Do we really need more sequels? “Code Geass Season 3: Lelouch Of The Resurrection”
Unpopular opinion: when something has a great ending, don’t give it a sequel. Let good things end.
Three days ago, the internet (or at least the anime corners of the internet) was abuzz with news of …
Code Geass. The ten year old anime about war, terrorism, family, love, loss, oppression, witches, mechas, and pizza.
The series from 2006 that caught the attention of every type of anime fan at the time, and put many people on to anime, is receiving another season as announced by Sunrise. The exact, factual details of whats to come is neatly stated here in an article by Crunchyroll, the closest thing to a credible anime news source I can find!
The details of the article: at a screening event for the 10th anniversary of the original anime’s debut, it was announced that; “The 50-episode earlier anime will be edited into a three movie Comprehensive Theatrical Version, debuting in January 2017 with re-recorded dialog and new cuts of animation.”
And more importantly, “… plans for a “Code Geass Lelouch of the Resurrection” anime set several years after Zero Requiem, which director Goro Taniguchi says stars a Lelouch who is alive and not an alternate version. Whether this will be a TV anime or movie has not been announced.”
A Lelouch who is alive and not an alternate version…
I want to wake up from this Knightmare.
Here’s where the substance ends and my rant begins.
Unless you’ve been wholly robbing yourself of the thrilling, emotional, tear jerking experience of Code Geass you may not understand where I’m coming from. Yes, i’m biased — this series sits firmly at my third favorite anime, I watched it as it aired in the states and seeing it unfold week was an experience in itself – but my god, this show had it all.
My favorite thing about this show though, was the ending. I can’t think of many other anime or shows, movies, even books that end as powerfully as Code Geass did. The writers managed to pull off an ending so thorough and well thought out, that every event of the fifty episode series was wrapped up, with no loose ends remaining. If there was such thing as a perfect ending, they came as close to the mark as they could.
I’m not on the writing team or directors board for Sunrise and the Code Geass series, but I don’t think you need to be in order to see why making a sequel where Lelouch is alive could be a risky move. The entire narrative of the series was made complete in the sacrifice Lelouch made, in the form of his life. To have him come back alive for another season of who-knows-what would make no damned sense. This series had a tragic, heroic ending – a fundamental characteristic of a heroic ending is that there must be death, and it is often the main character who must die for the story to be resolved. Why retcon him back into life? Sunrise, you made the perfect ending-sandwich, and you’re throwing it back up and trying to garnish it with something pretty to hype up the swathes of devoted fans (like me!) who adore your series. But money is money, and if the people want to eat up a blasphemous sequel-sandwich, so be it.
There is hope.
I’m not all dour about the prospect of another season. To be candid about it, my expectation is that it’ll have the plot content of steamy garbage, but at least look pretty and be well animated/voiced. I’m really not sure where they can go forward from the ending of the series. Hopefully if my expectations are low, i’ll be pleasantly surprised if it’s redeeming. After all, they must have some reason to bring back this amazing series from 2006, right? It couldn’t just be a ploy to milk out some more money from this loving fan base.. right?
The biggest boon from this, though?
CODE GEASS MEMES ARE BACK, BABY
That’s all for now, time to fly away on my SPINZAKU–
