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Jun. 8th, 2007 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sumeriaI have decided that I think most people are approaching Code Geass the wrong way. (This is not at all elitist of me, I know.)
But still. I have seen numerous posts/reviews that seem to find enjoyable all its most commercial aspects, but which seem to regard all the complexities that make it so enjoyable to me as regretable. I have seen a great many people who regard it as laughably juvenile; full of such over the top absurdities and coincidences that it's not even watchable. I have seen dozens of opinions that Lelouch is completely abominable; egotistic and heartless and completely unworthy of sympathy, and dozens that he's too wishy-washy and weak, so half-hearted that he can't be taken seriously, and with far too much emotional weakness to be compelling as a main character. (I suppose I should clarify that the opinions of Lelouch are in reverse order to the opinions of the show, as regards who which belongs with.)
I suppose I have nothing to say to the first group of people; they seem to me to be watching the show on only its most basic level, and I would contend that they're missing out on most of it by so doing, but whatever.
But to the second I say: you're watching a genre show. A brilliant one, that is transcending the limits of that genre before our eyes, but one firmly committed to a certain paradigm, a certain set of rules.
In a romance (and I do recognize that I hurt my case with such an example, but I think everyone's most familiar with the 'rules' of this genre, so it's the easiest), the hero and the heroine will end up together. Their relationship will, of necessity, pass through several fairly well defined steps before the end. This is because there really are only so many kinds of treatments that are appropriate to the type of story being told, only so many sorts of interactions possible. This is the definition of a 'genre', a kind of story in which certain conventions will hold true. It is, of course, also true that then many people will not care for a lot of genre writing, because of a perceived cookie-cutter nature. And this perception isn't wholely false; walk into any bookstore and scan the romance section, and it will be obvious. Only the fan of the romance novel will read most of them.
But Pride and Prejudice and any harlequin bodice-ripper are both rightly classified as romances, and only a fool would claim their merits are equivalent. And many people who don't read romances, in general, have read and enjoyed the former. And it's not defying any of the genre conventions of romances; it's firmly in line with them, it's considered the definitive example of some of them.
About Code Geass, I feel the same way. It is, and is not ashamed to be, a mech show. But watching it, I feel I understand what the appeal of such shows was supposed to be. The persistant sensation of "oh, so this is what Macross/Gundam/Eureka Seven/Whatever was trying to do" follows me always while I'm watching it.
The show isn't trying to be Trigun, or Tokyo Babylon, and completely defy categorization and be truly original.
(And dammit, the coincidences aren't unbelieveable, they're accelerated. Except for the weird amnesia thing that I have no idea where they're going with, all of them were things that were more or less inevitablly going to happen; the coincidences just make them happen faster. That's just good pacing, and good art.)
But still. I have seen numerous posts/reviews that seem to find enjoyable all its most commercial aspects, but which seem to regard all the complexities that make it so enjoyable to me as regretable. I have seen a great many people who regard it as laughably juvenile; full of such over the top absurdities and coincidences that it's not even watchable. I have seen dozens of opinions that Lelouch is completely abominable; egotistic and heartless and completely unworthy of sympathy, and dozens that he's too wishy-washy and weak, so half-hearted that he can't be taken seriously, and with far too much emotional weakness to be compelling as a main character. (I suppose I should clarify that the opinions of Lelouch are in reverse order to the opinions of the show, as regards who which belongs with.)
I suppose I have nothing to say to the first group of people; they seem to me to be watching the show on only its most basic level, and I would contend that they're missing out on most of it by so doing, but whatever.
But to the second I say: you're watching a genre show. A brilliant one, that is transcending the limits of that genre before our eyes, but one firmly committed to a certain paradigm, a certain set of rules.
In a romance (and I do recognize that I hurt my case with such an example, but I think everyone's most familiar with the 'rules' of this genre, so it's the easiest), the hero and the heroine will end up together. Their relationship will, of necessity, pass through several fairly well defined steps before the end. This is because there really are only so many kinds of treatments that are appropriate to the type of story being told, only so many sorts of interactions possible. This is the definition of a 'genre', a kind of story in which certain conventions will hold true. It is, of course, also true that then many people will not care for a lot of genre writing, because of a perceived cookie-cutter nature. And this perception isn't wholely false; walk into any bookstore and scan the romance section, and it will be obvious. Only the fan of the romance novel will read most of them.
But Pride and Prejudice and any harlequin bodice-ripper are both rightly classified as romances, and only a fool would claim their merits are equivalent. And many people who don't read romances, in general, have read and enjoyed the former. And it's not defying any of the genre conventions of romances; it's firmly in line with them, it's considered the definitive example of some of them.
About Code Geass, I feel the same way. It is, and is not ashamed to be, a mech show. But watching it, I feel I understand what the appeal of such shows was supposed to be. The persistant sensation of "oh, so this is what Macross/Gundam/Eureka Seven/Whatever was trying to do" follows me always while I'm watching it.
The show isn't trying to be Trigun, or Tokyo Babylon, and completely defy categorization and be truly original.
(And dammit, the coincidences aren't unbelieveable, they're accelerated. Except for the weird amnesia thing that I have no idea where they're going with, all of them were things that were more or less inevitablly going to happen; the coincidences just make them happen faster. That's just good pacing, and good art.)