Code Geass was a series that I was absolutely enamored with when I first watched it, the series was so well written, had such compelling characters, and looked absolutely fantastic at the time. I’ll be honest, even after a decade I haven’t thought about the series too much, the last time I had a discussion or two with people about whether Lelouch was alive or if he died in that final scene at the end of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 was maybe four years ago but when I heard a new film was being made and it was called Lelouch of the Re;surrection you better believe I wanted to know what happened to Lelouch!
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection is set two years after the events of R2, we see the world has moved on and Lelouch’s plan for world peace has come to fruition or at least everyone believed. At the start of the film, Nunally and Suzaku, who has taken up the mantle of Zero, are kidnapped by an unknown faction. While this is happening C.C. is traveling to various locations and searching for something, she isn’t alone though as we see Lelouch with her but something is wrong, it’s not the same Lelouch we saw for nearly 50 episodes and while I would love to give more of the main plot away it might give too much away.
While I was under the impression going into the film that it was set following the events of the anime series, it actually follows the events of the Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion film trilogy which had some minor changes. So if you were like me and binged the entire series rather than the movies to get caught up, you might be a bit surprised. With that little piece of information out of the way let’s talk about the movie.
It’s not a film that you can just jump into, it doesn’t take its time reintroducing characters but quickly shows how they’ve changed over the course of the year since Emporer Lelouch was killed by Zero. From there it jumps straight into the action and really doesn’t slow down aside from a few scenes where we see Lelouch interact with his former comrades who are glad to see him return but at the same time feel betrayed because they believe they lied to him. It’s all done so well, you can’t help be drawn into each moment including the battles.
It’s a movie that was captivating from start to finish, the nostalgic look in the film just reminds me just how much I loved the original character designs from CLAMP. It was something that I loved in the original series and they still look great 10 years later, Knightmares also return with plenty of new frames as well as upgrades for existing ones like Guren and Lancelot.
Lelouch of the Re;surrection is such a compliment to the series and a must-see for fans of the series. It won’t be the end either as series and movie producer Kojiro Taniguchi said following the North American premiere of the film that there is a 10-year plan for the series and this film has me excited to see what’s next!
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection will be in select theater May 5th and May 7th.