Mere moments ago, I finished watching Code Geass R2. I had previously watched the first half/season a few weeks ago, and--getting tired of waiting for R2 to come out on DVD--obtained the second half this past week. Although several people that I talked to about the series seemed to believe that it wasn't very good, or went downhill in the second season, I quite enjoyed it.

Basically, the premise of the entire series is that the main character is a strategic genius who then additionally gain the ability to, by making direct eye contact, force people to follow his commands. The series then follows his attempt to defeat (through various means) the Brittanian Empire.

The series does do a few things that make is rather unique. First, despite the main character being a strategic genius, he is shown to actually have very little skill in combat or physical prowess. Thus, rather than having the leader run in at the head of every battle (as is common in "real robot" anime), we see a leader who actively avoids getting himself in combat the vast majority of the time.

Secondly, [spoilers start here] in R2 after about episode 20 presents a very strong characterization of a properly operating "evil overlord". This even goes so far as to involve the main character actively turning people into suicidally loyal slaves which he throws at his foes Zap Brannigan style to keep them busy. Frankly, I'd almost prefer that the show stopped at the commercial break in the last episode so that we end with a view of the main character having accomplished all of his proported goals. [spoilers end here]

I would probably recommend the series to more strongly if they hadn't spent two full seasons (50 episodes) getting to the last five or so where (I think) the series truly shines. It is certainly a decent show and probably one of the better entries that I've watched in the "real robots" genre.

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