My recent vacation gave me some time to catch up on movies and anime that I had in my queue for months. The first anime I completed was season one of Code Geass. The anime is 25 episodes long, was released between October 2006 and July 2007 and was produced by a studio named Sunrise — well known for a host of other popular titles including Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Witch Hunter Robin and others. The anime is based on an ongoing manga series of the same name.
The story centers around Lelouch Lamperouge (Lelouch vi Britannia), the exiled son of the Emperor of Britannia, and his pursuit of revenge against his father and the Britannian empire from his home in a conquered Japan renamed Area 11. Lelouch is something of a military genius, and excels at strategy and manipulation. After encountering a mysterious girl named C.C., he gains a power called Geass — the Power of Kings. The power lies in his left eye, and once activated allows him to issue commands to any individual he locks eyes with (but only once.) Using this power, Lelouch forms a gang of Japanese revolutionists and begins his campaign to free Japan and form a new nation under his command in it’s place.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Lelouch, our anti-hero, has to balance his life as a student, his hidden identity as the terrorist Zero and his feelings for his friends, which is what much of the drama in this anime surrounds. Ultimately, he must decide whether he is willing to give up the things he cares about for his revenge against Britannia. The hardest part for him is that his childhood friend Suzaku Kururugi commands Britannia’s most technologically advanced Knightmare Frame (mech), who is unaware of Zero’s identity for all but the finale of the season.
Suzaku Kururugi
In a lot of respects, Geass reminded me of Death Note — the story as presented in the manga, anyway. (I still haven’t watched the anime version.) Lelouch is an ideal-driven individual given an ability that puts him in a position of absolute power. This power is not without it’s technicalities and flaws, but it is for all intents and purposes a Godly ability. Lelouch, like Light Yagami, must balance his secret identity with his personal life, and struggles not to lose his own humanity in the scope of this overwhelming power.
Lancelot, an experimental Britannian Knightmare
As the saying goes; power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Code Geass is an interesting exploration into this topic, and represents the issue in a lot of interesting perspectives. Spiritually, socially, economically and ethically the idea of a Japan with a futuristic, Military-heavy Britain’s boot against it’s throat and a terrorist with a power like Geass fighting for the people (at least, in their eyes) is examined, and it’s quite satisfying. I think in this regard, Geass outdid Death Note. Death Note expressed the situation by focusing almost exclusively on a handful of characters. Geass looks at things from a more global or at least national standpoint.
Lelouch Lamperouge in a Knightmare Frame
My only major disappointment with Geass was it’s conclusion. The last few episodes built up a tremendous amount of suspense, and the ending was really left as a cliffhanger. I’m hoping the season 2 follow up, Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, explains what really happened at the end… dives into the mystery behind C.C. and the others like her… and hopefully draws a conclusion onto this conflict with Britannia and Japan. As it is, season one felt very incomplete with it’s finale.
Overall, however, I loved the anime. I’d say even with it’s glaringly lacking ending, season one of Code Geass has made my top 10 favorites. The animation is superb, the story is compelling, and I really loved the characters. I can’t wait to start on R2.
[rating:4.5/5]
Tags: Anime, code geass, knightmare frame, lelouch lamperouge, suzaku kururugi, zero
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The reason for the ending of season one because the series started with 2 seasons as the target, so even before the first episode came out, everyone knew the last episodes of season 1 were not the final ones. Hope you enjoy season 2, it has a great ending.
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. It just felt weird to have so much build up and then a sudden and rather anticlimactic finale like that for the season. I am definitely enjoying R2 though. Will have a review of that in a few weeks time. Thanks for your comment!