Hmm.

I dunno if this would go on my top 5 greatest of all time anime, but it's definitely up and around there. The way that the anime is able to cover so many characters and develop many of them in a fantastic way is something that I've never seen before. The way that the developing was done for Lelouch especially was particularly interesting and impressive. It was definitely cool to see the plot take some risks, doing things that would initially anger the audience in order to bolster the characters or events. I don't really think I need to sing its praises too much, but it's definitely an extremely well-done anime.

That being said, I think some of problems lie with certain characters in the anime. First off, there's Suzaku. I would rant about his flaws as a character, but to be honest I think I'd be echoing Smile in that regard. I don't have as much of a problem with it though since, while Suzaku was a hypocrite, at least he was given emotion. Typically, his character archetype in a lot of anime tend to be bland and one-dimensional in the superficial sense. They seem to only express one type of emotion, and while Suzaku's persona was infuriating, I do appreciate that he was given some character rather than being a cardboard cut-out.

I also don't like that there seem to be a lot of weird plot devices in this anime that come out of no where. Orange for example is being developed in a facility, but its done for some weird, unexplained reason, not to mention a reason we can't exactly come up with a solid explanation for. And would you have it, he comes out of no where and acts as a massive obstacle in the last episode. The whole fight felt really detached and frustrating to watch as a result. There's also the fact that this weird Geass girl(?) actually came out of no where and kind of fucked everything up last minute. I assume this is going to be explained later, but I really dislike it when characters seem to be added in during crucial moments of the plot just to add more conflicts. That's sort of what it felt like here, and while I do like it shows Lelouch's devotion to Nunally, overall I wasn't a fan of the choice since it didn't feel like it added much to Lelouch's character (besides another convenient location to develop with CC). There was a lot of build up to the final fight of S1, which is why I was disappointed to see it be dented by quite a few sudden new plot points. I'm also kind of iffy about Euphemia killing everyone thing. On one hand I like it since it shows a degradation of the Geass (reflecting Mao) and showed a tipping point that Lelouch couldn't go back from, but on the other hand the fact that it started off of such a statement like "order you to kill Japanese" or whatever just seemed utterly ridiculous and out of place.

Overall though, S1 was very solid in many ways. I'll watch Breakfast Club before I start S2 since I've been delaying that movie for a long time

I'll try not to ramble too much but I'm sleepy so whatever.

Season 2 expounded more on what Geass actually is, and with that it has successfully lost me. What was important was the repercussions of Lelouch having Geass and using this power for his own gain, and I felt like for a big part of season 2, the part that attempted to explain Geass, was uninteresting to be honest. The looming enemy that is Charles zi Brittania, ends up being "a good father trying to do his best" that somehow got fucked over because Lelouch controlled the "collective consciousness" of everyone? V.V. died cos "Charles got his code" wut? An incomprehensible existence which can't even be classified as a "being" and can't be accurately described as "God", was controlled by a power that it may or may not have created in the first place? Like, a lot has been said about the prominent characters that involve the mysteries of Geass (C2, V2, Charles, Marianne), but in no point of the show was the origin of Geass explained, its purpose, what the fuck the alien girls from Jupiter that have been shown in C2's memories have anything to do with anything.

Season 1 had Suzaku and Lelouch conflicting with each other. Suzaku, although a character I supremely hate, was a very necessary character to create some kind of conflict in season 1. The drama and hypocrisy was reserved only between them, but the scope of the second season had every single character become horrible people, calling each other names while proclaiming their own sense of justice as the truth especially towards the end. This really left kind of a bad taste in my mouth because I felt like I began hating each of the characters as they became more and more complex, simply because any contradicting character traits they have can be excused as them having "internal conflicts" or them "changing their minds". It's like the realer they become, the shittier the kind of people they are. Like, by the end of the show only Lelouch is someone I can truly appreciate. What he wanted was very simple and he had good intentions. He lost purpose time after time, and yet kept coming back.Watching a character like that trip and fall gains my sympathy. You can say the same for Suzaku maybe, but I fucking hate that guy still. A lot of the other characters were as selfish as Lelouch and Charles and even Schneizel, but the show gave them higher moral grounds because they didn't carry much of the sin.

I mean basically I think season 2 was inferior to season 1. I feel like I didn't say enough and I don't make sense but I'll take care of that after I wake up.