This anime's main story line revolves around Lelouch Lamperouge or Lelouch Vi Britannia a prince of the Holy Britannian Empire the major world power. Lelouch and his sister Nunnally are in hiding at the Ashford Academy the school which Lelouch attends because both his and Naunnally's mother was murdered under mysterious circumstances and Lelouch and Nunnally are presumed dead. The action starts when returning from a chess match against a Noble of Britannia Lelouch accidentally involves himself in a struggle between the Japanese resistance (Japan has been subjugated by Britannia and renamed Area 11) and the Britannian government. In the struggle Lelouch gains a mysterious power known as Geass which allows him to command anyone to obey a single order unconditionally until that order has been fulfilled. During this first decisive battle Lelouch takes control of the Japanse resistance and leads them into a near victory. Unbeknownst to Lelouch the Britannian Empire sends Suzaku Kururugi (Lelouch's dearest friend) into battle with a new and unique Knightmare mech which Suzaku uses to effectively squash the uprising. Lelouch later discovers that one of the resistance fighters is also one of his class mates Kallen Stadtfeld she later becomes his ace pilot when Lelouch establishes a new resistance group known as the Black Knights and lead by Lelouch in disguise under the name Zero. That's just the first series which is 25 episodes. In the second series Lelouch and the Black Knights establish their own country and name it the United States of Japan and join together with the other major world power the Chinese Federation forming a pseudo country of approximate size and power to Britannia with the Black Knights as the military force for the "country."
Now it may seem like I went into a lot of detail about the plot but that barely scratches the surface there's countless intrigue and romance, death and betrayal and under it all each individuals drive to fight for justice and end the war mongering of the world. Lelouch is one of the most interesting characters because he has to lead a double maybe even triple life to accomplish his goals. He is a true renaissance man. He's an excellent leader and strategist, a great friend and is willing to accept the role of the true bastard to unify the world. He expertly creates an undying symbol for Justice in Zero and does his best to protect innocent lives. However when he needs to Zero is not above making sacrifices for the greater good. Throughout the entire series there's always that lingering question in your mind is he the good guy or is he just a selfish bastard. I'll leave that to you to decide however I think that Lelouch executes his plans for world peace nearly flawlessly despite the loss of many of his friends and occasionally what he believes was his whole reason for fighting. On the other side of this coin there is Suzaku who believes that no life should be sacrificed unless it's unavoidable and that people should work within the system to instigate change. Suzaku is an interesting character because he is an 11 (Japanese) an "honorary Britannian" and also the son of the last prime minister of Japan the one who allegedly took his own life to get the Japanese people to surrender to Britannia. Suzaku is deeply troubled because he is a soldier that is rapidly ascending through the ranks of the Britannia military and trying to maintain his beliefs that every life sacred. He is also old friends with Lelouch and Nannually and on several occasions nearly succeeds in discovering Lelouch's identity as Zero whom he regards as the absolute epitome of evil. It is interesting to watch their friendship grow and change since neither knows the others true identities Lelouch the "Black King" of the Black Knights, and Suzaku the "White Knight" of Britannia.
I would definitely give this a big recommendation. I've barely scratched the surface of this show but if I were to do a longer review it would probably turn into an in depth analysis of good and evil and all that bull shit and I don't want to get preachy. So long story short if you listen to nothing else I have to say listen to this. Watch this anime it's fucking awesome also if you've got the time check out Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and Gurren Lagan. Which I may not get around to reviewing for awhile because I've got so much good stuff to watch that its hard to go back and rewatch them by myself. That does not change the fact that they are brilliant and so is Code Geass.
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