Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch I - Koudou

The Holy Britannian Empire is a powerful nation that uses its military strength to expand its rule, and the small island nation of Japan is yet another victim. During a worldwide conflict in 2010 known as the Second Pacific War, the once-proud country was reduced to rubble and mockingly renamed to Area 11.

However, one student plans to free Japan from Britannia's control through an extraordinary rebellion. His name is Lelouch Lamperouge, and he is fueled with hatred for the Empire, plotting to wipe its accursed name off the face of the planet. Lelouch's malicious plans are unexpectedly accelerated upon meeting the mysterious woman C.C., who grants him a supernatural ability known as Geass that makes anyone Lelouch commands unable to defy his will.

Now armed with a devastating power, Lelouch assumes the persona of Zero, a revolutionary figure who carries the hopes and dreams of the oppressed around the world. He vows to restore the glorious nation of Japan and deliver divine retribution to Britannia.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Lamperouge, Lelouch Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

C.C. Main

Yukana Japanese

Stadtfeld, Kallen Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Kururugi, Suzaku Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Gottwald, Jeremiah ing

Narita, Ken Japanese

Asplund, Lloyd ing

Shiratori, Tetsu Japanese

Fenette, Shirley ing

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

li Britannia, Euphemia ing

Minami, Omi Japanese

li Britannia, Cornelia ing

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Lamperouge, Nunnally ing

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Izawa, Motoi Sound Director

Mochizuki, Tomomi Storyboard

Sunaga, Tsukasa Storyboard

FLOW Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Lyrics

Reviews

Mar 18, 2018

CodeBlazeFate

Recommended

Legendary tales are ed down from generation to generation. The tales of yore were often retold with minor alterations over time for one reason or another. Sometimes it was simply to update it for current times, other times it was merely for not ing everything. Such stories were enduring for ages despite the very real possibility of being lost to time. Works such as Grendel owe their survival to the acts of translation and retelling. However, this idea is not exclusive to literature and family tales that remained unwritten; films and television series got this treatment as well.

Almost a decade after the saga of Lelouch ... came to an end, the magnificent bastards over at Studio Sunrise brought the old writing and directing team of Garou Taniguchi, Ichiro Okouchi, and others altogether for a project of retelling and resurrection. A retelling of the original 50 episode series was made as a film trilogy, with this being the first. ittedly, some may pause at the word “retelling”, asking why not refer to it as recap. Simply put, it is far more, as they made alterations to the script for a new age and for the condensed format. The story of Code Geass has been ed down to a new generation, with the old masters learning from the year since the original’s conclusion, analyzing the original for what best to keep for a trilogy, and adding to it to strengthen the parts they kept and improve on characters in interesting ways with their new take on things. It's a wonder the pacing is as decent as it is.

When it came to lifting visuals from the show, they did nothing to alter it, which sadly means no improvements on the CGI or any of the momentary dips on quality. However, the new scenes were wonderful, recapturing the look and feel of the show with a slightly sleeker look that hardly looks out of place. While the visuals of the show itself could have been polished up for the big screen in places, the plethora of new scenes makes up for it in a way due to how faithful and wonderful they look. The mech battles are as fun, well-planned and executed, and acrobatic as ever, and any new clothing featured looks as great as the rest.

Another area the film adds new love to is the music. Code Geass already has a wondrous OST, and this film nor only shuffled around tracks from the episodes being retold and added some fantastic tracks from R2, but the new tracks (whose names cannot be discerned at the moment due to lack of release) not only fit in perfectly but work as wonderful as the rest. They even added new songs from Hitomi Kuroishi, who sang the more melodic songs of the original such as “Continued Story”, “Stories”, and “Precious Time”. They kept the iconic opening to the TV series and added a new ED theme that sures both of the first season’s EDs, especially the first one. “Aka Dake ga Tarinai” by Iris, is a fantastic track that fits perfectly with the penultimate scene of Todoh’s rescue from episode 20 of the original, with wonderful vocals and lovely chorus sections that blend in magnificently with the tone of the scene proper. It was a wonder hearing the old tracks in new places and the new tracks getting along perfectly. Kotaro Nakagawa and Hitomi Kuroishi, thank you for such wonderful contributions to what is already one of the best OSTs in anime.

ittedly, the film does carry a few vices from the television show. While not every tone shift in the series was done poorly and abruptly, they clearly only took the bad ones. I still have questions regarding the creation of Zero’s iconic uniform, among other questions. However, the new footage does a lot to expand on things, like give more time for the Black Knights to have fun and do relevant things not shown during battles and other moments in the original; the film even explains how they got their headquarters. From the end of the first scene, we even see relevant relatives of Lelouch as they see him and his sister off. These relatives would be the very same we know proper in the show, so it was a sweet touch to add to make the idea of them seeing Lelouch again all the more impactful. You can tell they analyzed this story to an extent to see what to add and what to alter. There is even a montage that shows some of the events the Black Knights did in the early parts of their campaign following the final major event they partook in during the film, showing most of what was skipped. As well, some scenes played out differently regarding Villetta and the Japan Liberation Front, in order to suit the runtime, and they work flawlessly.

While regrettably, the scenes of Arthur biting Suzaku and later getting acquainted with him were cut given a role that was played towards R2’s finale, it is nothing worth fretting overmuch. They even alter a scene of Lelouch and C.C in a way that has her come off as more tender and vulnerable, showcasing a stronger connection between the two at that point than the series did. Not to mention that a variety of the new scenes centered around those two, including a scene of Lelouch playing darts as C.C eats pizza. It’s very clear where the writers are taking this relationship in comparison to before. No other character was altered in any significant way with aside from adding more scenes with Lelouch playing darts and facing hardship over a major reveal about his rival; everyone remains just s good as you them. The only exception is a member named Naomi, who actually gets added relevance with her actually doing something like taking down an enemy onscreen and witnessing Zero’s conversation with the head of Kyoto along with more relevant , Kallen and Ohgi. It may be odd to focus on such a minor character from the original, whose name the series didn’t actually tell us (promo material, merchandise, word of god, etc. told us instead) but the film adds a bit to her and they didn’t need to go out of their way to do so. Nice things aren’t always necessary to do, they’re just thoughtful and sweet and deserve to be acknowledged.

Effectively, this film succeeded splendidly as a retelling of the original 17 episodes (and episode 20, sans 8, 9, most of 12 and 13, and 14-16), while adding meaningful content to really justify the film’s existence, from new tracks to entire scenes that contribute to the characters in some way. The alterations worked wonders as well for this new interpretation of the material. It will be fascinating to see how the next two films of this new version of the story will handle things, and based on the results of this film, I am more than confident that they know what they are doing. As a fan of the original series, most notably the first season, I am more than satisfied with this new take on this legendary show, and at the end of the day, that was all they needed to do to solidify this film’s existence. Until next time, as always, I bid you adieu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 6, 2020

Nothin99

Mixed Feelings

Painfully average is how I would describe my entire experience with this movie. I watched this right after I finished the original anime series and I was not expecting to dislike this movie so much. In my opinion, the movie has neutered what made the show so great. The building of the characters and the world. I get they have to cram a lot of ideas and plot into a small time frame, but the entire movie just failed to capture the original feeling of the anime. Everything felt rushed and barely explained. Almost all the school scenes were cut out. While I am happy ... they did cut some of the school scenes out they amount they took out is so drastic the the student council almost has no screen time and really serves no purpose at all. Suzaku's relationship with Lelouch is similarly thrown to the wolves. Almost no screen time and minor exposition is all that is left. It makes the final scene of the movie where Lelouch goes crazy over learning that Suzaku is the pilot of the White Knight feel like a laughable joke.The rest of the story feels the same, just missing the mark from the original. The new scenes are nice but add very little to the overall plot. Aside from the story the animation is the same so no improvement there, but the soundtrack is still great. Really hoping the next two movies get better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 15, 2018

deathabarbar

Not Recommended

It's less, than the original, a lot less. I don't understand the reason for making three newish movies to change a single plot important thing, about Shirley while throwing a lots of things into chaos, it barely even matters anyway. She gets like a minute of new scenes, but at the same time almost all school interactions are cut, the only ones that are not, are those which are plot heavy, like the declaration, which is done differently too, almost all character backgrounds are also cut, the student council barely have any screen time, let alone interactions with Lelouch, old and new scenes mixed ... together ofter changing animation quality and voice acting from one scene to the other, not to mention they ofted contradict the old story, it is ridiculous when people change from one scene to the other, and a lots of things left unexplained, I guess it's assumed the viewer would fill the holes from the OG, but with how the new plot is changed causality often cannot be estabilished because the action that started the chain in the OG is not present here, but OG event still happened for whatever reason.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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