So we've come to our very first mecha anime, and we find that it's not necessarily about mechs. But in all seriousness, this anime is no joke. We're about to enter into an alternate universe where the rulers of North America control Japan, taking away it's name and its culture. But there's a new hero on the rise... hey wait a minute, back up. Is Lelouche really a hero? His alignment's really too grey for me to call him a classical hero per say, so who wrote that? Me? Really? I can't seem to remember doing it... Weird... Yeah, we've entered a world where some folks have special abilities. Like mind manipulation. (Really Lelouche, you've got some nerve. ><;) Let's get back on track. If you're looking for an anime with simple definitions of who the bad guys are, go watch Dragonball Z, this anime isn't for you. If you're looking for something happy, turn back now. It's not too late. You may yet be able to save yourself. However, if you're looking for a story that could be interpreted a hundred different ways and is a heart-breaking tale of mistakes, revenge, and regret, you've come to the right place. So grab your fancy black cape, and strap into your Knightmare, we're taking a look at
Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion. |
Lelouche and his alter ego,
the mysterious leader of the Black Knights, Zero. |
I first heard of this anime when most other American fans did, when it came out in the states and erupted in a firestorm of popularity. Maybe I had an extreme mistrust of that mysterious thing called hype, or maybe I was more interested in an older series I had just recently discovered called
Slayers, (If it's not an anime classic, it should be,) but I had this strong impulse to tune it out, and ignore it. As such, when I was doing my study abroad in Japan that summer, (which happened to be focused on popular culture as seen through manga and anime), I was left out of the loop by most of my fellow students because everyone else had seen it and that was all most of them would talk about. My interest in the series was mostly an academic one when I became more familiar with it after nearly watching it all the way through later, and I eventually came to appreciate it enough to use it as a reference for my senior thesis. It was a rare example of an anime that did not come from a manga but was actually an original series. Produced by the acclaimed studio Sunrise,
Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion ran in Japan for 25 episodes starting in October of 2006, and ending in July of 2007. Bandai holds the licensing rights for those of you wishing to find it in the United States.
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| Lelouche: So... much... death... right in front of me... |
Our story begins in an alternate dystopian history where there's this country called Britannia which controls North and South America, and more recently, Japan. As a result of their having conquered the country, it has been stripped of it's name and has been renamed Section 11. The Japanese are not even second-class citizens under this new leadership. They are now called elevens, due to this change in management, and are horribly oppressed because of Britannia's fanatical racism, as well as their love of Social Darwinism. This already sounds like a very happy show doesn't it? ^^; After thats been gotten out of the way in the prologue, we cut to our titular character, Lelouche Lamperouge as he totally beasts some noble at chess before going back through Shinjuku (which is a ghetto now) to the boarding school for Britannians that he attends in Tokyo. However, as he returns, he has some incredibly bad luck when a truck crashes in front of him. In his attempt to step in and help like a good Samaritan, he accidentally ends up in the trailer of the truck and discovers that it's being driven by terrorists/freedom fighters (depending on who you've decided to root for in this story) and they're escaping after having stolen what appears to be a giant canister of poison gas. Things get even more complicated when Lelouche finds that his old Japanese friend Suzaku has become an honorary Britannian and is among the strike force out to subdue the rebels. In the confusion, the gas canister opens revealing that it's actually a holding tank for a mysterious girl. Suzaku is shot trying to save them and then C.C. the girl, (who is clothed in a ludicrously constrictive straight-jacket by the way, and the name is pronounced C. Tsu.) is almost immediately shot in the head before Lelouche's eyes. With her apparent dying words she grants him a special ability by a contract called a Geas which he can use to give a person a single command that they absolutely have to obey. He promptly uses this to have the whole extraction squad commit suicide before he starts thinking how he can use this to his advantage. As he has no love for Britannia, for reasons I'll go into later, he immediately determines that he'll have to use the rebels and some of the mechs they've stolen (called Knightmare frames in this universe) like his chess pieces in order to get everyone out alive before plotting his next move. Shortly after, he adopts the moniker "Zero" along with a theatrical mask and the same group of rebels, in order to set his plan in motion to get revenge on his father (who happens to be the current king of Britannia by the way) and reshape the world into a place that he and his sister can live happily in. The rest of the series concerns Lelouche's struggles as he attempts to build his army, and eventually to take back Japan while dealing with his friend Suzaku, who has gone the other way, trying to change the world by changing the system from within.
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| Hey guys? I don't think we're in Japan anymore. |
The world in which all of this takes place is imagined in fascinating detail. Though in the context of this series alone, the viewer knows very little about what happened differently to create this alternate history, we still know that something has gone very wrong. Unlike the Japan we know in real life, this one is a crumbling mess except in areas where the Britannians live. The Japanese have been forced into ghettos and mining colonies that are some of the worst places to live, having been stripped of their country's name and their designation as Japanese. The Britannians on the other hand, live in an opulence that is more reminiscent of the French palace of Versailles, than any remnant of what we think of as American. From that perspective, I can only guess that the American colonies must have failed to become independent somehow, which leads me to wonder if the descendants of the american rebels have similar issues with Britannia. Its an interesting question to ponder, but its neither here nor there. There are also two other empires out there, comprised of the European countries and of China. Politics are never far from the scene of things, which makes a corrupt bureaucracy even more intricate and confusing. The current political layout seems pretty well thought out in that respect.
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And now, reprising its role as a symbol of Japan in ruins,
allow me to reintroduce the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices Building. |
However, just to nitpick, I will point out that their timeline has more than its share of hiccups, because I'm a critic and thats what I do. There are a couple of iconic buildings in the background that actually exist in our timeline, but I have a feeling that aside from the metaphoric sense in which they are used, they have no business being in this continuity. Of course, I speak of the ruins of
Tokyo Tower and the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Offices building in Shinjuku. I'll start with the tower first. Theoretically if the United States never existed then they never would have flattened Tokyo in World War II. Tokyo Tower was a product of the economic boom that happened after the war, so if that war never happened, then the tower never would have been around to be destroyed. Same goes for the Government Office building. It was built in 1991, and it probably never would have been built without World War II because it was planned during the last years of the boom before the recession in the 90's hit. If we wanna take this even further, without the United States forming we never get
Commodore Perry. See, the reason he wanted to open up Japan to trade was because the United States was looking for trade routes to China. Great Britain, (presumably, whether they lost the motherland or not) still would have had the
East India Company at that time and therefore didn't need said trade route. As a result, Perry never would have made it to Japan to use gunboat diplomacy to change their policy of isolation and end their feudal period. As a result, there would be no development because Japan never would have gotten the wakeup call to industrialize and look at other forms of government and such, which means they never would have gone to a more oligarchical form of rule during the
Meiji period, which means there wouldn't be a prime minister (which would have made Suzaku's father's position an impossible one in Japan, never mind that no one seems to know what happened to the emperor...). It also means they would have no reason to have all those destroyed skyscrapers after Britannia took the country. I could go on to argue the semantics of how fast technology progresses, in relation to the cell phones and mechs, and how progress it is often inhibited under totalitarian rule, but I digress, we need to move on. (Betcha didn't think you'd get a history lesson too, though.)
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What these two enemies don't know is that in their other lives,
they're actually best friends and attend the same school.
That's Suzaku up top by the way. |
The main characters, Lelouche and Suzaku and the circles they run in are very well detailed and thought out. Lelouche is a classical example of what TV tropes calls a
Magnificent Bastard, in that he excels at putting together intricate plans, yet he's capable of changing things up on the fly, acting like he knows nothing, and putting himself on the battlefield with epic effectiveness. Though he hates making useless sacrifices, he will make sacrifices, and ruthlessly, when he has to. This is exemplified by his sacrifice of the leadership for the Japanese Liberation Front (another group of rebels) in episode 13 to make his own forces think the Britannians had fired on a ship that was surrendering. Yet, his more human qualities and the doubt he suffers when he allows himself to contemplate his own mistakes and grieve over the things he regrets having done, along with his relationships with the characters that surround him in the student council at the school as well as his double life as Zero, make him a very complex and interesting character. Suzaku too, has his secrets, though he's a lot less of a trickster and a lot more like a traditional heroic warrior type, in that he runs to danger wherever it rears its head and fights like a lion for those he's sworn to uphold. Because both of these archetypes are interesting, it makes it really hard to know who you want to win, because half the time you want to cheer for Lelouche but when Suzaku flies in, you can't help but want him to succeed too, even if the folks he works for are the goons of an even bigger, meaner boss. That they're on opposite sides makes things even worse. As a result, because of Lelouche's antics, Suzaku often ends up in prison and because of Suzaku's interference, Lelouche's plans are often thwarted. So it may as well be a stalemate half the time. But whenever the two clash, its always exciting and epic.
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In the first intro, it takes
three group portraits to introduce everybody.
This is just the nakama from the boarding school. |
When it comes to the minor characters, I tend to be of two minds about them. On the one hand, my knee-jerk reaction when they start bringing everyone else in is "Wait! Slow down!... too many sub plots!... need more space...!" Each of these subplots is important as are the characters, sort of, but when you only have 25 episodes to fill, maybe having around 10 different groups, each with their own fully formed characters and ideas of what they want to happen, may be a little much. Like on the Britannian side, there's the Royal Family, there's Suzaku's unit that runs his mech, there's these two officers Jeremiah and Villetta, who got royally screwed by Lelouche early on, and then there's princess Cornelia's royal guard. That's just the antagonist's side. On the Protagonist's side of things, there's his Black Knights, there's Deithard, there's Rakshata and her team, there's Lelouche's family, the Japanese Liberation Front, and the Kyoto group that funds a lot of the resistance movements. Taking all these groups out, there's still the neutral ground of the student council at the boarding school Suzaku and Lelouche both attend. With all these people, no wonder things get crowded. It's hard to keep track of everything half the time.
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Princess Euphemia and Suzaku
discussing the situation in the Shinjuku Ghetto. |
On the other hand, it would be nearly impossible to get rid of any of their sub plots and have the same story as a lot of them provide catalysts for bigger things. Like there's a sub-plot with this girl Shirley who goes to the school and was actually in love with Lelouche but because he's responsible for her father's death in one episode, her influence serves to drive Lelouche further into his own obsessions and has repercussions that span several episodes. Further, some of the minor characters are easy to start caring about, and in some cases, they're easier to, than the main characters. Like princess Euphemia. She's such a kind and loving person and your heart-strings tear every time she has to face the realities that are controlling her world, and when her sub-plot ends, you know she never deserved what she got. (I won't say what that was, but I wanted to cry even though she was with the antagonists.) Then there's Villetta, who is the first person who survives being tricked by Lelouche in the beginning. She eventually loses her memory and even though she was a royal jerk to begin with, you do want her to make something of the life she finds with Ohgi, one of Zero's subordinates (Once again, I'd say more, but it's a big spoiler.). C.C. is such an enigmatic character, and surprisingly active for someone who got shot in the head in the first episode, and you really want some answers about that, but you don't get a lot of them. The most you really get is that it seems she's virtually immortal, the Britannians were using her as some sort of test subject, and that she's had other people she's made a Geas with, one of which is a white-haired Chinese guy with the stereotypical name of Mao, who has gone totally crazy because of it (perhaps telling us that power is dangerous.) She also apparently likes pizza. A lot.
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| Hey, uh... guys? Overkill much? |
Because this was an anime original, and because of all these sub-plots, filler is completely non existent. There is always something happening, even in the episode with the school cultural festival, which is usually the stuff of fillers in most anime. While the show is pretty dark, there are plenty of lighter moments that are supposed to add a little bit of comedy relief, but even so, there were plenty of things I found to be hilarious with logic applied, that probably shouldn't have been funny. For instance, there are some horrible examples of Engrish in the Japanese dub when the Britannian mech pilots use the English phrase "Yes, my lord!" As a form of address when they've been issued an order. If you realize that half the people they address aren't really royalty, it compounds the amusement. Sometimes the imagery can also be unintentionally amusing. Like in one episode, Lelouche and Suzaku have to go down into the basement of the school in order to find Nunnaly and I found myself wondering if they'd find Cerebro and Professor X down there, because it looked so much like the basement under the
Xavier institute. (There was even a Danger Room... sort of...) The other thing I noticed is the liberal use of straight jackets in Britannian prisons. I mean, I could understand C.C. having one given the incredible powers she seems to exhibit, but Suzaku and many of the others who land in jail end up in full-body straight jackets even when just sitting in their cells. I mean, maybe it's just me, but isn't that kinda overdoing it? What are they afraid of? It's not like most normal people can shoot laser beams out of their hands in this universe. Most folks seem like they'd be pretty helpless even without the extra restraint.
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These guys spend a lot of time
contemplating stuff to be sure. |
All kidding aside though, some of the greatest strengths of this piece are its uses of metaphor and irony to provoke thought about the questions being asked. Let me be clear, this is not an anime that is supposed to give you the answers. In many ways Lelouche and Suzaku are clearly shaped by the worlds they inhabit and they are often given the same questions to ponder while coming up with their own ways to cope with them. Sometimes their given totally different questions and come up with no answers except to keep going, which is what happens in a fascinating set of scenes they do alternating their dialog in two different places about the questions regarding whether its good to be strong, and if it's bad to be weak. One of the really interesting things about the show however, is how it can be interpreted so many different ways. The laziest of which would be to interpret it as representative of World War II in some shape. Such as attributing it to the U.S. occupation, or perhaps even a reverse parable for the Japanese occupation of Korea (during which the native Koreans were stripped of their heritage and forced to take Japanese names.) But after having seen this season all the way through, I now realize that there are other less literal and much more basic possibilities to consider. with a much more modern touch. Over the last few years, Japan as a whole has faced a lot. An internal recession, the ravages of globalization as things like McDonalds and other westernized things have become more prevalent, and a fear of losing some of their identity as the Japanese to this thing that is often identified as American Imperialism which some perceive to hold them in thrall under the guise of the nuclear umbrella. Perhaps what it is really, is frustration on the part of the young that things have progressed the way they have because of actions taken by the old and those who have been placed in positions of power, and perhaps a general confusion as to how to deal with the results and their unintended consequences, which are truly an enduring theme for this show.
Overall, the presentation is very well done. The music is at times epic, and emotional with choirs often singing at pivotal moments in the score and sometimes unusual but incredible audio choices are used for some scenes. I never thought a harpsichord could be epic until now. I will point out however, that there are also some choices that were kinda silly. Like there's this male choir in several scenes with the Britannians that I doubt could sound more laughably pompous if they tried, Image songs are also used in a couple of places that I felt were appropriate, but I couldn't find them as memorable. There are three theme songs to this anime, and each of them on their own are okay (I liked the last one: "Hitomi no Tsubasa" by the band Access, the best.) However I found "Colors" , the first opening theme by SunSet Swish to be a little too happy for the show. Think of the stuff that happens just in the first episode. Mass genocide takes place, a girl gets shot in the head, and a guy tells a whole military squad to kill themselves and they are compelled to do it. Now wander over to youtube and find this song and then tell me, given the horrible stuff that happens, does this song fit? I'll leave that to you dear readers. The imagery and character designs are also very nice as should be expected since Sunrise had CLAMP on the character-design team.I also took a brief look at some episodes with English dub. It's not bad and there are a few familiar voices such as Johnny Yong Bosch as Lelouche, Crispin Freeman as Jeremiah, and Mary McGlynn as the Princess Cornelia, so you English-only folks won't be disappointed. As far as this anime is concerned, there's a lot of good and a lot of weird. I do recommend you see it at least once, (probably twice because you'll notice things you didn't see the first time through,) as I do think it is an important one to to see, but be prepared for it to end on a downer. Even so, its okay. After all, if everything ended in ponies and kittens, where would the fun in life be? And don't forget, there's still R2 out there, if we want to be really sure, but that's for another time, so that's the tiger's two cents.
The images utilized in this review are taken from Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion.
