Plot

On August 10th, 2010, a.t.b., the Holy Empire of Britannia overpowered Japanese forces and conquered the country with their robotic weapons, the Knightmare Frames, in less than a month. Japan lost its freedom and rights and was renamed Area 11. The Japanese people, renamed as "Elevens", were forced to survive in ghettos, while Britannians lived in first-class settlements. Rebel elements persisted, however, as pockets of Japanese organizations who struggled against the Empire for the independence of Japan.

After his father, the Emperor of Britannia, did nothing to pursue the terrorists who murdered his mother and crippled his sister, the young prince named Lelouch vowed to destroy Britannia. Seven years later, living in Area 11, he encounters a mysterious girl who gives him the power of Geass. With it, he finally has the power that he needs to defeat Britannia and fulfill his two wishes: to seek revenge for his mother and to construct a world in which his beloved sister can live happily.


Characters

Lelouch Lamperouge

The main character and protagonist of the show. Seemingly an ordinary 17-year-old student at the Ashford Academy, Lelouch Lamperouge, also called Lulu by his friends, is in fact the son of the Emperor of Britannia and the late Empress Marianne and a member of the Britannia Imperial Family. His real name is Lelouch Vi Britannia and he was the eleventh prince and seventeenth in line for the throne prior to his mother's assassination and his sister's crippling in the same incident. In an incident, he gained the power of Geass and started his quest on destroying Britannia under the mask, Zero. At the same time, Lelouch tries to make a place where there is no hatred or conflict for his sister Nunnally before she is able to see again.

Suzaku Kururugi

Lelouch's childhood friend and son of Japan's last prime minister. He is in the Service of the Britannia Army as a soldier, and was chosen to test a new model of the Knightmare Frame, Lancelot. Suzaku claims achieving results by wrong or illegal methods is meaningless and does not approve of Zero's actions.

C.C.

A mysterious green-haired girl who bestows the power of Geass upon Lelouch under the condition that he would grant her greatest wish. Her abilities caught the interest of Britannia and she was imprisoned as a part of Britannia's experiments in the past. She passively oversees Lelouch's missions to ensure that he does not die and to help his plans succeed.

Nunnally Lamperouge

Lelouch's younger sister, who is wheelchair-bound due to bullet wounds on her legs, as well as blind due to psychological trauma from witnessing the brutal assassination of her mother. She is the primary reason for which Lelouch wishes to overthrow Britannia and create a new world.


Knightmare Frames

Knightmare Frames (Knightmare being a combination of the words "knight" and "mare", meaning a knight's steed which he rides out onto the battlefield; Frame being the civilian word for bipedal machines and also signifying its human body-like design) are robotic combat machines intended as a replacement for main battle tanks and other conventional land warfare vehicles. Currently, the Britannian Empire and Japan are the only two countries capable of producing true Knightmare Frames; Britannia because it was the inventor and producer of said machines, and Japan because its former military and war industry survived the invasion almost intact. Frame development of other countries are mostly still in their infancy.