Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Before this, Cowboy bebop has the most artistic take on directing anime series, it showcased how each individual 20 minute episode can have the same artistic direction of a feature movie. And now came Code Geass.

Code Geass tells the story of murder and deception (like the starting point of any recent Korean historical soap opera), but influenced by many well-known anime titles like Death Note (Teenage genius obtain manipulative supernatural ability), Akira (beautiful friendship torn apart), a little Evangelion (psychotic kid and "HA-SHIN!!!"), Ghost in the Shell: SAC ( Cecile's uniform and hair style-color looks suspiciously like the Major's). By the first starting sequence you won't find anything so special that created the mass fan-boys out there, but at the end of the episode (cliffhanger) you'll be convinced that this is going to be serious. Code Geass deliver curiosity at the end of any episode and surprises at every episode, following a greatly constructed plot that is so daring, you might think it can crash and burn any time, not only that, it surpasses Cowboy Bebop in making each episode as artistic and moving like a Nolan MOVIE. Speaking of which, the political run of this anime is so fast paced, it reminded me of the first time I saw Nolan's "The Prestige" without subtitles, the sequences sometimes change in such untouched momentum that the viewing experience may get mind-numbing after a continuous five to six episode (it is either a bad side or a good side, your comment). The real stuff here is the issues of morality, the script and the whole idea was to showoff how the director can sustain countless amount of character relations and messages and not to kill someone quick, neither to drag an issue to tiresome lengths, nothing feels too cheesy to make the action sequence boring and the whole story lol-worthy.

The animation is very clean or sometimes feel a little lack of detail, but it is made by the same production that gave us ALL of the Gundam series, Cowboy Bebop and Witch Hunter Robin, so never will you see any scene run short in frame rate. The characters are designed by CLAMP so you'll see big eyes, pretty girls and ridiculously tall schoolboys, but the production takes the thing serious and remove the cliché sweat drops and chibi faces, and add seriousness to the expressions, be it happy or sad, or even downright insane. This anime have mechas (he he he), and the fight sequences are fast and waste no precious time, even though the creators have made them more realistic (mechas runs on visible battery packs now, and they don't run like Gundams, they have legs for tilting and balancing or sometimes kicking in ways of the spectacular, leaving ground contact maneuverability for custom wheels, and they look cool nonetheless).

The music, in short, makes the episode cool like Bebop but I faintly remember that it is not Yoko Kanno's.

In all, I won't spoil anything, and I won't hype it up either, I'll let the experience alone impress you, but from my appreciation: ALL HAIL CODE GEASS !!!