Code Geass: LeLouch of the Re;surrection [Review]

-Warning: SeriesSpoilers ahead!-

The movie begins on the anniversary of LeLouch’s assassination by Zero. Many of the Sector Eleven resistance members have grown into the new world order, they don’t understand was engineered by LeLouch. The world under the United Federation of Nations have achieved levels of unprecedented peace. Order is overturned however, as Nunnally and Suzaku, under the guise of Zero, are attacked and captured by unknown assailants while on a peace mission to Zilkistan. Meanwhile, C.C (C2) continues on an unknown mission with a now mentally empty LeLouch having somehow been brought back after his assassination at the hands of Suzaku, attempting to bring him back to his past self. But these arid sands hide a deep secret, for Zilkistan is known as the Land of Warriors, and their army unbeatable. Can the Chess Grand Master LeLouch formulate the perfect plan to rescue his sister?

A Decade and Changelater

So the first bigissue this movie suffers has to be the fact that the series happenedso long ago. Granted, you can see it on streaming websites, butthat’s half the fun to see how much you can remember of the show.Granted, I went in with an advantage having seen it three years agoin anticipation of Akito the Exiled. Still, even with that the onlypeople I could really remember off the top of my head were LeLouch—ofcourse-- and C2. Even his friends only summoned up vague memories ofwho they were in the show. So definitely as a barrier to entry, aquick rewatch of a few of the early episodes and some of the laterones might be necessary before going to see the movie.

Voice Talent

A common problemthat many of the earlier anime series have coming back to their showsis that the original voice talent isn’t available any longer. Likewith the Slayer’s series, Daniel Moo is sadly missing fromreworking his role as Xellos. That’s not the case with this seriesthough. All of the original voices return like Johnny Yong Bosch andKaren Strassman return to LeLouch and Kallen. And even after such along time, their voices haven’t changed and are still immediatelyrecognizable from memory. In fact according to Karen Strassman,apparently her latest voice work in video games has actually broughtan even more smokey quality to Kallen. So in an industry where voicetalent can be swapped out after such a long time, it’s such a greatexperience that they brought so much talent back together for thisproject.

Art

Code Geass to me hasalways had a unique kind of art style. A strange transition betweenthe early 90’s style and what can be considered the more modernstyle. So after a decade where the style has turned into what it isnow, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the art style changedbetween the show and the movie. Just look at Slayers again. While itdidn’t completely change from the original art style, (and no,Lena’s ever changing shoulder guards) it did take on the morecommon rounded face look of the modern design. I was curious howrecognizable the show was going to be, but instead I was pleasantlysurprised. It had managed to maintain the original art style, justwith better color than what I remembered, and definitely from the fewpictures that I could find on the net to compare the new and oldimages to. Really a great way to let old fans ease back into aclassic favorite.

Pacing

The movie does afairly good job of balancing characters interacting with each other,and attempting to kill each other. It leans heavily towards theaction sequences, but that only makes sense given that the series hasgiant fighting robots. Where some movies will use dialogue as ways tojust carry the segments without action to the next bloodbath. CodeGeass thankfully doesn’t fall into this trap, the dialogue betweenaction sequence as well as the dialogue that comes up during. It’sodd to see something balance the two different styles so well thatthey actually enhance each other rather than hinder or imbalance oneover the other.

Final Thoughts

I found myselfslowly getting back into the film and the alternate universe of Earththat it created. Unfortunately, it reminded me a little too much ofhow the second season of the show eventually turned out. I don’twant to spoil the show itself and to an extent the movie as well, butit just put me off. At least in the beginning it did, before itreverted to the good days of the first season. It was a fun watch anda reminder of an early age involving giant robots trying to blasteach other apart with lasers...good times.

If you’reinterested in seeing the movie for yourself, it’s coming to selecttheaters this coming weekend. On May 5^th you can see theseries in original Japanese. But if that’s not your speed, on boththe 7^th and 8^th the dub will be showing at sometheaters. You’ll need to check your local theater to see if it’splaying near you. Until next time guys.