very much true, in which case I think Sunrise hasn’t killed this show.

    …on the other hand, if it isn’t true… why, Sunrise, why must you destroy all the things I love?

  5. I much prefer Chinese Green Tae myself as well and can’t stomach that crap of green tea from those vending machines in Japantown.

    Still Lulu’s new troops are giving me SS vibes, perhaps they will be the Leibstandarte Lulu. Since this is the beginning of their formation they will asphalt soldiers for a while before being sent to use “draconian” measures to “pacify” partisans. Actaully the Germans had some dang good barracks during the WWII and the Cold War, the Wehrmarcht and SS weren’t exactly “soft” though training came first before comfort. Then again these are Japanese were talking about and not Germans. If there is no third side then it is not Sunrise.

    Chibi Cornelia dn Euphemia are absolutely adorable.

    I have a theory why only Nannali matters to Lulu, because Lulu demands full blooded status for his sis-con. As Cornelia and Euphemia are only related via his hated dad they are in-eligible to join. Besides Lulu can only handle one green haired Tsundere, he’s not man enough to handle two.

    >>Just shoot me. No way there’s a coherent plot here. None. I won’t accept it.

    So is this the new AOMM motto?

  6. I think it’s fairly obvious that Lulu is cut from the Raito mold in that he’s not afraid to use anyone and everyone, even all Elevens. in fact, I doubt he cares about Elevens at all. He just hates Brittania.

    Also, Nanali and Lulu’s share the same parents. Clovis, Cornelia and Yuffie are his half-siblings. I think.

  7. No, he’s not playing superhero. He still wants to take down brittannia, lulu makes it pretty clear *to the viewer* that he purposely takes the moral high ground to garner attention for himself. He needs people to fight brittannia, and by dubbing himself and his order of lamers ‘protector of the weak’ he’s gathering support. He eats the stage, takes the spotlight, and plays with peoples emotions: i actually thought that lelouch’s character is pretty well developed, and love that calculating side of him. I like the way he’s willing to kill, lie and steal to accomplish his ends.

    Previously in the episode he’s pretty much 10 seconds away from killing yuffie until the building blows up.

    Needless to say, lulu will STILL be using human lives like pawns. Muahahahahaha…

    My problem is the vibes that EVERYONE ELSE except lulu and cc give.

  8. Super-teen extraordinaire
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !
    Runs around in underwear
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !

    Rescues Washington D.C.
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !
    Unless something better’s on TV
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !

    His brain’s overloading
    It has a chocolate coating
    Textbook case for Sigmund Freud
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !

    Check out Dexter Douglas
    Nerd computer ace
    Went surfing on the internet
    And was zapped to cyberspace

    He turned into the “flavonoid”
    He’s strong and super-quick
    He drives the villains crazy
    ‘Cause he’s a lunatic

    His home base is the Flavalair
    “flavonoid” ! Flavassee!
    Floyd the Barber cuts his hair
    “flavonoid” ! Chimpanzee!

    Rides around in the Flavemobile
    “flavonoid” ! Flavazoo!
    Hopes to make a movie deal
    Flava me! Flava you!

    He’s here to save the nation
    So stay tuned to this station
    If not, we’ll be unemployed
    “flavonoid” ! “flavonoid” !
    “flavonoid” !!!

    you forced me to do that.

  9. at least they don’t have 5-colored rangers. and after the main team lose, we will have the new team consist of gold and silver…. guess who is riding a gold robot here

  10. I’m very concerned with the role Suzaku is playing here. I hope (futilely) that Sunrise doesn’t go lame on us and have Lulu and Suzaku team up to fight the forces of evil, whichever side that is.

    Take a page from Death Note, Sunrise. Anti-hero heroes work.

  11. >> (I’m assuming Brittania uses dollars and not yen.)

    Britannia uses the British pound, as evident from the first episode, when Lelouch & Rivalz got a 2-pound receipt from parking the motorcycle.

  12. …the totality of Lulu’s character can be explained by the fact that he had a mother complex which after the death of said mother transfered onto his sister…remember all you anime viewers out there…direct incest is bad…even when it is only mental and theoretical…bad bad bad…

    …the previous announcement is brought to you by the makers of Yume Tsukai *shudders* and Agent Aika *winces*…

  13. Hence is the problem with mech series “you destroyed the bunch of crappy mechs well we have a secret special mech, Lol you’d think you had the upper hand but we were expecting that and we also have a super special caramel coated mech, alright lets have a battle of willpower with the only two mechs that matter in the plot now cause everyone else will die in one simple shot.”

  14. I agree with the people who think you pretty much misread what happened here. It’s about his image, separating himself from the People’s Front of Japan and the Japanese People’s Front, as well as the Brittanians.

    In the eyes of the people, he is now a hero, someone beyond the heartless terrorists and the ruthless royal family.

  15. I don’t really see Lulu going out of character here. From the beginning he was complaining about terrorists being useless, stupid, poor fighters, and not attacking the root cause of the problem by targeting civilians instead of the government/military. (Terrorism may be effective against democracies but it’s next to worthless against fascist regimes such as Brittania because public opinion doesn’t matter) In any event it was strongly hinted that Lulu need some military force of his own. Surreptitiously commanding whatever terrorists/insurgents happen to be in the area doesn’t work out to well all the time even if you are brilliant. (Especially against competent commanders, Cornelia >> Clovis) Lulu’s paramilitary training in his pimp RV was interrupted because he had to go save Shirley and score some good PR. (Or because Sunrise didn’t feel like animating a shounen-tastic training montage, whatever..) It doesn’t seem like they’re going to introduce a bunch of new “Black Knights” as major characters or change the story too much. Lulu will continue ordering his various unseen red shirts with random call signs and they’ll just run around in the background doing the grunt work that his minions did before except this time they’ll be magically better trained and will actually continue to follow orders when the shit hits the fan, thus ensuring the downfall of Brittania. Or something like that…

    In any event it’s not like he formed “Zero and the Amazing Technicolor Dream-Knights” with color coordinated code names and combining mechs or anything like that.

    Plus Karen looks hawt in her new outfit.

  16. Its a show about giant roller-skating mecha being piloted by angsty teenagers with minimal training. Its fairly obvious that it doesn’t even TRY (unlike some Gundam series, which are designed to be taken somewhat seriously).

    Just sit back and laugh at the antics.

  17. if this doesn’t become a train wreck, we can count on Mai Otome Zwei, which is out now, to deliver. oh joy…

  18. I thought it was pretty obvious that Lulu’s speech was just a publicity stunt and that he’s just using Karen and her pals.

    As for why Lulu like’s Nanali more… I think its because Nanali is his full sister and the others are just half-sisters. Same father (pyscho emperor) different mothers.

    Also, Lulu is doing exactly what his father wants. His father, based on some things Lulu himself said, is just setting the kids up to off each other in order to choose the successor. And now Lulu is playing his role like a good little son.

  19. Tachi says:

  20. No mention of NekMini-Mode Millay in the preview?

    WHo cares about Lulu and his bellion.

    CC+Pizza+NekoMillay = WIn

  21. I agree w/ everyone who says it was a Yagami Raito-style PR ninjutsu. But I really more wanted to be in that train car.

    Damn…

  22. Well…last week’s episode was episode 8.5…
    Is it just me, or does anyone else also think that episode 8 is waaaayy too early for a review episode?

  23. It’s not a review episode. It’s an “explain the plot to the dumbasses who don’t get it yet.” I get the distinct impression that it was cobbled together quickly and inserted; the title sequence for Ep.9 was likely already done, so that’s why we got “Ep. 8.5.” Apparently all the same people who coudln’t follow the first Mission Impossible movie were whining that they couldn’t figure out Code Geass either.

    I have one major mystery that I am waiting to see the answer to in this series. No, not CC’s 3 sizes, not even why no one seems to notice her running around in what amounts to an unstrapped straitjacket/suit. I want to know what is with that quick flash of the planet Jupiter near the end of the OP.

    Could it be our future contains… Fighting Bots in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! Gee, that’s never been done before.

  24. Wait, did anyone else catch terrorist Karen wears the pants in that first screen shot? I wonder what that’s supposed to tell us. Can she costume rape herself? Her moe setokai side couldn’t possibly put up effective resistance. I think I’m going to go ahead and greenlight that one.

  25. Ok. I can stand crazy melodramatic plots, as long as they have a coherently stable amount of intelligence; however, lulu’s speech was more than horrible. His “Protect the weak, kill the powerful!” was faulty from the beginning concept. Any half decent journalist working from the britannian army can argue that Zero is only aiming to become the only powerful state and wishes to overthrow any opposing forces. Protecting the weak is obviously a superficial way of proving he is for the common good.

    Also Lancelot needs limitations. I hate the single omnipotent weapon element in any story (this includes any DBZ, uber Gundam, secret weapon… etc.) lulu’s geass atleast has a limit of distance and can only be used once.

    Sigh. I’m going to watch Death Note and rewatch Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society. It baffles me how some animes are at the epiphany of human intelligence, and others (Koi Koi 7? Sousei no Aquarion?

  26. *yawn* Its was mildly entertaining to watch lulu maniupulate and use people, but now that I got Medieval 2 total war, I’m getting my strategy jones fixed that way. Just defended my kingdom from two huge sieges on my northern city(kiev) and my Citadel at..some polish city (fucking russians..) and in the same stroke my armys in poland swept down and took Vienna while my southern ‘crusade’ army took Venice, utterly destroying the venetians. I got the popes approval since I had called a crusade beforehand on the Venetians who’d been excommunicated(for attacking me, since, afterall, I’m the one who put the pope where he is). Thusly, my ‘crusade’ army gets papal kudos and templar knights, for doing something it was gonna do anyway.

    Now thats strategy. I’d pit my Hussars against Lulu’s order of black knights any day. (I could also repeat the word ‘Hussars!!’ in a slightly slavic accent all day long, but thats yet a different topic.)

  27. Bartender! Hot! It’s my new butler!

    I’m in!

  28. Soo what if hes got a order of knights?
    Just go with the flow! Their still entirely expendable.
    He just wants to make himself out to not be another Japan Lives! terorist group. This way hes seen as something different and actually appeals to both Britanians and 11’s.
    Besides he said earlier that he needs a nation. This is obviously a stepping stone for him.

  29. I also like the idea of “Order of Black Knights.” I don’t think it complicates matters at all. I mean.. he can’t take on Britannia by himself.. that’s suicide.. and if he doesn’t show that he has the power to do so, how’s he going to find more supporters? By posting flyers at his school? =.= “Looking for members to join Order of Black Knights, head count.. me?” He would look lonely on the screen ='(. By the way, who’s operating the camera? >.

  30. Brittannia uses pounds (presumably sterling) – the parking ticket in episode 1.

  31. meh, i love the order of the black knights idea. from a logical standpoint, the order of the black knights was meant to change the image of the “terrorists.” Terrorist is a word that has a negative connotation. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of terrorist, Personally, is suicide bombing. By changing the name of “terrorists,” to something that suggests something of more civility, people are able to view the people who try to overthrow Brittania differently. Also, the establishment of a name allows people to recognize terrorist acts as part of one movement caused by one organization with actual calculated purpose.
    A resistance has the connotation of being small or outnumbered. By categorizing the people of the order as knights rather than rebels, the people are much more respectable publicly–and as a political force. The name also sounds like it will have noble attributes. Who doesn’t want to join an order of knights over rebels of a resistance?
    In a similar argument to above, the “allies of justice” however corny made to be or translated as is, is much more appealing a noun than “rebels.”
    i personally loved the order idea and can speculate much on how the political strategies Lelouch used could be applied in real life. although, if the speech was done in real life as it was done the episode the order would be satirized beyond overkill with the masks and all.

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