Isnt Code Geass the same? I mean, Lelouch wants peace through equality and justice, but tries to change the system by using terror, while Suzaku wants the same thing, but tries to get it through changing the system from within.

No one is really bad in that case. Even Britannia isnt that bad. Everyone has a chance, just nobody is equal, everyone has to fight for power. Even elevens can make it somewhere if they want too.

As for a shallow plot, the plot doesnt make a show smart. A show is smart when it forces you to choose between 2 sides, while none of the sides is really bad or good.
I admitt, Geass is a little biased, but browsing on some forums, and you will see enough people liking Suzaku more then Lelouch.

That doesn’t mean that Geass is going to win any writing prizes, and the show is indeed quite pandering to the fans (fanservice, wish fulfillment and so forth), rather than anything especially deep, but hey…giving people credit where it is due or even representing things correctly isn’t too much to ask.

I don’t see why flaws in storytelling should be accepted just because it’s anime. It’s not like anime is a lesser medium than anything else. Bad writing is just bad writing.

You do bring up good points about Geass which I forgot about, since when I wrote this post I was in a position where I hadn’t seen the show in a good several months. I’m watching series 2 and I plan to write a post on how I’ve changed my views slightly on the show. It’s still trashy as hell, but it’s not the show that’s pretentious, it’s just the fans.

ps: I hope to god you watched End of Eva in addition to the TV end… since the TV end isn’t the real ending.

Still, I’ve seen more than my share of mecha series and despite some obvious problems (including one very big plot hole) are there are series with far worse offenses. I liked Eva, but the final episodes made me want to see a shrink (along with slapping Asuka)and Eureka 7 was waaayyyyyy to long to keep up with when I watched it on adult swim

It is a bit ridicuous how inept the Brittanians are considering their military superiority. I can see a few battles being lost before they realized that they actually needed to use strategy, but until the first season finale (when of course, reality finally steps back in with every possible thing going wrong) everything goes Lelouch’s way. And if the Lancelot and the Geass are not Deus Ex Machina personified, I don’t know what is. But it’s *anime*, I can forgive a few things in all series.

But I disagree with your opinion that the series is black vs. white. It certainly starts out that way, the steward is more concerned about appearances than the innocent lives he will take to maintain them and Lelouch has a legitmiate gripe. But the series becomes gothic (trust me, I had to take a college class about the gothic) because the nature of the characters is reversed.

No matter which way you slice it, Lelouch is a terrorist. He manipulates people into working for him, threatens a massacre (even if it is a bluff), goes out of his way to win public support, sacrifices people with similar goals (JLF) to cause damage to the enemy, plans to force an innocent person into shooting him to rally support and finally betrays his followers to search for his sister. In short, he is without a doubt not a good person. But comparisons to Light are not completely accurate. While he want to create a new world for the right reasons: a place where his sister can be safe. And he feels deep regret when he realizes the cost of what he’s doing after he kills a friends father in battle.

On the other hand, the White Knight who believes that a victory through dishonest means is worthless becomes the world’s greatest hypocrite. Suzaku killed his own father, sparing Japan much destruction and in season two sells out his best friend for a promotion.

Yes, TTGL is clever, if the viewer’s intelligent enough (there now, everyone go away and pat yourselves on the back smugly). Although noting that it’s clever and actually agreeing with its argument are not necessarily connected. Yes, I am probably an anti-spiral at heart.

Yes, Code Geass is, like Death Note a show which wants to show off its clever bits. There’s a certain educational purpose in battering the viewer over the head with a moral dilemma, even if it doesn’t make for the subtlest of experiences.

As for declaring anything to be the deepest anime of the year, I’d hesitate; I think depth resides in the viewer not on the screen - because I’m a pretentious fag.

But Yeah Gurren lagann is definitely worthy of the best title of 2007.

And not like you talk about old anime too much in general — old anime deserves it’s props too, I’m sure. It’s like, whatever dude, you prefer watching what you like, and that’s cool. I just meant our tastes don’t cross often enough to provoke conversation from me, and this was a happy difference from the norm. :-p

I talk about old anime too much? Looking back through my archives… a bit, yeah, maybe… I guess when I write about new anime it’s either in bullet-point monthly/seasonal rundowns or just pictures.

Honestly, shows like Geass and Death Note rely on the fact that they can just TELL an audience that the show is smart, and nevermind whether they actually have it or not. That way people who “get” the “smartness” of it can feel satified with thier own intelligence. A show that makes you think beyond what it tells you is a smart show. That is what Gurren Lagann is.

Normally, your blog is sorta irrelevant to my life (so much old anime that I’m too superficial to watch. I like shiny things too much, pardon my flaws.) Finally this gave me not only something to comment on, but to agree with you on. :)

Meanwhile, Gurren-Lagann is one of the most honest, meaningful, optimistic, and DEEP sci-fi shows about sci-fi you can find. There’s simply no comparison between the silliness that is Code Geass and the magnificence that is Gurren-Lagann.

I mean SPIRAL ENERGY? C’mon, it’s so obvious…

also i mostly made this post to put the gurren-bashing-fags in their place. those guys also happen to be rabid geass fans, for one reason or another. i guess they like corny sunrise writing :V

All and all, Gurren Lagann and Code Geass are both really fun shows and I enjoyed them. Does anything else really matter other than that?

“And the whole time I’m thinking, why didn’t the anti-spirals just eradicate them at the start if they were so powerful?” Because the Anti-Spirals aren’t evil. They were striving for Universal peace by containing the spiral race, as they were afraid of what their power might bring about. Like I said, one party’s idea of good vs another party’s idea of good. That’s one of the main themes in Gurren Lagann.

kransom: as always, you are completely right.

BrendantheJedi: Half-assed mentions of issues like racism hardly impress me. It’s part of that window-dressing. Though, I’m not saying Geass is bad, because it’s really good it’s just not… totally fucking awesome.

Becca: Go back to troll school :)

GL on the other hand isn’t something i’d call ‘deep’ or philosophical, granted I wouldn’t say that about Evangelion or even Giant Robo; now do I love both series? Yes!

In TTGL, I agree, there’s no good and evil. The anti-spirals simply believed they were right in suppressing Spiral power. However, Gurren-dan said that they “Will not let the universe be destroyed”, and before the Anti-spiral was defeated he said something like: “We’ll leave the universe up to you then” - can you class them as bad?

In Code Geass - I reckon Lelouch is a mix. He wants revenge on one hand, while on the other just wishes a happy life for his sister. However, the way he goes about it makes him SEEM bad (at least to me), while cleverly disguised to the public in the anime to make it look like “ZOMG Zero ees our friend!” to the Elevens. As for Britannia - I think of them as a Spartan country where the strongest takes the throne.

BTW - You probably posted this cuz Kittan lost to Lelouch in the AGP? For those who didn’t know: Lelouch: 48 votes Archer: 45 votes Kittan: 20 votes.

I’ll give it to you that Gurren Lagann’s evolution/Spiral topics are deeper and have more meaning than Gundam 00 or Code Geass, it doesn’t mean that the shows don’t have their merits. Gundam 00 (which really has gotten pretty damn good since the introduction of Ali in episode 7, the Azadstan arc, and the Throne Gundams which make CB look like total dicks) has brought up a ton of shit that is relevant to crappy world of today, like the Religous conflicts in the middle east, and the energy crisis. Code Geass also underscores the problem of racism, and doesn’t ignore the fact that Japanese are a bit racist too.