Kanamori, designer of birds, is very upset about snakes that eat the bird's eggs. She's looking for some kind of defense.
A nest with a bottom entry would allow the birds in while keeping the snakes out.
(Approved: Weaver Bird.)
And then, Revenge!
(Approved: Secretary Bird.)
The crew has another person who's only interested in how the animal looks and another who only cares about how it tastes. I haven't seen their names yet though.
Anyway, the client approves, and the Giraffe is born.
The ping-pong tree won't hold up under gravity.
So I guess it's got to be the deer.
Needs work though. The neck is so long that the heart can't get blood to the brain. It collapses immediately.
Perhaps extending the legs will help?
Unabara has come up with a long-necked deer. It's a simple design, but why not.
They submit the designs to Higuchi, the engineer, for prototyping.
She comes out, menacing, to remind Tsuchiya that she has told him before that the pegasus is not viable.
Mizushima proposes something called a Ping-pong tree. it's telescoping trunk lets it move up and down and sticky balls capture prey.
He's completely ignored the target, which he calls innovation.
Meido likes it. She done designs for carnivorous plants before.
Today, they're working on the client request: an animal to eat leaves that are very high up.
The Chief, Tsuchiya, suggests a Pegasus. Flight will let it reach.
Tsuchiya is famous for creating the horse and now bases all his designs on it.
The opening shows the various members of the design team showcasing various animals.
Shimoda, a newly-hired angel is to be the communications liaison between the team and God. (He looks like a young salaryman, with a hint of dishevelment.)
In the begining, God created the heavens and the earth.
He followed them with light, waters, and the land.
Then he created the many animals that would inhabit it.
Or... that was the plan.
It got too tedious, so he outsourced it.
(This is the actual cold-open voiceover!)
Fidgit: That was the Supreme Being.
Kevin: You mean God?
Fidgit: Well, we don't know Him that well. We only work for Him.
I don't want to be mean to a show I really enjoyed, but you can see the seams at the start of season two where they changed their mind about what they were doing.
Or maybe they had the broad strokes, but hadn't worked out the details?
Either way, you can see it.
The character design seemed unusual compared to other anime. Everyone was very tall and thin.
It really only reminds me of one other show...
(Double checks.)
Same studio that did _Escaflowne_. I shouldn't be surprised.
I was a bit spoilered on the ending, because I saw the name of the sequel movie.
I pondered the nature of tragedy as I was watching this. To be a true tragedy, the hero's comeuppance must come as a result of his flaws.
But, of course, Lelouch _won_.
(Compare to _Death Note_.)
All the Pizza Hut product placement was removed from the version of season one that's on Netflix, but they left it in in season two.
I'm glad to see you can still get pizza delivery in a war zone.
My summaries had to cut hard, and even then were more posts per episode than some shows.
I cut out discussion of some of the secondary characters, like Nina and Milly, and they deserve better than that. The C and D teams and C and D plots were still great.
I wasn't sure about the soft reset at the start of season two at first, but it was really interesting to contrast Lelouch's approach when his identity was secret from when it was known to his enemies and his every move had to be cloaked.
Did you want redheads? We've got both a Japanese character whose red hair is symbolic of her fiery passion, and an actual ginger!
Damn, but Shirley got done dirty though.
Now there are lots of anime that are war stories with mecha. And there are lots that are romance story set in high school revolving around the student council.
But only Code Geass has the vision to be both at once.
So, that's the show.
What's my takeaway?
Well, it's no surprise this in the top 20 anime of all time on MyAnimeList.
It's really good. Absolutely recommend.