Without “DEATH NOTE” this week I had nothing but this series to count on to provide a spectacular episode. I had very high expectations for this episode and it delivered it almost flawlessly. Many of the events in this episode took me by surprise. We can begin to speculate about Suzaku’s past based on the new information from this episode. So many things happened in this episode that it takes some time to take it all in. With so much excitement even before the halfway mark of the series, it’s hard to imagine it getting much more intense than it already is. I There must be a very important clue to who C.C. really is considering they have yet to reveal her real name to us. I’m very eager to find out what it is so I can figure out how everything is related.

Lelouch has finally started to amass a force to fight against Britannia. I thought Kallen’s new unit had some pretty neat abilities. It definitely reminds me of another mech, but I can’t seem to pinpoint it at the moment. Although it was brief, we get a better look at Cornelia’s piloting skills. Needless to say, she probably won’t be an easy opponent. There were no glaring problems with this episode so it’s pure entertainment from start to finish yet again. The series has been dropping hints here and there regarding a possible event that may occur later in the series. At the moment it’s just pure speculation. If it does happen though, it will definitely make the series much more interesting. With 25 episodes in all I think anything is possible at this point. Either way I have high hopes for the rest of this series.

I was beginning to feel a little “Code Geass” withdrawal since last week’s episode was just a recap. We knew from early on that Kallen is half Japanese, but we didn’t know what her current family situation was like until now. It was surprising as well as sad to see her family life. The story doesn’t progress all that much in this episode. Nevertheless I still thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. We do get somewhat of a happy ending at the end so there was some positive development. I’m perfectly content with the pace the series is going at right now since we still have any episodes to go before the end. I would have to say this episode was my favourite episode of anime this week so far. There was pretty much no major flaw with the episode in my opinion.

Once again we get another intense episode. Although the plot doesn’t advance too much, there were some key events which will drastically impact the episodes to come. C.C.’s role was almost negligible in this episode. I’m curious to find out just who she is talking to. It’s likely that once we do find out it will be critical to the story. There was some background information regarding Cornelia that helped make sense of things. Without question the best part of the episode was when Zero announces the formation of “Kuro no Kishidan”, or the “Black Knight Group”. It’s almost guaranteed that he will soon have a large following. I’m not exactly a big fan of their uniform upon first impression. It reminds me of Akito’s outfit from the “Martian Successor Nadesico” movie except nowhere near as cool.

After last week’s slow, yet entertaining, episode we get the complete opposite this time. More of Lelouch’s past is revealed in this episode. It gives us a better idea of the hardships he has had to go through. This is a pretty significant turning point in terms of the story. We get to see just how different the military tactics are from the Shinjuku battle when Lelouch is up against Cornelia. I thought that entire scene was simply non-stop excitement. The twists in this episode made the events a whole lot better. With the outcome of the incidents in this episode Lelouch will have to start doing things differently if he is to go up against Cornelia and the rest of Britannia. This episode had all the elements needed to make it a winner.

From this point on I’m going to start expecting to see a “Pizza Hut” add in every episode. It’s definately a distraction, but what can you do. This was more of a comedy-oriented episode than the other ones. That’s not to say it didn’t have its share of drama as well. Kallen turns out to be a lot more popular than I had previously thought. Though her role was small, I enjoyed her scenes in this episode. The high-tension atmosphere due to the recent events ended up making life more difficult for Suzaku. Like Lelouch mentioned, it will take time for the other students to accept Suzaku. Although this episode somewhat lacked the elements that made this series stand out so much, I still thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

Not surpringly I found this episode to be entertaining from beginning to end. With C.C.’s sudden appearance in Lelouch’s residence, I was hoping to learn more about C.C.’s identity. Although no information regarding her identity was provided, we do get a better understanding of her character. She’s a lot more extroverted than I had expected her to be. Due to Lelouch’s activity over the last couple of episodes, things within the empire are being greatly affected. It is becoming harder and harder to categorize the factions into simply “good” or “bad”. All the twists in this epiosde make it that much more difficult to predict what will happen next. It’s obviously a good thing in this case since it keeps us guessing and focused the entire time. Needless to say, this was one of the better episodes of anime I’ve watched this week.

In order to accomplish what he desires, Lelouch took on an alter ego. When you combine that with the way he has been portrayed in the previous episodes, it really makes me wonder who the real villain is. I’m hoping for lots of interesting twists down the line. Suzaku revealed his intentions by staying with the empire. As great as it would be if it worked, there’s little to no chance of it succeeding. At least with the way things appear right now Suzaku’s plan seems futile. There’s no doubt his actions will conflict with Lelouch’s plans at least once. Everything was starting to come together until the final scene where a whole new layer of complexity was added. They picked the perfect time to end the episode. It left us hanging and wanting to find out more.

Last week I mentioned I wasn’t so sure about people’s allegiances anymore. I dug up the old NewType magazine to see if it contained more information. It provided the clarification I wanted so now I won’t need to keep wondering about it any longer. This episode was not action-packed like the previous episode, but it was just as enjoyable. We get introduced to a few new characters in this episode. Currently the other characters don’t appear to be major players in the series. We also learn more about a few of the other characters as well; mainly Lelouch and Kallen. The episode revealed to us another limitation of Lelouch’s power. I didn’t expect it would have this kind of restraint. This means Lelouch will have to be even more clever and careful about when he uses his power.

I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat once Lelouch started taking command. There’s no denying that he’s one good tactician. It looked like the allegiences were already decided for the major characters from the first episode. After watching this episode though, it doesn’t seem so clear-cut anymore. I see it as a good thing for the time being since it adds that much more flavour to the series. We get an idea of where the story is headed, but how things will begin to unravel remains a mystery. The use of pure cg for mechs are all too common these days. I’m glad they stuck with cel shading to make the movements look much more fluid. With Lancelot’s quick maneuvering, using cg would probably make this series less entertaining. If the rest of the series is as good as the first two episodes, then this series is definately going to leave a good impression on me.