Code Geass

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) is a Japanese anime series, created by Sunrise. It was directed by Gorō Taniguchi and scripted by Ichirō Ōkouchi (both of whom who had earlier worked on another Sunrise series, the acclaimed Planetes), and featured character designs by the noted all-female Clamp mangaka group.

Story

On August 10th, 2010, a.t.b., the Holy Empire of Britannia overpowered Japanese forces and conquered the country with their robotic weapons, the Knightmare Frames, in less than a month. Japan lost its freedom and rights and was renamed Area 11, and the Japanese people are renamed "Elevens" and forced to survive in ghettos, while Britannians live in first-class settlements. Rebel elements persist, however, as pockets of Japanese organizations struggle against the Empire for the independence of Japan.

After his father, the Emperor of Britannia, did nothing to pursue the terrorists who murdered his mother and crippled his sister, a young boy named Lelouch vowed to destroy Britannia. Seven years later in Area 11, he encounters a mysterious girl who gives him the power of the Geass. With it, he finally has the power that he needs to defeat Britannia and fulfill his two wishes: to seek revenge for his mother and to construct a world in which his beloved sister can live happily.

Characters

Lelouch Lamperouge (ルルーシュ・ランペルージ, Rurūshu Ranperūji) Seiyū: Jun Fukuyama (Childhood period: Sayaka Ohara)

• Nicknames: "Black Prince", "Zero", "Lulu"
• Age: 17
• Nationality: Britannian
• Date of birth: December 5, 1999 a.t.b
• Zodiac sign: Sagittarius
• Blood type: A
• Height: 178cm (5'10")
• School grade: 2nd year (11th grade)

Seemingly an ordinary 17-year-old student at the Ashford Academy, Lelouch Lamperouge, also called Lulu (ルル, Ruru) by his friends, is in fact the son of the Emperor of Britannia and the late Empress Marianne and a member of the Britannia Imperial Family. His real name is Lelouch Vi Britannia (ルルーシュ・ヴィ・ブリタニア, Lelouch Vi Britannia) and he was the eleventh prince and seventeenth in line for the throne prior to his mother's assassination and his sister's crippling in the same incident. A 10-year-old Lelouch confronted the Emperor afterwards and accused him of leaving his mother defenseless. In response, his father declared him stripped of his status as prince and banished him to Japan, where he was used as a political hostage over the mineral sakuradite conflict. It was during his stay at the prime minister's house that he befriended Suzaku Kururugi. However, when Britannia finally developed its Knightmare Frames fleet and decided to invade Japan to seize control of the Sakuradite mines, consequently discarding Lelouch's use as a diplomatic tool, Lelouch, fearing for his and his sister's safety, hid their true identity and reverted to their mother's maiden name, Lamperouge, seeking the help of the Ashford family, who were his mother's allies. Only the Ashford family members and Suzaku Kururugi know his true name, while Euphemia analyzed and discover his real identity.

Lelouch believes the world has been thrown in a vicious circle of violence and oppression that can only be broken if someone dared to step forth, work against it, and win. A brilliant thinker and very talented at chess, Lelouch is a member of Ashford Academy's student council who can easily become the top honors student, but he chooses to do slightly worse to avoid attention. One day, he receives the Power of Geass from C.C., which allows him to make people completely obey his orders. The power later evolves after continuous use and becomes permanently activated. To pursue his quest against Britannia, he dons a black helmet and cloak and assumes the secret identity of a mysterious, masked activist he baptizes Zero (ゼロ, Zero). He later creates The Black Knights by allying himself with Karen's resistance group, starting a terrorist campaign against powerful individuals who oppress the helpless. He is willing to do whatever it takes to collapse the Empire, even if it means lying to his followers, using people as bait for the outcome he desires. However, it is difficult for him to execute his meticulous plans when he knows or discovers those close to him may suffer from the results, which is a weakness as a commander but a remnant of his humanity and sanity. The true purposes of Lelouch's rebellion are to obtain revenge for his mother and construct an ideal world where his sister Nunnally can live in peace.

Suzaku Kururugi (枢木 スザク, Kururugi Suzaku) Seiyū: Takahiro Sakurai (Childhood period: Akeno Watanabe)

• Nickname: "White Knight"
• Age: 17
• Nationality: Eleven
• Date of birth: July 10, 2000 a.t.b
• Zodiac Sign: Cancer
• Blood type: O
• Height: 176cm (5'9")

Lelouch's childhood friend and son of Japan's last prime minister, Genbu Kururugi. For reasons unknown, Suzaku's existence was kept a secret from the public until after the war. After Britannia's invasion of Japan, Suzaku joins the Britannia Army and becomes an Honorary Britannian, and later, the pilot of the Lancelot, as a member of its R&D Division. He always keeps with him a broken pocket watch, a memento of his deceased father. He agrees with Zero on the latter's assertion that the Britannia Empire is corrupt and not worth serving, but wants to nevertheless change and improve the Empire from within, to show that his father's death was not in vain. This is because, Suzaku claims, achieving results by wrong or illegal methods is meaningless. In a twist of fate, Suzaku becomes the pilot of Lancelot during the Shinjuku ghetto debacle, due to the fact that it is 'experimental,' so Knights (Knightmare Frame pilots) were not an option. After Lloyd had Suzaku tested if he could even pilot a Knightmare Frame, it was revealed that based on his evaluation score, Suzaku was a top-class operator. After the incident, he becomes a scapegoat for the death of Prince Clovis in episode three, in a plan apparently engineered by Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald. He is acquitted, and enrolled into Ashford Academy, by Euphemia's suggestion. His rank within the military was initially Private, but he is later promoted to Warrant Officer by Cornelia when she first arrived in Japan. Despite his position in the Britannian Army, he still regards Lelouch as a friend.

An incident in episode 16 between Suzaku and Mao results in the latter revealing that Suzaku murdered his own father, during the immediate aftermath of Britannia's invasion of Japan, when Suzaku, horrified by the country's devastation due to the war tried to convince his father to surrender. Suzaku stabbed him after his father backhanded him away and refused to surrender, opting instead for a do-or-die resistance. The incident was covered up and Suzaku was spared, while the government was thrown into disarray and surrendered to Britannia. Lelouch justified this as Kirihara of the Kyoto group stated that Kururugi Genbu’s death suppressed the hardline faction's call to resist to the bitter end. Moreover, he claims as Zero, prolonged resistance would have had the Chinese and Europeans intervene in the war to split Japan into 3 sectors, embroiling it in a continuous war. Thus, Suzaku believe the death of his father was necessary for Japan, even though he also believes that the ends achieved by wrong means are meaningless.

Suzaku's position as the Lancelot's pilot was revealed to everyone during a battle with his former instructor Kyōshirō Tōdō, the immediate aftermath of which he was chosen by Princess Euphemia to become her Knight, granting him the rank of Major. During the battle on Shikinejima Island, Lelouch is forced to use the power of Geass on Suzaku and commands him to "Live". As the command gives no time or event limitations, it activates within Suzaku every time when he feels suicidal and deters him from doing so. Suzaku falls in love with Princess Euphemia, and thus is emotionally crushed by her death. He gets a visit from V.V., offering to tell him the truth behind Euphie's death. He later calls Lelouch using Euphie's phone, and tells him that his motives have gone from idealism to hatred, and that he will fight for hatred. It also appears that Suzaku has an undefined connection to the Geass (maybe due to his earlier contact with C.C.), which allows him to "sense" individuals strongly related to the Geass such as C.C. and V.V.

C.C. (シー・ツー, Shī Tsū) Seiyū: Yukana

• Nicknames: "Gray Witch"
• Age: 16 (in appearance)
• Height: 160 cm (5'3")

A mysterious green-haired girl who bestows the power of Geass upon Lelouch under the condition that he would grant her greatest wish. She passively oversees Lelouch's missions to ensure that he does not die. Those abilities caught the interest of Britannia and she was imprisoned as a part of Britannia's experimentation in the past. C.C. appears to be in her teens, but she actually has been living for hundreds of years. In the past, she has observed Suzaku and Lelouch when they were both children. The former Resistance group steals the capsule encasing her from the Britannia Army in Area 11, which leads to Lelouch's reencounter with C.C. When Lelouch came into contact with her while she was using image shock on Suzaku, he is accidentally shown parts of her memories, which included a woman with a sigil similar to her own, and hints of a bloody conflict. C.C. has a stigmata under her left breast, which takes the same shape as the sigil on her forehead. She involuntarily revealed her real name to Lelouch in her sleep. When left alone, she has sometimes spoken to a previously unknown person through means unknown, which, in episode 23, was revealed to be Marianne. C.C. is a member of the Black Knights, but her willful attitude and lack of an official posting annoys several veterans; at one point, Tamaki goes so far as to accuse her of being a member only because she's Zero's lover, a claim which she denies. When Lelouch heads to Kyūshū to battle the Chinese-supported rebellion, C.C. co-pilots the Gawain with him, apparently handling the actual piloting while Lelouch operates the weapons. She also has a penchant for pizza.

C.C.'s abilities

C.C. has impressive regenerative abilities, allowing her to recover from fatal wounds and making her nearly immortal. She cannot use the power of Geass but is immune to its effects. She also has Geass-related abilities, such as rapidly displaying a series of ominous and chaotic images in another person's mind by direct contact, though it also works through clothing and even a Knightmare Frame. She can also project a hologram of herself that is only visible to selected people, for which the selection criteria are still unknown.

Karen Stadtfeld (カレン・シュタットフェルト, Karen Shutattoferuto) / Karen Kōzuki (紅月カレン, Kōzuki Karen) Seiyū: Ami Koshimizu

• Age: 17
• Zodiac Sign: Aries
• Blood Type: B
• Height: 160cm (5'3")

A Britannian-Eleven girl, who believes herself to be a Japanese person at heart and prefers to be known by her birth name, Karen Kōzuki (紅月カレン, Kōzuki Karen). She is currently the leader of the Zero squadron (consisting of Zero's bodyguards) of The Black Knights, and is amongst its most talented pilots. She comes from a prestigious Britannian family and attends the Ashford Academy, where she is a member of its student council and amongst its most outstanding students. Her brother, Naoto Kōzuki (紅月ナオト, Kōzuki Naoto), with whom she had a deep connection, was a former leader of the resistance organization and died in the past. When away from the Academy, she fights as an anti-Britannian operative. In the second episode, she is unknowingly assisted by Lelouch in Shinjuku (who, via the transmission of radio-based instructions, helped her defeat the Britannian forces chasing her) but is currently unaware of his true identity. She had initially suspected Lelouch of being the one who helped her in Shinjuku, but Lelouch tricks her by playing a recorded message of himself on the telephone, drawing her suspicions off him. Karen appears to be trusted greatly by Lelouch, as he offers to reveal his true identity to her as early as in episode 12 (which she refuses), and she greatly admires Zero, evident in her ecstatic reaction to her appointment as head of the Zero squadron in episode 18.

She later joins The Black Knights and receives her own Knightmare Frame, the Guren Nishiki, to replace the Glasgow she had lost while protecting her mother. Karen has stayed loyal to Zero ever since. Both Karen's stepmother and biological mother live with her in the same house, but her biological mother is employed as a maid and is often mistreated by both the stepmother and Karen. Karen now fights against the Britannia Empire to fulfill her wish for a world in which she can live happily with her mother. Piloting the Guren Nishiki, Karen defeated and almost killed Jeremiah Gottwald. Karen also managed to defeat Cornelia li Britannia but failed to capture her due to the interference of Suzaku, piloting the Lancelot. Karen even exhibits that she is capable of fighting against Suzaku Kururugi in his Lancelot equally. Her devotion to Zero is greatly shown when she attempts to assassinate Suzaku at a school party for Zero, even risking her life to save Zero by trying to reveal her identity to Suzaku in the battle at Shikinejima island. Her identity was exposed when Suzaku accidentally finds Karen bathing herself by a waterfall situated in a nearby island, Kame ne Jima, in which they find themselves during the aftermath of the battle of Shikinejima. She is one of the few people who knows that Suzaku killed his father.

Britannia Empire

A royal kingdom and international superpower, which possesses about one-third of the entire world. Territories under Britannian rule include Area 11, North America, the Philippines, islands from the Pacific Ocean and a Middle Eastern-like country, recently conquered and renamed as Area 18. The Britannia flag features a lion and a snake intertwined, and they represent "king" and "death and rebirth" respectively.

Imperial Family

The numerical order of the princes and princesses of the imperial family is given by the status of their mothers, or the queens. For example, Cornelia and Euphemia are the Second and the Third Princess, respectively, while Lelouch is only the Seventeenth Prince. It can be inferred that the Cornelia and Euphemia's mother had a higher status than Marianne Vi Britannia, the mother of Lelouch and Nunnally. Also, the numbering of the imperial princes and princesses is sorted by gender. For example, Euphemia is the Third Princess and Clovis is the Third Prince.

The Emperor of Britannia (ブリタニア皇帝, Buritania Kōtei) Seiyū: Norio Wakamoto

• Age: 62

The emperor of the Britannia Empire and Lelouch's father. He installs his children in important positions in the Empire to see their true abilities. He views equality as an evil that must be dispelled and encourages social battle to maintain evolution within the society. As such, he publicly supports inequality and calls for competition and fighting so as to create progress. Shortly after his mother's death, Lelouch questioned why the Emperor did not try to protect Marianne. Irritated with Lelouch and considering his son to be nothing without him, the Emperor sends both Lelouch and Nunnally to Japan as political hostages.

Cornelia Li Britannia (コーネリア・リ・ブリタニア, Kōneria Ri Buritania) Seiyū: Junko Minagawa

• Nickname: "Witch of Britannia"
• Age: 27
• Zodiac Sign: Capricorn
• Blood Type: O

The second princess of the Britannia Imperial Family and, as such, Lelouch's half-sister. She is extremely skilled in Knightmare Frame combat and completed the establishment of Area 18 shortly before arriving in Area 11. Cornelia is the Governor-General and the Chief General of the Imperial Army and goes to Area 11 to apprehend Clovis' murderer, the mysterious Zero, as well as avenging Lelouch and Nunnally (unaware of the fact that they survived their predicament as political hostages) by putting an end to the conflict there- in fact, this loss of the three siblings seems to be the source of her distrust toward foreigners and Honorary Britannians. She pilots a customized Gloucester Knightmare Frame and has her own circle of devoted officers. As a child, she appeared to have doted upon her younger sister Euphemia; as a result, Euphemia is Cornelia's only known weak spot. Clovis believes that she and Prince Schneizel knew about the truth regarding the murder of Marianne Vi Britannia, although Euphemia later tells Lelouch that Cornelia has long admired Marianne and conducted investigations on the murder. She had disagreed with Euphemia over the appointment of Suzaku as her knight and the establishment of the Special Administrative Region, but had allowed her to proceed with them.

Euphemia Li Britannia (ユーフェミア・リ・ブリタニア, Yūfemia Ri Buritania) Seiyū: Omi Minami

• Nickname: Euphie (ユフィ, Yufi)
• Age: 16
• Zodiac Sign: Libra
• Blood Type: B

The third princess of the Britannia Imperial Family. Lelouch's half-sister and innocent to a fault, she was the sister Lelouch cared most about after Nunnally. She used Clovis' death as an excuse to enter Area 11 and was known for loving and conversing with animals. After meeting Suzaku, she requested his assistance to prevent any unnecessary deaths around her. During the Lake Kawaguchi Convention Center Hotel incident, Lelouch (as Zero) noted that she had not changed since childhood and was not surprised to see her offering herself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of other people. Euphemia was the Lieutenant-Governor of Area 11, a role she admittedly did not enjoy. She admired her older sister, Cornelia, but despised all combat in general. Her ideals conflicted with the reality and put her in a similar situation to Suzaku's. A situation that aided in her decision of choosing Suzaku Kururugi as her Knight. Cornelia was quite worried that her ideals could get her into trouble, however. She warned her that the policy of discrimination against Honorary Britannians was so firmly-established that she might have to be exposed to the rigors and dangers of competing for the throne in order to challenge it. She was also capable of piloting a Knightmare Frame, as seen in the battle at the Empire's Shikinejima Island Base.

Euphemia was the second person in the royal family to know that Lelouch is alive and first to know his alter ego as Zero, having deduced it after the hotel hijacking incident. Euphemia was quite close to Lelouch and Nunnally in the past and, wishing to live those days once again, she declared the establishment of a Special Administration Region in Japan. Lelouch initially opposed this proposal, but Euphemia eventually convinced him otherwise when she reveals that she was doing it for the sake of Nunnally and had abdicated her right to succeed the Britannian throne. Lelouch jokingly ordered her to kill the Japanese people just as his power of Geass permanently activated, causing her and the Britannia army to massacre scores of them. Regretfully, Lelouch fatally shot her to end her rampage (whilst revealing that he may have considered Euphemia to be his first love) and she shared her last moments with Suzaku. Euphemia died believing that the Japanese people are happy with the Japan that she created. Her death created a firm resolve in both Suzaku and Cornelia in defeating Zero once and for all.

World

The Holy Empire of Britannia (神聖ブリタニア帝国, Shinsei Buritania Teikoku)

An international superpower that possesses about one-third of the entire world. It remains in expansion, with the recent invasion and colonization of Area 18. Britannia invades Japan to obtain a newly discovered energy source, the Sakuradite. The Britannia Empire appears to be based on an alternative universe in which the monarchy remains absolute, suppressing the American colonies' rebellion in the 1700s and thereby conquering the American continents.

Japan

A nation that had rich sources of the new power source named Sakuradite. Under Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi and with the shadow support of the Sakuradite industries, Japan oppressed and dominated other countries through economic control. Frictions between the Britannian Empire and Japan eventually developed into a diplomatic conflict and later open war with the former, invading and conquering the country to seize control of the resource. Japan's name is soon changed to Area 11 and its people are renamed to Elevens. The number denotes the numerical order by which Britannia has occupied new territories.

Area 18

A desert country, which appears to be based within the Middle East.

EU

Another country, presumably the European Union and supporting equal rights, unlike the Holy Empire of Britannia.

Chinese Federation

An Asian federation, where wealth is reportedly equally distributed.

My inspiration: This is a great anime series with tactic, psychology and science. The story line is great with many events and thinking. The anime also reflects many story in "The three kingdom", Bible and England mythology.