Setsuled's Journal

The new season of Code Geass has started and I watched the second episode this morning. The really amazing thing about this is that I'm able to see these episodes so quickly--the raw videos have been available for download a day after broadcast on Japanese television, and, the day after that, it's already fan-subbed. And people do it for free. Meanwhile, distributors in the U.S. charge almost thirty dollars for DVDs of four episodes, usually a year after the episodes have premiered in Japan. The first season of Code Geass will premiere on Adult Swim later this month with the usual abysmal English dub. There is so much wising up that needs to happen.

So far, I must say the new season is a little disappointing. One distinctly senses the writers furiously treading water. Which is pretty much how the last three or four episodes of the first season felt. It's not terribly surprising--the writers kind of wrote themselves into a corner. For those who don't know, Code Geass takes place in an alternate universe where Britain won the American Revolutionary War, and eventually expanded its empire to Japan, where the show takes place. The lead character of the series, Lelouch, is a dispossessed British prince who becomes a masked terrorist named Zero who leads a group of Japanese revolutionaries/terrorists. Lelouch's friend, Suzaku, is a young Japanese man who manages to become one of Britain's most valuable soldiers. So the series sets up a set of nice conflicts to play with; should the government be reformed from inside, or should it be violently overthrown? What considerations do the old friends owe each other when they're on opposite sides?

The problem that arose later in the series was that everyone started agreeing. The writers were following logic, and making everyone likeable, and unfortunately logic and open-mindedness led to peace. So they had to drop in one of the silliest, most irritating deus ex machines I've ever seen. Since then, the show seems to mainly be absurd squabbling. Yet I can't stop watching. Maybe I just love the CLAMP character designs too much.

More chess last night. I won again, though I'm pretty sure it was more dumb luck than strategy. I feel like I need to learn how predict at least eight moves ahead. Don't put me in charge of the revolution.