Kallen Kozuki
Kallen Kozuki is a main character of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, the ace pilot of the Guren Mk-II. She is voiced by Ami Koshimizu in Japanese and Karen Strassman in English.
About Kallen Kozuki
Kallen Kozuki is a main character of Code Geass, the Black Knights' ace pilot. Half Britannian and half Japanese, she lives a double life: a sickly noble schoolgirl at Ashford by day, and the crimson Guren's pilot, the most feared Knightmare on the battlefield, by night. Kallen fights for her dead brother, her degraded mother and a free Japan, and her loyalty to Zero survives everything except, at times, Zero himself.
Appearance
Kallen is a striking young woman with spiky crimson red hair, kept in two distinct styles: loose and wild as a Black Knight, neatly brushed at school, where she plays the frail, sickly heiress to perfection. Her pilot suit is the Black Knights' red and black, and her Knightmare, the crimson Guren Mk-II, matches her hair so exactly that enemies learn to fear the colour. CLAMP's design work makes the double life visible: soften the hair and the posture and the empire's most wanted terrorist becomes a girl nobody at Ashford looks at twice.
Personality
Kallen is direct, brave and allergic to being managed, in battle and out of it. The sickly act she performs at school disgusts her, and the disgust fuels the other life. She is warmer than her temper suggests: she cares for her mother, shields her friends and idolises Zero with a sincerity that embarrasses her. Her arc is about idols growing faces. As she learns who Zero is and what he is willing to spend, Kallen has to decide whether the cause she chose survives the man who gave it to her, and her answer is the spine of her R2 story.
Background & Story
Kallen Kozuki, born Kallen Stadtfeld, is the daughter of a Britannian noble father and a Japanese mother who works as a maid in his house, a humiliation Kallen carries daily. Her older brother Naoto led a resistance cell and died for it. Kallen took his place, fighting in a battered Glasgow while attending Ashford Academy on a sickly heiress act, until Zero appeared, organised her amateurs into the Black Knights and gave her the Guren Mk-II, Japan's first seventh generation Knightmare. She becomes the rebellion's spearhead and its most decorated pilot, while slowly realising she knows nothing about the man behind the mask she would die for.
Powers & Abilities
- Piloting the Guren Mk-II: Kallen is one of the finest Knightmare pilots alive, the equal of the Knights of the Round. In the Guren she anchors every Black Knights operation, duelling aces and breaking formations alone.
- Radiant Wave Surger: Her machine's signature weapon destroys Knightmares with a touch, and her timing with it, mid duel, at full speed, is a skill no other pilot replicates.
- Double Life Discipline: For years Kallen maintains a perfect cover identity under the nose of Britannian intelligence, acting frailty convincingly enough to fool classmates who sit beside her daily.
Key Relationships
- Lelouch Lamperouge: Her commander as Zero, her irritation as a classmate. Kallen's loyalty, resentment and love braid together as she learns they are the same person, and R2 keeps pulling that thread.
- Suzaku Kururugi: Her opposite number in the Lancelot, the wall her Guren keeps hitting. Each is the pilot the other measures against, and their duels decide battles neither army can.
- Naoto Kozuki: Her dead older brother, the resistance leader whose place she took. Kallen flies his war with his name, and finishing it is how she keeps him alive.
Quick Answers
Who voices Kallen Kozuki?
Kallen is voiced by Ami Koshimizu in Japanese and Karen Strassman in the English dub.
Why does Kallen have two surnames?
Kozuki was her mother's Japanese family name and her brother's name in the resistance. Stadtfeld is her Britannian father's noble name, the one on her school records. Kallen chooses Kozuki, and the choice is the character in miniature.
The Guren Mk-II's right arm carries a radiant wave surger, a weapon that superheats and bursts enemy Knightmares from inside with a touch. Upgraded across R2 with flight and ranged versions, it keeps the Guren a match for Britannia's best machines.
Is Kallen Japanese or Britannian?
Both by blood, Japanese by choice. Her father is a Britannian noble and her mother is Japanese, which makes Kallen legally a Britannian citizen with every advantage available. She rejects all of it, fights under her mother's name, Kozuki, and considers the question settled.