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Zero arranges for a million people to come to the SAZ. In exchange, he will be exiled.

Appearing on the big screen at the ceremony, he asks Suzaku what it means to be Japanese. Is it blood? History? Land?

Suzaku says it's if you hold Japanese culture in your heart.

Zero agrees.

But it's a trick! Fog is released and when it clears, there are a million Zeros!

Now Suzaku is left with this choice: let them depart into exile peacefully, or crack down and prove Zero's rebellion right again.

He lets them go.

Conveniently, a ship is waiting.

The Japanese escape to an island off the coast of China.

However, they have already been outmaneuvered. The high eunuchs have arranged a marriage between the Empress and the first prince of Britannia.

Zero interferes and kidnaps the child empress.

Xing Ke is the official who granted the Knights amnesty in the Chinese embassy. He also promised to get the empress out of the forbidden city.

His coup d'etat failed when Zero showed up, but the eunuchs are willing to use him.

His tactical genius forces Zero onto his back foot.

Xing Ke has captured Kallen and has Zero trapped. Unfortunately for him, the Eunuchs use their international relations to call in a favor from the Knights of the Round: destroy both the rebels and the Japanese!

Xing Ke is drawn into a hopeless position when the empress gets out.

Zero appears to save them in a custom Knightmare built from the wreckage of the Gawain.

Xing Ke asks if he thinks one Knightmare will turn the tide of battle.

No. War is won through strategy, not tactics.

Meanwhile, rebellious uprisings break out in 14 different cities.

Zero has broadcast his communication with the high eunuchs around the Chinese federation, and their disdain has thrown the people into open revolt. The Britannians withdraw; an alliance with the eunuchs is worthless now.

But Kallen was turned over to Suzaku. She's his prisoner.

The Knights break out of the trap and the Xing Ke dispatches the eunuchs.

Lelouch and C.C. have effectively conquered China for a reason: to track down the secret order that gives people geass. They move when the leader changes. C.C. was the leader before, and V.V. is now.

Lelouch returns to school to keep up his cover. He discovers that his body double has been managing things for him in his absence in an unexpected manner.

He's become a bit of a playboy.

How, the _actual_ kissing Lelouch count is: C.C. 2, everyone else 0.

But as far as Shirley is concerned, she's been kissed by Lelouch.

And she gets real mad when she finds out how many other girls he's been dating.

(There's a waiting list.)

Oh yeah, and the other Knights of the Round have enrolled in the school.

Shenanigans ensue when a dating game takes place at the school, with a special bounty placed on Lelouch.

Circumstances bring Lelouch and Shirley together and they officially become an item.

But the next day, V.V. deploys a geass canceller and all of Shirley's memories return.

Oh god, now I have to backfill about Jeremiah, who I've been ignoring.

Jeremiah was a Knightmare pilot. He was disgraced when Zero freed Suzaku. He and Villetta compared notes about lost time and that's what helped Villetta realize Lelouch was involved.

After he was injured in battle, he was rebuilt as a cyborg in an experiment on geass and attacked Zero again.

After that, V.V. modified him with the geass canceller, and now he's an assassin for the order coming to kill Lelouch.

I think we're caught up on that now.

Jeremiah corners Lelouch, but he has a device that will disrupt Jeremiah's cybernetics.

Jeremiah asks why Lelouch became Zero. It turns out that Jeremiah was in Lady Marianne (Lelouch's mother)'s honor guard. His first loyalty is to her, not V.V.

He joins Lelouch's side.

Shirley runs in to help, and meets Rolo doing the same.

After a tense check that they are really on the same side, she tells Rolo that she wants to help make Lelouch happy. To help him reunite with Nunnaly.

That's why he finds her lying in a pool of blood. She dies in his arms.

Lelouch pinpoints the cult of geass' headquarters and attacks with the black knights.

They kill the researchers and the experiments, some of whom are children.

Lelouch corners V.V., but a magic door opens and Charles is there, and Lelouch is pulled into a vision.

This is no mere vision. Lelouch is physically in the Thought Elevator/Sword of Akasha confronting Charles. He uses his geass and Charles shoots himself through the heart.

But it isn't that easy.

The final stage of geass is to absorb the progenitor's immortality.

Charles has taken V.V.'s immortality.

C.C.'s ultimate goal is for Lelouch to take hers. Or it was, anyway. She arrives to confront Charles and sends Lelouch into her own memories.

But Lelouch will not be removed. After learning C.C.'s history, he returns and destroys the Sword.

Lelouch rescues her from the collapsing subspace and they escape through the mystic door.

But C.C. has lost her entire memory, regressing to the mind of a medieval slave.

Charles is trapped in subspace. Britannia is rudderless.

The United States of Japan evolves into The United Federation of Nations, by merging with China's successor states.

They intend to liberate Japan and show that Britannia isn't the leading force in the world anymore.

Charles appears via broadcast, and says if it's war Zero wants, bring it on!

Zero now faces, not a headless Britannia, but a fully operational one.

Lelouch reaches out to the one friend he has who can protect his sister in the upcoming war: Suzaku.

The price is high.

Suzaku demands a private meeting with Lelouch.

He has a bunch of questions he wants answered. But he doesn't know that Prince Schneizel's people are following him.

Lelouch is captured and Schneizel learns his identity.

He escapes, of course, and the battle begins.

Kallen is released and joins the battle. She fights Suzaku, and beats him.

This would be his end, but he's been geassed to live.

And they've installed an annihilation bomb on the Lancelot. It he discharges it over Tokyo, he will survive.

Nunnaly is vaporized in the blast.

Schneizel cones on a diplomatic mission to the black knights.

While Lelouch has a breakdown, he tells the Knights about Zero's identity, and about geass. He has a dossier of people who have been geassed.

The Knights feel betrayed. They agree to trade Zero for Japan.

Rolo helps Lelouch escape. But it turns out that his geass has a fatal flaw. When he stops time, it stops his own heart.

He uses it so many times trying to get away that he dies.

Lelouch has lost everything now.

Nunnaly, C.C., Rolo, the Black Knights.

Only revenge remains.

Schneizel calls Charles, but he dismisses him, saying not to bother him with mundane things.

Anya is revealed to actually be Marianne. She had a prior contract with C.C., but failed to complete it. Now she jailbreaks C.C.'s memory.

Schneizel decides to stage a coup. And absentee emperor is no good. He sends Suzaku to assassinate Charles. Unfortunately, he is guarded by the top knight.

Charles synchronizes all the relics and reopens the gate to the Sword.

But before Charles can confront God, he is himself confronted by Lelouch.

Lelouch has placed bombs at the entrance and seals both of them in the Sword.

Whatever Charles is up to, if he can't affect the world, he's as good as dead, even if he is technically immortal.

Here in this alternative world is the Collective Unconscious or God. Charles' plan is to remake the world so that individuals no longer exist. We are all just facets of the collective unconscious anyway.

Marianne, C.C., and V.V. were his allies in achieving this.

They justify abandoning their own children by looking forward to a reunification in the collective unconscious? Unacceptable.

Lelouch uses his geass on God itself. Not as a command, but simply a request.

The thought elevator collapses, and Charles disintegrates.

One month later, the emperor of Britannia is set to make a public address.

But everyone is shocked that the emperor is not Charles, but Lelouch.

Suzaku is with him. Lelouch has declared him to be Knight Zero, the knight before other knights.

Geass guarantees acknowledgement.

Britannia applies to join the UFN.

This won't work. Votes in the UFN are apportioned by population. If Britannia joins, it will have a majority. To join is to conquer.

Lelouch asks politely, but with Suzaku and the Lancelot pointing its weapons at the delegates.

Then the capital of Britannia is vaporized. The floating fortress, Damocles, is loaded with annihilation bombs.

Schneizel and Cornelia never returned to the homeland, but they give Lelouch a call to contest his authority. They have an alternative candidate.

It's Nunnaly.

The Britannian homeland is in disarray. Lelouch cannot requisition more troops on a reasonable timeframe.

That means this is the decisive battle. Lelouch and his current force vs the Black Knights and Schneizel's Damocles.

Winner take all. The entire world.

Lelouch breaks into the Damocles, properly predicts Schneizel's plan, and geasses him.

But Schneizel doesn't have the detonator for the annihilation bombs. Nunnaly does.

Lelouch has to confront her.

All Lelouch has to do to win is throw away the last thing that ever caused him to pause, use his geass on Nunnaly, and take the Damocles Key.

But will he cross the Rubicon?

Yes.

Lelouch becomes emperor of the world.

Two months later, Lelouch is attending the execution of his enemies. Nunnaly is chained at his feet. All the world hates him.

Suddenly, along his route, Zero appears! With lighting speed, he breaks past the guards, disarms Lelouch and plunges a sword through his heart.

Zero is played by Suzaku. This is their plan: Zero Requiem. To focus all the world's hate on one man, then remove him.

They have planned this from Charles' death.

Lelouch falls down to Nunnaly's feet. She is shocked to realize that this was always the plan.

To make a peaceful world where people could be kind to one another.

Lelouch's last words, that only Nunnaly can hear: I destroy the world and remake it anew.

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Kallen gets the epilogue. We see her running late for school, toast in her mouth, as if this were some kind of anime.

All the energy that used to go to war now goes to ending poverty and improving people's lives.

The End.

So, that's the show.

What's my takeaway?

Well, it's no surprise this in the top 20 anime of all time on MyAnimeList.

It's really good. Absolutely recommend.

Now there are lots of anime that are war stories with mecha. And there are lots that are romance story set in high school revolving around the student council.

But only Code Geass has the vision to be both at once.

Did you want redheads? We've got both a Japanese character whose red hair is symbolic of her fiery passion, and an actual ginger!

Damn, but Shirley got done dirty though.

I wasn't sure about the soft reset at the start of season two at first, but it was really interesting to contrast Lelouch's approach when his identity was secret from when it was known to his enemies and his every move had to be cloaked.

My summaries had to cut hard, and even then were more posts per episode than some shows.

I cut out discussion of some of the secondary characters, like Nina and Milly, and they deserve better than that. The C and D teams and C and D plots were still great.

All the Pizza Hut product placement was removed from the version of season one that's on Netflix, but they left it in in season two.

I'm glad to see you can still get pizza delivery in a war zone.

I was a bit spoilered on the ending, because I saw the name of the sequel movie.

I pondered the nature of tragedy as I was watching this. To be a true tragedy, the hero's comeuppance must come as a result of his flaws.

But, of course, Lelouch _won_.

(Compare to _Death Note_.)

The character design seemed unusual compared to other anime. Everyone was very tall and thin.

It really only reminds me of one other show...

(Double checks.)

Same studio that did _Escaflowne_. I shouldn't be surprised.

I don't want to be mean to a show I really enjoyed, but you can see the seams at the start of season two where they changed their mind about what they were doing.

Or maybe they had the broad strokes, but hadn't worked out the details?

Either way, you can see it.

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