![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
So I went to the opening night of Code Geass Riot's Eve. The plot was fairly simple so even without knowing terribly much Japanese I could get the gist of it, though I did miss some of the details. Apologies for any inaccuracies and forgetfulness.
Without spoiling anything I can say that I liked it! Anything more and I'll put it behind this cut.
The play takes place between episodes 9 and 10, like the sound episode with Lelouch and Suzaku and the picture drama about the cross-dressing festival. I don't know that this one is entirely considered canon because some of the character interactions and development minorly contradict things from later in the show, and because the play is more light-hearted than the original, relying more on humor and slapstick. I'd say it lies somewhere in the canonical land of Kiseki no Birthday.
Anyway! The play begins with an anime/live action spliced recap of the Area 11 explanation overture, Lelouch's vow to destroy Britannia and him getting Geass, and an introduction of the characters. The Ashford Student Council is trying to plan something for Suzaku Kururugi Day, around which the play is based. Meanwhile Zero leads a raid with the Black Knights and it turns out that they somehow accidentally raided a shipment of toys, including origami paper (whether this was intentional on Zero's part, I am not sure). This sows dissent in the Black Knights, particularly from Yoshida, who doesn't believe in Zero. Ohgi does, though, and refuses to budge.
Lelouch gets back to school in the morning, still in full Zero garb, and is spotted by several students, each of which he geasses to forget. (This scene was pretty hilarious, though it reinforces the whole humor-before-canon thing I mentioned before)
I'm a little unclear on where this goes next, but somehow his geass stops working for a while. I think C.C. hints that it does so because he's using it too frivolously, but I couldn't understand what she was saying.
Anyway, the Black Knights get ambushed, and have to find a new hiding place. Kallen sneaks them into the school one night, shortly before the Suzaku Kururugi Day festival. Meanwhile, Suzaku finds that he can't fulfill his promise to borrow the Lancelot to use at the festival, so they have to find something else to make the festival about. They decide on a blend of Japanese and Britannian culture, particularly to stick it to a number of obnoxious anti-11 protesters at Ashford.
One of the festival items is somebody dressing up as Zero, and Rivalz is chosen. Shirley makes him a Zero costume in black, and Lelouch criticizes it harshly for the wrong color and amateur look. She runs off crying and he goes to make a new one.
On the day of the festival, Kallen brings in the Black Knights, who are pretending to be performers. Nina comes out with fake Knightmare frames she built herself, one nearly perfect Lancelot and a crappy Burai. They do a few practice battles before the festival with Suzaku and a few Black Knights vs Zero and the other Black Knights. Rivalz!Zero loses quickly, then Lelouch gives them some advice to dodge and use the Lancelot's superior firepower against it, but they still lose. Kallen comes in and swings around the Burai's arm on her turn, actually winning.
The festival is interrupted by the arrival of several Honorary Britannian soldiers who have been tracking the Black Knights. They threaten everyone with guns and eventually arrest Rivalz, who is dressed as Zero. The Black Knights try to prove his innocence by having Ohgi call Zero's cell phone, but Lelouch accidentally dropped the phone into the box where the costume was, so it's in Rivalz' pocket.
Lelouch then offers to dress up as Zero and rescue Rivalz, hatching a plan with Suzaku to fake kill each other and then flank the Britannian soldiers. This all goes swimmingly until Nunnally calls out for Lelouch and he leaves his position and runs to her side. It's then up to Suzaku and Kallen and the other Black Knights to fight off the Honorary Britannians.
You find out one of them is responsible for Naoto Kozuki's death, and you satisfyingly get to see Kallen beat the crap out of him. After Lelouch geasses them to be docile, he gives Kallen Naoto's old headband, which he kept.
The play was 2.5-3 hours so I glossed over a lot, but that's the gist of it.
The major theme for Ohgi was Lelouch encouraging him to consider himself a leader and to feel free to be independent. (Oh lawl, bet he's gonna regret that later.)
Nina of all people had a crowning moment of awesome against one of the Honorary Britannian soldiers, blocking his attacks and hitting him in the head with her apparently very strong laptop.
Nunnally had two dream sequences where she walked and danced, the first of which tied well into the rest of the plot – she dreamed the school was attacked and Zero, who she said she found scary right in front of Lelouch, acts menacing toward her – and the second of which seemed kind of like filler.
There was some Shirley/Lelouch fanservice when she came into the festival preparations dressed in her swimsuit and Lelouch hugged her for several minutes to keep her from seeing C.C. walking down the student council steps. He then totally blew it by saying she was embarrassing him and needed to go change.
There was one song near the beginning, a trio between Lelouch, Suzaku, and Kallen about living double lives.
At some point it was lampshaded how ridiculous Lelouch looks when he does that "LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA COMMANDS YOU" bit, as when his geass stops working the people he tries it on mock him.
Totally shipping Nina and Inoue now, after their interactions in the play. Nina is pretty scared of all the Elevens but Inoue reaches out to her and they connect. Kinda sad that she goes back to being so racist so quickly; as I said before, it contradicts later stuff a bit so I doubt it's entirely canon. Loving the ship though.
Oh, and Suzaku does run on a wall as part of a fight scene. The fight scenes are pretty well choreographed, and fun to watch.
As I said before I enjoyed the play very much. It was well-cast and well-acted. Not the greatest story ever told, but certainly entertaining.
ETA: I don't know if this can be viewed outside of Japan, but this PV from the play site includes the Picture Drama style scenes from the play found in the program: http://www.b-ch.com/ttl/index.php?ttl_c=585&mvc=3_24011_0_0
ETA 2: Here is a Youtube upload of the above.
Without spoiling anything I can say that I liked it! Anything more and I'll put it behind this cut.
The play takes place between episodes 9 and 10, like the sound episode with Lelouch and Suzaku and the picture drama about the cross-dressing festival. I don't know that this one is entirely considered canon because some of the character interactions and development minorly contradict things from later in the show, and because the play is more light-hearted than the original, relying more on humor and slapstick. I'd say it lies somewhere in the canonical land of Kiseki no Birthday.
Anyway! The play begins with an anime/live action spliced recap of the Area 11 explanation overture, Lelouch's vow to destroy Britannia and him getting Geass, and an introduction of the characters. The Ashford Student Council is trying to plan something for Suzaku Kururugi Day, around which the play is based. Meanwhile Zero leads a raid with the Black Knights and it turns out that they somehow accidentally raided a shipment of toys, including origami paper (whether this was intentional on Zero's part, I am not sure). This sows dissent in the Black Knights, particularly from Yoshida, who doesn't believe in Zero. Ohgi does, though, and refuses to budge.
Lelouch gets back to school in the morning, still in full Zero garb, and is spotted by several students, each of which he geasses to forget. (This scene was pretty hilarious, though it reinforces the whole humor-before-canon thing I mentioned before)
I'm a little unclear on where this goes next, but somehow his geass stops working for a while. I think C.C. hints that it does so because he's using it too frivolously, but I couldn't understand what she was saying.
Anyway, the Black Knights get ambushed, and have to find a new hiding place. Kallen sneaks them into the school one night, shortly before the Suzaku Kururugi Day festival. Meanwhile, Suzaku finds that he can't fulfill his promise to borrow the Lancelot to use at the festival, so they have to find something else to make the festival about. They decide on a blend of Japanese and Britannian culture, particularly to stick it to a number of obnoxious anti-11 protesters at Ashford.
One of the festival items is somebody dressing up as Zero, and Rivalz is chosen. Shirley makes him a Zero costume in black, and Lelouch criticizes it harshly for the wrong color and amateur look. She runs off crying and he goes to make a new one.
On the day of the festival, Kallen brings in the Black Knights, who are pretending to be performers. Nina comes out with fake Knightmare frames she built herself, one nearly perfect Lancelot and a crappy Burai. They do a few practice battles before the festival with Suzaku and a few Black Knights vs Zero and the other Black Knights. Rivalz!Zero loses quickly, then Lelouch gives them some advice to dodge and use the Lancelot's superior firepower against it, but they still lose. Kallen comes in and swings around the Burai's arm on her turn, actually winning.
The festival is interrupted by the arrival of several Honorary Britannian soldiers who have been tracking the Black Knights. They threaten everyone with guns and eventually arrest Rivalz, who is dressed as Zero. The Black Knights try to prove his innocence by having Ohgi call Zero's cell phone, but Lelouch accidentally dropped the phone into the box where the costume was, so it's in Rivalz' pocket.
Lelouch then offers to dress up as Zero and rescue Rivalz, hatching a plan with Suzaku to fake kill each other and then flank the Britannian soldiers. This all goes swimmingly until Nunnally calls out for Lelouch and he leaves his position and runs to her side. It's then up to Suzaku and Kallen and the other Black Knights to fight off the Honorary Britannians.
You find out one of them is responsible for Naoto Kozuki's death, and you satisfyingly get to see Kallen beat the crap out of him. After Lelouch geasses them to be docile, he gives Kallen Naoto's old headband, which he kept.
The play was 2.5-3 hours so I glossed over a lot, but that's the gist of it.
The major theme for Ohgi was Lelouch encouraging him to consider himself a leader and to feel free to be independent. (Oh lawl, bet he's gonna regret that later.)
Nina of all people had a crowning moment of awesome against one of the Honorary Britannian soldiers, blocking his attacks and hitting him in the head with her apparently very strong laptop.
Nunnally had two dream sequences where she walked and danced, the first of which tied well into the rest of the plot – she dreamed the school was attacked and Zero, who she said she found scary right in front of Lelouch, acts menacing toward her – and the second of which seemed kind of like filler.
There was some Shirley/Lelouch fanservice when she came into the festival preparations dressed in her swimsuit and Lelouch hugged her for several minutes to keep her from seeing C.C. walking down the student council steps. He then totally blew it by saying she was embarrassing him and needed to go change.
There was one song near the beginning, a trio between Lelouch, Suzaku, and Kallen about living double lives.
At some point it was lampshaded how ridiculous Lelouch looks when he does that "LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA COMMANDS YOU" bit, as when his geass stops working the people he tries it on mock him.
Totally shipping Nina and Inoue now, after their interactions in the play. Nina is pretty scared of all the Elevens but Inoue reaches out to her and they connect. Kinda sad that she goes back to being so racist so quickly; as I said before, it contradicts later stuff a bit so I doubt it's entirely canon. Loving the ship though.
Oh, and Suzaku does run on a wall as part of a fight scene. The fight scenes are pretty well choreographed, and fun to watch.
As I said before I enjoyed the play very much. It was well-cast and well-acted. Not the greatest story ever told, but certainly entertaining.
ETA: I don't know if this can be viewed outside of Japan, but this PV from the play site includes the Picture Drama style scenes from the play found in the program: http://www.b-ch.com/ttl/index.php?ttl_c=585&mvc=3_24011_0_0
ETA 2: Here is a Youtube upload of the above.
◾ Tags:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}