code geass 16
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“If the two of us worked together, there’s nothing that we can’t accomplish!” OH GEASS NO!
Well, the Sunrise record for coming back from the dead has been obliterated. Oh, so because Lulu didn’t use his geass to command “to kill” but only “to shoot,” the eight-five rounds pumped into Mao didn’t kill him. Also, the wonders of Britiannian technology allowed him to fully recover with just a few oversized bandaids from the wounds… but let’s consider that this same Britiannian technology couldn’t save Orange-kun, who wasn’t nearly as damaged (don’t worry, I have Orange-kun coming back around episode 22 on my big board) or Suzaku, who at least took a few episodes to recover after getting shot point blank.
I don’t like plots that don’t seem to follow any rules. As I explained many times during my reviews for Higurashi, any decent story sets rules and follows them. By the end, the conclusion should at least fit into the realm of the rules. For example, if suddenly in the next episode of Kanon, Ayu runs into five frog aliens who give her the technology to save Shiori, well, that’s definitely a rule breaker when it comes to Kanon. It basically renders everything previous moot, much like retcon in comic books. If the same thing happened in Keroro, it’ll be fine since alien frogs are part of that tapestry already so introducing more to solve a problem isn’t unexpected, whereas Kanon has no such aliens, espers, or time travelers to begin with. While rule breakers aren’t a sign of bad storytelling, they do take the fun of trying to guess what happens next. Why even bother guessing when it’s apparent that the writers are just pulling shit out of their asses as they go along?
Code Geass has become like that. I don’t really care about Lulu and his rebellion anymore. Sunrise is just toying with the story much like how Haruhi toys with Mikuru. I’m still in for the Code Geass ride because of (a) all the OH GEASS YES! and all the OH GEASS NO! moments (b) the Pizza Hut (c) the unintentional comedy (d) the quickly deteriorating train wreck nature and (e) Nina’s upcoming lesbian rape of Yuffie. While Code Geass isn’t Mai Otome-class in terms of train wreck, nothing says that it can’t get there. Remember, Mai Otome was fairly bad and pedestrian until the father-daughter incest angle picked up steam and became a pantheon train wreck. Code Geass started out with a lot of promise (Gasaraki and CLAMP) but quickly degraded into classic Sunrise. They could have named this series Mai Geass or Gundam Rollerblades, and I’d be none the wiser.
When I saw Mao pop back in with his clapping, I think this moment was the equivalent of Kelvin Hayden intercepting Grossman for a touchdown. Up to that point, the game was still up for grabs, but after Kelvin ran back for an interception, I thought, “game over.” When I saw Mao again, I thought the same thing. Code Geass has just gone Sunrise, and for better or for worse, it ain’t coming back.
Random Thoughts
Wait, so the climax of this episode weighed, literally, on how many chess pieces weighed down a scale? This implies two things: the first is that it has to be a Phoenix Suns vs. Boston Celtics-class blowout to trigger either the detonation or the defusement. If the two just traded buckets, then the bomb would just remain as is. The second is, well, why doesn’t Lulu just slam his fist into the defuse pan and shut off the bomb? If it’s just a weight governed system, then make it a test of strength– Lulu’s brute force vs. the brute force of a psycho with the clap.
Wait, why are they walking through the valley of death again? Though with Nanali’s “What is this smell?” question, I now have odds of a Suzaku and Lulu reenactment of the Utawarerumono‘s epic DVD bonus at three-to-one.
For people keeping score, the people who have come back supposedly from the dead in this show is staggering: C.C., Suzaku, Villetta (who is acting like Bizarro Urd), and Mao. I’m still waiting for Clovis or Orange-kun to make an appearance, hopefully with a classic Gundam-styled mask.
(Oh, nice angle there in the kitchen Ougi. And dude has the right idea putting that camera in the bedroom…)
Needs more tickling. Or at least toss Nina into the mix.
I’m digging this C.C. outfit. She looks very saucy. Reminds me of Kelly Hu’s Lady Deathstrike in X-Men 2.
(BTW, I can’t wait for Sunrise to take over production of X-Men 4 just so they can revive all the dead characters from X-Men 3 until I realized that Marvel pioneered bringing back dead characters before Sunrise. We can safely say that Sunrise is turning into the Marvel of anime, with Gundam as their X-Men. This would make Code Geass the Fantastic Four.)
Good to see ya Kallen, even if it’s only for 30 seconds looking hungover and without any fanservice backing it up.
Good to see ya too Pizza Hut! I missed your Cheezy Bites!
Next time on AoMM’s coverage of Code Geass: how to survive point blank small caliber arms fire.
42 Responses to “code geass 16”
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My caption for that last shot: “Dodge this.”
Still… this is a Sunrise show. Never count a person dead until you see the body, then see it dismembered and then cremated on screen; and even then, prepare to be wrong. Remember, Mwu ‘died’ on screen in the original Gundam SEED (even if they did edit out his floating broken helmet from the Specials) in a manner that was apparently more final than being shot from point-blank range… but he STILL came back, with barely a scar to mark the event.
>>>Next time on AoMM’s coverage of Code Geass: how to survive point blank small caliber arms fire.
*how to survive point blank small caliber arms fire IN YOUR NECK.
>>Code Geass has just gone Sunrise, and for better or for worse, it ain’t coming back.
I’m so glad I’m not watching this show then. It is Sunrise, it was meant to be a train wreck sooner or later. That doesn’t mean I won’t watch/marathon it as soon as it ends, though.
The scale could be a lose-lose situation, you know.
I can’t believe Karen is losing by 6% now!!! She REALLY needs more screentime.
And Suzaku is still a hypocrite.
Well, I’d like to be agreement but not quite. I wouldn’t say it’s a total trainwreck, but the train’s definitely having a very bumpy ride and I’ve no idea how it’ll all turn out at the end of the tunnel. It could eventually wreck into tiny little pieces, but it could not. At any rate, it’s not the next best thing by now, of course.
The revivals aren’t all that illogical though. Some are even mildly amusing or even reasonable. Let’s see…C.C., she is meant to die and come back because of UNKNOWN PLOT REASONS (roar!). We know she’s a supposedly immortal/slow aging pizza-addict with psycholedic powers, so self-resurrection doesn’t seem that implausible for her. It’s intentionally mysterious enough for now.
As for Villetta…Shirley’s a horrible shot (and why wouldn’t she be? Unbalanced students aren’t meant to be trained killers). Her aim never really focused on any truly vital spot, just on Villetta’s side, from the on-screen evidence. I’d say it’s the convenient memory loss, not her “non-death”, that is the plot device here, IMHO (unless she’s just faking it all, which could be pretty fine if done correctly).
Mao’s revival is definitely cheap as a Rolex clone, but his “coming right back only to leave for real” impression seems to at least cut out the filler neatly enough. In other words, they spared us the pain of seeing him come back even later.
That reminds me somewhat of Orange-Kun who, in a state of utter patheticness, was picked up by some wacko scientists after ejecting on-camera. That doesn’t count as a death. Anybody thinking he was ever meant to be dead was drinking too much juice at the time.
Clovis might live on in the “Spirit World” or something (unless his dad’s a hallucinating idiot), but his body’s probably as dead as a door nail. Suzaku’s bit was another lesser offender.
I don’t hope that SUNRISE will turn this into a masterpiece, but I’m still having enough fun watching it right now and maybe I could even be decently surprised if they pull something unexpected off, all manner of fanservices and quasi-resurrections aside.
You know how ‘The Nightmare of Nunnally’ is the alt. universe manga where Lulu kicks the can and C.C. forms a contract with Nunnally right? I wonder if C.C. swings that way.. I mean she went for a little Chinese orphan after all…
And is Suzaku even human? He can run faster then an automated machine gun with .5 sec lag time, run on walls, kick through STEEL, smash through windows, and dodge bullets. And he still has enough time to hit on Lulu in the ‘Oh GEASS no’ moment of the episode.
I’m still in the dark about the root cause of Mao’s longterm (but probably temporary anyway) amnesia. It looks like she hasn’t had any concussions to her head which would have caused this. And while I am not a practicing doctor, I am quite sure a gunshot wound to your side and some blood loss does NOT cause amnesia.
I’ll also echo Stag above, saying: WTF was up with Suzaku? Super speed, super kick, dodge bullets, walk on walls… Spider-man? Superman? Neo?
*cough* Naturally I was speaking of Viletta, not Mao… where’s the edit button? :P
The moment I saw Mao show up, all I could think about was “I can’t wait to see what Jason has to say about this.” Especially after your last Geass post.
Gotta love Sunrise, I know I sure do.
Now off to watch more Keroro, I’ve made it 36 episodes in, within the span of a week with no signs of slowing down.
Using “train wreck” to talk about a $unrise product. “Winning the internets” had never been so easy.
Atleast, with Higurashi, it had this neat “Groundhog Day” style and the multiple “kill the character who’s voice-over previously did a character that couldn’t be killed, even by Death one’s self” theme.
wait, so CC goes on a plane to china, and several hours later she shows up to shoot Mao? Something wrong with the timing there.
Well, regarding Viletta, she was not only shot, but was lovingly thrown off the side of a dock into a pile of jagged rocks. We see this as fact when Mr.70’s guy comes along and pulls her up like a piece of seaweed. She could have hit her head….though your right that there doesn’t seem to be any noticiable marks of blunt trauma..
Which leads me to conclude that she is just faking it, and our 70’s guy is brighter then you think. He notices all of these facts too and installs a video camera system just to be safe. I’m assuming he’s installed these cameras for legitimate reasons…
The indestructible nature of all these charecters makes me think back to Mai-otome. It may very well be that the only way to kill charecters in Code Geass is to impale them. Since we haven’t seen any impalings, that would explain why no ones died yet. (Exception for Clovis; we never actually saw how he died).
who cares about any of that? CC wardrobe doesn’t seem to be running dry anytime soon
hmm, oh well, at least I don’t feel the same way cuz I haven’t watched much Sunrise stuff. one of the disadvantage of watching many anime is you expect more and more for next one.
Did they really need to have this many ‘final showdown’ episodes for a character who was only in, like, three episodes?
I think they could have made thirteen decent episodes instead of 26 half-hours of repetitive, inconsistently drawn pap.
Plusses: CC’s ever-expanding wardrobe, Lulu’s use of Geass on himself, and MillayxLloyd.
The minuses: Too many to count. You have managed to throw the Atma weapon of failure, Sunrise.
Oh well, at least its good for mocking purposes.
Wait… it suppose to be a camera in the bathroom isn’t it….
I’m with Fiery. C.C. was hawt in the Chinese outfit, and we got to see a glimpse of the “administration” of the rebellion; Zero’s been a busy little beaver. And I kept trying to figure out how the heck Lulu wasn’t giving away the plan to Mao. Should have realized.
Best “OH GEASS, YES!” moment: Lloyd-san to Millay: “Ok, lets get married!” and her reaction. Eh? WTF brought this on?
You do know that Orange-kun IS alive right? We saw him wondering around the camp at the end of ep. 11.
> Well, regarding Viletta, she was not only shot, but was lovingly thrown off the side of a dock into a pile of jagged rocks.
Just my guess, but I’m thinking she dragged herself there. I doubt Shirley would’ve had enough strength for that. I’m basing my guess of no blunt trauma on Viletta not having bandages around her head. As you know, in anime, applying a bandage will fix all wounds from a scratch to ruptured spleen. :)
I would assume she’s faking her amnesia, but in that case she would’ve left already as she can now move around. Nor do we see her in any “I’m going to fool this guy into thinking I’m amnesiac” moments or even making an ominous face that would portray her intentions. Plans like that are usually broadcast to audience by the characters. Yeah call me jaded.
>>>And is Suzaku even human? He can run faster then an automated machine gun with .5 sec lag time, run on walls, kick through STEEL, smash through windows, and dodge bullets.
am i the only 1 who goes OH GEASS YES! SHYAORAN! at the scene? or am i the only 1 who watched tsubasa(both season!) on this blog
The greatest thing about Viletta is that… SHE HAS RECIEVED NO MEDICAL ATTENTION! This means that she was actually NOT shot at all by Shirley or she was wearing some bulletproof vest under her skintight clothes. At least Mao recieved medical attention… Viletta just got some band-aids.
I’ve been waiting for you to post about this episode since I saw Mao reappear while watching it yesterday Jason, and you don’t dissapoint :) Still for some reason I really like watching Sunrise trainwrecks. From GSD to Otome, I can’t get enough of it… maybe it’s the bright colours they like to use…
Author of this episode played way too much Gunz The Duel.
>>>>am i the only 1 who goes OH GEASS YES! SHYAORAN! at the scene? or am i the only 1 who watched tsubasa(both season!) on this blog
I love the manga, but the anime proved to be way to much filler for me.
And yes, I did have that moment when all of a sudden he was leaving afterimages of himself and running up the side of a wall.
Though I’ve seen the Syaoran in him since he pulled off his mask in ep 1.
i’ve followed manga to about 110, then got lazy
anime has alot filler, but i find it enjoyable in its own way
Code Geass is pretty much the only anime I look foward to.
Pretty funny entry, though. Loved the “game over” part.
there must be some sort of closed space under CC’s wig. or else how the hell did she hide all the green hair? if she curled it all up it’d make the mother of all afros.
C.C’s hair is compatible with Edea from FF8, refer to cutscene near end of disk 1
off topic… just finished kanon 19, seems very possibly they are going to nayuki ending actually
Check out C.C. in Ep 17. A C.C. in uniform is fine too. :D
> am i the only 1 who goes OH GEASS YES! SHYAORAN! at the scene?
At that scene possibly, but I recall having briefly considered their resemblance back when Geass started airing.
> or am i the only 1 who watched tsubasa(both season!) on this blog
Perhaps. I did sit through the first season as I had sat too long into it before I decided I didn’t like it. The second season I never picked up; one season of CLAMP’s Messiah show was enough for me.
> off topic… just finished kanon 19, seems very possibly they are going to nayuki ending actually
As 19 is not subbed yet I can’t comment on that. My observations over the preceding 18 episodes however suggest an Ayu ending. Kanon: the Survivor has been pounding that one in with all the subtlety of a mallet.
I watched Tsubasa Chronicles too. Its OK, I am halfway into season 2. I watch it when I need my anime fix and theres nothing else around that hasn’t been watched yet.
The way Sunrise makes it look like they’re just pulling things out of their ass as they go along amazes me, as it does any time an animated series does so. Reason being is, on a live action series, the action usually isn’t filmed too far ahead of the time that it airs, and the scripts are usually written with an even smaller buffer of time before filming (if they’re even done before filming begins). On your less planned out live series, this often leads to writing into a corner, and the general sleight-of-assery that accompanies this. On an animated series, on the other hand, you’d think the logistics of animation would require that at least a half season (13 eps, I forget what the correct term is) be planned out and scripted before the first frame is put to film. Yet Sunrise is making anime that looks about as well thought-out as the last season of Andromeda, seemingly intentionally.
Case in point is Mao. With the build up we got (the stalker cameos a few episodes before his actual appearance), his similarity to Lulu (Geass) and his healthy backstory (only Lulu and Suzaku have more so far), he seemed lined up to be a big antagonist, or at least a major mid-boss. Then it’s like someone walked into the Sunrise offices and said “Oh, man, Mao’s really testing poorly on the industry blogs, and a couple of the guys down in storyboarding have a really good idea for an even better Geass user.” And thus was he written out after three episodes. How is that possible on an animated series? Are Sunrise’s Korean ink slaves really that fast? Or do they just have about 13 episodes of material to cram into a 52-episode allotment and are using a stream-of-consciousness writing method to fill it up? (Ding Ding Ding!)
Well, whatever the case, after Cornelia’s actions this episode it looks like they’re heading toward Schniezel (a leading candidate for dorkiest villain name of the year) being the one behind the death of Lulu’s mother. I honestly hope he doesn’t end up being behind it, because the “main villain you don’t see for most of the series” trope has been old for quite a while. Same with Emperor Vicious, for similar reasons. While I complain about Sunrise colon-farming their plot ideas, I honestly think this is one time where having the “big bad” be the last person you expect could be a good thing. I mean someone really out there, yet logical enough not to require more suspension of disbelief (than necessary) to explain. Nunnaly (who, let’s be honest, is obviously not really blind) = Good. Nun you see in C.C.’s dreams = Bad. Yuffie li Brittania = Even better. Yuffie from FF7 = Lawsuit!
Yep, Mao came back. Sooner than I thought too! Sucks to have the episode just touch up on each person’s story for only 30 seconds each and then returning to EMO FACIAL CONTORTION LULU (why don’t you have screens of that ;P) in the most horrible chess match of his life.
So first, Mao comes back. Then, Suzaku saves the day by using his superhuman solider abilities. I mean, come on, this guy can only be shot at point blank range and in the first episode.
However, these setbacks only give me more hope that this series will turn around and get better. Just… so much hope…
Why is the guy on the right drooling so much? Geass ohgasm?
>>> am i the only 1 who goes OH GEASS YES! SHYAORAN! at the scene?
Nah… everytime I see Suzaku I just think “so this is what became of Haseo, the Terror of Death”.
/sigh
>>> am i the only 1 who goes OH GEASS YES! SHYAORAN! at the scene?
Well at that scene his kicking skills do resemble Tsubasa Syaoran. Anytime else he’s an OH GEASS YES! KIRATHRUN! The lovechild between Kira and Athrun. More likely than you know.
> off topic… just finished kanon 19, seems very possibly they are going to nayuki ending actually
Ok, I just saw #19 and was unable to figure what you meant until next episode preview. Now I see what you did there though; they appear to be doing Ayu arc next, meaning the final episodes will be Nayuki arc. Now, having Nayuki ending suddenly has lot more credibility. Still, seven more episodes to go so lot can happen.
And to get back to topic: I generally agree with all the “Geass has jumped the shark” commentary, but I’m still finding the show enjoyable in its own way. I might be laffing at things Sunrise didn’t intend to be funny, but as long as I’m entertained…
actually not 7 more ep, since kanon is 24 ep, not 26
i can almost see sunrise runing out of ideas and having this degenerate into an excel saga class random unexplained deaths and whatnot
>>>Next time on AoMM’s coverage of Code Geass: how to survive point blank small caliber arms fire.
HA! bullet to the head thats nothing compared to entering earths atmosphere NAKKID!…. i never want to see that again untell the atleast explain how they where freaking breathing up there in the first place, not to mention how they got off the earth in the first place without rockets straped to there legs or something…XD
Ok, I can understand the ridiculousness of the dead coming back in Code Geass.
the dead coming back to life isn’t just a Sunrise specialty. It happens all the time. Even now, the TV show Heroes has Sylar dead and the he comes back to life without any “healing” powers.
At least Sunrise gave an explanation to the resurrection. The writers of Heroes didn’t even give one about Sylar. Come on, give me something. Say he had bad gas and looked like he died or the machine monitoring his pulse was broken. don’t just revive the guy from death with no explanation.
>> This would make Code Geass the Fantastic Four.
If that’s so, we need more Jessica Alba stripping action.