Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

Last updated: 10 November 2026

About Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

The Holy Britannian Empire rules a third of the world, including conquered Japan, renamed Area 11. Lelouch Lamperouge, an exiled Britannian prince living as a student, gains the power of Geass from the immortal C.C.: the ability to make anyone obey a single command. As the masked revolutionary Zero, he builds the Black Knights to destroy his father's empire and make a gentler world for his sister Nunnally. Code Geass runs 50 episodes across two seasons of strategy, mecha warfare and escalating moral cost, ending with a plan the whole series was designed to reach.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is a TV anime from 2006, first released in Fall 2006. It belongs to the Action and Sci-Fi and Drama genres and is listed as a completed series. The summary above is written by the AnimeYug team in our own words.

Story & Plot

In 2010 of the show's calendar, the Holy Britannian Empire conquers Japan with a new weapon, the Knightmare Frame, and renames the country Area 11. Its people become Elevens, second class in their own homeland. Seven years later, two Britannian schoolboys live quietly in the Tokyo Settlement: Lelouch Lamperouge, brilliant, bored and furious, and the secret he carries, that he and his blind, wheelchair using sister Nunnally are the Emperor's abandoned children, sent to Japan as hostages after their mother's assassination.

Caught in a military operation, Lelouch receives a strange power from a captive woman who calls herself C.C.: the Geass, a command engraved on the eye that forces any person to obey one order, once. Lelouch immediately uses it to survive, then keeps going. Within days he has a mask, a name, Zero, and a plan: build the Black Knights from Japan's scattered resistance, present them as allies of justice, and climb until he can destroy Britannia and face his father.

On the other side of the board stands his childhood friend Suzaku Kururugi, a Japanese boy serving in Britannia's army, piloting its finest Knightmare and believing the system can be fixed from inside. Around them: Kallen, the Black Knights' ace; the immortal C.C., watching her contract with Lelouch for reasons of her own; and an empire full of Lelouch's own half siblings. R2 raises every stake until the only move left is the one the whole series was built for. It is called the Zero Requiem, and it is best met unspoiled.

Story Arcs & Episode Guide

The Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion anime is split into story sagas. Here is every saga in order, with its episodes and years.

Why Watch Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion

• Lelouch plans three moves ahead and the show lets him lose when he miscalculates. The strategy is the spectacle.
• Every episode ends like it is daring you not to press next.
• CLAMP's designs and Sunrise's mecha battles give the politics a gorgeous shell.
• The friendship and rivalry between Lelouch and Suzaku carries the whole moral argument of the series.
• An ending planned from the start, and still debated nearly two decades later.

Who Is It For?

Code Geass is for older teens and adults. It contains war violence, civilian massacres discussed and shown, political executions and mature themes about colonialism and sacrifice. It aired in a late night slot in Japan.

Voice Actors

The Japanese voices behind the main characters of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.

• Lelouch LamperougeExiled prince, leader of the Black Knights as Zero
  Japanese voiceJun Fukuyama
• Suzaku KururugiJapanese soldier of Britannia, pilot of the Lancelot
  Japanese voiceTakahiro Sakurai
• C.C.Immortal woman who gives Lelouch his Geass
  Japanese voiceYukana
• Kallen KozukiAce pilot of the Black Knights
  Japanese voiceAmi Koshimizu
• Nunnally LamperougeLelouch's sister
  Japanese voiceKaori Nazuka

Staff & Production

Original Creator

Goro Taniguchi and Ichiro Okouchi

Animation Studio

Sunrise

Director

Goro Taniguchi

Series Composition

Ichiro Okouchi

Music

Kotaro Nakagawa and Hitomi Kuroishi

Manga & Source Material

Code Geass is an anime original, built at Sunrise from a pitch by Goro Taniguchi and Ichiro Okouchi, with character designs by CLAMP.

• An original anime created at Sunrise by director Goro Taniguchi and writer Ichiro Okouchi, who developed the concept together after working on Planetes
• Original character designs by the manga group CLAMP, adapted for animation by Takahiro Kimura
• Not based on a manga: several manga and light novel versions followed the anime, telling alternate stories
• The chess motif is structural, not decoration: Lelouch thinks in games, names his pieces and plays matches that mirror the war
• Jun Fukuyama won the Best Actor in a Leading Role prize at the first Seiyu Awards in 2007 for playing Lelouch

Music

Kotaro Nakagawa's score drives the military side with brass and strings, while Hitomi Kuroishi writes and sings the series' haunting insert songs, including the famous track that plays over its most emotional scenes.

Opening Themes

• “COLORS”by FLOWThe first opening theme (season 1, episodes 1 to 12), the song most fans hear in their heads at the title
• “Kaidoku Funou”by JinnThe second season 1 opening theme (episodes 13 to 23)

Ending Themes

• “Yuukyou Seishunka”by Ali ProjectThe first ending theme (season 1, episodes 1 to 12), gothic and theatrical
• “Mosaic Kakera”by SunSet SwishThe second season 1 ending theme (episodes 13 to 23)

Series Timeline

1. 2006 to 2007

   Season 1 airs in Japan, 25 episodes, directed by Goro Taniguchi at Sunrise.

2. 2008

   Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 airs, 25 episodes, completing the original story.

3. 2012 to 2016

   The Akito the Exiled OVA series tells a European side story set between the seasons.

4. 2017 to 2018

   Three compilation films, Initiation, Transgression and Glorification, retell the series with changes that set up a new continuation.

5. 2019

   Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection, a sequel film to the compilation film timeline, opens in Japan.

6. 2024

   Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture continues the franchise with new characters in a later era.

Release Schedule

Premiere

5 October 2006 on MBS (Japan)

Broadcast

Season 1: October 2006 to July 2007. R2: April to September 2008

Streaming

Crunchyroll in many regions; Sony Liv in India

Episodes

50 episodes (25 plus 25 in R2), complete

Streaming availability changes by country and over time. Details as of 10 November 2026.

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