(Please note: The following is not meant to reflect in any way on modern Japan, or on any modern Japanese people other than the writer and director of Code Geass.)
I'm only two minutes into the series, and it's already giving me a nasty vibe of being a "Japan was the poor pitiful victim of Western aggression in World War II" proxy anime. A strong one.
For those who haven't seen it, it describes itself as being set in 2010. But it shows two boys dressed in early-to-mid-20th century garb with houses of the same era in the background, and shows them watching the invading forces flying in. It then talks about how Japan is invaded by the Brittania empire (a map including the US labelled as "Brittania Empire" is shown, along with diagrams that vaguely resemble the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific) despite their neutrality, but they can't defend themselves against the new superweapon the Brittanians have come up with. It was showing scenes of war devastation and bemoaning the fate of Japan when I hit pause.
For those who have seen it: Please tell me it gets better than this? I've heard good things about the series, and don't mind this theme too much when it's a mild undercurrent. But it's an extreme turnoff when they really pound it in, at least to anyone who's familiar with how Japan spent most of the war brutally "defending" all of East Asia into submission - often with conduct that was reprehensible even by Hitler's standards. (This isn't an invocation of Godwin's Law, it's literal historical fact.)
Before I go back and either unpause it, or eject the DVD and send it back to Netflix, can anyone tell me whether this theme continues or just sets the stage for another story?
