Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion has one of the great opening moves in anime. Japan has been invaded and conquered by the Britannian Empire. The country is now Area 11, its citizens are Elevens, and the Empire rules through Knightmares, the mechanical frames that give its military its teeth.
That is the setup. What follows, across two seasons and 50 episodes on MBS, is a story about a conquered people and the masked man who decides to use them.
Trailer, via Crunchyroll Dubs.
Lelouch, Suzaku, and the Mask
The series pairs two leads on opposite sides of the same war. Jun Fukuyama voices Lelouch, the exiled Britannian prince who becomes the masked rebel leader Zero. Takahiro Sakurai voices Suzaku, the Japanese pilot who serves the Empire he was born under.
Yukana voices C.C., the mysterious girl who grants Lelouch his power. Ami Koshimizu voices Kallen, the pilot who fights beside him. The four carry the show’s heaviest scenes, and the cast is the reason the political plotting lands as hard as it does.
Code Geass runs on contradiction. Lelouch wants to free Japan, but he lies to the people he leads. Suzaku wants to change the Empire from inside, but he does it by wearing its uniform. Neither man is wrong, and neither is clean.
What the Empire Built
The Britannian Empire imposes its rule through Knightmares, and the show treats those machines as instruments of occupation rather than spectacle. The Empire’s rule has never faltered, but cracks have begun to show, and the series spends its runtime widening them.
The genres tell you what to expect going in:
- Animation
- Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Action & Adventure
- Drama
That list undersells how much of the show is people in rooms deciding who to betray. The action is there. The argument is the point.
Season one aired from October 5, 2006 to 2008, closing on September 28, 2008. Fifty episodes is a lot of room, and the show uses it to let alliances rot in real time.
The series never lets Lelouch off the hook for the cost of his victories. That is rare. Most shows about a genius with a plan want you to admire the plan.
This one wants you to watch what it does to him.
Where the Story Went After
The television series became a three-part compilation film directed by Gorō Taniguchi and written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, produced by Sunrise and distributed by Showgate. The voice cast reprised their roles.
- Initiation, released October 21, 2017, compiles Season 1, Episodes 1–17
- Transgression, released February 10, 2018, covers Season 1, Episodes 18–25 and Season 2, Episodes 1–16
- Glorification, released May 26, 2018, covers Season 2, Episodes 17–25
The films changed the fate of Shirley Fenette. Her father is never killed during the Battle of Narita, so the chain of events that leads to her own death never happens. She survives the rest of the story. The change has no particular influence on the rest of the plot.
A sequel film, Code Geass Lelouch of the Re;surrection, followed in 2019, then a four-part sequel, Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture, in 2024.
The Shirley change is the interesting one to weigh. It softens the story without altering it, which tells you how much of Code Geass was already locked in place by its ending. The show’s cruelty was never load-bearing. Its structure was.
Code Geass still holds up because it commits to its two leads and refuses to pick a winner between them. Lelouch’s rebellion and Suzaku’s reform are both treated as real answers, and the series makes you live with the bill for each.
That is the part worth keeping.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.