Still and forever salty.
Okay to finish what I started.
Plot
For the first halves of both shows, Death Note takes the cake. The thriller between L and Light with both trying to one-up each other with 4D chess moves was absolutely amazing to watch. How the plot moved forward with both of them getting closer to their goals but putting themselves at a higher risk each time was just perfect. L revealing himself to Light and adding him to the team put himself in a susceptible situation to getting killed but he could also observe Light more intensely now. Light's memory loss was the big-brained power move I have ever seen occur in my entire life. Light vs L was just absolutely tremendous. But then...L died. I remember saying that second half DN didn't drop in quality but I was dead wrong cause it most definitely dead. Mello was very meh and amounted to almost nothing as a villain. But the main problem here is Near. He's a copycat L. The way the pieces and plot moved now just didn't make sense anymore. With L, it wasn't that he was a 200 IQ character. The stuff that he did and figured out, anybody could have done it was just that he did it quicker. He realized the stuff in between quicker than everybody else. This highlights how keen, attentive, focused, and overall dedication to the whole project Kira thing L was. He took big risks that had a big reward. Him slowly but surely pinpointing Kira was natural. Near however wasn't. He sat back and was just watching everything. Didn't take any risks and was just figuring stuff out on the spot like a 200 IQ boss and for me, that was very very lame. Death Note went from 8/10 to a 6/10 for me.
Code Geass surely does not have as strong as a first-half that Death Note had but it was a lot more consistent in strength from start to finish. Now, some things just flat out didn't make sense at times to me. Like C.C. losing her memory, Marianne returning somehow(through her Geass I guess?), and then C.C. do getting her memory back. I was pretty confused. But I didn't mind cause the payoff was satisfying enough to me.
Ending
I think this is mainly what decides which one of the two is better. The ending of CG was wholesome and touching. The ending of DN was asscheeks. First of all, Near being the one to catch Kira is some major bulljive. He's a copycat L. A copycat should not be the end to catch Kira. The original should. L should have been in that position. I don't mind Light losing, I honestly thing it makes sense but Near being the one to take the dub away from him causes major issues for me. Had it been Mello, no problem. He's his own character. L being the one is most preferable. Hell, Light winning instead would have been real sweet tbh. But Near...hell no.
Why was the ending of CG good? Because it makes sense. Lelouch accomplished his goal of taking down Britannia by becoming the Emperor of it but through this, he saw how the people were viewing him as a dictator and it was technically his fault. He did control and manipulate people. He had set that image up for himself. To continue living, he would have ruled with fear over the people. That would be no peace which has been all he had been trying to create this entire time. It was clear that that wasn't going to change. So, he fixes this by having himself be killed by Zero being masked by Suzaku. This ends the tyranny of Lelouch, frees the will of the people, and most of all, continues on the symbol of Good and Heroism that Zero was been made out of. Through his death, Lelouch achieves his goal of world peace for not just Nunally but for all the people. Another important thing brought by his death was that Nunally was able to see that his brother actually wasn't evil at all. I would have hated it had she ended with that perception of Lelouch in her head when in truth it was complete opposite.
As Light died, he took an L. As Lelouch died, he took a W. That marks the difference between Death Note and Code Geass.
I hope y'all enjoyed this read. I love both shows but in my opinion, Code Geass is the better of the two. If you disagree, that is perfectly fine. I can understand why someone would prefer DN over CG.
