Code Geass: Special

September 30, 2006 | 17 Comments

This is basically 24 minutes promo for the upcoming CLAMP/Sunrise animation project, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. It features a brief storyline of the first episode, interview with the voice actors, Fukuyama Jun, Sakurai Takahiro, and Yukana. There is also a brief interview with Director Taniguchi Goro and series composition Oukouchi Ichiro who once worked together on Planetes. Halfway through, the special shows a group of young girls audioning for a role through beauty-pageant like contest B-Girl Audition. The special ends by showing brief clips of the OP theme, Colors by FLOW, and ED theme, Yuukyou Seishunka by ALI PROJECT. Overall, I thought it's an okay promo which makes me both interested and apprehensive at the same time. As a side note, I've created a new category called 'Preview'. This will contain the first few episodes that I watch before I decide if I want to include them in my regular schedule or not.

Storyline

The promo shows the ruler of Britannia addressing the citizens of Area 11 which pisses off a purple-haired girl called Karen Stadtfeld, who refuses to be called citizens of Area 11 but rather Japanese. It appears that large empire called Britannia conquered Japan and now it is only known as Area 11. The confrontation happens when a 19 year old boy called Lelouch starts to rebel against the empire while his childhood friend, Suzaku works for the empire. It is obvious, however, that Suzaku is a kind character when he goes out of his way to defend Lelouch and C.C (whose is pronounced as Shi-tsu) by telling his commander that Lelouch is just a civilian. I have to admit that the political-based storyline turns me off a little bit. Having said that, I do like the fact that Lelouch looks as if he's not going to be any different from the ruler of Britannia. He looks ruthless and willing to do anything to topple the Britannia empire.

Voice actors

I am surprised to see Fukuyama Jun (Watanuki in xxxHOLiC) voicing Lelouch since I think his voice is far more suited the more benevolent Suzaku. Similarly, I think Sakurai Takahiro should have voiced the more arrogant-looking Lelouch. I have never heard Yukana in other roles before but I thought she sounds okay as C.C although when you see her talking in that voice instead of as the character, it sounds kind of weird.

Character and Mecha design

I am a big fan of CLAMP so the character design is the major attraction about this series for me. Unfortunately the majority of the characters look like a rehash design on SEED characters, which I really loathe. If the character designer had been Hisashi Hirai, who did SEED design, I think I wouldn't even be interested in the series to begin with. Mecha design is also nothing special. The Nightmare Frame looks unrecognisable from other mecha from Gundam series. One of the reasons I never like Sunrise robot series is because their mecha are usually boring and badly designed.

Series planning and the audition

I have never seen Planetes but I've heard good things about the series as well as director Taniguchi Goro. I really hope that his presence makes the series more than a typical war series. The audition, on the other hand, looks kind of freaky. First of all, I don't see the correlation between being able to act well and having to parade in bikini. Moreover, some of the contestants show some weird ability like being able to fold her legs in an inhuman manner. While other shows her ability to roller skate on the stage. Again, how does this relate to being able to act in the first place?

The Opening and Ending Theme

I am probably one of the few people who like ALI PROJECT. I always think that their songs are unique and usually provides a perfect companion to dark series like Rozen Maiden. Yuukyou Seishunka sounds good although I don't like the Gundam SEED-like animation that goes with it. One of the characters even look like Lacus. The opening, Colors by FLOW is even better. It has similar tone to FLOW other anime-based song like Days, which I really like a lot. After hearing part of the song, I really think this is going to be one of my favourite theme from the upcoming anime season.

© memento 2003