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Post by xiombarg on Nov 30, 2010 1:53:34 GMT -5
I'm just curious if anybody is a fan of this show, because I never see anybody post about it in English. Is it any good? I'm guessing the Japanese must love it because there sure has been lot of toys made for a show that doesn't seem to make much of an international impression.
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Post by quinjester on Nov 30, 2010 8:18:56 GMT -5
I liked it. It wasn't the most uplifting or happiest of shows, and at times it was downright schizophrenic about whether it was a light comedy or a grimdark "everyone you care about is going to die horribly" show - moreso than Full Metal Panic, which I thought went a bit nuts at times.
It does have some EXTREMELY excellent mecha action, though, which makes up for all of its faults in my mind.
EDIT: I think that most people who take issue with the show do so because of the second season, which goes off the rails with turning every mecha into a super robot, ramps up the body count, and generally does some stuff with the characters that can border on "distasteful".
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Nov 30, 2010 8:38:39 GMT -5
The unfortunate thing being... the second season was being purely a mechanism spawned by the ending of of the first season - which was a kind-of cliff-hanger and kind-of-not-really cliffhanger. I personally didn't bother with the second season and seeing your post makes me think I'm probably better off that way.
That said, I think one reason why Code Geass didn't take off was simply that it was kind of wishy-washy. Our heroes are kind of unlikeable jerks in several different ways but you're forced to root for them because they're the lesser of two evils (their opponents being an oppressive foreign regime). But again, there was some cool mecha action (the the action choreography was amazing) - the things you can do when a bi-pedal mecha has wheels on its feet... I've always felt that was something they didn't take advantage of in Nadesico (which, IIRC was one of the first times we saw tank-treads-on-feet mecha).
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Post by quinjester on Nov 30, 2010 9:33:46 GMT -5
I personally didn't bother with the second season and seeing your post makes me think I'm probably better off that way. Probably. If you didn't find yourself endeared with the characters and thought of them as "unlikeable jerks", then you'd REALLY hate them in the second season. Genocide and cruelty are kind of the name of the game. It's unfortunate then that the mecha action is REALLY REALLY good. (which, IIRC was one of the first times we saw tank-treads-on-feet mecha). VOTOMS - the granddaddy of all real robot series' was all about wheeled robots . Lots of good stuff in there, with the use of treaded + running motion, turning spikes for quick changes of direction, I'd recommend checking it out if you like older style real robot action.
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Post by magengar on Nov 30, 2010 10:27:02 GMT -5
I've heard of Code Geas, but it just didn't even tinge my interest.
..........I dunno... I find it difficult for me to get used to most modern-day mecha animes... in the past, my attention was drawn to just One robot hero and tthat one robot hero was the theme of the entire show. All spoltlights were on the one robot hero.
Fast-forward to 2010: I look back through all these twenty or thirty years of anime genres, and I realize how much I missed since the '70s/'80s animes. I try to watch a Mecha anime nowadays, and all I see are armies of a mecha character design. Example: Gundam. I love the Gundam RX-78 design, and its greater ZZ-Gundam design. But it's part of an army of Gundams of all echelons and ranks, therefore I can't look at the one Gundam as a hero character of the series... the fascination is lost when I see ranks of a similar robot, even if the young hero pilot is leading the battallion. I lump Code Geas into this category as well.
zozo-Magengar
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Post by quinjester on Nov 30, 2010 11:14:47 GMT -5
Well, to be fair, early mecha shows had their fair share of "hero" vs. "grunt" mecha as well. It falls into the classification of "real" versus "super" robot shows, really. You're obviously the sort of person who prefers "super" robot shows, like Mazinger Z, Grendizer, and the like - nothing wrong with that! This distinction has been around for a while - since the late 70's/early 80's. VOTOMS, for example, came out in the 80's and had armies of disposable robots, which the main character would discard as they broke or became obsolete. Likewise, you have modern shows such as Shin Mazinger, Gurren Lagann, and Star Driver which are reminiscent of the 60's/70's "Super Robot" aesthetic, with super powerful hero robots who stand alone against their enemies. So it goes both ways Code Geass suffers from a lot of schizophrenia in whether it's a real robot or super robot show, just as it suffers from lacking material direction (comedy? drama? Kill-em-all-tomino-styled-tragedy?), which doesn't do it many favors in that regard. The creators obviously tried to make it as widely appealing as possible by putting elements of every genre in it, but many would say that it was less than the sum of its parts as a result.
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Post by magengar on Dec 2, 2010 9:25:33 GMT -5
You hit the nail right on the head. Kinda like 'disposable tanks'. ;D zozo-Magengar Well, to be fair, early mecha shows had their fair share of "hero" vs. "grunt" mecha as well. It falls into the classification of "real" versus "super" robot shows, really. You're obviously the sort of person who prefers "super" robot shows, like Mazinger Z, Grendizer, and the like - nothing wrong with that! This distinction has been around for a while - since the late 70's/early 80's. VOTOMS, for example, came out in the 80's and had armies of disposable robots, which the main character would discard as they broke or became obsolete. Likewise, you have modern shows such as Shin Mazinger, Gurren Lagann, and Star Driver which are reminiscent of the 60's/70's "Super Robot" aesthetic, with super powerful hero robots who stand alone against their enemies. So it goes both ways Code Geass suffers from a lot of schizophrenia in whether it's a real robot or super robot show, just as it suffers from lacking material direction (comedy? drama? Kill-em-all-tomino-styled-tragedy?), which doesn't do it many favors in that regard. The creators obviously tried to make it as widely appealing as possible by putting elements of every genre in it, but many would say that it was less than the sum of its parts as a result.
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Post by xiombarg on Dec 2, 2010 14:19:01 GMT -5
Good info guys. Thanks.
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Post by Ben-Ohki on Dec 2, 2010 21:26:16 GMT -5
VOTOMS - the granddaddy of all real robot series' was all about wheeled robots . Lots of good stuff in there, with the use of treaded + running motion, turning spikes for quick changes of direction, I'd recommend checking it out if you like older style real robot action. Buh... how lame is my short-term memory?! I just finished storing my collection of 1/12 scale Yamato VOTOMS mecha (it was time to rotate them out of the display)... thanks.
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Post by Gold on Dec 2, 2010 21:52:41 GMT -5
I love Code Geass, the second season was more action packed compared to the first season and the cliffhangers at the end of each episode really made me excited to watch the next episode (was watching the second season on live streaming on a weekly basis back then). I enjoyed it way better than Gundam 00. Gold
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