In a war torn world where every nation is fighting and deceiving each other for absolute dominance, one of the three superpower nations known as The Holy Empire of Britannia rule most countries including Japan. After taking over Japan they further establish dominance by semi-enslaving the Japanese people and even stripping them of their culture and rights to call themselves Japanese, making it illegal and somewhat demoralizing. Japan is therefore known as Area 11 and the Japanese people as Elevens.
The only way "out" for the Eleven's was to apply for a Britannian passport and be known as "Honorary Brittanians" in which they would still be victims of racism and prejudice but given a false peace of mind and allowed an education and overall better treatment than the Elevens.
Code Geass follows the life of Lelouch Lamperouge (real name: Lelouch Vi Brittania), a boy who was abandoned and shipped off to Japan along with his blind and crippled sister Nunnally, by their Parents Charles Zi Britannia, the king of Britannia and Marianne Vi Britannia who has passed away since Lelouch was a young boy.
Now in college, the only thing Lelouch really wanted to do was to protect his sister and to bring down the Holy Empire Of Britannia. His wish seemed to come through when one day he met CC (said as Cee-Two), who gave him the power known as Geass (Each Geass is unique- some stronger than others). Lelouch's Geass allowed him to give an order someone must absolutely follow once he made eye contact with them but he could only use it once on that person.
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After Attaining his Geass, Lelouch would ultimately hide his power and become a shadowy figure called Zero who hid his identity, becoming the leader of the Black Knight's- a hero to the Elevens and enemy of Britannia!
Lelouch is a GENIUS and using his alternate identity as Zero, he would ultimately go on to free Japan and declare its independence as the United States of Japan. He then succeeded after a few tries in killing his father and declaring himself the new king of Britannia . However things did not go 100% as planned... His sister, who he only cared for and loved, opposed his actions and ultimately rejected him. Now with nothing to live for, he erased his existence from the world by faking his death.
Throughout the 50 episode series, I found myself not knowing if I am for Lelouch or against him because he is very evil yet good at the same time. He was a traitor, manipulative, shady and often used his cunning ways to his full advantage. He was a tactician and was able to plan 3 steps ahead and even have back up plans incase he failed. He became enemy of the world and secretly united it through his reign and death. He understood that in war people had to die and that sometimes people must be sacrificed but what made him really bad was his not caring who died once he got his way- friend or foe. However, he did have a caring side to those close to him.
Trying to debate Code Geass can and will get political which made it a very good anime- the brilliance of some of the characters along with their actions really gets you thinking about who is right, if they are really right and what makes their blood stained hands clean enough to even be considered fit to rule.
Let me know what you guys think tho... Is Lelouch really a good person deep down after all the casualties he has caused and betraying his friends, allies and allying nations just because he seeks revenge against one man? Or is he really an evil person even though all he has was to protect a loved one which led to the freedom of Japan and world peace? Lelouch is the definition of two sides of the same coin.
