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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Code Geass sucks. Most of anime sucks.

Contact by greefus groinks from flickr (CC-SA)
I've seen the first few episodes of Code Geass on Baka Y2K6 and I loved it. There was a dystopian world with a pretty facade, and a guy who somehow acquired special powers and decided to use them to completely rebuild everything. It felt just like Death Note except with mecha.

Unfortunately instead of a morally provocative anime with an interesting plot, Code Geass quickly turned into just another awfully boring mecha anime with every single character being a walking cliché, and the plot consisting mostly of filler material and randomly generated events. Things happen not because of some world logic or actions of characters, but because the whole thing would collapse under its own lameness otherwise. Having run out of plot ideas the authors should at least have the decency to finish the series, but no - apparently the second season is already scheduled.

What's happening with anime anyway ? Other than Death Note I haven't seen anything interesting lately. There's a lot of generic "cute" and "funny" stuff like REC and School Rumble, but almost no series is trying to do anything original. And the competition in form of live action series is far better than in the 1990s - almost each new series manages to create a new genre or radically redefine an existing one, just like Heroes did with the superheroes genre.

Anime needs to change fast or it will become irrelevant outside of Japan and a narrow Western otaku circles.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Death Note overstayed its welcome also; after the episode 25, the shows started a downward slide. The episodes playing now don't have the pathos and tight narrative of the earlier parts. From 1-25 was the finest series I've ever watched, but with the dead weight of the rest I can only give it a B-. (The horrid new theme songs don't help.)

taw said...

Anonymous: Well, the last few episodes feel different from the early ones, but at least Death Note is going to have a definite ending - they're not going to add another season just because it's popular.

Anonymous said...

Hi Taw,

I have watched the anime up to episode 6 and I also had a similar sensation to when I was watching death note. Anyway, you are right ... somehow stories with good plots become rather boring and seem to end in a stallmate. For example "Darker than Black" seems to have lost its momentum as well. Anyway, the coolest anime out there at the moment is "Seirei no Moribito". It's very original and the characters are really well thought off!! "Claymore" is also another interesting anime, because the character development is good (in my opinion). Besides that I can't really think of another good anime (Bleach and Naruto, both interesting first, have lost it ...). Anyway, good day!

Anonymous said...

death note CAN'T add another season because series already reaches the end of the manga ..
unless they make something new like Light vs 'O' or 'P'

Unknown said...

I think Death Note ended up pretty crappy. I like Code Geass better than it, but that's just me.

It might because I was so sad when L died.

:(

I'm still into Code Geass, because I think the characters are cool.

But anime in a whole, has kinda lost ideas... now it's just a bunch of violent hentai fan service really.

But oh well, I'll still watch xD Just to look out for any good ones.

Anonymous said...

Well i think Code Geass is pretty good. I only read the Death Note manga, and it went by really fast, unlike if you were to watch the anime. I was introduced to this anime by a friend and when i found out it was made by Clamp, i was pretty excited, after enjoying Chobits, which i thought was a perfect love story.

Maybe it's the drawing style that gets me. iono.

I just can't stand anime which Should end, but the companies want to make more money and try to drag them on forever. examples being Bleach, Naruto, DBZ.

Anonymous said...

you're retarded go watch sayonara sensei you'll be amazed by how special it is...........and death note is scuky too like the 2nd arc is awfula nd ending is like WTF.

Anonymous said...

^^ See that right there? That comment above this one? That's the reason why you're dead-fucking-wrong Taw.

As long as we have guys like the one above this comment, generic filler anime will continue to be a steady stream of income for Japan (and, I guess by trickle-down, Korea)

People only like new ideas if they establish a premise. After that, there's no need for new ideas, or even for coherence. Once you have a nice, warm, familiar baseline down, you just keep on milking it until no one cares.

It's not just America who loves a never-ending series (*cough* all primetime television cough*) Everyone in the world loves a never-ending series.

Anyways, as long as Rumiko Takahashi and Akira Toriyama are alive, you can bet your sweet ass we'll continue to have nice, long, never-ending arcs of filler/crap instead of decent storytelling.

Anonymous said...

Wait wait wait, are people comparing code geass to deathnote?

Deathnote is a piece of shit, it's not smart, all it did good was apeal to fanboys and fangirls with a half ass'ed plot and dumb "no you" back and forth game

You deathnote faggots are fucking stupid

Deathnote in intelligence and terms of great-ness is no fucking different than my chemical romance being popular as a rock genre

My chemical romance sucks and it's for fanboys and fangirls, just like deathnote

Thanks

Anonymous said...

If you have a strong suspension of disbelief or are a fucking moron with absolutely no concept of logic, Deathnote is pretty decent.. at least until L dies.

Deathnote made a mockery of logic, and logical methods, as well as methods of private investigation. Deathnote had a fuckton of logical fallacies, ones that are covered in any intro philosophy/logic class.

So, if you can get over that, it's pretty neat. Too bad about the fanboys who just like emaciated, wide-eyed characters. Those people make anime suck.

Anonymous said...

I must agree that anime has gone down hill with story and art(if u can even call it art now). does anything new really even compare to; lodose war,ninja scroll,battle angel, and fushigi yuugi just to name a few? the story and charector development were great, and if u didnt care for the story u could atleast say the animation was good to great. When i watch anime now i sigh and say "it sucks", or its "not too bad".
Honestly instead of typing a blog on how stupid ppl are for liking what they like, shouldnt we be emailing anime companies saying how stupid and low grade their anime has gotten?

Anonymous said...

u guys are gay. i am kira and im going to kill you all. code geass is amazing and death note follows the idea but death note doesnt suck u fuckers.

Anonymous said...

lol, its kinda funny that you liked Death Note but thought that Code Geass Sucked.. Very funny >_>

Anonymous said...

Death Note is pretty decent and I love certain characters that have strong motivations. However, I don't think the relationships(platonic or romantic) were explored in any context whatsoever. It seemed as if every person was there for the freaking plot as the pawns. Their deaths didn't matter, it was just another lost chess piece. I don't hate it, but I'll have to agree with the person who said that it made mockery of FBI/police investigation. Overall Death Note is actually an additcing and interesting idea, the only drawback is that it's not as DEEP as most people think it is. The motherf*cking apple was there because of the color, not any symbolism.

Anonymous said...

your wrong f***wit the apples were there not only for colour but also because light's shinigami (god of death) loved apples

Anonymous said...

same shit. The apples were not deep symbolism. Who cares about fruit anyway LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Anonymous said...

Yeah i don't like Code Geass...or any anime that have gone to far in episodes it just gets lame and boring. Most anime's i like are short(up to 51 episodes) in my opinion they are far more interesting and they get to the point instead of creating plots after plots...kinda like Bleach, Naruto, and Code Geass..
I don't like the fact everyone think they are the best animes out there when there are other animes that are just as good but aren't as recognized. And don't get me wrong i like Naruto..not much of the others though. One anime i would like to continue further(even though they also have lots of episodes) is D. Grayman i think theres a lot to put in to the storyline..too bad they stopped.

Anonymous said...

Code geass is a million times better than death note. I don't know what you guys are talking about. The first few episodes of code geass start slow, but soon it becomes a really good anime. However, death note keeps it up until about episode 22 or around that where "L" dies and the whole plot gets screwed up with that Near and that other guy. Code geass actually keeps you suspensful for quite a while, but death note just gets worser and worser and they don't introduce any characters as good as "L". Also, the whole thing is just fucking frusterating that the Light asshole could easily get away with everything, but really likes to fuck up after "L" dies because he thinks he's safe.

Anonymous said...

>_> so you jackasses are fighting for deathwipe and code gay.... they both sucked, code gay had giant stick figures doing silly s**t with there hands. deathwipes had too much drama and created "DEEP thoughts"" for suicidle emo-anime nerds.


I feel like going to the can-chan, can anyone here help me wipe? its a log the size of japan! heh-heh-heh

japanscrystaldragon said...

Personally I liked both death note and code geass.(i thought code geass was better.) I cant believe people are complaining that code geass is too long. death note had 37 and code geass had 50. how is that so much of a difference. If anime was any shorter than this then there couldnt be any suspence. I dont know what you guys are talking about i thought code geass was good the whole way through except for a few uneeded episodes like the school festival ep. The story line is exciting and suspenceful. plus code geass doesnt have the same wtf ending as death note. death note just got really bad after L died cuz lets face it there was really no point of the series after that. sorry you dont like anime, but did you really wave to post something like this? im sure lots of people dont like anime but you dont have to be hattin on it.

Anonymous said...

your fukcing loser anime rocks go fuck a girl or little girl bitch

David said...

Deathnote can suck it for all I care. Basically it's about sociopath lead that lives under the facade of an evil-genius mastermind hellbent on killing every pretentious "hero" until he achieves his goal of becoming god. I know, it sounds awesome, but executes poorly. It just becomes a mindless emotion orgy of emogoth BS. The only good part about that show was the potato chip, and even that was brutally executed by the glorious K-tard.

Anonymous said...

I agree Code Geass, Death note, one piece(of shit) sucks. But do not say MOST anime sucks, as if you have seen the over 6,000 anime titles out there.

Anonymous said...

MAN!!!! u people dont need to complain about anime, ya i amit deathnote got crapy after L died and it should hav ended but then L's bro or what ever cam up and extended it, i skiped that part intill the last ep ware light dies,. but overall it was a great anime. and code geass was 10000000000 times better. people complain about "fillers" fyi their r no fillers in code geass, all the eps (like the school festival) needed to be their to provide a backbone for the story, otherwise everone whould have been confused as f***. code geass is not to long, if enything it should be longer, code geass was interseting, u never can gess wat will happen next, it was strategic and filled with action, anime theese days are to short ( 12 eps ) and OLD animes SUCK ( in my opinion ) but really the new animes like Black Rock Shooter, WTF it makes no sense and is boreing as f***, animes like Clannad, Code Geass, Death note ( and more ) are the good ones that make sense and are very interseting.

Anonymous said...

I thought so too, though my opinion may be different for yours, I loved the anime Darker Than Black by Tensai Okamura. The plot is wonderful in the tv series but turns into mush in the prequel and sequel... They ruined it but if you watch the original I think you would be pleased

Anonymous said...

CODE GEASS IS A FUCKING STUPID ANIME AND ALL YOU CODE GEASS FANS CAN SUCK IT. DEATH NOTE IS ONE OF THE BEST ANIMES EVER AND PEOPLE WHO DON'T AGREE ARE RETARDS. L IS A FUCKING AWESOME CHARACTER.

Blanki said...

Code geass, if I'm talking on both view (from objective and subjective), was actually was very, very bad as a show and anime on its genre. Code geass is even worse than death note. But I don't want to make a shitty long essay that will confuse everyone.

Anonymous said...

man stop talk about 2 legend code geass and death note let kill guilty crown (oh wait no ss2 they are die when try to copy code geass)




Unknown said...

Your wrong.