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Jul 15, 2008 - 12:23 AM |
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This Entry is About an Anime |
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I kept trying to put my finger on why Code Geass sucks all of a sudden (yes even the last episode you nerds).
There's no more risk. Oh sure there's never really a risk of LeLouche and various biting the dust as with all other protagonists. If they could really die there wouldn't be much of a show, but the key is in making obstacles seem difficult if not insurmountable (only to be overcome by a helping spoonful of chakra).
This just doesn't happen anymore. The Black Knights have become the elite wing of a standing army. The United States of Japan is for all intents and purposes a sovereign country with its own territory and the military backing of an entire superpower acquired through ridiculous plot development. The appeal of a ragtag group of freedom fighters combating the system from within and fomenting a popular revolt just isn't there any more. LeLouche no longer requires subterfuge and treachery, he can simply send an armored division to level the facility of a secret cult with all the characterization of a door mat.
The show's gotten away from itself. It's got no soul and zero sense of pacing. The cast has become too large and the attempts to thin its ranks are hamfisted and prone to cheap melodrama. Bloo bloo bloo Shirley now you're dead, I'll honor your memory by committing genocide.
Which brings me more to the next point. There's no reason to give a fuck about anybody anymore. With all the Chinese bullshit and Ashford academy slice-of-life nonsense there's been no room for characterization. Returning characters from the original season are re-introduced with all the fanfare of a silent fart and given no indication of what they've been doing, or what their motives are. Not even people seem like people. In the previous season the realities of life in Area 11 were constantly emphasized. The disparities between Britannians and former Japanese gave real meaning to the struggle, and the prejudices of both sides while flawed were understandable.
Now there's no mention of Elevens which had factored in so prominently before. The focus has entirely been on geopolitics and the Ashford Academy hoopla. Focusing all attention on the "good life" in a system which by all rights should not exist makes it unclear why it's worth destroying in the first place. Further, the Black Knights are now driving the murder wagon, matter-of-factly massacring thousands of civilians belonging to an under-developed cult which apparently produces Geass users in a facility which had no previous indication of being occupied at all, let alone being a fucking research facility. Even the children were slaughtered, yet they're also amoral killing machines so beyond the basic idea that indiscriminate slaughter == bad I don't see why I should give a fuck what LeLouche has done or even why, specifically, it was wrong.
It's spiraling into a tailspin of mediocrity and hamfisted plot development. The same thing happened to Gundam Seed Destiny before it turned into an absolute shit pile so I think I'll enjoy the coming trainwreck and nerd rage.
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This Entry is Also About an Anime by Tails
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