The clock quite literally just struck midnight as I type this sentence. It seems fitting, as I finally lay this series to rest. One would imagine an imaginary bell is tolling somewhere, for Code Geass. 50 episodes in two weeks. Quite the impressive life it’s lived.

I think the short summary of Code Geass, is that it very much resembles its characters. It doesn’t care about the means, but rather, the ends.

The means of Geass’s plot are scattered now, just like my thoughts after finishing it. What of the Chekhov’s Gun planted on Xing-ke? The rebuilding of the world, with a vacuum of power? The seeming holocaust that was raining down when FLEIAs were blowing things up left and right?

But then, you have to wonder, maybe these pieces are the unimportant ones. Maybe they are the pawns in the larger game of Code Geass. Note that I didn’t even mention all the relationship loose ends – again, Xing-ke, Rivalz (who I don’t hate anymore because Tamaki exists), Toudou, etc. – it’s clear that those, if not anything else, are exercises left to the viewer. For shipping, that is understandable.

One might not say that for the rest of the plot points. All the means, between the roller coaster that was Lelouch and the world around him.

But, this time, I’m convinced.

Why? Maybe it’s because Zero Requiem fell into place so beautifully.

I was ready to tear Code Geass, for what seemed to be a lack of rewatch potential. Sure, I wouldn’t mind being shocked again, but it didn’t seem like the pieces would make any logical sense when put together a second time. This is what makes things like Higurashi and Kimikiss succeed.

But, the last ‘arc’, so to speak from Geass, the last set of episodes, after we had gotten past the mind-boggler that was the Thought Elevator and Ragnarok, just seemed … logical, somehow.

Maybe this is the rule of relative good and evil. A rule that Lelouch himself probably employed. Everything is relative to one another. After nearly being driven off by an arc of Geass that left me shocked but utterly confused and out-of-touch, I was sucked back in like the second half of a FLEIA detonation.

(See, look at that simile. I couldn’t be writing prose like that if Geass didn’t work.)

Nevertheless, Zero Requiem was almost beautifully executed, somehow. It was a fitting final period to a story like this. It was over-the-top, yes. But this was finally Geass, without any other mask on. Its true self.

The morals of Geass. Its idealogy. Its fable and its lesson. How it treats its characters. Hah, could I say it was an idealistic show after all? That it was the Suzaku, to the Lelouch (as we saw it) of the viewers?

Maybe that’s why I lose, in that I see something almost ef-like in how this show seems like the type to beat down the viewer, to drown it in despair, agony, and suffering, only to pick it up at the end and radiant pure, idealistic emotion.

Of course Code Geass is not ef. I could write hundreds more words on which show is truly the more cruel, to its characters and its viewers. And certainly, ef spent a bit longer on its final resolution, the final triumphant conclusion of its characters over all.

But, the final episode of Code Geass, while it took a different approach to the culmination of it all, hit the same way, somehow. The realization of all those wishes.

Maybe you can’t take something away from Geass – at least not the final episode – the same way you can with ef. There’s not an extremely solid message – well, not one you’re going to be using in everyday life, anyway – compared to ef’s. This is probably due to the scale of it.

One could say ef is about a few people, touched by miracles, compared to Code Geass, about the uber-man, the one who makes miracles. Who, despite losing his ideals so many times, still acts idealistically right to the last second.

And certainly, I’m itching to make religious parallels to Code Geass, almost like I did for H2O (pardon me, for mentioning those two sentences in the same sentence will make 90% of you dismiss my credibility forever), even though I lack any real religious belief in my own.

What I do have, is ideals. And passion. And Code Geass inflamed both of those in me.

I probably can’t explain right now. Not while I’m this charged up. Maybe not ever. Certainly, I feel like I could be exaggerating my feelings regarding Geass. The last arc is ace. The show as a whole is gripping. Does it have flaws? Of course.

But this is what passion is about, right? The feeling right now. Living for this moment. Expressing yourself without holding back. Geass has made me want to grasp this feeling, and never let go of it.

To continue the analogy of love, I also probably am blessed, in that this is my first time, with a show of this type. This scope. Something more than just the relationship between two people (or six, depending on the harem) – although Geass doesn’t lose sight of this.

They always say you will remember your first time, no matter what you do. Maybe it is that way for Geass. Maybe I will look back at it fondly, just for this one moment. Where I am convinced, on some level, it works.

For in the end, my judge of anime is not quality. Not how intricate its plot is, not how developed its characters are, not how moe its girls are. (Although, it’s definitely to Code Geass’s favor that I like Nina now, and don’t want to kick her in the face.)

It’s how much it can bring emotion in you.

It’s biased as hell. One day if I’m feeling depressed, I might be struck for double damage by something that wouldn’t scratch me otherwise. If I’m too tired, an otherwise juggernaut might bounce right off. I might love the stupidest of shows and hate the most talented, most intellectual of them all.

But that’s what it means to be human, right? To make decisions? To be irrational? To follow the heart?

And right now, my heart really thinks that Code Geass R2, in the end, did it right. If only for these 35 minutes it’s made me live.

-CCY