Review
CODE GEASS - LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION
(コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ Kōdo Giasu Hangyaku no Rurūshu)
INTRODUCTION
Code Geass is one spectacular anime. Produced by the acclaimed Sunrise, and the character designers from CLAMP, this anime can't go wrong. This anime is something like a cross between the two insanely popular animes,
Death Note and
Gundam Seed, and has worked brilliantly. Gorō Taniguchi (谷口 悟朗, Taniguchi Gorō), the director and Ichirō Ōkouchi (大河内 一楼, Ōkouchi Ichirō), the script writer should both be praised for creating this incredible show.
STORYLINE
The story revolves around
Lelouch Lamperouge, and it is set in 2017 A.T.B. in an
alternative universe. Britannia, the super-power country that occupies the land of what we call America, dominates and controls over a third of the world. Ten years ago, they invaded Japan for the precious Sakuradite, the world's leading energy provider. Japan lost the war within a month, and it had its flag and name taken away. Renamed Area 11, the Japanese, now called Elevens are harshly discriminated against. Britannians live carefree in the settlements, the Japanese live in poverty and famine in the ghettos. A 10 year old Lelouch swears to his child hood friend
Suzaku, that he will destroy Britannia.
Lelouch, now 17 and attending a Britannian school in Area Eleven, is on his way home from a chess-betting match. He sees a car crash and is inclined to help. He climbs up the truck ladder to see if the passengers are injured. Instead, the driver starts up the truck again and drives away. The Britannian army is shooting at them. A female passenger opens up the back of the truck and a
huge machine wielding guns propelled on roller-blades emerges and fires at the Britannian army. Lelouch has gotten involved with terrorists.
The truck crashes into the Shinjuku ghetto, injuring the driver. There Lelouch can see what's in the truck. The terrorists have stolen some sort of cargo, a huge metal capsule. Suddenly, a soldier attacks him, telling him that the capsule contains poisonous gas. However, the soldier recognises Lelouch. He takes off his helmet and reveals himself as Suzaku, Lelouch's childhood friend. Their reunion is cut short as the capsule opens, instead of poisonous gas, a girl with long green hair emerges.
The governor of Area 11,
Prince Clovis, does not want the public, or anyone for that matter to know about the capsule. He orders the destruction of the Shinjuku ghetto, and the Britannian army starts massacring its people.
A Britannian commander and some reinforcements come to the scene, the commander tells Suzaku to kill Lelouch and retrieve the girl. Suzaku refuses, explaining that Lelouch is a citizen caught up in conflict. The commander scoffs and shoots him. The commander is about to shoot Lelouch, when the green haired girl takes the bullet right in the forehead. Lelouch is shocked and scared, as the commander turns on him after her. He thinks of his younger sister named
Nunnally, blind and in a wheel chair. He tells himself he can't die yet. Suddenly, the green haired girl grabs his hand, Lelouch goes into a trance like state where he sees images, and hears the girl's voice inside his head. She offers him a contract of power, a great power; he will be human but differ from other humans, and that in return he must grant her a wish. Lelouch accepts.
Lelouch stands up, his right eye is glowing with power. He orders the soldiers to die. The soldiers, without any hesitation, raise their guns to their heads and commit suicide. At first Lelouch is confused, but he then realises what happened, and he smiles an evil grin.
Lelouch learns to more about the power, and with it he manipulates the people around him. He wears a mask and goes under the alias of Zero, he successfully establishes a terrorist group, and has gained support of thousands in ghettos. Lelouch finds himself closer to reaching his goal of destroying Britannia, but is still far from it, and his hands have already been stained with blood.
REVIEW
A gripping show, with beautiful art to boot. The storyline is unique, and plot twists are creative and unpredictable. There are no stereotypical characters in Code Geass, with the main character pretty much a tactical, sadistic killer and the antagonist a good-looking pacifist. The women in the series are incredibly powerful and influential, which is good to see the X chromosomes doing well.
The
voice acting in this series is spectacular, Jun Fukuyama (福山 潤) who voices Lelouch, is really doing a spectacular job and pulls off Lelouch's character brilliantly. Takahiro Sakurai (櫻井 孝宏), not really used to doing the pacifist but his performance is still pretty good. Yukana (野上 ゆかな Nogami Yukana) as C.C, the green haired girl, displays her wide range in voice acting again. And the new Ami Koshimizu (小清水 亜美 Koshimizu Ami) does
Kallen's voice perfectly, flawlessly pulling off her double personality.
Although I must say, the mecha (big robots with guns) are rather ugly. They look better then the Armour Slaves from Full Metal Panic (フルメタル・パニック!) I suppose, but compared to Gundams, they look quite dodgy. They could have easily made Code Geass another Gundam Series (Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit G Gundam etc.) and would have been a sure success, and the creators could just use the old Gundam design. But I think it was a good move to do a little different.
I'm surprised that Code Geass hasn't received any controversy complaints. The mainland of Britannia is depicted in the lands that we call the United States of America. This anime depicts the leader coming from that land, as a white haired, large, unfair and evil man with five concubines and possibly twenty children. Although, at least the USA is depicted, they haven't shown Australia, or Ireland once.
Even though the art is pretty and the characters are all bishounens (美少年 good looking boys) and bishoujos (美少女good looking girls), the characters and their personalities all remind you of someone else. Lelouch looks like Shinn Asuka (シン アスカ) from Gundam Seed Destiny (機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY) and Kamui Shirou (司狼 神威 Shirō) from X/1999 with a personality like Light's from Death Note (デスノート). Suzaku looks like Syaoran Li (李 小狼) from Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプターさくら), and looks and has a personality similar to Kira Yamato's (キラ ヤマト) from Gundam Seed. Lloyd's eccentricity is also very similar to Ichiro Mihara's (三原 一郎) from Angelic Layer (エンジェリックレイヤー), while Princess Euphemia is a clone of Lacus Clyne (ラクス・クライン) from Gundam Seed. Notably, all the comparisons I have stated are all works by either CLAMP or Sunrise, so I suppose it's not too odd. The characters have become unique by grabbing aspects of all sorts of other characters.
The
music in Code Geass, is mediocre at best. The starting theme is Colors by Flow (フロウ), who have performed two songs for the anime Naruto, the ending theme is Yukyo Seishunka (勇侠青春謳, Hero Youth Song), the unusual band with the genre of Gothic Lolita music. The second starting theme is Kaidoku Funo (解読不能, Indecipherable) by Jinn (ジン). This song received incredibly terrible feedback, with its screechy vocals and incomprehensible lyrics with an odd tune to match. You get used to it though. The second ending theme, Mosaic Kakera (モザイクカケラ) by SunSet Swish (サンセット スウィッシュ) is an oddly peaceful song with suiting vocals, and good music all around. The other featured songs are all very unusual, with collaborations of all sorts of different instruments, but they are all suitable for the anime and are fitting for the scene they are played in.
Other then a bit of screechy music and ugly machines, Code Geass hasn't let me down. The 23 episodes released have all been very fulfilling, character relationships and development are all shown impeccably so far. The storyline evolving, focusing steadfast on the main plot, but exploring other sub plots. Congratulations and praise to Sunrise and Code Geass's producers, for creating this well written, well drawn and popular series.
Rating: 9.5/10
