Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

Information of Anime

One year has past since the battle between Britannia & the Dark Knights.  Zero is presumed dead when he went missing in action & Britannia wins the war.  To stop the Elevens in thinking they are Japanese & rebel again, they undergo "correctional education". 

However, some Elevens still believe Zero's dream will bring back Japan.  Lelouch Lamperouge, who has no memories of his past actions as Zero, lives a carefree life with his younger brother Rolo.  However, the Black Knights would hunt him down & C.C. would restore his memories.  Regaining them, Lelouch once again becomes Zero & continues where he left off: to destroy the world. 

Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is the direct sequel of Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Viewers are immediately thrown in one year after the Black Rebellion.  Lelouch lives his life as normal under C.C. removes the seal placed on him to restore his Zero personality.  His old friend Suzaku Kururugi, who is now part of Knights of Round to Britannia as Knight of Seven, is assigned to kill Zero.  It turns out that Lelouch had his memories altered by his father's Geass when Suzaku captured him. Removing his seal, Lelouch returns as Zero & attempts to rebuild Japan again.  To do this, he removes all obstacles that his father setup as false memories in his head. 

The first obstacle is to get Rolo, Lelouch's fake brother, to change sides.  Although Lelouch manages to control the situation well by getting people to turn sides, Suzaku returns to school to investigate if Lelouch has really restore his memories.  Lelouch starts to learn about many things that took place when he had fake memories.  He learns about V.V. who gives the power of Geass to the Britannia Empire, how he was bait to lure C.C., & Nunnally being alive & used as bait to get him.

Nunnally, who is a governor, wants to go back to the old plan that Euphemia was doing.  The plan was to make Area 11 back to Japan & the Elevens back to Japanese.  Elevens are doubtful on this situation after what happened last time.  After getting back to his feet in proceeding his original plans, Lelouch makes a proposal after agreeing to the Japan plan which is to forgive Zero for his action & exile him.  Turns out that he make everyone into Zero & has one million of the Elevens & the Black Knights getting exiled.  The plan puts Suzaku in a troublesome position.

The plan has Zero & his Black knights move to China.  He uses to friendship to takeover the land to rage against Britannia.  Although his plan had faults & managed to get over it, he has a slight change of heart.  Heading back to Japan, Lelouch gets in a more troublesome position when an old enemy, Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, who now has a Geass cancels out all the Geass that Lelouch made on people.  This causes Shirley to remember Lelouch being Zero & killing her father.

Despite knowing the truth, Shirley is still in love with Lelouch & wants to join him.  However, her life would be the price for this when she's killed by a bullet from Rolo.  During this time, it's revealed that Jeremiah wants to help Lelouch since he wasn't able to protect his mother when he was there.

With a new force, Zero goes to attack V.V. & a plant making these Geass users.  There, he meets his father Charles & is no match for him.  Being in a another dimension, C.C. appears & asks Charles to kill her as this is her wish.  However, Zero manages to get out & saves C.C.  However, C.C. would lose her memories to the point before she gain her Geass powers.  She would become a slave girl which shocks Zero.

With Charles out of the picture, Zero manages to unite most nations to go against Britannia.  However, Charles would appear on a screen & challenges Zero to war.  The first attack is Area 11/Japan.  As Lelouch is confused on what to do, he turns to Suzaku to have him save Nunnually.  After some tough thinking, Suzaku agrees But Lelouch would be temporary captured by the Britannia army that was following Suzaku.  Lelouch sees Suzaku as a liar & escapes as he becomes Zero to save Nunnually.

The battle to save Nunnually would become deadly as a massive weapon of destruction called FLEIA is set off in the Tokyo Settlement by Suzaku under Lelouch's old Geass command to live on.  Although Karen is saved, Nunnually dies from the blast which angers Lelouch.

As Lelouch is broken down, Schneizel comes to the Black Knights' ship to do some talks which would reveal Zero's true identity to them & his Geass powers on how they were pawns to him.  Ohgi makes a condition before handling Zero to Schneizel which is to return Japan to them.  The conditions are met as the Black Knights try to capture Zero, who is saved by Rolo after he was told the truth about how he was hated by Lelouch & how he want to kill him many times. 

With Rolo's death from heart failure due to overusing his Geass, Lelouch is determine to take his father down with him.  Meanwhile, Charles is determined to destroy the ancient world & create a new one.  Also, Suzaku starts to lose it as he is grieve & sad about setting off FLEIA.

With the Black Knights still searching for Lelouch with the help of Britannia, he combines his own army with some of the Britannia army members to take down his father.  Due to the failure to capture Zero, the Black Knights make an official announcement to the media that Zero died in battle. 

More surprises come when Anya of the Knights of Round is actually Marianne, the mother of Lelouch & Nunnually.  She & C.C. know each other as C.C. gave her the power of Geass.  With a restored C.C., Anya teams up with her. 

Meanwhile, Schneizel calls for a coup d'etat since Charles failed to do his duties as an emperor as he spends too much time with his research on the Geass.  Some members aren't happy with this & Charles had a feeling this would happen as he felt that Schneizel managed to figure out what Charles is doing as he prepares to activate Ragnorok.  Suzaku uses this opportunity to try to take out Charles, but fails.  Instead, Lelouch manages to trap his father in the ancient world C by sealing the exit.  Lelouch's preparation to die with him as well is want triggers this.

In the C world, a lot of things are revealed.  Charles' & V.V.'s plan in creating a world without lies, the truth about Marianne's death, & why Lelouch & Nunnually was abandoned & sent to Japan.  With new Geass powers, Lelouch is able to stop the Ragnorok Junction in creating a new world & kills Charles & Marianne.  In the process, Suzaku joins Lelouch.

A month later, Lelouch shocks the world by announcing himself as the 99th Emperor of Britannia with Suzuka, who is appointed to Knight of Zero as his knight.  Using his Geass powers, he makes the people in attendance in the fake Charles' public appearance to acknowledge him.

Under Lelouch's rule, he reorganizes Britannia to something that surprises many such as destroying things from Charles' rule & releasing numbers.  However, he would use this to enter into the U.N. &, as most predicted, to dominate the world.  However, a surprise would come to Lelouch & Suzaku when Schneizel uses a FLEIA &  reveals Nunnully to be alive & most fit to be the emperor.  Nunnually tells Lelouch & Suzaku that she is now their enemy.

The battle starts off mainly between Lelouch & Schneizel.  With FLEIA being the biggest threat to Lelouch's side & a massive display of explosions, he manages to win against Schneizel & use his Geass on him.  However, Nunnually who is now able to see after breaking Charles' Geass on her plans to defeat her brother.  Lelouch's plan is to save her &, if he must, kill her.  However, he uses his Geass on her as she predicted & claims victory.

Two months later, Lelouch sets up a parade where he would execute the Black Knights & Schneizel.  But it would be stopped with the appearance of Zero.  Under the mask of Zero is Suzaku who is suppose to be dead from the battle.  Apparently, Lelouch had set up a plan in order for him & Suzaku to atone for their sins.  Zero is to kill Lelouch who is now viewed as a tyrant by the public. Having him killed would bring a better future.  Jeremiah also plays a part in this plan as well as others.

As Lelouch is stabbed, he & Suzaku's sins have been atone with Suzaku playing Zero to help the people.  Soon, Kallen knows what happens & Nunnually reads Lelouch's mind & discovers the truth of his actions.  With Lelouch dead, the public rejoice for Zero.

The show ends with some of the characters talking to Lelouch in their minds about how he managed to make a better future as no wars are involved & other important issues are looked at.  Also, we get to see how the others are now doing in a peaceful world.

My Personal Review

Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 was something that I & probably a lot of people were waiting for after that cliffhanger ending from the first season.

Animation

Same as the first season.  The character designs are again designed by CLAMP.  So, you will see their traditional long body & limbs.  Plus, the faces maintain that usual CLAMP touch.  Not close to their manga designs, but pretty good.  As for fashion, the men don't have much as you will mainly see them in uniforms most of the time.  The women have that CLAMP touch as well which made them famous for their unique female fashion appeal.

The Knightmare Frames are quite impressive.  They are beautifully designed with all those gadgets & weapons.  Even the movements are very swift.  They mainly done in 3DCG & it's quite good as they don't look out of place in the show.  I'm not sure if CLAMP did the designs, but I don't think they did.

The backgrounds are pretty nice & detailed.  Pretty dull in the colour, which is pretty good as it gives of that elegant & crumpled appearance of the buildings in different areas.

The animation flow is pretty smooth.  Not much jerking, but it's got those high jumps from certain characters.  So, not all the movements are your standard realistic ones.

Sound       

The sound effects are pretty good & clean.  Not much silly sounds, but they do appear at times.  At times, they don't seem to be on cue such as the footsteps of characters walking.

Same ones from the first season.  That is, the ones that survived.  The seiyuus aren't too bad in my opinion.  They role play their characters well in terms of their emotions.  The new ones are pretty good as well.  Not excellent, but well done.

The music contains mostly orchestral style themes.  They create the mood well for the show, but it's not memorable as they go into one ear & out the other quite easily.  The soundtrack is new & there doesn't seem to be any songs from the first season.

Story

The first episode is a throw off.  You don't know what happened after that cliffhanger ending where Lelouch & Suzaku were pointing guns at each other.  Who fired that shot & how did they survive? It's a totally mystery from the first episode.  Plus, it seems that the entire Black Knights that escaped & still rebelling know Zero's true identity.  Also, it seems to replaying the same way on how the first episode from the first season started.  Luckily, all this is told in the second episode to prevent the throw off & confusion.

As the show progress, there are a lot of twist & turns.  Some are not surprises such as where Lelouch wants to do, while others are shockers.  But as the show does closer to the end, I did have a tough time figuring out what Lelouch & Schneizel wanted to do.  I thought Lelouch wanted world domination even though he knew his mistakes, but later on it seems he wanted to make the world a better place in a different way with a change of heart.  In other words, he want to help others while being viewed as a bad guy by playing that role.  Schneizel seems to be a reverse.  He made some sacrifices by killing innocent people while looking like a hero, but actually seems to be one in the end.

Lelouch & Suzuka's actions would make an ending that doesn't seem to be predictable.  I was a bit thrown off on it about how it lead to the ending.  It's unique.  Even though it looked like an easy answer, I don't think it is.  It's just the way it's presented that gives off this feeling

Overall Conclusion

Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is a must watch anime show to finish up from the first season.  It still got action & a good storyline.  I truly highly recommend putting this on your "must watch" list.  However, you need to watch the first season to understand the whole situation of the story.

Code Geass - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 gets an 8.5/10.  It's really a great anime series.  The storyline is well written & the characters are playing their parts well to make it interesting.  The suspense elements are still there as well.  But the biggest thing that came at me was the ending as it was something that I was expecting. 

Last updated on September 29, 2008