Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 4!!
October 21, 2017 2 Comments
And here we are at the end! This time, at least. Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion: The Awakening Path is the first of the three films in this retelling of the show, and Ōkouchi may have some more memories to share when the next two films are released. But that first film opens today, and in celebration, Ōkouchi talks about the relationships that sit at the centre of the entire story.
(Geass Memory #23) When, feeling a bit nostalgic, I rummaged through my computer files from that time, I found something I’d written about the two “Lulu”s.1 It dates back to 13/9/2005. At that time, it had already become a story about the two youths, Lelouch and Suzaku. The Geass power wasn’t on the table yet. I was pretty stunned myself, like “Is that so?!”
(Geass Memory #24) The nature of their connection was pretty much the same as now. Lelouch, the intellectual terrorist hiding his true identity, and Suzaku, working for the army occupying Japan, aiming to rise up by following the law, no matter how undesirable it might be.2
(Geass Memory #25) ‘The two “Lulu”s’ comes from that fact that both have the sounds “lulu (ruru)” in their names — Lelouch, and Kururugi Suzaku. We wanted to indicate that they would end up going against each other, so we went for names that would overlap. Lelouch’s sister, Nunnally, was also named in a way that would point towards the triangle she formed with them.
(Geass Memory #26) By-the-by, the surname “Kururugi” was something we made up (though it could still be something you might find in real life). Trying to figure out how to give a Japanese person a name with “lulu (ruru)” was…a bit tricky. But I took it from the Kururugi Shrine that we’d created for a game I’d been involved in in the past, Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask.
(Geass Memory #27) Speaking of names, we gave the heroine the name CC because we wanted something that didn’t sound human. But wondering if there was something with a better ring to it, I remember writing everything from AA to ZZ on a whiteboard, and the whole lot of us going through it and erasing them one by one. In the end, we stayed with what we had before: CC (wry smile).
What next?
To finish off with a quick disclaimer. As always, these are entirely my own translations, and I take responsibility for any mistakes I’ve failed to catch. I’ve actually been a little creative with some of these, because my aim this time was to capture Ōkouchi’s tone as much as the content, and in English, there are some things we’d talk about quite differently. For that reason, please DO NOT copy and paste them anywhere else, though you can link to them if you wish.
And that’s it for now! At the moment, I don’t actually have plans to translate or write anything more about Code Geass, mostly for want of time. In fact, I haven’t been following the news related to this anniversary all that closely, which would be why I failed to pick up a copy of this MASSIVE Deluxe Archives (I did manage to pick up this artbook, though the shipping was simply awful!). But rewatching the PV now, besides a completely redone voice recording, it seems like the films will contain some new animation. It remains to be seen how any reused animation will be updated to match the new cuts (would only compositing be redone? Or will there be touch-ups to the art as well?), and I suspect we’ll only find out when the BDs are available sometime next year. Dunno about you, but I’m kind of looking forward to it.
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