[Kusaja]

Story:

I believe that the plot was brought to a relatively satisfying conclusion in terms of Lelouch's development as a character, and thus at its core the story definitely worked. Pacing problems became a real issue, especially towards the second half of R2, and that did affect the overall flow, but I never really felt lost and most of the necessary steps were taken to keep things focused on Lelouch's story. Still, certain events were dealt with too quickly, in particular the climatic confrontation with Charles and Marianne.

The last arc seemed to feel out of place, but was rehabilitated by the ending, even if unanswered questions and hanging plot threads of varying importance hurt the final result. Then again, I eventually ended up appreciating that the ending gives the viewer the ability to make up his own mind about Lelouch's fate, but I understand that's the kind of thing not everyone will like.

Animation:

The animation was generally good and, in places, even great. Some frames did lack quality, but not to a bothersome extent. The character designs remained attractive and distinctive enough.

Music and Sound:

Code Geass R2 had good music, and for the most part it was used well within the show itself. The insert songs, in particular, were quite nice.

Characters:

Lelouch, naturally, carried the show once again, and did so successfully to a certain extent. Suzaku and C.C. played the most important supporting roles, though I'm also one of the few people who would add that Kallen wasn't that mistreated either, and got some attention and closure in her own right. Granted, there were also some problems here and there, so some may find it more disappointing than others, but overall I'm okay with these four characters.

Sounds fine, but what brings down the score then? A huge cast which was mostly misused. The fact that too many secondary or tertiary characters were introduced, without giving them enough weight to stand on. Many of them didn't require too much attention in the first place, I can see that the story works fine regardless, but others, like Marianne and ultimately Schneizel, did seem to demand either more screen time or more convincing motivations.The pacing is also to blame for this, unfortunately, to a certain extent.

Entertainment Value:

Whatever else I may say, Code Geass R2 was an entertaining show, in many different ways, and I do not regret watching it.

All in all, I think R2 kept a lot of the spirit of the original, but stumbled quite a bit in practice, resulting in an enjoyable sequel that could easily have been equal or even better than the original with less characters and better pacing, but wasn't.

Overall: 7/10