I’ve always struggled with my attention span, so when I started a 50-episode anime with the intention of getting through it as quickly as possible, I was skeptical I could make it all the way through. Somehow, though, I did! I think the last time I was able to do that was with Eureka Seven (which is one I need to rewatch, actually). Every other anime I’ve watched has been shorter or I’ve watched them out of order on Toonami as a kid.
I’m not certain I can say my willingness to finish the show is a testament to its quality, though. I did like this anime, but I also had my problems with it. I think what is principal among my problems with Code Geass is its protagonist. Lelouch is not a likable guy, and maybe he’s not really meant to be. The question is whether the anime really pulls it off. I can only think of Breaking Bad as a comparison, which is a fantastic show about a really terrible guy. I think the crucial difference is that we remain grounded in that show’s story due to the journey Walt takes from being a reasonably moral, disgruntled Chemistry teacher to a despicable villain. Lelouch, on the other hand, is kind of an annoying jerk from the very beginning and he only really gets worse as the series goes on.
 |
| Lelouch |
The very first episode shows us what kind of person Lelouch is. He’s very clever and isn’t shy about showing that off. He repeatedly dominates others in competitive chess matches despite the fact that he’s just a high school student. It’s clear that he’s bored by everyday life and finds joy in solving puzzles and lording his intellect over others.
It’s worth noting that the setting of Code Geass takes place in a fictionalized Japan called Area 11. An enormous nation called Britannia has taken control of about one third of the entire Earth at this point and has stripped the Japanese of any true nationality. Natives are called “11s” and the Britannians do everything they can to quash any claim to Japanese culture or even the right to self-identify as Japanese. Lelouch gets mixed up in a Japanese resistance movement quite by accident. He’s involved in a collision in the first episode and ends up scrambling right into a cargo truck driven by two rebels, one of which is Kallen, an important character that we’ll meet later. After the wreck, the drivers quickly regain their bearings and peel out, as they’re evidently being pursued by a Britannian helicopter. The Britannians are quite intent on stopping the rebels because they fire several missiles during the chase. When they finally catch up, the truck topples over, releasing what you might assume is a canister of poison gas, but instead contains a mysterious girl by the name of C.C. (pronounced “C-Two”).
 |
| C.C. |
Right from the very beginning, it’s established that Lelouch doesn’t much care what he has to do to get his way. He could have just asked the soldiers to leave, but he had them kill themselves. His lack of mercy continues to be a theme in the series.
You could make the argument that power can corrupt people, but it seems clear from the outset that Lelouch was always corrupt. It doesn’t take long at all for Lelouch, freshly commandeered mech in tow, to assume de facto control of a ragtag group of resistance fighters. His unparalleled genius lends him tactical combat skills that he doesn’t seem at all surprised he has. With his excellent directions, he quickly gains support from the resistance, even though none of them even know who he is. To complete the illusion, Lelouch dons a dark mask and takes on the moniker of Zero, which he then uses to address his followers and those he wishes to control. At every turn, Lelouch relishes the opportunity to be a mysterious and dramatic revolutionary, despite the fact that he should realistically have no stake in Japanese independence.
As it turns out, Lelouch has a much simpler motivation for wanting to rebel against Britannia and its royal family. He’s a member of it. Lelouch vi Britannia is an exiled prince of the Britannian royal family, living with his sister, Nunnally. Both have been presumed dead for many years, but it’s not clear how they’ve been able to participate in Area 11 society without raising any eyebrows. After all, Lelouch has assumed a new last name (Lamperouge), but has chosen to keep his unique first name. Surely, someone should have recognized him at some point?
 |
| Nunnally |
Ten years before the anime began, Lelouch’s mother was murdered, although the culprit of that murder is unclear. Lelouch believes the royal family did not do enough to investigate the circumstances and as such holds them partially responsible for it. The attack also severely injured Nunnally, who was a very small child at the time. The injuries were enough to make her lose her sight and ability to walk. In what is Lelouch’s only real sign of humanity throughout the course of the anime, he devotes himself to making sure all of Nunnaly’s needs are met, even as his new responsibilities as a mysterious revolutionary begin to dominate his time.
Throughout the course of the anime, Lelouch is required to juggle the responsibilities of being a normal high school student where he proves that his skill at deception extends beyond his Geass. He lies to everyone around him, regardless of whether he’s wearing the mask of Zero or not. His supporters in the resistance don’t know his identity nor his nationality. His classmates don’t view him as anyone special. In fact, Kallen Kozuki is a member of the resistance and one of his classmates and she has no idea that her classmate is the mysterious masked figure giving her orders when she moonlights as a member of the resistance.
 |
| Lelouch as Zero |
Early on, Lelouch learns that his Geass does have limitations. He must make eye contact with his victim, and once he’s used this power, he cannot use it on the same person again. Even so, the effect of its power is almost unlimited. At one point, he commands another character not to die, a command that can apparently never wear off. Regardless of the risks to others, this character will stop at nothing to make sure he survives. This is just one example of Lelouch being unable to foresee the potential consequences of his commands, but far from the only one. Under most circumstances, Lelouch will sacrifice anything and anyone to make sure his desires are granted, except for when it comes to his sister, Nunnally. Her protection is the most important thing to him of all, and he repeatedly tells himself that everything he’s doing in the resistance is to create a world that would be better for Nunnaly to live in. Like most villains, Lelouch is deluding himself.
Suffice to say, the anime gets much more complicated from there. Even devoting this amount of text to it only covers the most basic outline of the show’s premise, and we’re talking about a 50-episode anime in which a lot happens. The story is very interesting and occasionally clever, but what I found repeatedly frustrating is the motivations of the principal characters, Lelouch and Suzaku. Lelouch considers himself an antihero, even though he repeatedly and self-indulgently wallows in the “darkness in his soul.” At every moment, he’s the guy who’s moving pieces on a game board, with little concern for the humanity of the various pieces he manipulates. On the other hand, Suzaku is virtuous to a fault, or at least he believes himself to be. Despite being childhood friends with Lelouch, Suzaku is really his perfect foil. Lelouch is Britannian and Suzaku is Japanese. Despite this, Suzaku has rejected his nationality and become an honorary Britannian, determined to create peace by “not rocking the boat.” He is the perfect encapsulation of a miserable centrist. Peace cannot be created by violence, in his estimation, but only by upholding the status quo. He’s basically a cop, just as unlikable as Lelouch but in an entirely different way.
 |
| Suzaku |
Some of the supporting characters are arguably more likable but get much less screen time. Kallen is a member of the resistance movement and truly seems to have her heart in the right place. She’s willing to get her hands dirty but isn’t as bloodthirsty and as much an adherent to “the ends justify the means” philosophy. Lelouch, by contrast, is an amoral tactician, only willing to exercise diplomacy and mercy when it will garner him more support, never to satisfy his own moral compass. Kallen’s primary role in the resistance is being what is essentially their ace pilot the fearsome Guren Mk. II, a mech that seems to function by grabbing onto enemy mechs and melting off their armor plating. Suzaku plays a similar role for Britannia in his radiant white mech, Lancelot, as appropriate a symbol for how Suzaku views himself as one could imagine. Lelouch is typically in a mech as well. Although he eventually ends up with an extremely powerful machine later on, he spends most of his time on the sidelines, exercising his role as the tactical genius giving directions to his minions.
 |
| Kallen |
Unfortunately, since Kallen is an important female character in an anime targeted at teen boys, she also gets sexually objectified frequently. Unlike some anime where nudity is suggested or implied, Kallen has several scenes in which she just so happens to be completely nude. These are deliberate choices that bother me just as much as the kind of casual nudity you see in a Game of Thrones episode. It’s not a huge part of the show, but it happened often enough that it bothered me.
Many of Lelouch’s classmates are also sympathetic, and it can be frustrating seeing them interact with a brutal liar on a regular basis. There are several instances where Lelouch is directly responsible for these innocent students coming to harm. Lelouch does demonstrate guilt at many points throughout the anime, but never enough to lose sight of his goal of overthrowing Britannia. In his mind, any sacrifices others must make in service of his goal are acceptable, as long as it creates a world in which Nunnally can leave peacefully and, frankly, so he has the opportunity to find out why his mother was killed.
As one might imagine, it can be frustrating following the events of two main characters who are ultimately very selfish people deluding themselves. Even though I liked the anime, I always felt like there were ways this could have been done better. Lelouch ends up killing a lot of people unnecessarily, which would have been a nice twist to a character that devolves into something darker over time, but this is a dark character with twisted motivations from the beginning. He never seems to grow into something better or even just different in any interesting way, at least not nearly enough for it to improve how I feel about the character and the anime as a whole.
Code Geass in Super Robot Wars X
I used the following units from Code Geass in SRWX.
Shinkiro - Lelouch
Guren S.E.I.T.E.N - Kallen
Lancelot Albion - Suzaku
Lancelot Frontier - C.C.
No comments:
Post a Comment