Get The Rundown #10 Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Review

The art style is quite excellent, especially with the Knightmare Frame designs.

Considering this anime came out in 2008 it still holds up exceptionally well.

Something unique to this anime is the way the nostrils are drawn on the noses. To this day I have never seen an anime that has that design.

All the battle scenes are excellent and I love the color choices made for each of the characters designs.

My major complaint is with the body designs in this anime. Every character looks like they do not know what food is.

This gets even weirder when many of the women are designed with large breasts with almost no body fat.

It makes the characters look more like dolls than actual people.

Code Geass lacks any realism in its character designs which has in the past prevented me from taking it too seriously.

This does not impact my enjoyment it is something to point out.

If you want anime with a similar style, I would suggest looking at other Mecha anime from Sunrise

You will find a surplus in both variety and quantity. There are many battles that range from ground forces to fighting to epic scenes of Knightmare Frames battling it out.

This is one of the anime’s greatest strength.
Anime that are similar to this one are Mobile Suit Gundam and Eureka Seven

Code Geass is technically a harem since three women all want Lelouch in some capacity.

But the anime does not make Lelouch’s love a huge focus in the story.

But if you are looking for romantic elements you will find them here.

Code Geass is one of the most non-ecchi fanservice anime ever made.

Almost every female character in the story has unrealistic sized breasts

Kallen Kozuki for example is a character you could argue was only created for fanservice.

If you can look past the unrealistic bodies in Code Geass R1 then you should be fine.

Just keep in mind there will be plenty of fan service sprinkled in throughout.

There are two scenes that each feature a topless nude girl but in both instances, the nudity is brief.

Lelouch always has a speech or philosophical question that he asks all of his opponents.

There is constant back and forth with the characters.

You even have many scenes where different characters continue the same conversation.

This is one anime where it’s important to focus on what the character says and it will reveal important plot elements in the story.

This is a hard question to answer?

Because depending on what is going on in the anime it can be both.

There is an overarching plot that is simple to follow.

But then the plot reveals add complexity to the plot and not always for good reasons.

The best answer I have if this is the first time watching this series you are going to need to pay attention to what is happening.

This is not an anime to multitask while watching.

Yes, but due to the heavy emotional elements, I need a significant amount of time between each rewatch.

Despite the flaws, I really like Code Geass. It has an interesting setting and a simple but cool premise.

It gives me a good helping of both pseudo mindless action and intellectual discussions on philosophy.

It has many characters whose morality is more in the grey area. It adds another element to an already amazing anime.