Code Geass season two: The sacrifices for an ideal world

To tell the honest truth, I didn't expect much from "Code Geass" when I first started. There's no way anyone can ever believe a story about a teenage brat who wanted to destroy the fictional country of Brittannia.

I was dead wrong. Code Geass is a virulent vision of destruction and mayhem, all for a much greater good. As illogical as the show turns out, no one can deny its brilliance.

The second season, R2, begins as an awkward slice-of-life story with the main character, Lelouche Lamperouge. He apparently lost all his memory of everything that happened in season one. He doesn't remember his rebel army, the Black Knights. He doesn't remember C.C. or anything about his Code Geass. And for some reason, he has a little brother following him around, named Rolo.


Although the environment drastically changed, the Black Knights still manage to remind Lelouch of his original mission. With the help of the immortal girl named C.C., Lelouch regains his memory and his ability to use the power of Geass. He has the ability to command people to do whatever he wants, by using the Geass power in his eye.

I had a couple gripes about the story as it meandered through a cast of new characters. For instance, the show almost spent too much time at a boring party with Brittannian nobles and a frightened Chinese princess.

Thankfully, the director has a keen way of keeping people interested, even when the anime plods through dull side stories. By the time people reach episode 14, they'll understand that this piece of animation is a frightening masterpiece.

We weren't meant to really hate Lelouch. No one can deny that he's an egocentric villain, but even when he kills all his best friends, he never does it intentionally. He always tried his best to keep them away from his megalomaniac complex.

I admit that the last few episodes are almost bombastic to the point of disbelief. No one would really wish to reduce the world into an intercontinental war of improbable proportions. Still, this show wasn't meant to turn into a satirical comedy. It was meant to reveal all the hypocritical qualities of the shonen anime in its rawest form. Although it plays out like a big, delusional fantasy devised by some otaku nut, it truly defies the philosophical boundaries of anime.

The intellectual battles in season two take on a much shrewder persona than in the previous season. Lelouch battles against selfish, obstinate dictators who wish to keep the people of the world stuck in the past or the present. For some reason, they all intend to create a worldwide apocalypse as part of their master plan.

Thankfully, Lelouch has better plans. He wants to turn the world into a safe place for everyone to live. He lives up to this promise, even to the very end.



Unfortunately, I can't tell anyone whether he's really honest about his intentions. I will say that this anime will always keep people on their toes. No one could ever anticipate this show's crafty ending. I'm still amazed that the director, Goro Taniguchi, had the brains and the drive to create such a wonderful cast of characters.

It's an understatement to say that this is one of the most important anime shows of our time. "Code Geass" is an epic that we deserve to revile and rejoice in. It's possibly the most volatile thing I've ever seen and it's a fantastic piece of art.

Director Goro Taniguchi will probably never create a better anime than this one, but I don't mind. This show is nearly impossible to top, in its scope of haywire chaos and demolition. If you've got the guts, watch every episode of this anime. You absolutely won't regret any second of it.

You'll probably cringe a lot though. This show has tons of explosions.

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DVD Review: "Soul Eater" ends on positive note

The final part of "Soul Eater" rehashes the anime theme of courage repetitiously, but the fights are unusually fun to watch.

While this finale tends to follow the conventional formula for a successful action series to the very end, the images and voice acting performances are more surprising than you'd expect. Sure, the protagonists mature like ordinary teenage superheroes. However, the last fights are worth watching for the visual symbolism.

If anyone hadn't seen the previous box set, the good guys' organization, the Death Weapon Meisters Academy, has been looking for the all-powerful device known as The Brew. The members are also trying to defeat Arachnophobia and kill off the elusive villain, Medusa. Most of all, they want to vanquish Asura, the demon god who wants to consume the world with his madness.

Admittedly, this is almost too much ground to cover in one box set. And by the final three episodes, it looks like the animators ran out of time to develop an epic ending to close out the series. Our main hero, Maka Albarn, literally fights the final battle in the simplest manner possible.

Considering that Maka is the ultimate witch hunter, you'd expect that she would use her super-powerful slash technique with her scythe. But without giving anything away, let's say that the final battle turned out even more silly than I expected.

While some people may find themselves disappointed that ending isn't as thrilling as "Gurren Lagann," I'm sure that enough fans will enjoy the final battles. The battle with Medusa was quite possibly the one of the best fights I've ever seen in a shonen series. Crona and Marie finally get the chance to give Medusa the punishment that she deserves.

Best of all, the story reached a satisfying ending that was better than many other shows can own up to.

Let's not forget that Maka takes center stage throughout most of the series. She manages to take many challenging roles throughout the story. She protects her friends like a caring mother. She carefully discerns whether villains are trying to deceive her. She lives up to the legacy of her mother as a witch hunter.

Most of all, she acknowledges even though she is afraid much of the time, she takes matters head-on, no matter how many times her friends are dying. "Soul Eater" is literally one of the most empowering series, with intentions that stay clear throughout its run.

Even if it is completely predictable as a shonen (guy's) action series, "Soul Eater" is an effective series with some of the best acrobatic fights. The battles symbolize the self-conscious anxiety within everyone, which people can overcome with courage. While the show feels like it was geared more for kids, it still packs quite a punch. Literally.

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DVD Review: New villains and twists in "Soul Eater"

The third box set of "Soul Eater" brings in some more villains to twist the story into a visually exciting thriller.

This series has a bad habit of rehashing much of the same shonen formulas, by adding in more opponents. From the start, the new goth-dressing woman and her band of misfits seem to have nothing to do with the ultra-powerful demon god which was introduced in the previous story arc.

So the series struggles to tie the connection to these new villains, led by a woman in a black dress named Arachnophobia. However, the series has always maintained an spectacular collection of powerful fight sequences. Everything is packed in Episodes 27 to 39. There's a brawler who fights with chainsaws on his limbs and a midget who can transform into a rolling gorilla.

Among other things, Death the Kid takes center stage in an incredible battle on a flying train. That's right: he fights in an epic battle on a train which almost resembles the one in the old classic, "Galaxy Express 999." This sequence is one of the best in the entire series.


Although the plot seems to make almost no sense as it plods along, there are plenty of clear stories to tell. Arachnophobia is seeking to spread madness throughout the world so that everyone will be her slave. Crona, the purple-haired boy who once tried to kill Maka and Soul, is now their friend and classmate. However, the boy's mother, Medusa, uses him for other fiendish purposes in this show.

I still have issues with how the story is structured. The focus on "Soul Eater" tends to zero in more on the battles than on the actual story, which wasn't that interesting to begin with. Thankfully, "Soul Eater" characterizes its run with some of the most impressive battles to ever grace a shonen series. And if anyone needs their fix of wanton violence and humongous fights, this show packs it all.

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DVD Review - The Gothic battle marathon

"Soul Eater" hits its stride in the second box set with a series of epic shonen fights in its big homage to a classic anime show.

For episodes 14-26, "Soul Eater" begins with plenty of excellent jokes, including one of the epic comedy episodes involving the animal character known as Excalibur. However, the true spotlight of this second set is one of the best story arcs of the series.

Our heroes race down a tunnel to keep a group of witches from awakening an evil kishin, also known as a demon god. This will no doubt remind anime fans of the Shishio Makoto battles in the show "Rurouni Kenshin." This was the famous story arc where Kenshin had to race down long corridors, fighting countless numbers of samurai until he fought the final battle against Shishio.

The set-up for the "Soul Eater" battle marathon is simple enough. Medusa and her evil cronies unleash a full-scale attack against the students and instructors in Death City. One of Medusa's assistants, Free, traps Lord Death and most of the students in a magical prison known as an independent cube. Fortunately, all the main heroes in the series escape.

Instructor Stein informs Maka, Soul, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Patti and Liz about Medusa's plot. Although there's plenty of backstory, all you need to know is that Medusa's assistants want to wake up a demon god by injecting his mummified body with black blood.

The anime doesn't really explain much about the difference between black blood and red blood, but that's not important. What is important is that a demon god is really, really powerful and destructive. And the students have to stop him from awakening.

This section of the show contains a very prominent fight between Maka and her deadliest rival, Crona. As people may remember in the previous box set, Crona almost killed Maka's weapon, Soul. Fortunately, Maka's learned a few things about her soul resonance power. I promise not to give away the ending, but I will say that it doesn't end with Maka killing Crona.

Instead, Maka reaches Crona's inner consciousness in an unusual series of scenes that take place in the soul resonance world inside Maka's weapon. Although a devil-looking character is trying to convince Soul to use the madness of the black blood to defeat Crona, Soul doesn't want Maka to lose her mind in the process. In a touching scene, Maka dances with Soul and asks him to use the black blood.

The fight is a brave and daring display of animation, where Maka reaches Crona's tormented soul at the end. Certainly "Soul Eater" isn't a series based on real-world situations. However, the show takes a breathtaking look at how the inner psyche can negotiate with itself to change a person's way of thinking. Although "Neon Genesis Evangelion" executed this with more visual flair, "Soul Eater" shows off its own unique blend of breathtaking backdrops and bright, vibrant colors.

Although "Soul Eater" is still plodding onward with its conventional, convoluted storyline, this is the box set that is worth at least a rental. The episodes in the next box set then slips into a series of boring shonen battles. There's still plenty of action in a big battle sequence in the arctic. However, you might want to think twice before you buy the third box set, because all these battles wore me out after two hours.

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DVD Review - Soul power!

"Soul Eater" defies all expectations as a parody anime which turns into an incredible epic action series.

From the first three episodes, you'd hardly expect this show to garner any potential. The first episode focuses on a girl named Maka and a boy named Soul. The boy can turn into a weapon, which Maka wields to defeat evil people. Once Soul eats 99 evil souls and a witch's soul, he can turn into the ultra-powerful death-scythe.

The whole story is a spoof on the typical "gotta catch 'em all" formula in series such as "Pokemon" and "Cardcaptor Sakura." The two literally spend the whole episode trying to capture the soul of the voluptuous witch, because Soul faints every time she gets near him.

The second episode is an even loonier parody of Naruto, introducing us to Black Star. He's a spiky-haired ninja who hardly collects any souls. If he ever quits bragging openly to his opponents, one day he'll turn his female partner, Tsubaki, into a more powerful weapon. Someday, anyway.

The third episode focuses on Death the kid, a shinigami, or god of death. He wields a pair of girls, Liz and Patty, as twin demon guns. However, Death the kid suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He literally runs away from battle to make sure his room is completely symmetrical on both sides.

Based on these three "prologue" episodes, you'd think this series would turn out as a quirky comedy anime that only lasts about 12 episodes. Believe it or not, "Soul Eater" completely defies definition. Around episode seven and eight, two of the protagonists almost lost their lives in a fatal battle with a witch.

The two heroes, Maka and Soul, fight against the villainous warrior teenager named Cronos. The character possesses the Demon Sword, a dark weapon which forms out of Cronos' black blood. Cronos fatally wounds Soul, leaving Maka in a state of shock.

One of Maka's teachers rescues her in the nick of time. However, the damage was done. Maka now bears extreme guilt for putting her partner in danger. Worse still, part of Cronos' black blood flows through his body.

You have to wonder how such a series remains this unpredictable. This is partly because the series was adapted from a manga which was supposed to only last one chapter. Yet, the character designs and the slapstick jokes turned this manga into an unforgettable classic.

After 12 episodes, I'm literally shocked by the depth of this bare-bones shonen anime. "Soul Eater" is an anime based entirely on battles, but the characters move around with insane acrobatics, dodging life-threatening blows with the greatest of ease.

The most surreal scenes involve battles played out in the characters' minds. The power of the soul synchronization can literally enable characters to lose themselves in other peoples' subconscious. These scenes tend to resemble the psychoanalytical scenes of Evangelion, but the animators pepper the drama with violent battles and surreal, out-of-this-world environments.

Best of all, the female hero, Maka, is a force to be reckoned with. She slices and dices her enemies as if they were paper dolls. She doesn't even flinch when one of her teachers swings a tombstone at her.

But at it's heart, "Soul Eater" is a sweet romance between Maka and Soul. The two main heroes have completely opposite types of attitudes. Maka is the overachieving bookworm. Soul is the laidback slacker. However, they hold immense respect for each other, especially in a touching scene in episode six. Their powerful companionship literally becomes the source of their powerful moves when they synchronize their soul power.

The series garnished plenty of attention when it aired on the Cartoon Network. Although it appears to play out like a conventional shonen show, it grows into a massive, epic series involving evil forces, black blood and dreamlike drama played out in the characters' minds. As weird as this turns out, "Soul Eater" looks like a big contender for the best anime of 2010.

The first box set is available now on DVD. Stay tuned for a review of the second box in the upcoming weeks.

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DVD Review: Attack of the Anti-Spirals

The gratifying second volume of Gurren Lagann opens with the humans emerging victorious, but ends on the verge of a worldwide apocalypse.

The volume begins with Yoko and Simon mourning the death of their leader. However, the newcomer to the Gurren Lagann crew, Nia, changes the tone of the series for the better.

The girl announces herself as the daughter of the humans' enemy, Lord Lordgenomme. Although the crew planned to hold her hostage, she wins them over with her polite manners. More importantly, she supports Simon in opposing Lordgenomme's empire of female oppression.

Simon leads the humans to conquer the beastmen. However, in his dying breath, Lordgenomme hints that the Anti-Spirals from the moon will soon kill all life on Earth to prevent the birth of the Spiral Nemesis.

Even long-time mecha fans probably weren't expecting an apocalypse from this series. Based on all the times Kamina told Simon to pierce the heavens with his drill, you'd think this is one of the most boring, straightforward anime series ever made.

Thankfully, the series cuts the progressive momentum when alien forces possess Nia. Without giving away too much, the Anti-Spirals are hell-bent on sending their bizarre geometric spacecraft to eradicate entire cities. The big question is whether Simon or anyone will be able to stop them.

If this plot twist hadn't taken place, I would have written off this series as one-dimensional. Even if the story hadn't made the transition, I would still highly recommend this anime for its visually spectacular animation style. All the characters are drawn in a Superflat style, with cel shades lacking in depth. When the film is in motion, however, the characters express an immense range of emotions and intense action.

The robots especially leap out of the screen with exaggerated morphing sequences and brutal fight scenes. The most incredible battles take place as the Gurren Lagann team fights against the last of Lordgenomme's generals. General Guamme, a crocodile/armadillo creature, wipes out numerous mechs in a humongous top-shaped robot which spins a gigantic tornado. The final battles of the war of Teppelin are eye-catching spectacles that everyone has to see at least once.

Overall, "Gurren Lagann" is building up to a thrilling conclusion. I hope I can finish this series soon. I was upset that I wasn't able to see all the episodes in the CSULB Anime Club. Based on what I've seen, this series looks like it will end with a humongous bang.

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