Review: Code Geass (R1 & R2) Anime Review

This next series that I have decided to review is one of the best Anime series that I have ever seen.  This series is both interesting in a way that will keep you glued to the show until its end, and has great supporting characters, plot, and other things in order to make a series great.  Here is my review of Code Geass!

Generic Knightmare Frame known as a Sutherland

The show starts out with a high school student named Lelouch who is an extremely smart student and lives with his blind sister Nunnaly. They live in Japan which has been renamed to Area 11 after it was taken over by the Brittanian Empire who in this world, controls over half of the planet including what we know as North and South America. They took it over by using what are called Knightmare Frames which are basically giant robots which can wield anything from giant swords to guns and other weaponry.


In Area 11 there have been many rising ups and rebellions in order to take Japan back from the empire and return it to the  people who lived there before this ever happened.

After learning about the history of the country, we learn that Lelouch and Nunnaly are actually Britannian royalty who were thought to be dead and are hiding out here in Japan in order to not be detected by the Empire.  Through the uprisings of many of the people who want the Empire out, Lelouch gets caught up in a major battle and eventually gets cornered in an area that holds a capsule that the rebels are thought to keep something that could help them in their fight after they stole it from the empire.  After being questioned by the solders chasing him, the capsule opens and reveals a green haired girl who is bound and gagged.  Lelouch then frees her and she doesn't say much at first but the solders threaten to hurt her and he gets in the way. When the solders shoot him, the girl jumps in the way and gets shot in the head and falls down dead.

After being questioned some more, they are about to shoot him when the girl (who was supposedly dead), grabs his arm and asks him if he wants to make a deal with her.  She offers him a power that could help him achieve his goals. In return he must grant her greatest wish.  He accepts of course and she gives him the power of Geass, which is apparently different for everyone, and in his case, if he makes eye contact with a person while using it, can order someone to do anything and they must obey.  he then uses this to his advantage and orders all the men that are standing before him to kill themselves.

Using his new found powers, he asserts himself as the leader of the rebellion using the alias known as Zero.  This will later help his main goal of destroying the Britannian Empire because he blames them for the death of his mother.  Later he learns that the girl that he met earlier is named C.C. and she is in reality, immortal and has the power to give Geass to anyone she wishes.

As Lelouch gains more power for the rebellion, he names them the Black Knights and starts to kill some of the prominent figures, mainly the royal princes and princesses of the Empire.  Somehow there are like 20 different princes and princesses which is crazy for the emperor to have so many. But I digress, through this he gains many followers and gains a high standing with the other rebel groups in Japan.  Through this he also becomes the target of a person who is his best friend, named Suzaku, when he is Lelouch, but is also a solder in the Empire's army by wielding the most powerful Knightmare frame ever invented, known as Lancelot.

Most of Lelouch's time apart from being in the rebellion is used to learn about his new powers and the limits to it, such as how many times he can use it on one person, that being one time a piece, and how far away you have to be, how long it lasts, and so on and so forth.  Through these tests he learns that another student, a girl named Kallen, also goes to his high school and has been hiding it from everyone at school that she is even involved.  Through this series it seems that more and more seems to connect his life with the Black Knights with his life at school and that seems to add an interesting aspect to the story and wondering how he will get through the situation to keep his secret safe.


Eventually Suzaku and Kallen find out about Zero's true identity and Kallen gets angry at him and Suzaku then arrests him and takes him to the Emperor for him to see.  The Emperor then takes him and does something that we don't fully  see and that ends the first series.













R2 starts out with Lelouch being a normal student again and not remembering anything that happened in the first season.  He accidental gets involved in another fight between the Empire and the Black Knights and through this, C.C. shows up and helps him regain his memory of being Zero and fighting the Empire.

He takes his place as leader of the Black Knights and works on his revenge on the Emperor who he realized had wiped his memory when he had visited him in the last series.  Through his battles he eventually finds out that he did this because he has a geass of his own and it allows him to change a persons memories.  He was given the power from another immortal known only as Z.Z. and want to use his powers to destroy "god".  Lelouch then finds out that his mother, who he thought had been killed, is actually alive and has a geass of her own.  He then kills the both of them in a dimension that they created and then comes back to the world trapping them in it.

Lelouch then goes and brings Suzaku to help him as he goes to the capital city of the Empire and arranges for a worldwide broadcast of the emperor who he is the only one who knows he is dead. He then appears in his place in front of the princes and princesses in line to the throne and orders them to acknowledge him as emperor.  They are then, of course, forced to obey by the geass and he takes over the empire, therefore reaching the goal that he originally planned.

With this new power, he takes the other world leaders hostage and then takes over the entire world thereby ending all wars and feuds in the world. The problem, the Black Knights are still around and so he goes off and fights them with the empire following him.  He defeats them easily and creates peace for the entire world.  To ensure that this stays the same, he parades the leaders through Tokyo before they are killed when someone dressed as Zero, who is revealed to be Suzaku, jumps up and kills Lelouch before the eyes of the world, thus achieving his real goal of uniting the world and creating a place where all the people focus not on wars but on rebuilding the world after all that has happened.


The series ends with a scene of C.C. on a hay cart speaking a monolague about how Lelouch changed the world for the better.  There has been some speculation as to Lelouch's life because some say that the one driving the cart looks like him, bringing rumors that he is still alive.


This series was one of the best ones I have seen and definitely should be watched.  Not only does it have great action and fantasy aspects to it, but also does have some comedy put into it, mainly with the fact of C.C. being obsessed with pizza and also with the scientists who works on the Knightmare frames named Lloyd who adds much of a comedic turn even though he is constantly encouraged to be more serious with his job.

All in all, this series is very interesting and all who like or love anime should add this series to their "need to watch" list. The animation effects are great, the plot twists are thrilling and there really are not plot holes to be found in this story.  It is also a series that makes one think about things in order to fully understand what is going on sometimes but even when the in depth parts are not fully comprehended, then it is still a good series.  Final rating for this show is a definite 10/10.