Good writers have a firm grip on their creation. The number of characters, the number of scenarios, the number of plot twists are just right for the tale they want to weave. They are in control most of the time, and even when characters happen to do things that the writer did not expect, it can be incorporated into the solid framework on which the story is built without losing its sense of direction.

I don’t get that feeling with Code Geass. It feels like it stumbles and lurches from one part of the story to the next. It has unnecessary characters and unnecessary plot twists that seem like they’re put there for the sake of having them there rather than to serve a purpose. I can’t help but feel that this would have been a much better show if it was simplified and shortened, say to 2 seasons instead of 4.

That, or get a great writer like Kawakami Minoru to write the whole thing out before production starts. Because I think that in his hands, Code Geass would have been magic.

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http://www.codegeasstv.com

Thanks!

I really liked episode 21, I went all philosophical on it while I was usually dismissive: http://www.j-isle.com/blog/2008/08/code-geass-r2-21-episode-season

That’s pretty much how I feel about Geass too.

I don’t “think” about CG R2. It’s there. I watch when I feel like it.
Enjoyable when bored, but still mindless as a minx.

Every week, I’m amazed to see how the plot is able to advance so quickly, keep being always so interesting and at the same time, manage to give development for the characters. Ignoring, perhaps, episode 7 in R2, which is the only example I can think of where the action stops to focus on the feelings of some character, there are always many many things going on. Every line is chosen brilliantly so that while we are not presented a scene where characters are psychoanalyzed directly, it’s possible for the viewers to read into their words and discover a complex work of characterization. It’s like the writers stop to enter the character and take into account “How would he/she react now, considering his/her past, his/her relation with what is taking place right now and what he/she wants to achieve?” before deciding his or her next response. The respectful character development alone should prove R2 isn’t just an anime that makes no sense, but anyway. If it’s allowed for me to do so, I’ll say I’d recommend reading the analysis of Nina’s character Kaioshin Sama wrote, which proves very clearly how much care the series puts into respecting each personality, and how the subconscious of each character can be seen in the things they say. Even minor characters like Milly have a strong personality: she could just be an extroverted girl with a love for parties but instead, you can see she’s really mature behind her crazy attitude, how she actually has feelings for Lelouch but hides them for Shirley’s sake, the way she cares about others and is able to tell if something is worrying them…. And the show manages to tell this while a ton of other things are happening (well, even though the Sound Episodes help as well).

As another example, I love the scene at the end of episode 18, when Lelouch asks Rolo to let him talk to Nunnally after FLEIA has been launched. The fact that Rolo feels hurt by Lulu’s angry words should not really matter to the viewers who have just seen Nunnally “die” and can only empathize with Lelouch’s shocked state, yet they do show Rolo’s eyes trembling and worry about telling us how he feels. For a character who many consider to have been simply “introduced to die”, that’s a lot of emphasis on his point of view. They could have made it much more simple and let Rolo turn to Lulu’s side and leave it at that, but they gave him a realistic development which shows how love is always accompanied by selfishness and in his case, of a child who had never felt loved before, the fear of getting discarded leads him to do horrible things. It’s easy to just hate him for what he did to Shirley, but there’s also a way to try to understand him if you think about what he’s gone through (I mean, even before his “heroic death” and without the help of Hitomi’s beautiful sad music), and that’s what I’m talking about when I say the character development is so good, because almost everyone is on the “gray” side and the writers let the characters make mistakes and do wrong things as well, because that is what makes them so real.

Speaking of episode 19 (well, more or less), I like how the Black Knights betray Lelouch just when he’s feeling the worst after Nunnally’s “death” (yeah, I have to put it in inverted commas). Each character has their own lives and if that’s when they’re feeling angry at Zero, they won’t wait until his problems are solved to turn against him. It’s like in real life, you consider your own problems and your point of view first, and it’s not so easy to realise how the other person must be feeling. If many bad things have to happen to Lelouch all together, they just do.

So to sum it up, I REALLY admire how the script of Geass is written so that the story is constantly advancing yet the characters are incredibly deep (and many will laugh at the usage of the word because apparently only NGE can be called “deep”). I know I’ve never seen an anime which can do this better to my opinion, and my MAL is at 71.22 days right now, so I doubt it’s because I have little to compare it to. Sure, it might have its plot-holes, but what the hell, it’s complicated enough that a few flaws can be forgiven.

(Many Phoenix Wright cases are filled with plot-holes as well and nobody trolls it. Everyone recognizes its ability to keep players at the edge of their seats from start to end as amazing and is aware that that isn’t something easy to mantain. Is Code Geass critisized only because it’s so popular, then?)