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Thursday, March 12, 2015

A Comparative Code Geass Anime Review

By Leslie Ball


Code Geass is a wildly popular example of the Japanese art of anime, a specialized type of cartoon. You can count on anime to have colorful graphics, colorful characters and colorful story lines. Code Geass anime review is a perfect example. First developed in 1917, it became popular released commercially in around 1960.

The series can possibly be described as a dystopian Hunger Games, meets Orwell's 1984, meets The Wonder Years. Considering the fact that a powerful race of androids named the Knightmares are key to the story, you could probably add Terminator to this mix. It's fun and different and should be labelled with a warning that one gateway episode may encourage binge watching.

The animated TV series sold more than a million DVDs and blue-ray discs. It ran for two series', both of which were run on the Cartoon Channel and both of which won awards at the Tokyo International Anime Fair. The series also formed the springboard for manga and light novels published in America.

The reference to dystopia is based on the setting in an alternate timeline in what used to be Japan, but, having been conquered by the Holy Brittanian Empire, lost its name and is now called Area 11. The people who live there are referred to as "Elevens."

Why Hunger Games? This is because of the downtrodden population of Elevens ring-fenced within Area 11. In HG, the impoverished population in the post-apocalyptic universe of Panem dwelt in a place called District 12.

The Code Geass parallel with George Orwell's "1984" refers to the presence of three super powers. In CG, these were the European Union, the Chinese Federation and Britannia. In the Orwellian dystopia, the three intercontinental superstates were Oceana (previously called Britain, or England), Eurasia (USSR plus the spoils of its invasion of mainland Europe), and Eastasia (the combined regions of Southeast Asia and East Asia). This is too close to be coincidence and suggests that someone at Sunrise involved in the creation of the series was influenced by Orwell, possibly writer, Ichiro Okouchi.

The Wonder Years has been included because the protagonist in both cases is an idealistic young man. In the Wonder Years, this is 12-17 year-old Kevin Arnold (the show ran for six years), while in the anime under review, the central character is Lelouch Lamperouge, an exiled prince from Britannia. Lelouch receives the gift of Gaessian power, through which he can get anybody to do anything by simply looking at them. The youth's reaction when he first exercises his new-found power explains perfectly why the first episode was called, "The Day A New Demon Was Born."

You really can't help getting hooked and Code Gaess anime review is as good an example of anime as anything to cut your teeth on as you explore this engaging medium. If nothing else, give a listen to the zippy theme tune, which sounds like it would be at home in a Neopet promotional cartoon, but bears lyrics such as, "with undisguised frustration, feeling lost, feeling anguished." The song, at least, has a happy ending. To discover if the series has an equally happy ending, you will have to watch it for yourself.




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