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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (Blu-ray) (2008)

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (Blu-ray) (2008)

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Released 19-Jun-2013

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Anime Trailer-x 3 for other anime
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2008
Running Time 596:59 (Case: 625)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Goro Taniguchi
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Jun Fukuyama
Johnny Yong Bosch
Yukana Nogami
Kate Higgins
Takahiro Sakurai
Yuri Lowenthal
Ami Koshimizu
Karen Strassman
Case Standard Blu-ray
RPI ? Music Kotaro Nakagawa


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None Japanese Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     The Britannian Empire has conquered much of the world, including Japan, which is designated colony Area 11. Area 11 is ruled by the Britannian elite and the citizens of Britannia living in the colony have leisure and citizen rights; the original inhabitants, called Elevens, have no rights, work in menial jobs and any dissent is crushed, the soldiers using huge transformer like fighting suits called Knightmares. In series one of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Lelouch, a prince of the ruling house, under the alias Zero led the Black Knights in a rebellion against the Britannian Empire using his Geass, a hypnotic like power that enables him to give commands to others that are obeyed absolutely. But he is not the only one with a Geass, although it gives different powers to different people, and at the end of series one the rebellion was defeated, the Black Knights scattered and Zero apparently killed.

     Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (Kodo giasu: Hangyaku no rurushu R2) picks up the story one year after the defeat of the rebellion. Lelouch (voiced by Jun Fukuyama / Johnny Yong Bosch) is alive and is a student with no memory of his identity or past life. We quickly learn that he is being closely monitored by the Empire’s security forces at school, including by Rollo (Takahiro Mizushima / Spike Spencer), who Lelouch believes is his younger brother, while Viletta Nu (Akeno Watanabe / Megan Hollingshead) is the school athletic coach. Lelouch is being used as unknowing bait by the security forces to entice the mysterious green haired C.C. (Yukana Nogami / Kate Higgins) and the remaining Black Knights out into the open. Their plan works, but in the opening episodes C.C. revives Lelouch’s memories and his Geass powers and the rebellion is on again aided, for some reason, by the Chinese Federation and warrior Xing-ke (Hikaru Midorikawa / David Earnest). But because his real younger sister Nunnally has been hidden away by the Empire, Lelouch needs to fool the security forces into thinking he has not retained his memory until he can rescue her. Only a few know his secret, including Kallen (Ami Koshimizu / Karen Strassman) and of course C.C., but things get more complicated when Suzaku (Takahiro Sakurai / Yuri Lowenthal) returns to the school as a student.

     Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 uses basically the same voice cast as the first series and wastes no time on exposition as it flies straight into the action during the opening episodes. Initially the story arc is about the renewed rebellion in Area 11 and Lelouch keeping his return of memory secret, but then it widens dramatically when the Chinese Federation takes a hand and Zero’s rebellion escalates into the creation of a united federation of states as an alternative power block to oppose Britannia, and an all-out attack to reclaim Japan. Amid the extensive battle scenes involving a range of Knightmares and other flying and surface units, the second series also delves into the origins of Geass power and the life of C.C. while still having time for personal relationships and considerations of power, justice, identity, memory, loyalty, family, friendship and the nature of life itself. It is indeed a complicated brew: there are lies, hidden motives, frequent betrayals and characters changing sides as Lelouch seeks to remake the world, a course which leads him into a deadly confrontation with the Knights of the Round, the Black Knights, his brothers and sisters, his father the Emperor and ultimately himself.

     Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is nothing if not ambitious and mostly pulls it off. The themes are interesting and complex, one is never sure who is betraying who, the battles are loud and explosive, the animation colours beautiful. The truth about some events from series one are revealed, such as the death of Lalouch’s mother, and the stories of a number of characters are developed, including Nina, Shirley, Anya and Gino, so that their fates are genuinely moving; fans will have their favourites, but for me C.C. is one of the most interesting, intricate, cryptic characters I have seen in anime for a long time and it is only justice that she gets the final word in the series.

     This release of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 contains the 25 episodes of season two, each approximately 24 minutes in length that aired on Japanese TV between April and September 2008, on two Blu-rays; episodes 1-12 plus trailers are on Disc 1, episodes 13-25 are on Disc 2.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original broadcast ratio, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     The print looks very good. The lines are clean and detailed in close-ups and static shots although in the quick intercutting of the combat sequences they tend to get a bit less clean. Colours are rich with blue, red and yellow specially vibrant and backgrounds have that beautiful watercolour look. Blacks and shadow detail are fine.

     There is occasional aliasing, otherwise I did not notice any marks or issues.

     It is anime so lip synchronisation is very approximate in either audio track.

     The English subtitles are in American English in a clear white font. They are easy to read except when they a juxtaposed over the top of white Japanese location captions. The subtitles are burnt in when the Japanese dub is selected so cannot be removed for Japanese speakers. I only saw one error in 10 hours of episodes – doesn’t that jut help us in episode 19 at 11:30.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of Japanese or English LPCM 2.0, surround encoded. I sampled the English dub which was quite good, but I mostly listened to the Japanese as to my ear it sounded more intense.

     Both the Japanese and English dialogue is mostly clear except when the music, by Kotaro Nakagawa, was very loud in the mix. The sound stage is used for music, ambient effects such as rain and some gunfire, explosions and debris; it is reasonable, if nothing special and of course there are no directional pans. I noticed some bass from the sub-woofer assisting with distant explosions, music and engines.

    The audio is reasonable, but only LPCM.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Trailers (3:00)

     The only extras are start-up trailers on Disc 1 for Berserk - The Golden Age Arc 1: The Egg of the King, P4 Persona 4 the Animation and Mardock Scramble Film 2 The Second Combustion. They cannot be selected from the menu.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     Our local release of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is identical to the Region B UK version and comes with the KAZE logo and UK anti-pirate warning. There does not seem to be a Region A US release at present. There is a range of Region A Japanese releases with partial sets of episodes and various extras including audio commentaries, however none of them are English friendly.

Summary

     This session two of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 is complex and ambitious, widening the scope of the story to encompass world domination, power, justice, identity, memory, loyalty, family, friendship and the nature of life itself. The battles are loud and explosive, the animation colours beautiful and there are a lot of interesting characters and most have some story arc, which makes their fates genuinely moving. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.

     The video is very good, the audio only LPCM 2.0, the extras only trailers. However, there is nothing available elsewhere that is better and English friendly, and there is over 10 hours of compelling anime on these discs to keep one entertained.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE