Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion STAGE. 4

コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ (Novel) #5

by Mamoru Iwasa

In the year 2010, the Holy Empire of Brittania declared war on Japan. Powerless to stop them, Japan surrendered in less than a month. Freedom was lost and Japan was renamed "Area 11" and its people became known as "Elevens." Lelouch is a Brittanian and his friend Suzaku, born an Eleven, has achieved the status of honorary Brittanian. As a boy Lelouch vowed to crush his own government, but now seven years later and in high school, he's accepted that he can't change anything. That is until he meets a mysterious girl that gives him the power to control people's minds - the power of Geass Donning a mask, he becomes the ruthless terrorist known only as Zero, destroying anyone who might stand in his path - including his boyhood friend Suzaku

Genres: Light Novel, Manga

Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

岩佐まもる

Reviews

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I HATED THIS BOOK BEYOND COMPREHENSION. Only a handful of things can be deemed acceptable.

Its characterization of Lelouch is manic. But I can't really blame the book since it's trying to rationalize the thought process of a psychopath. So I have issues with "Zero" saying at first Lelouch wants to stop Euphie because of her... charisma? (yeah I don't even know) that he could never command (except that he does as both Zero and as emperor before things go bad.) Then the book tries to argue that Lelouch worries that living in Utopia would make him forget all the bad things he's focused on forever, rendering them meaningless? Uh what? Then apparently Euphie makes this all better by being sweet and innocent and healing Lelouch's heart or something like that. It's complete and utter contradictions.

The only thing I liked was the justification that Lelouch did his whole 'use Euphie's death' bit and 'use whatever I can (including Darlton)' bit because he was trying to convince himself that Euphie's geassed actions had been his plan all along, his wave of staving back his immediate breakdown, which would have left him useless. That was nice. But yeah, I thought it was indicated Lelouch got pissed at Euphie for being idealistic plus endangering Nunnally by turning everyone against Zero and therefore ruining his hopes of a safe Britannia for her. I thought he changed his mind because Euphie said she was doing it FOR Nunnally. The anime always implied that everything about this event hinged on Nunnally. The charisma stuff made no damn sense and just made Lelouch read like even more of a douche than he already is.

And don't even get me started on the random simplification of Suzaku and the "pure wonderful light" that is Euphie to him...

No, novel, Lelouch did not kill Euphie to assuage his own crazy. Way to remove the ONE responsible thing he did at the end of the first season. Though, I do like the introspection of whether Lelouch should have let her live and decide if she wanted to cope with the fallout herself. Also, marching along the stupid scale is the novel's lack of Suzaku focus. Why does this matter? Only because the novels were written for the exclusive purpose of giving us P.O.V. So yeah, the decision to not explain Suzaku's freak-out after Euphie's death (while obvious) annoys me. I'm just easily annoyed. Also, it's a bit disturbing that the novel apparently dates the entire Special Administration Massacre as occurring in December, roughly five days after Lelouch's birthday in fact. Thanks for that, novel, really. Overall, this one is just going through the motions, and I'm hoping it gets its act back together for R2.

I have to be fair, the novel really should have never tried to cover any of the Psycho!Orange stuff since it was just fan-pandering in the series and makes no sense regardless of what medium it is presented in. And the Kallen allusions between Zero and Naoto were nice. But what was the purpose of even bothering with the V.V./Nunnally scenes if the author wasn't even going to speculate on their importance? The final confrontation was decent Suzaku perspective, I suppose, but it all felt too rushed. Maybe the author was trying to convey the intensity of the moment through prose. I think this novel's greatest sin, aside from its mind-boggling interpretations, was trying to play straight with the ridiculous mystery (C.C., V.V., Geass, Marianne) and randomness of S1's finale.