“ICHI-JOU!”
It’s cool that Lelouch is all anti-hero and I-am-the-boss now, but there’s just something wrong about this whole situation. Too-busy-for-haircuts Charles was a much more interesting antagonist than pretty-boy Schneizel, mainly because Norio Wakamoto is also the voice behind Onsokumaru and that hard-boiled penguin from Gunparade Orchestra.
Summary
Everyone’s like “ALL HAIL LELOUCH” now, but no one ever said “ALL HAIL CHARLES”
It’s time for world domination. Having done away with titles and nobilities, Britannia is now a socialist dictatorship with Lelouch as the Dear Leader. Now that he has total control of the Fatherland, discretion is no longer a necessity and finesse is for pussies.
“I can’t believe I came all this way just to voice one line!”
In less than 5 minutes of airtime, the remaining Circularly-Shaped Knights fall at the hands of the great Japanese-born Knight of Zero, Saitou Hiraga. Some of them have waited the entire season to make their debut only to be blown apart after delivering just one line of predictable cliché, but that’s life for you. It’s not these people’s fault for failing so hard in life; it’s the changing paradigm, the evolution of technology, and that goddamn noob, Suzaku, cheating in his new ride powered by the almighty plot device.
“Democracy is for noobs. Let’s decide this with good old hoop-shootin'”
Lelouch wants Britannia to join the United Federation of Nations and for the whole world to unite as one big happy family ruled under his iron fist. Kaguya, torn between her pubescent feelings for Zero-sama and her duty as the Leader of The Free Worldâ„¢, is highly confused and somewhat aroused by Lelouch’s aggressive advances.
“Please insert brain(s)”
Some people (“the sheep”) see Lelouch as the defender of justice who has successfully reformed Britannia and freed the Numbers of the world, and are eager to let the reborn Britannia into the exclusive club of democratic nations, while others remain sceptical. Tamaki is an exception in that he has no opinions of his own and is merely a hollow apparition feeding on the hopes and dreams of others.
IT TOOK HER LONG ENOUGH
Kallen bids a sad symbolic farewell to the object of her sexual affection, but we all know that she will come around by the next episode. I mean, didn’t she go through this whole melodramatic routine like ten times before? Oh, Lelouch, you’re such a fool. Unlike other love comedy male leads who have to make tough decisions and choose one girl from dozens, your load is a lot lighter thanks to Sunrise’s wanton killing of side characters. Just pick one already you bastard.
They got rickrolled by Schneizel
The episode ends with some shenanigans from the Schneizel camp. But seriously, after the entire Geass issue was abruptly “settled” in the last episode, Schneizel’s oh-look-at-me-being-evil thing just pales in comparison. So what if he has a flying fortress that can blow up entire cities? He has no glowing eyes!
Thoughts
How did he convince those people to put on those clothes without using his Geass?
Uh. So will we ever find out where Geass came from? Or will the rest of the episodes simply play out between too-cool-for-britannia Schneizel ratface and bad-fashion-sense-redux Lelouch? Frankly, I was expecting something deeper and more philosophical at the end. Considering how much they’ve been hyping the personal relationships surrounding Geass over the course of the series, I would be sorely disappointed if the ending turned out to be some gigantic mecha battle gibberish and explosions.
She’s out of a job
Like, what’s C.C. supposed to do now that the faux-social-darwinist human-instrumentality-project Charles and his lovely wife are trapped for good in the infinite beyond. Look cute and make snide remarks? (That said, I do like it better now that C.C. is back to her usual cynical self.)
“Obey me for ever! And overlook this huge plothole!”
Also, How the hell does Lelouch remove both his contacts so quickly? There aren’t even enough finger space to go around! Remember back in Season 1 when Euphie died (omg spoiler) and we were all like “ZOMG LELOUCH CAN’T CONTROL HIS GEASS NOW?” Well, I feel cheated. :(
Screencaps
Just to remind folks that he’s still alive
Pizza Hut didn’t pay enough for the animation budget this episode
Wing Zero
Where is Ougi’s left hand?
She’s not so annoying now
;)
Black Knight, the old SS
Kallen is pondering whether she should rape Lelouch round the next bend
“I hungeerr forrrr brainzzzzz”
He looks like one of those magical CLAMP characters from Tsubasa
Someone forgot to forward him the memo about wearing formal attire
Thousand-year-old stereotypes ftw
Hasta la vista
They are the good guys now, sort of?
Her eyes say no but her heart says yes
Initial drift!
My exams are this week and next week. I should be doing maths now, lol.
I’m actually glad they had Charles’ story resolved first, the other way around it might give them an excuse to just keep escalating for the sake of it (I’m looking at you Gurren Lagann!)
Plus, they set up Schneizel and Lelouch as rivals since season 1, perhaps we’ll see who’s the better strategist now
FIRST!
This ep was… weird.
Lelouch is now worse than what he tried to take down!
Strike Freedom here we come… i mean srsly they could’ve at least thought about different colors but well.. lets stay with red and white for the über-leet-mega-roxxor-mechas-with-super-radioactiv-core-with-enough-power-to-kill-even-jebus…oh and btw i’ll bet Suzaku will go Kira which Lulu will counter by going Shinn except that i doubt the fact of him dumping his loli-siscon-love into a lake near Berlin….
You know what, DM, I actually think that Lelouch isn’t wearing contacts now. He’s like Charles who must have gone through the ‘Geass too strong to control’ phase before he reached the ‘2 eye then can control’ stage.
I know this is weird, but I actually will like things to go mecha boom the usual Sunrise way. Then we get a book from the creator saying that was bull and his book shows the real Geass R2.
No pics of Lancelot Albion going GN Drive when Bismarck’s looking at it? It had the “I glow red!” effect exactly the same as the one in Gundam 00 :(
Lelouch will win, but he’ll also die bringing a peaceful world for Nunnally to live in, with Jeremiah using his geass canceller to open Nunnally’s eyes to the truth. /prediction
He looks like one of those magical CLAMP characters from Tsubasa
But he is a magical CLAMP character.
Also, you just know Lelouch will die from unhygenic handling of his contacts.
He’s not from Tsubasa though ;o
told ya Nunnally is not dead >:)
Actually the Pizza is anew flavour recently introduced by Pizza Hut. It has cheese inside those sticks! Sort of like a pizza cheese stick…
Suzaku will become the Dark Knight, Lelouch will become the Joker and carve a smile on C.C.’s face before killing her, then they will burn half of Schneizel’s face to revealed his true form AKA Schneizel Two-Face. Damocles SUX (made by FABULOUS 2nd Prince Schneizel BTW).
Seems that Lelouch somehow regained control of his geass or got some uber contacts that become transparent by waving your hands in front of them and vice versa.
I bet sunrise planned for geass season 3 until episode 19 where Pizza Hut told them they were not going to continue sponsoring them. So they have to end everything within 5 episodes and this is what we get.
That was more or less my point Sandslayer, with so few episodes left you’d be stupid to drop the series.
Possibilities of Lelouch’s Romance Ending :
If Lulu lives => Ends up with Kallen
=> Ends up with C.C because Kallen dies
=> Ends up with C.C because Kallen dumps him for Gino?
(not likely though)
But most likely Lulu will die and like what many others have said earlier express his love for Kallen.
I get the feeling the one Lulu loves is Kallen because of what Mao said. Also the hint gotten from C.C earlier in one flashback episode of her.
I get the feeling that Lulu doesn’t love C.C although the Lulu X C.C pairing is still the only one i support.
i wish that Lulu will just let the viewers know who he loves the most even if it is Shirley… i go on this series without a single idea who he truly loves.
How did he convince those people to put on those clothes without using his Geass?
Is that the Britannian army’s new uniform?
tj han:
WTF that pizza is not new. It’s at least older than Code Geass.
“Democracy is for noobs. Let’s decide this with good old hoop-shootin’â€
LOL! Not with Lelouch’s athletic abilities. XD
“Someone forgot to forward him the memo about wearing formal attire”
This guy has been bothering me since episode 16. Who wears a beach shirt in a formal assembly, really?
in connection to TJ Han’s comment, in my country, apart from cheese, you also have the option of putting sausage instead. Pizza Hut is sick.
[QUOTE]Seems that Lelouch somehow regained control of his geass or got some uber contacts that become transparent by waving your hands in front of them and vice versa.[/QUOTE]
It is my understanding that contact lenses are designed to be transparent. Opaque lenses would neither refract nor alter the frequency of light and technically would not be lenses.
@Heron comment:
“I know this is weird, but I actually will like things to go mecha boom the usual Sunrise way. Then we get a book from the creator saying that was bull and his book shows the real Geass R2.”
To me, there is so much to Code Geass than what we’re getting. I do hope that the creators get to do a novel that would tell what R2 should have been. I wished that this series had its original timeslot because the creator was able to give us more indepth background into the characters. I feel that this version was rushed, without the inbetweens that made the first season so special. This series has become like Gundam.
What sucks is the fact that there will not be a third season that could have explained about the mess that was started in R2. The idea that Emperor Lelouch was something that I feared would not come true. He is becoming more like his father than he realizes. Lelouch should have went back to Ashford Academy to be with his friends. But I now believe that Milly x Lelouch relationship is not going to happen. Too bad, because I felt that this should have been the relationship that would work.
In Turn 12, they should have created a flashback moment where Milly met Lelouch for the first time and how she was the one who became his first female friend. This episode should have had Milly revealing her feelings to Lelouch before she left Ashford Academy. Instead, we got to see Shirley taking his hat and pinching both of his cheeks, which was very lame for an episode that was to provide a Milly x Lelouch closure moment.
If C.C. and Kallen dies, there is a chance that Milly and Lelouch will be couple. It’s such ashame that this series has been nothing more than a trainwreck, unlike the first season.
zero requiem is a weapon that will need the research of nina to finish.
hahaha spoiled you!!! XD
joke :)
well, I believe this is more likely to be a weapon or something that will surely require nina’s research. most of us maybe skipped that part where the purpose of going to ashford as well is to retrieve Nina XD Even Lloyd personally came to fetch her in the blockade XD
Btw, some timings I decided to take note of:
7.09: Lancelot Albion begins assault by flying/jumping hyper fast
7.15: first cannon fodder knight of rounds with dark skin goes down
7.28: second cannon fodder knight of rounds (the one with the emperor when everyone was fighting in japan) goes down
7.55: gino goes down
9.42: Bismarck dies from a very fast and clean slash ala samurai showdown where at 9.47 (5 sec for dramatic effect) he was shown to be slashed cleanly diagonally
a very clean record considering the characters are talking while fighting which takes up air time hehehe XD
very much like the debut of strike freedom in gssd where the mecha finished many enemies plus carriers under 2 minutes XD
only this time, the talk time really ate up many of the screen time as well plus he defeated 4 “hero units.” surely a god mecha of the cg world hehehe
Nunnally = NOT AS PLANNED!
Kalulu ftw pl0x
I’m willing to bet Jeremiah sneaks in, gets shot up, gets in Nunnally’s room, and uses his Geass Canceller and explains why she was crippled in the first place, then dies. Nunnally goes “OH FUCK NO” and pwns Schneizel. C.C. could die, Gino could die, Kallen could die, Suzaku probably dies to a FREIYA, Lelouch might die (though they promised a good ending for him)…. expect char deaths in the next three weeks!
Buh i have never written here but i guess it’s time to do it.
I’m getting bad feeling that we will have another Gundam 00. You now, good guys playing bad guys to make Earth a better place without wars, where everyone can love everyone. Lulu & Suzaku probably want to atone for thier sins and they are using Britannia as a tool to do that.
Blargh, i hope i am mistaken…
Kallen has to join Lelouche eventually… or die soon. Either way.
Check out the picture with the comment “She’s out of a job” and look at Suzaku, why does it look like he just stole Charles’ old emperor cape/cloak lol.
The kiss between Lelouch and Kallen was anticlimatic.
The fight among knight of rounds vs Albion was anticlimatic.
Nunnally appearance-I don’t know what to say about it.
I kind of like the creepy eye outfits that Lelouch’s slaves now wear. Noobzaku’s (Suzaku) cloak is kind of cool, I guess.
Tamaki will use his janitorial mop powers to find some brains…somehow. He always finds some way of getting things done. Mop powers, activate!
If Lelouch wasn’t busy playing Celestial Being and trolling the world…this would have been a better episode, on many fronts.
To be honest, I’m mostly watching this for the sake of completeness by now…and for egoistical shipping purposes.
I am going to cry manly tears of anger if Lelouch doesn’t end up with someone by the end of this show…and no, freaking Suzaku doesn’t count you fangirls. *Shakes fist*
Then again, it’s mostly Taniguchi’s own fault …-_-
I somehow get this very powerful feeling in the back of my head, that Tamaki was made to look utterly and cluelessly pointless under the intention of actually having him do something in the last few episodes. I can totally see him getting blown out of the sky and accidentally impaling Shneizel in his screaming fury with his mop, after which he will fall into the ocean and make an accidental reappearance in a Kallen Lulu make out session. That’ll earn him his promotion! There is no other reason for all that airtime they wasted on him!
From Zero to Hero…
But then again… Lelouch will probably fall even deeper than it was when the Black Knights discovered his identity.
What the hell! No new mechas? But then again it is not serve any purpose anymore to put new mechas just to be exploded in one line of speech. A really sadly two minute’s battle that supposed to be great is just to make us don’t ask about them anymore and there goes the Excalibur….
What? Cannot I expect a good mecha battles in melodrama? This is so sad Boo. Well sadly for you the ending will be a battle with very totally not so cool bulging mecha without any sense of artistic design just like the ending of 00.
Last time I checked this was the debut of the Albion.
Well, Albion is not very new, I’d say. We see it in every opening, don’t we? I’m talking about the brand new mechas for the rounds to be specific.
Man this review was so full of lolz…much like the ep itself. Great job DM! XDD
And as I recall you totally predicted who the final boss would be *ha ha*. But, her reappearance is also disappointing. Too many plot holes up to this point for me, thank you!
I laughed hard at the pizza commercial in the ep. Totally indiscreet. Also, Kaguya isn’t the only one who’s lust for Lelouch is making her confused. Tamaki just wants Lelouch to geass him and take him! >_> Another great thing, shown in the very beginning, is the nobility-turned-maids. Somehow the abolition of nobility forced them all to become the emperor’s personal maids. But, are they as good as super-ninja-maid? I doubt it…
Well, the ep was good enough for a rewatch…especially Lelouche’s “All of you shall be my slaves!” ^>^ They were obviously already under his influence of bad fashion sense…
I miss Euphie for some strange reason. I still thinking that Nunnally is still alive although there are only 3 eps left. I’m a fan of the Wing Zero just cause it blows up stuff well and Albion is more or less the same so no regrets on giving the thumbs up on it.
How could Nunnally totally mess up this lovey-dovey Lelouch-Suzaku relationship? By going after Suzaku… activating Lulu’s vengeful siscon jealousy. Then after the dust settles, Schneizel would just waltz in and claim victory.
But that’s not ever going to happen…
@proteus
blame it on sunrise + bandai combo not taniguchi hehe
in an interview with him, he said that geass was not as planned. what can you do when your higher-ups have the final say? :)
@zelknight: The problem I have with that reasoning is that the interview does not say that Taniguchi s not, in the end, still responsible for the decisions he made in the show, even if R2 did not begin in the way he wanted and had to compromise. We are already at the end, I don’t think you can blame that on Sunrise.
Suzaku has some girly dress on now
…really…what kind of guy wears a tanktop and whatever’s covering his arms?
“He looks like one of those magical CLAMP characters from Tsubasa”
He looks like Kamui from X and Tsubasa. But i like lelouch better than Kamui. Kamui reminds me of a killing machine. -_-
i seriously need a magical clamp-like romance ending for lelouch x whoever. Preferably Lelouch x C.C.
Budget overruns seem to be the downfall of this Sunrise series. i would have preferred more knightmare fights in the series – like Rolo vs Knight of Rounds – something i always hoped since ep 5 but never happened -_- And i would have preferred more extended fighting between lulu’s army and Knight of Rounds. All i got was Knight of Rounds being killed like ants by the fabulous Suzaku. -_-
@proteus
but with the things not going the way it should be, the plot and things that would have come up to the end (we’re near the end now) is not how taniguchi envisioned it to be. it’s just like we may reach the same destination but traversed different paths. we will surely have different views on the journey as we travelled different paths even though we reach the same end.
and some characters and plot elements may not have originally existed till the end like maybe sayoko being alive still? dunno. I didn’t create cg
anyways, let’s just wait this out till the cg ride finishes hehe. XD
@Vinny: o_o I read that as “From Zero to Horo” at first. XD
This is by-far the best Code Geass blog out there, I mean you don’t bitch the entire time about the major plotholes and how the series turned to shit like every other blog out there is doing, you give us what we want, and give us a few laughs along the way.
Dude, they need to stop makeing lulu do thouse freaky ass faces every time he’s like “WTF”! If you’re going to have a hot charictor in an anime have him be ether really cool and composed or shirtless!
Sadly I expect the ending to be like Eva just because they keep using Carl Jung’s ideas too much like Eva did.
And the only characters that come to mind when I hear Norio Wakamoto are Dracula(Castlevania), Cell(DBZ) and Charles lol.
I wonder if anyone started a debate on whither a Valkyrie, Gundam, or a knightmare would win in a fight. Solar furnace, nukes, or energy wings. You decide.
I’m actually hoping that Lulu is really acting out as an agent of choas now. I think his new conquest of world dominion and abolishment of the noble class/aristocracy is to set the stage for his demise and ensuing chaos. It is the perfect counter to the Human Instrumentality Project that Charles had wished to enact.
In a sense, Lulu’s latest turn of event’s reminds me of Leto II from the Dune series.
I am definitly going to get yelled at for saying this but…I said that first. I knew he was going to work in the ending he wanted, that’s just how people are. However, due to that damned time-slot change we didn’t get some of the things they were planning, which made the series crooked (plot wise). Either way, it isn’t a horrible series, despite what it is people are saying. I mean, can someone else come up with a good ending with a dead Nunnally? I don’t think so. Of course, if it ends in tragedy, that’s another story…
You need a little bit of both to move this series along, it IS a mecha series after all, and they ARE using character dynamics to their fullest extents, just a lack of CecilxSuzaku and Suzaku relating to geass (which they actually managed to fit in, since Suzaku is using his live-on geass to fight).
Hell, I feel partly responsible for people not liking this episode (even though the more I think about it, the better it gets). I say this because I kept going off on how absolutely horrible it would be if they brought back Nunnally, whcih in turn made others think that would be horrible too. Even now that we know she is alive, what are you guys gonna do about it? Chances are they’ve already finished the rest of the episodes, so nothing we can do will change that. Hehe, I notice I don’t see anybody saying “omg! I can’t believe they brought back Nunnally! That’s awesome! She was my favourite loli!”
…I need to eat.
@JB
I certainly hope that Taniguchi could create a novel of what the alternate R2 would been. If he and his staff decides to do a novel/manga, it might do very well enough for him to tell the Code Geass saga in this format instead of an anime. This version of R2 is so rushed that it’s unbelievable.
For me, the alternate version of R2 that I would like to see is what Turn 12 might have been regarding Milly Ashford. I think that the original plan was to have a flashback moment where Milly meets Lelouch for the first time. In addition, she might have summoned him to her private residence to confide her feelings for Lelouch before she left Ashford Academy. That might have provide some closure to the Milly x Lelouch arc where she makes him aware of her love for him. That would have given him something to remember.
As for the artwork for the Code Geass Novel, CLAMP artwork and illustration style all the way!!!!
I’m just overwhelmed when I try to see where Lelouch and Sunrise got to with this episode as compared to the very beginning of the series, heck even S1. While I can sense that a mecha extravaganza is forthcoming in the series closing, I’d rather see some character and plot resolutions as well as some philosophical insights.
Of course, let’s not forget that we should all have some sense of closure on which girl Lelouch would end up with. (Oh alright, it’s more for those fans and shippers(!) out there.) I can feel people starting to place their bets now…
@Max:
I’d be more comfortable if they stuck with CLAMP-style artwork and illustrations through to the end in this series and then also in any novel… I’d be disturbed if they adjusted character design proportions, looks or, funnily enough, the sense of fashion.
I just wonder if darkmirage is a male or female?
LOL.