Geass R2: You had to be there when it happened

Grengo and I had a convo the other day. It started like this:

[Grenji] Oh mia, your presence reminds me…..
[Grenji] It took me a while, but I’ve finally come to the conclusion that R2 blew balls :|
[Grenji] Some parts of it were entertaining, yeah, but for the most part it left a bad taste in my mouth v:
[Grenji] It became one of those “watch it once, won’t watch it again” kind of things (~-.-)~

Later he wrote a wall of tl;dr on OT about his transformation as someone who really liked it, to someone who didn’t like it. After a month of not giving a shit about Geass, I felt inspired to do something like that too, but I failed pretty hard. After starting to write my tl;dr, I realized that I really just wanted to say that the best thing about Geass R2 wasn’t the anime itself, but the fans.

I didn’t like R2 for what it was and the reason why I kept watching is because it was so entertaining. What made it entertaining was not only the events of the show, but seeing people react to the events around me.

One of the shows I’ve been keeping up with is Detroit Metal City, a show about a metal band. Given what the show consists of, I never thought I would have liked something like it, but I love it, FUCK. A big part of DMC’s entertainment comes from the fictional band’s fans and how they’re portrayed in the anime. When they declared that little girl to be “Krauser-tan”, I fucking lost my shit. Even though the fictional fans of DMC aren’t real, seeing them overreact and make stuff up while Krauser does completely absurd shit reminds me of Geass Sundays.

Geass Sundays usually started at 12:50am for me in #gg. People gathered in IRC and opened up their stream links to watch Geass live. Some put it on before and would see bizarre Japanese commercials, like ones about curry that made you hungry. Then we saw the Geass logo in the bottom right corner, heard C.C. go into a speech of tl;dr, and mafiabot would shut up. We raged, laughed, baaawed together through text spam. Sometimes we’d mute the channel and it was still spammed to fuck. Following the 30min airing block, it was off to forums and 4chan for memes and shops and more reactions. Even if the episode itself was complete crap, someone somewhere would say something or make something that would make you laugh. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to re-watch Geass R2 because it’s not going to be the same without a Geass Sunday to go along with it.

20 Comments

October 30, 2008 by miasmacloud in Anime
Tagged Code Geass, Detroit Metal City, Memories

20 Responses

Reply

Whocares
October 30, 2008 at 6:53 pm

It’s not going to be the same since all the jokes, memes or walls of text both enhanced (well, duh) and detracted (yah, really) from the show, but I actually do plan to see R2 again, just not this year or anything. :P

What I *will* do in the meanwhile is watch DMC, so yay to that.
Reply

Nazarielle
October 30, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Yep, that’s exactly why I decided that I was going to start keeping up with anime as it was released. I used to just watch a few shows here and there, mostly stuff that was long since finished (Eva, FMA, etc). But when my friend got me hooked on Geass (when the DVDs came out in the US, which was more than halfway through R2), I wanted to keep watching, probably because of the same reason. It was just so fucking entertaining, not because it was omg amazing best anime ever, but just because so much shit happened every episode that you just kept wondering, “well how the fuck are they going to top that?” Anyway, I ended up marathoning S1 and R2 up to 21, and that’s when I found out that R2 was still airing in Japan and wasn’t finished. So then I started to follow the ‘Geass movement’ as I guess you can call it :p Granted, I was only following the crazy bullshit for 4 episodes, but it was still the most fun I’ve had watching anime, so I’m following a bunch of shit this season, instead of going back and watching boring and finished anime.

oh god giant wall of tl;dr comment, gg me
Reply

Itsnot
October 30, 2008 at 10:03 pm

FUCK. You make me sad about Geass again. ;.;
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Remo
October 30, 2008 at 11:11 pm

Man you forgot to mention the main reason why Geass sundays are so entertaining – Kaioshin
Reply

theflow
October 31, 2008 at 12:41 am

the only thing that kept me going past ep 10 or so was our random discussions on pandas, penguins, Cheese-kun and Kannon’s hat. The random shit we thought up that could have happened, the rage and lulz, and the crack theories were far more entertaining than the show. (b-_-)

I’d thought to add some of my own views to Grengo’s post but schneizel effort kicked in.
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omae wa mou shindeiru
October 31, 2008 at 4:23 am

Geass sundays were fucking awesome.
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Grenji
October 31, 2008 at 5:45 am

Oh, new blog. Yeah, for all my rage towards R2 itself, I have to admit the Geass Sundays were entertaining. There probably won’t be an anime equivalent of that for a long while, unfortunately……

MAYBE WE CAN FIND AN ANIME SO BAD THAT WE’LL BE TALKING MORE ABOUT IT EVERY SUNDAY THAN WE EVER DID R2 AND WE CAN CALL THE DAYS SUNDAY RE:QUIEM AND THEN MIA WILL GET SACRIFICED BY KAOSHIN DRESSED UP AS A RASPBERRY
Reply

sunsetterxxx
October 31, 2008 at 6:47 am

It’s kind of a double edge sword ’cause fanbase also made geass flaws more evident and made people who didn’t think that much about stuff like that dislike the show eventually. One of the reasons why geass was not taken seriously (besides it’s FABULOUSNESS and stuff) is because we, fans, found lulz on everything (insert penguins here). What I mean is fanbase made fanbase aware of geass being shit! period… but, entertaining shit was entertaining!
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anon
October 31, 2008 at 9:10 am

Geass Sundays are awesome, CG is the only anime I’d make an effort to stream live because the fanbase and trolls always come up with the most amusing stuff. But I still find rewatch value in Geass R2. Part of it is my being a CLAMPfag/seiyuufag, but really, inside the mess there’s a genuinely interesting core.
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Karasu
October 31, 2008 at 9:17 am

You’re right, koda. ;___; Geass Sundays
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Kaze
October 31, 2008 at 12:13 pm

Something like that, Koda. Geass Sundays were very coal from a lulz perspective, but Gundam Sundays are now filled with a lot less fail than Geass Sundays, and Gundam is a 9001% better show.

Also, your blog needs a pink colour scheme by default. That way it can be srsbiz & fabulous.
- Reply
  
  Whocares
  October 31, 2008 at 12:46 pm
  
  Gundam is moar srs, or tries to be when MISTER BUSHIDO or Vowels or Ribbons aren’t there to add fabulous, but it’s recycling Zeta and its ilk so much that it’s being better on paper doesn’t amount to the same entertainment value. I much prefer Xam’d, which needs to be back ASAP.
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風の谷の名無しさん
October 31, 2008 at 2:46 pm

I was only following the Japanese side of the net at first for R2, and there was really even more craziness going on over there. Even the fairly small fraction of it I could follow was incredibly fun.

The best part was the Geass Matsuri. First there were rumours that episode 9, or whichever it was, was going to be delayed, and the hardcore fans started denying the hell out of it. Then it was officially announced, and the fans were going “oh well it’s only a recap, just like season 1!”

Then it was revealed it was going to be a live-action show filmed in Akiba, and then people figured out it was going to happen at a cross-dressing maid café, and people just fucking lost it.

And finally, somebody found out they were looking for extras for the maid café segment, and one of the anti-thread posters went over and snuck into the filming, and posted updates on the spot. It was amazing.

And of course then the matsuri aired and it had crazy stuff in it like “It’ll probably come right off with a bit of thinner” and everybody lost it all over again, and the fans started flooding the blog of one of the performers (where he posted that he was going to the hospital)… You can’t PAY for that kind of entertainment!
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Ty
October 31, 2008 at 11:12 pm

i stopped going on /a/ after geass ended :C
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Kurogane
November 2, 2008 at 8:29 am

Oh god, yes. That was like, more than 80% of the fun of watching Geass. Seeing the reactions of people as episode aired was truly fun.

Well, too bad it’s over now… at least till the next Sunrise major franchise begins. Maybe it’s that girl who jumped space or smth they just announced.
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Michael
November 2, 2008 at 10:20 am

I loved Geass for my shipping. Now that it has sunk, I’m left in despair!

Returning to the topic at hand, though, it was what made Code Geass enjoyable – the interactions, the fun, and the fans. :)
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danainae
November 2, 2008 at 12:38 pm

Damn, Geass Sundays was what’s getting me through the week too and since I’m in the IB program, I’ll probably get an ulcer without it.
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Kraker2k
November 10, 2008 at 9:29 am

In 2007 it was Gurren Lagann Saturdays(even though it was never called as such) But people who were lurking in the 2ch RAW threads would grab screencaps as they came and people would go crazy over them on 4chan discussing and shooping away(Remember those 4koma gaijin shoops?).

In 2008 a similar thing happened for Code Geass R2 but this time we had access to live streams which made things even more exciting as people could react to things as they aired.

And so we all await what new show we’re going to have in 2009 that brings about just as much chaos and crazyness from the fans.