Official Site Update

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, but the Official Code Geass website has updated.

Nothing about the new Gaiden, as far as I can tell (They aren't exactly chatty on that, are they?), but there's a brief thing about that Tales of Graces game with the Geass costumes, and the Renya manga now has it's own page, with descriptions of the main characters, and summaries of the first four chapters. And pictures and stuff.

Looks like Code Geass: Renya of Darkness might be the official English version of it's title.

Comments

[kusaja.livejournal.com]

And yet, both seasons of the original series did include a certain number of largely unexplained supernatural incidents (immortality, teleportation, soul migration, various forms of mind and body manipulation, the ability to see into the future, metaphysical planes of existence and more) or outright physical impossibilities that, aside from the total absence of technology, aren't too far removed from what we've seen in Renya's first five chapters. Taken as a whole, Code Geass isn't a very realistic source material at all.

For a start...Suzaku himself and, to a lesser extent, Sayoko (in R2) displayed essentially superhuman levels of physical skill. A similar statement could be made about Jeremiah after he became a cyborg. If this is accepted as true, the existence of more beings capable of such displays at some point in the distant past isn't beyond the established or extrapolated limits of the Code Geass universe.

The strangest element we've seen in Renya so far is the so-called "Knightmare" and its apparent ability to fly, but I don't see why that couldn't be explained as the result some sort of supernatural influence or, say, even ancient Geass-related technology. We know so little about this part of the setting that it's practically a blank slate.

As for the matter of quality...I'd describe the manga as superficially enjoyable but admittedly unimpressive. I'm rather indifferent about the visuals. There may or may not be something deeper once the story gets a chance to develop further, but barely five (!) chapters in it's hard to tell. Everything we've seen so far counts as part of its introductory stage.

Lelouch's clone, who seems to be the main antagonist, has just entered the scene and, while I don't necessarily expect him to be as complex a character as his real or apparent descendant...he might become more interesting if and when we actually get to learn more about him and his goals.

The prologue does leave the door open to a number of "deeper" interpretations and speculations even if they're bound to remain vague as hell at this point. Yes, he's apparently in the position of being the obvious "bad guy" but his developing a certain degree of moral ambiguity as time goes on wouldn't be out of question. I don't really care about the other villains as they were simply treated as little more than disposable fodder in the first place.