Code Geass Anime

Code Geass officially premiered on the Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS) television network at 5:25 JST on October 5, 2006. Its satellite television premiere across Japan on Animax was on November 7, 2006. Upon the airing of the first 23 episodes, the series went on hiatus on March 29, 2007, and completed broadcast of the first series with a contiguous one-hour broadcast of episodes 24 and 25 at 6:25 JST on Saturday, July 28, 2007.

The immense popularity of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion followed with the development of its sequel, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, which was first announced on the March 2007 issue of Newtype and later confirmed by Sunrise producer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi on the series' official staff blog on March 9, 2007.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 premiered on MBS and TBS at 17:00 JST on April 6, 2008. Prior to the series' television broadcast, three private preview screenings of episode 1 were held on March 15 and March 16 in Osaka and Tokyo respectively, which was attended by the series' Japanese voice actors as well as a pool of 3800 randomly selected applicants. On April 15, 2008, at 17:00 JST, the last 6 minutes of the then unaired third episode was accidentally posted onto the Internet due to an error by Bandai Channel, Bandai's online broadcast channel and the series online distributor, in the midst of testing a system preventing illegal online uploads.

Both seasons of Code Geass have been licensed for release in the United States by Bandai Entertainment, and the first season began airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block in the U.S. on April 27, 2008; the second began airing on November 2, immediately following the first season, both viewable in English on Adult Swim Video. The series finale premiered on June 7, 2009, ending the second season and the rest of the story. On April 23, 2010, Adult Swim's rights to this series expired. In Australia and New Zealand, the series is sub-licensed to Madman Entertainment by Bandai Entertainment USA, and began airing on Australian channel ABC2 from January 19, 2009. In the Philippines, the first season of Code Geass premiered on November 10, 2008, weekday nights at 7:30pm PST and ended on December 15, 2008 through TV5 while season 2 premiered on May 4, 2009 and ended on June 5, 2009, weekday nights at 6:00pm PST with a weekend afternoon recap of the week's episodes also on TV5. Despite the poor ratings it attained due to competition with local TV newscasts and prime time soaps, the series was able to gain a huge following and became one of the most talked-about anime series in the country during its run. Code Geass had its Philippine cable premiere on July 27, 2010 through Hero TV.

The release of Code Geass: The Miraculous Birthday (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ キセキの誕生日 Kōdo Giasu: Kiseki no Tanjōbi) included bonus material about a new Code Geass OVA anime in production called Code Geass Side Story: Akito of the Ruined Land (コードギアスGAIDEN 亡国のアキト Kōdo Giasu GAIDEN: Bōkoku no Akito), directed by Kazuki Akane. It is unknown what format the side story will be in, but it is noted that it is set in Europe. The drama itself was based on a live event held in Tokyo, Japan on Lelouch's birthday.

Another OVA anime titled Code Geass: Nunnally in Wonderland (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ： ナナリーinワンダーランド Kōdo Giasu Hangyaku no Rurūshu: Nanarī in wandārando) is announced and revealed in the anime's official website. Takahiro Kimura will do the character designs of the series. Makoto Baba is assigned as the director of the OVA while Episode scriptwriter Yuuichi Nomura and music composer Kotaro Nakagawa will return for the said project. In the story, Lelouch makes the ultimate use of his Geass for his little sister Nunnally, who loves Alice in Wonderland. The BluRay will be released by Bandai Visual on July 27, 2012 with English Subs and bundled with a 40-page picture book.

Code Geass Production

Code Geass began as a concept developed at Sunrise by Ichirō Ōkouchi and Gorō Taniguchi, who proposed it to producer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi while they were working on Overman King Gainer and later Planetes. The initial concept of the plot consisted of a secret organization led by a "hero," which was later developed into a conflict between two people with differing values of morality, belonging to the same military unit.

During these early planning stages, Kawaguchi contacted the noted manga artist group Clamp, the first time Clamp had ever been requested to design the characters of an anime series. Clamp signed onto the project early during these development stages and provided numerous ideas, which helped develop the series' setting and characters.

While developing the character designs for Lelouch Lamperouge, the protagonist of the series, Clamp had initially conceived of his hair color as being white. Ageha Ohkawa, head writer at Clamp, said she had visualized him as being a character to which "everyone" could relate to as being "cool", literally, a "beauty". During these planning stages, Clamp and the Sunrise staff had discussed a number of possible inspirations for the characters, including KinKi Kids and Tackey & Tsubasa. They had wanted to create a "hit show," a series which would appeal to "everyone." Lelouch's alter ego, Zero, was one of the earliest developed characters, with Ōkouchi having wanted a mask to be included as a part of the series, feeling it was necessary for it to be a Sunrise show, and Clamp wanting a unique design never prior seen in any Sunrise series (said mask was nicknamed "tulip" for its distinctive design).

Clamp's finalized original character design art, illustrated by its lead artist Mokona, was subsequently converted into animation character designs for the series by Sunrise's character designer Takahiro Kimura, who had previously spent "every day" analyzing Clamp's art and style from their artbooks and manga series. In working on the animation character designs, he focused on designing them so as to enable the series' other animators to apply them without deviating from Clamp's original art style.

The music for the series was composed by Kōtarō Nakagawa and Hitomi Kuroishi, who had earlier worked with the series' core staff in Planetes and Taniguchi's earlier work Gun X Sword. In addition to the incidental music featured in each episode, Kuroishi also composed numerous insert songs for the series, including "Stories", "Masquerade", "Alone", and "Innocent Days", which were each performed by Kuroishi herself, while "Picaresque" and "Callin'" were performed by the singer-songwriter Mikio Sakai, who had also earlier worked with Nakagawa and Kuroishi in Planetes. The bands FLOW, Ali Project, Jinn, SunSet Swish, Access, and Orange Range have provided songs for the opening and ending themes.

When the series was being developed for broadcast on Mainichi Broadcasting System, it had been given the network's Saturday evening prime time slot, which was later changed to a Thursday late night time slot. Due to this change, the overall outlook and some elements of the series were changed and further developed to suit the more mature, late night audience.

Code Geass Plot

The series is set in an alternative present, where the world is split by three superpowers, Britannia, The Chineses Federation, and the European Universe (EU). The story takes place after the Holy Britannian Empire's conquest on Japan in August 10, 2010 a.t.b., by means of Britannia's newest weapon, the "Armored Autonomous Knight", or Knightmare Frame. In turn, Britannia effectively strips Japan and its citizens of all rights and freedoms, and renames the country Area 11 with its citizens referred to as elevens.

The series' protagonist Lelouch Lamperouge is an intellectual, exiled Britannian prince, who was sent as a hostage to Japan, along with his sister Nunnally Lamperouge, by his father, Emperor Charles zi Britannia, after his mother, Marianne vi Britannia, was murdered. He then vows to obliterate Britannia. Seven years later, Lelouch meets a girl known as C.C. who, in order to save his life, makes a contract with him. Lelouch then gains a power called Geass (ギアス giasu), also known as the Power of the King (王の力 Ō no Chikara), which allows him to absolutely command anyone to do what he wants, bending their will to live, fight, die, and follow orders – though only if he has direct eye contact with his target. With this new power and his natural intelligence, Lelouch sets out to find the person who killed his mother, and to make a better world for his sister, Nunnally. He becomes the leader of the resistance movement known as The Black Knights, who wage war on Britannia. As the Black Knights' leader he takes on an alter-ego called Zero, gaining popular support among the Japanese people on his way towards rebellion.

Thus getting his power, he then kills one of his older half brothers, Clovis, in an attempt to find out who killed his mother. Various battles between the Black Knights and Britannia, Euphemia li Britannia, one of Lelouch's half sisters and Britannia's third princess announces her intention to form the Special Administrative Zone of Japan in the region under Mount Fujiyama, giving the Japanese people their name and country back. When negotiating with Euphemia, Lelouch agrees to the terms, and reveals his ability to be the source of his massive success, jokingly telling her he could order her "to kill all the Japanese," not realizing his ability had permanently activated several minutes earlier. This forces her to order the Britannian forces to kill all the Japanese people located at the celebration of the formation of the Zone. Lelouch kills Euphemia and uses her massacre as an excuse to attack the Tokyo Settlement. During the rebellion, Nunnally is kidnapped and Lelouch abandons his group to save her. He is opposed by a soldier of Britannia, an Honorary Brittanian, Suzaku Kururugi, Lelouch's childhood friend who is angry at him for killing Euphemia. Suzaku captures Lelouch and takes him to the Emperor who then uses his own Geass to erase Lelouch's memories of being Zero, his mother,and his sister.

A year later, C.C. restores Lelouch's memories of being Lelouch vi Britania the eleventh prince of the Brittanian Empire, being Zero, having a sister, and avenging his mother. He once again takes the identity of Zero to lead the surviving Black Knights. Lelouch continues to search for Nunnally, but is surprised to discover she has become Governor of Area 11, and his old friend Suzaku Kururugi is by her side protecting her. When he fails to get her back, he manages to legally exile all his followers and joins forces with the United Federation of Nations. He then kidnaps The Chinese Federation's Empress to gain support to free Japan. After another battle between the Black Knights and the Britannian Empire, Prince Schneizel el Britannia(the second prince of the Brittanian Empire), reveals Zero's true identity to Lelouch's followers, the Black Knights, along with his power Geass, and how he used and caused countless innocent people to die. Feeling used by Zero, the Black Knights try to kill Lelouch who manages to escape thanks to a Geass user named Rolo who had been masquerading as his brother during the year of Zero's absence, but Rolo's heart stops as a result of repeated usage of his Geass and he dies saving Lelouch, who loses his will to live.

Now alone, Lelouch goes to confront his father as his last action. Lelouch learns that his father and mother, whose Geass allowed her to possess a girl after her death, were searching for C.C. to use her power to make the Ragnarök Connection, a method in which the world would be remade according to Charles' will. Lelouch stops the Ragnarök Connection with his Geass, erasing his parents' existences in the process. Now allied with C.C. and Suzaku, Lelouch declares himself Britannia's 99th emperor. As Emperor, Lelouch uses his Geass to make Brittania follow him, he then initiates a military rebellion while freeing Japan as part of his plan "Zero Requiem". He is opposed by Prince Schneizel and Princess Nunnally's forces which also includes the Black Knights. Britannia emerges victorious in the fight and, with command of a massive WMD system to force a surrender, Lelouch becomes ruler of the world. Two months later, Lelouch and Suzaku unleash the final part from Zero Requiem: having faked his death, Suzaku disguises himself as Zero and assassinates Lelouch in public. Suzaku kills Lelouch since the world's hatred and anger was all focused on him and his tyranny, ending at the same point all of the world's major conflicts with his death.

The Generalization of 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), often referred to as simply Code Geass, is a Japanese anime series created by Sunrise, directed by Gorō Taniguchi, and written by Ichirō Ōkouchi, with original character designs by manga authors Clamp. Set in an alternate future, the series focus on how the former prince Lelouch Lamperouge obtains a power known as Geass and decides to use it to obliterate the Holy Britannian Empire, an imperial monarchy and a superpower that has been conquering various countries.

Code Geass first ran in Japan on Mainichi Broadcasting System from October 5, 2006, to July 28, 2007. Its sequel series, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2 Kōdo Giasu Hangyaku no Rurūshu Āru Tsū), ran on MBS and Tokyo Broadcasting System from April 6, 2008 to September 28, 2008. The series has also been adapted into various manga and light novels with the former showing various alternate scenarios from the TV series. Bandai Entertainment also licensed most parts from the franchise for English release in December 2007, airing the two TV series on Cartoon Network. Most manga and light novels have also been published in North America by Bandai.

The TV anime series has been well-received in Japan, selling over a million DVD and Blu-ray Disc volumes. Both seasons have won several awards at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, Animage Anime Grand Prix, and Animation Kobe event. Critics have also praised the series for its large audience appeal as well as the conflicts shown across among the main characters and the moral questions presented.