Code Geass R2 EP 20 VS Macross Frontier EP 20

You know what’s the perfect cure for that Olympic hangover?  Anime that’s what…. or more specifically - good anime.  We felt that both the 20^th episode of Geass R2 and Frontier were good, but only one was great.

Story

Above average story and plot development in Episode 20 of Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier makes this a tough call.  So call this a narrow one point victory.

Code Geass R2 Episode 20 returned to the mind bending, plot twisting, WTF-ing roots that the series is known for.

Anya = Marianne in Disguise? No that’s not it, Anya = Marianne’s transplanted memories? So Anya has no soul and is just a vessel for Marianne? CC gave Marianne Geass, but when Marianne couldn’t fulfill the contract, she transplanted her essence in to Anya?  Yeah we haven’t figured it out.  But this mind twist is why we like Geass so much.  We didn’t see this coming from a mile away - but we’re kinda stupid (Side note - noticed how CC and Marianne didn’t mention Nunnally as they were talking about Lelouch?  What could that mean?)

Still this development is a welcomed one, because it’s brought back the real CC back to us in all her witch goddess glory.  The immortal witch doesn’t seem to have all her powers back, but the knowledge she posses leads us to believe that she will be the x factor in who wins this battle - Lelouch or Charles.

And let us get this on record as well - we love the new and improved (slightly mental) Suzaku.  He’s transformed from party pooper to Assassin. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Suzaku may actually team up with Lelouch to destroy Charles, especially since Schneizel as set his plan in motion.

More than a pretty face it seems

We all knew this was probably coming - Schneizel always seemed to be plotting to usurp his papa and  become the Emperor.  We never thought that Suzaku would be the catalyst to Schneizel’s coup d’état.  Bravo Suzaku, you finally became useful after 40+ episodes… bravo.

Now that Suzaku has made himself useful, the character that annoys us the most is Ougi. This happened rather soon, but seeing how he feebly attempts to leads the Black Knights now that Zero is not around did the trick for us.

And wow - did Lelouch get over his depression quick.  This guy really is soul-less. Interesting idea of trying lock Charles in the thought space - but we don’t think it will work.  Something tells us that Marianne and CC will find a way in.

Apparently had time to set bombs and apply hair spray

Just a disclaimer - this week we actually watched Geass first over Frontier, just to switch things up. So after watching Geass we thought there was no way that Frontier could we this category.  But you know what - it was close but Frontier eked out the victory.

There was a lot to like about this episode and we were big fans of the throw back connections to the original series - especially the SLAP.  Back in Macross: Do you Remember Love - Lynn Minmay (the pop idol) is acting like a selfish spoiled diva during a pivotal life and death moment (sound familiar?). She refuses to sing in order to stop the Zentrandi assault, and Hikaru (the pilot) lays the big smack down on her to snap her out of it.  But since in this series Alto is too much of girly man (aka princess) Sheryl has to “man up” and slap some sense in to Ranka. Very solid touch.

Someone had to do it, cause no way Alto would

But the clincher for us has to be the death of Michael (or Michel or Mikhil or Pretty boy in glasses). It was an awesome death; it was touching, sad, valiant and unexpected.  We didn’t think the Michael would go out before Luca or Ozuma for that matter.   But we approve of the way he went out - Michael went out protecting the one he loves - Klan.  Since Klan was able to finally confess her feelings to Michael, we probably should have seen this coming. But we didn’t think that Macross was the kinda series were the leads actually died.  We were wrong.  Michael’s death was emotional and we felt it more than Rolo’s death on Geass. Poor Klan.

This ain’t gonna end well

Michael’s death overshadowed another important death - that of President Glass.  That annoying commander bad hair cut (Leon Mishima) better get his balls handed to him on a platter.  And we hope Ozuma is doing the serving. But should the Prez have died? Think about it for a minute, why didn’t Ozuma or Catherine (his daughter) just pick up their cell phones and call him and warn him about Commander bad hair cuts plot?

Also nice to see the Sheryl back to being the good Sheryl - only wished she would have picked a new song to sing.

Overall - the death of Michael puts Macross Frontier over the top.

Winner: Macross Frontier 20

PEB (Purple Emo Boy) in bondage… just because

Action

Call this an easy victory for Macross Frontier.  Code Geass R2 Episode 20 had some action, but nothing remarkable and one really lame sword fight. This should have been epic, Charles’ Knight of One vs Schneizel’s Knight of One. But Bismarck’s sword was bigger than Suzaku’s and he got owned big time.  The lack of epic battles or even a good battle was very disappointing.

So this made it a rather easy victory Macross Frontier - but it probably would of one regardless.  The reason being that the combat deaths on Macross tend to be more violent and as a result more realistic than the deaths on Geass.  During the battles against the Vajra this episode you really got the sense of the desperate struggle of the Frontier Crew - fighting a battle on two fronts (one of which they don’t know).  Alto and Michael’s battle against the Vajra was terrific.  Lots of pretty explosions, just the right amount of dialogue and lost of bullets flying. This plus the variety of the battles (space fights, gun battles, the slap battle) give Macross the victory.

Winner: Macross Frontier 20

\

Yeah - he’s not coming back

Fangasmic

When we step back and look at both episode 20’s, we really enjoyed the many plot advancements in Code Geass. We said “huh?” and “What the hell” quite a few times while watching it.  And we are really happy that Suzaku got some sense knocked into him.  All it took was him killing a million people with FLEIA to achieve it.  Plus the return of the cunning CC makes us two happy guinea pigs.

Honestly though - Macross might have won this category as well if it wasn’t for the half naked scenes of Micron (Pedo) Klan. Sorry - as grown adults, so don’t want to see that in our anime. However - the unexpected death of Michael made this a close battle, but Code Geass squeaked out the victory.

Winner: Code Geass R2 20

Winner this Week: Macross Frontier EP 20

Adios Michael

Tags: Code Geass R2 Episode 20, Macross Frontier Episode 20