1. Creation and design

2. Appearances
    In Code Geass  First season  Akito The Exiled  Second season  In other media 

3. Character outline
    Abilities 

4. Reception

5. References

Lelouch was designed by the group of manga artists Clamp, who aimed to create a stylish and visually appealing character. The character of Lelouch has been recognized as one of Japan's most popular characters during the time Code Geass aired, appearing at the top of several polls. Publications for anime and manga saw Lelouch as an interesting character. Despite his ruthless methods to destroy an empire, he still has several strong relationships that made him a likeable character. His voice actors Fukuyama and Bosch have been praised for their work as Lelouch's voice.

Creation and design

While designing the concept art for Lelouch, the series' original character designers, Clamp, had initially conceived of his hair color as being white.^[1] Nanase Ohkawa, head writer at Clamp, said she had visualized him as being a character to which "everyone" could relate to as being "cool", literally, a "beauty". While developing the character during the initial planning stages, the series' core staff at Sunrise, director Gorō Taniguchi, writer Ichirō Ōkouchi, and the production team discussed numerous possible influences for the character with Clamp, such as the Japanese idol duos KinKi Kids and Tackey & Tsubasa.^[2]

During the early planning stages for Lelouch's alter ego, "Zero", Clamp had wanted to create a mask never witnessed prior in any Sunrise series.^[2] Zero was one of the earliest developed characters. Ōkouchi wanted a mask to be included as a part of the series, because he felt that a mask was necessary for it to be a Sunrise show.^[3] In early designs of the character, Zero possessed long silver nails.^[1]

For the 10th anniversary of the series, Taniguchi decided it was necessary to do further development with Lelouch which lead to the newest film. While the staff believe the franchise will be expanded in following years, they no longer plan to use Lelouch's character.^[4]

Appearances

In Code Geass

First season

Lelouch is introduced in the first episode of the series as a student of Ashford Academy, where he is a member of its student council. He accidentally boards a truck used by Japanese resistance operatives. Within the truck is a capsule holding a witch known as C.C. (pronounced "Cee Two"), who sacrifices herself to save him from the military forces trying to recapture her. When it seems as if her sacrifice was pointless, C.C. offers him the "Power of the King", the mythical power of Geass. The Geass manifests itself in him as the power of absolute obedience, which allows him to make people obey his orders without question.^[5] With his new power, Lelouch begins his rebellion against the Britannian Empire, starting by killing his half-brother, Clovis la Britannia, after extracting information about the murder of his mother, Marianne.^[6] He takes up the identity of Zero and later forms the Order of the Black Knights, becoming a revolutionary and gaining popular support amongst the people.^[7][8]

The turning point in his rebellion comes when his half-sister, Euphemia li Britannia, declares the region under Mount Fuji the Special Administrative Zone of Japan, giving the Japanese people their name and country back, albeit in a much smaller area. Lelouch confronts her at the opening ceremony and tries to have her shoot him, hoping to make himself a martyr. When she says she plans to give up her royal title, he surrenders and agrees to work with her. However, at this moment his Geass permanently activates without him knowing, and an offhand comment about ordering her to kill the Japanese causes Euphemia to do just that.^[9] Lelouch reluctantly kills her and uses the massacre as an excuse to spark the Black Rebellion, in which he declares Japan to be an independent nation and leads an attack on the Tokyo Settlement.^[10] The attack goes well at first, but when Lelouch learns that Nunnally has been kidnapped, he abandons the battle, leaving his forces helpless against the better-organized Britannian military. Lelouch makes his way to Kamine Island to search for Nunnally, but is confronted by Suzaku.^[11] The second season reveals that Lelouch is defeated by Suzaku, who arrests his former friend and brings him to his father.

Akito The Exiled

After Suzaku brings Lelouch to Charles, he offers to hand him over on the condition he be inducted into the Knights of the Round, much to Lelouch's dismay. Charles agrees, and uses his Geass to alter Lelouch's mind. With this, Lelouch becomes the empire's slave, Julius Kingsley, wearing an eyepatch over his Geass.

Lelouch makes a few appearances in the miniseries, first seen in Suzaku's custody as he clutches his right eye while begging his friend for water, only to be silently turned down. In his second appearance upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Kingsley proudly declares that the Emperor has placed him in charge of all the Eastern front operational planning for Britannia's military.

In the third episode, Lelouch encounters Shin Hyuga Shaing and others for a meeting. In which he tries to arrest the others in his plan. Lelouch showcases a clip to create fear and havoc within the city. Later on, he plays chess along Hyuga, but starts hallucinating Kingsley and past memories from Rebellion. Later on Hyuga figures out that he was both Zero and Lelouch and calls his squad. Suzaku, in an attempt to defend the secret, kills most of the squad whilst Lelouch rips off his eye-patch. Eventually, both are captured, with Hyuga later declaring Kingsley executed and revealing that he is Zero.

From here, Lelouch begins to regain his memories in a traumatized fashion, prompting Suzaku to strangle him, until Lelouch begins to cry and beg Suzaku to kill him. They are saved by Rolo Lamperouge, and from there Charles is forced to use his Geass on Lelouch again. This time, he is unaware of his royal heritage or being Zero, but still lives a life strikingly similar to the one he led at the start of the series.

Second season

A year after the Black Rebellion, after the Emperor wiped out his memories, Lelouch is living as an Ashford student with

The Black Knights escape to the Chinese Federation, where Lelouch begins forging an alliance with the other world powers to create a force that rivals Britannia. He starts by destabilizing the Chinese Federation, returning control to Empress Tianzi from the High Eunuchs. Once Lelouch's new alliance, the United Federation of Nations, is formed, their first act is to liberate Japan. Despite Lelouch's desire to protect his sister, his Geass forces Suzaku to shoot a nuclear weapon, destroying a large portion of the Tokyo Settlement and presumably killing Nunnally. Schneizel then convinces the Black Knights to betray him with a despondent Lelouch willing to be killed by his former comrades, until Rolo sacrifices his life to save him.^[15] Lelouch decides to go to Kamine Island and defeat his father. Joined by Suzaku, he learns the truth that his mother faked her death and has been aiding the Emperor in their goal to wipe out individuality from the world. Lelouch, awakening his full Geass powers while rejecting the reality his parents intend, controls the will of the C's World entity itself to erase the Sword of Akasha and his parents out of existence. One month later, Lelouch usurps the Britannian throne and appoints Suzaku as his knight to set the stage for their ultimate plan, the Zero Requiem.^[16]

As Emperor, Lelouch dismantles the Britannian class system and frees every colony. He then requests that Britannia join the U.F.N, but proceeds to take the council members hostage after it is revealed that Britannia's large population would give him a majority voting block. This brings him into conflict with Schneizel, who has Nunnally in his custody and commands the Damocles (a floating fortress which he intends to place into a position which would allow him to fire nuclear weapons worldwide), and the Black Knights now under Kaname Oghi. In the final battle, as Suzaku fakes his death, Lelouch outwits Schneizel and places him under a Geass command to serve Zero. From there, learning that Nunnally has regained her sight and has been acting on her own plan to unite the world through the destruction of the Damocles, Lelouch uses his Geass on her to give him the Damocles' key. With Schenizel and the Damocles both under his control, Lelouch declares himself the ruler of the world. Two months later, Lelouch arranges for the public execution of the Black Knight leaders and the U.F.N. representatives. It is then, as Nunnally, the U.F.N and the Black Knights learn afterwards, that the Zero Requiem's final phase takes place with Lelouch being killed by Suzaku in the guise of Zero. With his death, Nunnally succeeds her brother as Empress and the world unites in a new era of peace and cooperation. In the spinoff OVA, Miraculous Birthday, he briefly uses his power in the afterlife to say goodbye to Suzaku, Nunnally, Rivalz, Nina, and Kallen before departing.

In other media

In Code Geass: Lost Colors, the video game for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, there are a several different endings and clips of Lelouch that involve the main character, Rai who joins the same school. Across the game, the player can make Rai befriend Lelouch. Rai can also become Lelouch's best friend as well as Zero's partner. In the video game R, Lelouch makes an appearance in his Knightmare Frame, the Shinkirō. He also appears in the spin-off with his Shinkiro. Lelouch and the rest of the Code Geass R1 cast make their debut to the Super Robot Wars franchise in this game, using their R1 Knightmares.

The Code Geass manga follows the same basic plot as the anime, but with several differences. Knightmares do not exist. As for Lelouch's character, he is still the same as he was in the anime. He takes on the identity Zero, but largely focuses on his activities with the Black Knights.

In the manga Suzaku of the Counterattack, Lelouch obtains his Geass in the same way as in the anime series, except that his Geass symbol is slightly rendered. Many of the Black Knights are not loyal to Zero and often split off into renegade factions or act without his knowledge. Lelouch is held responsible for a terrorist attack when a Black Knights faction had gone renegade without following his instructions. He later goes to kill his father only to discover that he was already killed by Schneizel, his half-brother; however, it is later revealed to be Schneizel's scheme to get Lelouch executed and to take C.C.'s Code. Near the end of the manga, Lelouch tries to use his Geass on Schneizel, but the latter punctures his left eye, leaving him never to use his Geass again.

In Tales of an Alternate Shogunate, set in 1853 at the Bakumatsu Era, Lelouch is the commander of the military counterinsurgence brigade known as the Shinsengumi, formed under the orders of the Shogunate to fight the rebel group known as the Black Revolutionaries, but was secretly the leader of that group as Zero and has gained information from within. The event is set in Kyoto, and Lelouch had recently acquired his geass from C.C. and had stolen Britannian's new Knightmare, Gawain.^[20]

In a special Code Geass Picture Drama episode, Lelouch appears on December 5 for Ashford Academy's school festival, helping Rivalz, now school president, along with some of his friends. However a battle erupts in school grounds by the Neo-Chinese Federation, led by a former eunuch, whom takes everyone hostage. With help of his friends, Lelouch manages to stop the Federation soldiers. In the aftermath, the entire episode is revealed to be a dream which the ghost of Lelouch used to thank everyone.^[21] In a special OVA parody episode, based on the Alice in Wonderland story, Lelouch is narrating the story and appears in the role as the Mad Hatter.^[22] In 2014, NTT customers voted him as their 13th favorite black haired male anime character.^[31] His voice actor Jun Fukuyama also won the "Best Actor in a Leading Role" award for his portrayal of the character at the first Seiyu Awards in 2007.^[32] Fukuyama's work as Lelouch's voice actor also lead him to win the Tokyo International Anime Fair in the category "Best Voice Actor".^[33]

Critics for anime and manga series have also commented on Lelouch's character. Anime News Network's Carl Kimlinger stated that Lelouch "is hard to like" because of his narcissistic personality, but noted that his bonds with Nunnally and his friends make up for that.^[34] Bamboo Dong from the site agreed with Kimlinger, though noted that Lelouch' made the character interesting to watch.^[35] Gia Manry from the same site listed Suzaku and him as the third best "frenemies" in anime due to how their friendship falls apart as a result of their rivalry.^[36] Mostly positive response were given by Danielle Van Gorder from Mania Entertainment due to Lelouch's differences from most of anime's protagonists and how his double life as a Zero and as a student is shown across the series.^[37] Chris Beveridge from the same site praised Lelouch's actions in R2 when he becomes Britannia's Emperor, describing him as "the classic angle of the villain with good motives" because of the dangerous actions he does for a greater good. Beveridge also commented on his confrontations with Scheizel and Nunnally, mentioning the rivalry across the series in the former and citing the latter as heartbreaking.^[38]

References

• Monastry
• Monastry of Santa Clara-a-Nova
• Monastyrok
• Monastyrskaya Tunguska
• Monastyryska Raion
• Mona Sutphen
• Monas Verden
• Monas verden
• Mona's World
• Monate
• Monate lake
• Monate Lake
• Monatele
• Monatepil
• Mona - The Carnivorous Circus
• Mona the Virgin Nymph
• Mona Thiba
• Monatin
• Monatomic
• Monatomic gold
• Monatshefte für Mathematik
• Monatélé
• Monaural beats
• Mona, Ut
• Mona Vale Road