Manga, Light Novel, Anime: Code Geass has, at this point in time, three manga spin-offs to its name, all being serialized in Kadokawa Shoten magazines. The first, with the same title as the anime (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion) focuses on Lelouch and more or less follows the series, with art by Majiko!, and began being serialized in Montly Asuka magazine in the Octpober 2006 issue. The second, known as Code Geass: Suzaku of the Counterattack, focuses on Suzaku's part of the story, with art done by Atsuro Yomino, and is being serialized in Beans A magazine. The third, Code Geass: Knightmare of Nanally, focuses on Nanally's part of the story, with art done by Tomomasa Takuma.
There is also a series of light novels that follows the series' plot that began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Sneaker magazine on April 28th, 2007.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is a twenty-five episode series that was produced by Sunrise (famous for their work on the Gundam series and Cowboy Bebop) and directed by Goro Taniguchi (famous for his work on Planetes and s-CRY-ed). It ran on Japanese TV from October 5th, 2006 to July 28th, 2007, and has been licensed Stateside by Bandai. Bandai has yet to release a date for its DVD release, but the dub will be airing on Adult Swim starting on April 26th (next Saturday!).
Story: On August 10th, 2010, the Holy Empire of Britannia invaded Japan and conquered the country in less than a month with their mechs, known as Knightmare Frames. Japan, renamed "Area 11", was colonized, and the Japanese, now known as "Elevens", were made to live in ghettos while the Britannians live in upper-class walled-off settlements. Lelouch, then ten years old, swears to his friend Suzaku that some day, he will destroy the Britannian empire.
Seven years later, Lelouch is going to school at a private Britannian academy, known as Ashford Acadmey, and Suzaku's joined the Britannian army as an honorary Britannian. One day, Lelouch gets caught up with terrorists escaping with a military secret, and Suzaku is part of the squad sent to capture the terrorists. When Suzaku insists that Lelouch isn't one of the terrorists, he is shot for disobedience, and in the chaos that follows, the military secret is revealed to be a young girl named CC (or C Two), who contracts with Lelouch and gives him a power known as Geass, more specifically, the power to make anyone do anything he says just by looking them in the eyes.
Lelouch decides to bring Britannia down using his Geass, while Suzaku decides to attempt to change Britannia from the inside.
This is a good, solid series. The set up's a bit like Death Note, in which we've got a guy in high school using the powers he's received to change the world (Lelouch), and there's someone opposing him and his ideals (in this case, Suzaku). It's also like V for Vendetta, in that we've got Lelouch leading a rebellion against Britannia as the masked Zero.
The series ends up being a neat juxtaposition of politics, mech action, plotting, rebellion, and school life. And it's like Toward the Terra, in that a lot of the side characters are developed more than they would be in most series, are pretty intriguing, and end up playing major roles in the plot. The plot progresses pretty nicely, with Lelouch figuring out how his powers work and building up his power and followers and attacks on Britannia, with a few calm-before-the-storm episodes that end up bringing some of the more awesome revelations, plenty of plot twists tossed in, all bought to a boil in the last few episodes, leaving off with that cliff hanger of cliff hangers.
Taniguchi weaves in little homages from the other series he's directed, so if you've seen his other series, watch and see what you can find.
It's not without it's problems, though.
First thing you'll probably notice is the rampant jingoism. It's probably a bit more apparent to me, because I'm in an class about the ethnography of Japan, and we just finished a section on WWII, but, still, you'll notice a lot of BANZAI NIPPON! in the first few episodes. For example, the date that Britannia (which, if you look at the bit before the OP, is, in fact, America) invades Japan is the day that Japan surrendered at the end of WWII. It does get less noticeable as the series goes along, but you can still tell it's there.
The second fact is that the series brings up a lot of mysteries and doesn't really answer them, a la Rozen Maiden and Romeo and Juliet. But at least they don't try and clumsily resolve things like in Nishi no Yoki Majo or Darker than BLACK. Admittedly, there is a second season that just started airing in Japan about two weeks ago, so hopefully they can address those issues.
Art: The animation for this is really smooth, not to mention vibrantly colored. The action scenes are fully animated, as are the explosions and such, which is nice to see.
You can tell straight off the bat that Clamp does the character designs because the men are a bit pointy and lanky. But once they're introduced, they get a bit less pointy, which makes the lankiness work out better. And, of course, the females are absolutely beautiful.
Sunrise's mech designs do admittedly look a bit like Gundams, and a bit on the bulky side rather than streamlined but, for the mecha I've seen in anime (which, admittedly, isn't that much), they're pretty neat.
There's some stock footage for when Lelouch uses the Geass, and a bit of recap at the beginning before the OP, but, luckily, it's well-done and doesn't get too old.
Music: I like the music for this a lot. There are some pretty basic themes and styles for specific people and things that happen, but there end up being a lot of well-done variations. The insert songs that they do don't take away from the scene, but fit in perfectly.
For the most part, I liked the OPs and EDs for this. The first (and, incidentally, the third ED) and third OP are your standard pop numbers, but they're really catchy. The first ED is an ALI Project song, which, in my opinion, guarantees awesomeness.
However, the vocalists for the second OP and ED (whether or not they're the same, I'm not sure) need to be strangled. They're worse than the harpy woman who did the Honey and Clover OPs, and that's saying something. They gave me headaches.
Seiyuu: The seiyuu for this project are made of awesome on several levels. Jun Fukuyama, who played the naive innocent Albert in Gankutsuou, gets to play the scheming jaded Lelouch, and it's particularly nice to see the role reversal there. Kikuko Inoue, who played Mercedes in Gankutsuou, appears in a small, but important, supporting role, as do Jouji Nakata and Fumiko Orikasa. Also, Suzaku's seiyuu may sound familiar, mainly because he's been voicing Cloud in the recent FFVII spinoffs.
The only seiyuu who really annoyed me was Lloyd's seiyuu, but then again, he's meant to come off as annoying. They did their job there. xD
Length: Had they done some slight reworking of the plot, they probably could have made this a twenty-five episode series. However, the story would've taken a hit if they had. The second season, which, as I mentioned before, just recently started airing, should hopefully bring a sense of completeness to the story.
Overall: A beautifully designed and animated show, with excellent music and seiyuu, and a very solid plot, save for the jingoism and unsolved mysteries, which will hopefully be solved by the next season.
Story: 8/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 8/10
Overall: 43/50; 86% (B )
