Code Geass R2 ep.03

April 20, 2008 | 36 Comments

Wow, is it just my copy or is this week's copy unusually high-res in quality? What I meant by this is that you can actually see every texture applied to the background and every effect intended to represent flowing capes, etc. I can even see Orange-kun clearly on the OP even though usually I'm not sure who that guy could be. The only exception to this is this frame, which either meant to be intentionally crappy or maybe was taken from the first season and was just redrawn. If you're wondering about the leaked videos, they are still there. I guess they don't see the point of re-drawing them when that's the point that they intend to show. Speaking of Rollo, between him and Suzaku, which one is more annoying? I just find it amusing that the animators (or is it CLAMP?) have created another character who looks almost similar to Suzaku. I suppose in Japan Suzaku is not as disliked as he is in the western anime viewers.

Continuing from the previous episode, Rollo tells Li that he's come to kill Zero. Before he can do anything else, however, his cell phone rang and when he picks it up, Lelouch asks him if he's okay. Lelouch tells him that he's relieved since he couldn't contact him before. Rollo is confused about this since Zero is still relaying his speech in front of the television but Villetta takes over the phone and tells him that Lelouch has returned to school. There'll be supplementary lesson so she suggests he comes back soon. Later on, a newscaster announce that the remains of the Black Knights and the person who declares himself to be Zero still shut themselves within the Chinese federation consulate general. However, she assures the residents not to worry because the injured Governor Carares has been substituted by acting Governor Guildford, who has spearheaded the army to surround the Consulate General. Inside the consulate general, Karen is surprised to see C.C emerging out of Zero's mask and wonders when she and Lelouch made the switch. C.C tells her that it happened before the speech and the voice is just a recording. She also compares the whole thing to a magic show.

Meanwhile, Lelouch is busy helping Milly cooking in the kitchen. When he asks her why it has to be him, she tells him that it can't be helped since Rivalz is taste-blind while the other one (aka Shirley) is completely useless since she keeps falling over and over again. Lelouch asks Milly if today's party is to commemorate his and Rollo's returning safely so she confirms it plus Shirley has been worried ever since then. Upon hearing their jokes, Lelouch realizes that none of them remember Nunnaly, or rather, his sister has been falsely turned into a brother. Lelouch is pissed off about this because whoever did this didn't just modify his memory but also toyed with the memory of the student council members. Meanwhile, Rollo is seen entering a secret room at the basement of the school, where Villetta and other Britannian officials are holding a meeting. They report that there hasn't been any change observed in Lelouch. Villetta believes that their surveillance is perfect and there's no sign of Geass being used. She also thinks that if Lelouch is Zero, him going back to school is strange.

Besides, C.C's whereabouts is not known. If she wasn't in contact with Lelouch, then the likelihood of her being inside the consulate general is small. Villetta suggests that they continue their attempt to capture C.C while continuing their surveillance on 'the bait'. Meanwhile, Lelouch muses to himself about how the enemy's main concern is transmission of surveillance data. The problem is Nunnaly. Since everyone seems to forget about her, he assumes that Nunnaly is not at school. In other words, the possibility that Britannia Emperor has captured Nunnaly is high since the Emperor is the kind of man who doesn't hesitate to use his own children as a tool. Lelouch realizes that if someone knows that his memory has returned, Nunnaly will be in danger. To make things worse, he can't do anything right now so he has to find a way to fool those who put him on surveillance. Speaking of the devils, Villetta appears with Rollo, telling him that he'll get another lesson tomorrow. Lelouch recognizes Villetta as the woman that he geassed once. Since his Geass only works once on a person, it won't work on Villetta anymore. Because of this, he decides to use it on his 'non-existent' brother.

Meanwhile, the EU alliance easily overpowers Britannia army until Suzaku comes down from the sky with his Lancelot. Suzaku can be heard asking them to surrender because he won't shoot those who throw away their weapons. Obviously EU alliance is not impressed and order the troops to capture Lancelot. Lancelot, however, uses his cable to destroy the other frames and pull out twin red swords to destroy the remaining. When the frames try to jump on him, Lancelot flies to the sky and uses his gun to destroy the surrounding area. Inside the control room, someone asks Schneizel if it's okay for them to use Suzaku, who is the Emperor's subordinate, for an independent military operation like this. Schneizel tells them that Suzaku and co are now called Knights of Seven and they are indeed under direct control of the Emperor. But because the world is still filled with sadness, as a guidepost, Suzaku feels a sense of responsibility. Meanwhile, Lelouch is in the middle of taking a look at some photos belonging to student council. After looking at them, he ealizes that Nina is no longer in the picture and he wonders if Suzaku took Arthur the cat with him.

Lelouch is startled when Rollo arrives, asking him why he's looking at the photo album of student council's dance marathon (WTH is dance marathon?). They then see another photo taken at 'unrequited love' contest where Rivalz is the winner. Lelouch finds this amusing since the one who gave the trophy is Milly. All of a sudden, however, Rollo asks Lelouch how he got out of the Babel Tower easily since the army surrounded the place. Lelouch claims that he found a passage and he wanted to contact Rollo but back then his cellphone didn't work. All of a sudden, Lelouch notices a locket hanging from Rollo's cellphone and remembers him giving it to Rollo as birthday present. On a second thought, however, he remembers that he actually gave the locket on the 25th of October, which was Nunnaly's birthday. Despite his anger, Lelouch tries to calm down and tells Rollo that he should have given him a more manly locket. Rollo, however, turns hysteric, claiming that this is a locket that he received so it is his. Not wanting to press on with this, Lelouch decides to let it go for now. Later on, Rollo reports to Villetta that there's no change in Lelouch and there's no sign of Geass being used.

In response Villetta tells Rollo that she doesn't understand Geass' specification but...before she can finishes her sentence, a man enters the area. Rollo immediately sets his geass, despite Villetta protestation that the man is their ally who works on the same mission. Rollo's geass basically creates a spherical area and stops time within that sphere. When Villetta already regains her consciousness, she finds out that Rollo already stabbed the man. Rollo explains that only the two of them are meant to know about the existence of his Geass. A shaken Villetta wants to ask something but Rollo cuts her off by saying that this is the most effective way. Inside the Chinese Federation's consulate general, Karen can be heard saying that it's been three days since the United States of Japan was declared. She realizes that the stand-off with the Britannian Government won't go on forever. She's also worried because she hasn't received instruction from Lelouch. She then goes to the clothes basket and picks up Ashford uniform but when she does so, she notices the bunny girl suit. She goes out to confront C.C that it would have been easier if she's the one who wore the bunny suit.

Unfortunately for Karen, she doesn't realize that C.C is in the middle of talking to Gaohai and Li Xingke. Gaohai is surprised to see Karen and wonders if Zero is a woman. Karen denies this but C.C can't resist being sarcastic and tells Karen that she exposes herself far too soon. Despite the misinformation, Li knows that Karen is the pilot of Guren Nishiki because he's interested to know more about Black Knights. Their conversation is interrupted when a Black Knight member tells them that there's development about Ougi and the others. As it turns out, Guildford has brought out all of the captured Black Knights, threatening to execute all of them the next day at 3PM. A total of 256 members will be executed so if Zero wants to spare them, he demands that Zero defeat him in a match fair and square. Lelouch, who's in the middle of watching this announcement is startled when Shirley comes, telling him that she's looking for a present for Villetta-sensei's birthday. Much to her delight, Lelouch offers that they look for it together. Later on, Lelouch is seen in the bathroom, taking off a contact lens which hides his geass. A flashback shows that C.C was the one who gave him the contact lens.

Just as Lelouch about to leave the school, however, he meets Rollo who wants to know where he's going. Lelouch simply tells him that he's buying a present for Villetta's birthday. A perplexed Rollo, however, is approached by Milly and Rivalz later on. While Lelouch is thinking about buying date (as in date fruit) wines, Shirley becomes excited thinking that this whole thing is a date. Lelouch, who knows better, uses the nearby mirror to look at the street across them. He quickly sees Milly, Rivalz, and Rollo sneaking behind the bush. While Milly and the others are spying to see if anything would happen between Lelouch and Shirley, Villetta uses two groups of spies to find out C.C's whereabouts. At this point, however, Rollo wonders if Lelouch is Zero. Villetta believes that if Lelouch is Zero then he wouldn't miss tomorrow's execution. But even she starts to have doubts. While at a bank, Lelouch geassed a bank clerk. Meanwhile, Shirley gets excited when she sees a couple about to kiss but she's startled when Lelouch taps her from behind. In an attempt to cover up what she saw, Shirley pretends that she was starring at an ad about cable car in Tateyama.

This, however, reminds Lelouch of the time when he had no choice but to geass Shirley. He feels that it's his mistake that Shirley's memory was destroyed and it was his mistake that Milly's and Rivalz' memories were re-arranged. His thought, however, is interrupted by Shirley so to throw her off-track, he tells her that Milly and the others are following them. He then tells her that he has a good idea and takes her to a store. A spy tells Villetta that there's a possibility that Lelouch will try to pretend that he's inside the store so Villetta orders the man to stand in front of the store while 3 to wait on the back. Meanwhile, Lelouch tells Shirley that he'd like to change clothes and surprised Milly and the others. The reason Lelouch chooses this store is because he doesn't usually visit the place so the likelihood that it's been wired/tapped by surveillance is small. Lelouch then makes a phone call to the security section of the mall, telling them that the Black Knights has planted a bomb in the mall and it'll be detonated if their demand is not met. Lelouch then sneaks out of the store in the confusion. While he's aware that he's being followed, his second plans come ahead when the hypnotized bank teller hits the fire alarm.

Panic quickly spreads amongst shoppers, which allows Lelouch to get away from the spy who followed him. Rollo, who realizes what happened, checks the changing room where Lelouch used to be, only to find an empty room. Since Villetta can't get any report (due to deactivation of cellphone signals), she decides to go out and check the situation herself. When Rollo arrives to report, he can't find anyone in the control room. Lelouch then appears from behind him, pointing a gun, telling him that they're looking for C.C. Lelouch then reveals that he geassed the guy who was following him so they're on a wild goose chase after C.C since Lelouch knows that capturing C.C is top priority. Lelouch then goes on by saying that this school feels like a birdcage but from now on, it'll be his castle of freedom. As for Rollo, he'll be the one who's looking for Nunnaly. Much to Lelouch's horror, however, Rollo disappears along with his gun and reappears behind him, causing Lelouch to wonder if Rollo has a geass which stops time. Rollo, however, just asks him and his demon eye to die. Meanwhile, inside the Chinese consulate general, Li Xingke suddenly starts attacking Black Knight members. The episode then ends with him saying that the Black Knights will perish right here.

Impression:

I have no idea how Lelouch managed to sneak out of that change room without being noticed by anyone. I guess it's plausible but it's really hard as well especially since there should be many spies watching over his every move. At any rate, this episode explains why he returned to the school and that's because he wanted to find out about Nunnaly. Now that he knows she's not there, he makes an attempt to get out as soon as possible. It's nice to know that despite what has happened, he still cares about his friends at the student council. I wonder, however, if he knows the reason why Nina quit the student council. I can't remember if he knows that Nina has a huge crush on Euphemia. I also want to know who modified the student council's memory and how it happened. It's kind of sad that Suzaku let it happened even though these are the very people who defended him back when he got bullied by some racist students. I wonder if he even still remembers them at all these days or if he just thinks that they are no longer his friends?

Preview

Anyway, at the moment I'm more interested in Rollo, who seems to have two personalities. On the one hand there's this take-charge, cruel boy who doesn't hesitate to kill just to get rid of evidence. On the other hand, there's this seemingly needy little brother who sees to wish that Lelouch is not actually Zero. Also, his reaction when Lelouch suggests that they get him a more masculine locket was kind of bizzare. That wasn't even his locket so why would he feel some kind of attachment to it? Maybe he was acting but he looked really upset when he thought that Lelouch will take away the locket. Another interesting character is Li, whose alliance is still unclear at this point in the story. At first he seems to be pro Black Knights but now he starts attacking them. Of course it's likely that he's just unhappy after finding out that Zero has been using Gaohai to further his plan. The question is, how did he found out about it? After all, I thought not many people know about Geass just yet. Speaking of Geass, I guess every Britannian army and their mother now knows that Lelouch has one. I have no idea how he'll be able to free the Black Knight members now that he's under heavy surveillance and everyone seems to be sure that he's Zero.

© memento 2003