blog好き

May 11 2008

Categories: anime, code geass, episodic review
Tagged: code geass

44 Comments »

C74 Lulu is coming, gentlemen. She has no idea.

(Sorry, got that line from 4chan.)

I think Sunrise tried to get across two main points this episode, and I think they did better on one than the other. The first point is that Nunnally as governor of Area 11 is a tricky situation for Lulu. He’s hosed, and he knows it. He can’t expose his identity, he can’t harem Nunnally, yet he has to save her without mentally scarring her. It’s almost a complete checkmate, and I hope it’s not resolved by some lame geassing. The second point is that GO OUT AND THERE BUY ALL NEW TOY MODELS OF YOUR FAVORITE KNIGHTMARE FRAMES!

In terms of the time slot discussion is that Code Geass was moved from midnight to 5 JST because Sunrise thought it had enough mainstream appeal to get ratings and DVD sales. The DVD sales are a given irregardless of airtime, but a timeslot like 5 JST is really meant for something that can bring in casual viewers and ad dollars. If the viewership numbers are barely better than the midnight time slot, then it’s a failure since that timeslot could go to a show that can pull in better ratings. But what is lost in the discussion is that neither viewers nor DVDs are important for Sunrise if plastic toy sales are up. The Gundam franchise is a juggernaut not because of the anime but because of the toy sales that can continue strong even years after a show has ended. Taking a look at one of my favorite anime blogs, Gunota Headlines, what Gundam fanboys care most about these days aren’t DVDs but model kits. The latest Gundam headlines aren’t 00 season 2 for the diehard fans but the new Gundam Wing pro kits.

(After all, think about all the money Keroro has spent on gunpla, and it gets scary.)

I think Sunrise has recognized that it’s in their best interest to try to turn Code Geass into the next Gundam. (Also the weakness of Mai Otome franchise… no one wants an Anty plastic toy kit unless it involves a glue gun.) Selling Guren Nishiki and Lancelot toy kits for the next 15 years beats selling DVDs for a year. With that said, my, we get a lot of toy whoring this episode. Lots of shiny mobile suits… err… knightmare frames on display, as well as upgrades of two favorites.

Of course, the Nunnally and Lulu reunion, which lasted a whole 30 seconds worth of dialogue. Can’t be bothered with Nunnally and Lulu when there’s new Guren Nishiki enhancements to show off!

(And, yes, Lulu is officially the biggest siscon in the anime universe. I propose that “lulu” can also be used as a verb from now on to indicate this fact, like in “Secretly, Rito lulus for Mikan. I don’t blame him. She’s the superior one, and no one likes Lala.” Or even “Ozma is so overprotective of Ranka, I wonder if he secretly lulus her.”)

OH GEASS NO

I didn’t know Gundam 00 season 2 started early. Thought it wasn’t supposed to start until fall. Good to see Kyrios back in action.

Same with Virtue.

The new 00 with the GN Arms.

And, of course, Felt is now a Gundam Meister, fighting on in the memory of her beloved Lockon.

Loved Nunnally’s cries for Suzaku, which destroyed Lulu’s heart. The only way things could be worse for Lulu right now is if Nunnally were carrying Suzaku’s love child, which, at this point, is still very probable. Also, I did enjoy Nunnally’s “I’ll continue where Euphie-nee left off.” I had an image of a pink-clad Rambo mowing down dozens of innocent civilians flash by in my mind. Oh, wait, that actually happened. I really wonder where this plot line will go… I think Lulu will have to geass Nunnally at some point, and that’s when I realized that she’s blind. Ugh. I really hope we don’t get a slow motion scene where Nunnally slowly gets up off of her wheelchair, opens her eyes to reveal her double geass, and then a Chiko-class smirk. Somewhere, Light-o is laughing in approval.

Looks like Sunrise’s policy of gimmicky cliffhangers that are fully resolved in the first two minutes of the next episode continues. It appears that Lulu has been very successful in breaking Rolo. So much so that I fully expect Rolo to be wearing a pink dress and sitting in a wheelchair after Lulu goes crazy from learning that Nunnally is carrying Suzaku’s love child in episode 15.

Warrants mentioning that all of Guren Nishiki’s controls are in kanji while all of Lancelot’s are in English.

Guren Nishiki’s midair upgrade was ridiculous, but I still enjoyed it. Five fingered claw returns! A flight mode that resembles the Meisters from Mai Otome returns! What’s not to like? Though the battle was just ridiculously off balance… when the Black Knights first attacked, they wiped the floor with the air defense. Then after the Rounds and Gilford arrived, they wiped the floor with the Black Knights. Then when Kallen got her upgrade, she wiped the floor with both Gilford and the Rounds. Then when Kogarashi arrived, he pwned everyone. Kukuku.

So Guren Nishiki went from being a melee juggernaut to a multifacted juggernaut. I can picture the “nerf Kallen,” “learn2play,” and “that’s it, I’m re-rolling shaman” posts already.

What the hell? His boobs inflated?!

(If you read David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, he details one pr0n star’s inflatable breast implants in one of his epic footnotes. Apparently, there’s a valve under her armpits where she can adjust the size of her breasts. And she was very proud of having this ability. For whatever reason, this is now the second time that I’m reminded of that footnote when I’m watching anime. The first time, well, you know.)

An episode without Kallen or C.C. fanservice… how can this be?! Who fell asleep at the wheel for this one? Then I remembered that Sunrise would rather make money on cheap plastic Lancelot models than from poster spreads in Megami.

Sunrise introduces another DFC to try to balance out the Kallen/C.C./Shirley/Millay != Nunnally/Anya equation.

The scene with the Emperor and V.V. is hilarious for a multitude of reasons. One, the revelation that V.V. is actually Lulu’s father is just tossed out there like Mikan letting everyone know that they’re having bacon and eggs for breakfast. If the end of Empire Strikes Back was a ten on the “I am your father” scale, this was clearly a negative fifteen. The second is that V.V. is a midget. The third is that the Emperor is really Onsakumaru! Finding out these three things have been a gift from the unintentional comedy deities. Code Geass R2 just never ceases to amaze me.

… Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld?

Lucky bastard Cheese-kun… uh… anyway, from last time…

Bluestreak2: XD I think that’s the third time one of my comments got posted, you used to do it a bit more, almost 2 years ago, when Haruhi and Higurashi composed of the majority of the posts (you’d even double post some of the episodes). Wow I’ve been visiting this site for a while now.

Well, this blog is going to be six years old in a few weeks, so yeah, I OTL sometimes thinking of what more productive things I could be doing instead of typing things like, “Only she sounds like Haruka Minami drowning in Hosaka’s special sauce.” For a long time, I focused on just writing about a few shows but did them well. Judging by my inbox and comments, most people want me to follow and comment on as many shows as possible, so I’m trying that nowadays. Looking back over the last 20 posts, Code Geass was featured in 4, which was the most. If you went back to 2006, maybe 12 out of 20 posts would have been about Haruhi Suzumiya. I do enjoy the consistently high levels of brokenness in the comments and e-mails, and that’s a big reason why a seventh anniversary might happen for Derailed.

(Though I did enjoy everyone who thought I was a trap. Brought a tear to my eye. Some die hard fans still left! I actually get a lot of insightful e-mails, and I won’t do another “wait, wait, please tell me” post again until I get some broken ones for a change.)

Nodspy: Tomato C.C. has just given me the most wonderful idea. (Runs out for much ketchup and V8…)

See, I love you guys.

Spanky: All I could think of when Suzaku was standing behind Lulu when he was on the phone with Nunnaly was -> Suzaku thinking “Oh yeah baby, how I missed this view.” + the shots of Lulu’s eyes bulging, “HOLY CRAP surprise penetration!!!” = special together time on the roof… again…

Code Geass R2 brings out the best in my readers. Shockingly, this one didn’t win YTAMR. If Spanky would have prognosticated Rolo making it a threesome, then, yeah, it would have won, but alas.

Myssa Rei: Actually, I found that Suzaku was incredibly devious this time around, with setting up Nunnally as the governor-general of Area 11. He knows that if Lulu recognizes the voice on the other side of the phone (Nunnally), it means that Lulu’s gotten his memories back, which means he’s back to being Zero, which means that Suzaku can ‘officially’ kill him off.

Kinda funny how Suzaku and Lulu have gone from best friends to arch enemies, yet the OH GEASS NO possiblity still exists between the two. I don’t think Suzaku has the guts to kill Lulu (at the end of season one, he could have), but instead Suzaku feels that he can still bring Lulu back into the fold so he and Lulu can form a domestic partnership and adopt Nunnally as their child. They might be more broken than the cast of Minami-ke.

(But you are right, Suzaku was devious, and it was a “JUST AS I PLANNED!” moment. It would have been more awesome if Chiko were involved somehow, though.)

Lateraldeath: actually all suzaku had to say was “Nunnually died” in front of lulu at any point and time…. there’s no way he’d be able to keep a straight face from that

I like how you only used the shift key for your name and Nunnally’s. Though, please, stop with the logic. You’re making too much sense. Cut it out.

rikchik: I’m also liking how Zero is making less and less use of his Geass as more important people become immune to it, finding other ways to deal with them. He hasn’t even Geassed Rolo! At this point, I’m wondering if he could still pull off his rebellion even if he lost his Geass entirely.

Probably the most insightful comment on Code Geass R2 that I’ve read thus far. I do wish for a plot twist that resets Lulu’s geass so he can re-geass people that he has already geassed. The way he originally geassed Kallen was a disgrace. I think he needs a mulligan on that one at the very least. But what the geass does provide is a way for him to be a kick-ass ground operative, like when he went to save Nunnally. He didn’t need to shoot anyone since he could command all the random peons to shoot themselves.

Nobuharu: Speaking of which, the Emo Facial Contortion Pantheon hasn’t been updated since forever ago. Also known as October 2006. I can think of a few people who probably should have a spot, Sunohara being the first to come to mind.

Been too busy with actual posts to worry about the Pantheon, but once we get into another slow period, it’ll be revised. I mean, at this point, would you rather have a post about Kaiba or a post about Sunohara?

Epi: Who would win in a fight? Bonta-kun or Kallen in animal suit?

Somewhere, Tomoya is crying in her bear costume because you forgot about her. But I’d think Bonta-kun would win since Kallen couldn’t even overpower Shirley.

Dissent: Did anybody see the looks rival was throwing the president this ep? new triangle inc when lloyd gets back?

You mean love parallelogram? How can you forget about Nina? And, yes, sadly Cartoon Network cut out Nina’s table humping. Sad, sad day. They should have at least added in an ad, “To see the complete uncut and uncensored edition, go buy the DVDs now!”

zhengguan: train wreck? ru kiddin? lol

You’re right. It’s way beyond train wreck. Airplane or zeppelin crash also don’t do it justice either. But we’re still not in the Tragedy in Myanmar stage yet.

kaze: I feel for lulu this episode, I run long distances about as well as the average dwarf.

Dwarves have stamina, just not burst speed. Grimli stayed with the flashier and faster Legolas till the end in terms of body count… it’s not a sprint but a marathon.

Beowulf Lee: After the “twist” this episode, I was thinking: “If I was a person living in Area 11 and had a blind, wheelchair bound loli coming over to step up as my new governor after a year of continuous civil unrest and terrorism, what would I do?” Then, I thought: “If I was a person living in a certain country, at a time when the biggest national crisis in decades was happening, and my president was a noticeably incompetent guy who couldn’t even speak proper English, what would I do?” It’s all about perspective, it seems.

As big of a crisis that 9/11 was, I’d say that the Cold War and WWII were much, much bigger. I mean, at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we had a young, womanizing president without significant foreign relation experience, and he came out in spades. You just don’t know. It’s a gamble. Now, if I had to pick from a possible Manchurian candidate, a black guy who bowls a 37, and a women who is most famous for not killing her husband for his cigar work… do any of those three sound appealing? No wonder Ah-nauld is running the seventh largest economy in the world.

hun?: I was rewatching the first season and all i could think was that euphemia had the greatest dead-girl-side-boob ever. new moe mode?

Yep… these are my readers.