Chapter 308: Chapter 307: Controversy
If Haruto were to judge Code Geass himself, he would say that before the twenty-second episode, it was essentially a power-fantasy anime driven by a protagonist who dominated every situation.
The main appeal of the story was watching how Lelouch used his wits to play his enemies like fiddles. And if he ever encountered an opponent that strategy couldn’t overcome? He would simply use the power of Geass to force them into a series of irrational, counter-intuitive actions to achieve his goals. Strictly speaking, the tactical depth of the anime didn’t always hold up to intense scrutiny.
However, the brilliance of the show lay in how easily it swept the audience up in its emotional momentum.
Lelouch might be the epitome of a dramatic teenager, but the show was so compelling that it forced the viewers to adopt that same mindset while watching. Up until this point, that was the general consensus among the fans.
Here is the same passage with every instance of "Nonomi" replaced by "Himari", with everything else kept the same.
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But as Himari watched the episode unfold, she felt nothing but pure, agonizing heartbreak. The tragedy hit so hard because the story had done such an incredible job of building up Euphemia Li Britannia as a beloved character.
Euphemia was kind-hearted but not dim-witted. She was intelligent yet never dogmatic.
She understood that achieving her goals required sacrifice, and she wasn’t just a naive pacifist hoping to win people over with vague platitudes of love and justice.
She was a character the audience had grown to genuinely adore. But now, because of Lelouch’s Geass spiraling out of control, the dream of the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan, a project she had sacrificed her right to the throne to create, was being utterly demolished.
On the ceremony grounds, Euphemia opened fire on the defenseless Japanese citizens. Then, the Britannian soldiers under her command hesitated for only a few seconds before raising their weapons and piloting their massive Knightmare Frames to slaughter the ordinary people who had gathered there.
These were people who had believed in Euphie, believed in Britannia, and hoped for a peaceful restoration of their homeland. Instead, they met the blade of a butcher.
Screams, pools of blood, and piles of corpses filled the square. The massive plaza, designed to hold hundreds of thousands of people, was rapidly stained crimson. Lelouch watched from behind his Zero mask as Euphemia continued to spray submachine gun fire at the fleeing crowds. Beside him, an elderly woman clinging to her last breath grabbed his hand. Using the very last of her strength, she spoke to him. As she watched Euphemia order the massacre of her people, any lingering hope this ordinary Japanese woman had for Britannia vanished forever.
"Zero... you are our true savior. Only you... are our hope." The old woman’s hand fell limp. Through his black mask, Lelouch looked down and saw his own hands stained with blood.
"No... I am no savior. Stop it... don’t pin it all on me!" Lelouch’s resolve wavered. Even he knew that this hellish scene was entirely the result of his Geass running wild.
Watching this, Himari felt a sharp pang in her chest. It was a physical ache, something she had never experienced in all her years of watching anime. How could the plot develop like this? Why did everything have to turn so dark so suddenly?
"That bastard..." she whispered. "Haruto, do you even have a heart?"
Aside from the focus on Lelouch, the episode also spent a great deal of effort portraying Suzaku Kururugi. This episode made it very clear why so many viewers found him frustrating. Even as Euphemia, the Princess of the Britannian Empire, ordered the slaughter of his own people, his first instinct wasn’t horror at the massacre or grief for the dead. Instead, he was fixated only on finding Euphemia, who had rushed out of the plaza to hunt down survivors. To many viewers, it felt like his obsession with her had completely blinded him to reality.
Thanks to the efforts of the Black Knights, the tragedy was broadcast to the entire world. In that single moment, Euphemia was beyond any hope of redemption. A gentle girl who had wanted nothing more than world peace was now, due to Lelouch’s mistake, pinned to the pillar of historical shame as a deceitful, murderous monster.
As the episode neared its end, tears streamed from Lelouch’s eyes. His pupils glowed with a permanent red hue, showing that his Geass was still out of control. He issued orders to bring the noble houses under his thumb and commanded the Black Knights to launch a full-scale assault against the Britannian army.
He framed Euphemia’s peace proposal as a trap, a setup designed to lure the Japanese leaders and the public into one place just to exterminate them.
Lelouch understood that the situation was now beyond repair. The massacre had started, and he couldn’t take it back. After blackening Euphemia’s name, there was one more thing he had to do.
"Defeat the Britannian army. Rescue the Japanese people currently being slaughtered. And then..."
Elsewhere, Suzaku finally boarded his Lancelot, preparing to save Euphemia amidst the chaos. "I have to... I have to find Euphie..." he muttered, his face full of worry.
The camera cut back to a close-up of Lelouch’s agonized eyes.
"Find her... and kill her."
The voice actor’s passionate delivery echoed in Himari’s ears.
Her mouth hung open, and her mind was a whirlwind of confusion. Suzaku wanted to save Euphemia, but Lelouch, forced to lean into the lie he had created, had no choice but to kill her. Dead people can’t talk. If she lived, Lelouch’s secret would eventually come out.
The weight of Lelouch’s internal agony, caused by a tragedy he had inadvertently triggered, and his calculated decision to play the villain because he had no other choice left Himari stunned. She had never imagined an anime could take such a turn.
The struggle Euphemia went through before being completely consumed by the Geass command left a heavy lump in her throat.
What made it worse was that the episode ended on such an outrageous cliffhanger. As the ending theme began to play, Himari finally remembered to breathe. She took a deep breath, but the suffocating feeling in her chest remained. She wasn’t sure how other fans felt, but after cursing Haruto’s name in her head, she realized that this single episode had elevated the entire show.
Peace is never won so easily by the mere will of one or two people. Even without the Geass accident, would Euphemia’s peace talks have truly gone off without a hitch?
Himari opened the online forums and fan groups, only to be stunned by the sheer volume of posts.
"Haruto, you bastard! Are you really going to kill off Euphie now?"
"Guys, I’m speechless. This plot twist has me shaking. I’ve never seen a massacre like this in anime, especially one caused by the protagonist."
"I’m in tears. So this is the major shift they were talking about? This is insane."
"Honestly? I think this is brilliant writing. Lelouch was good for the first twenty-one episodes, but it felt a bit behind Madoka or Cyberpunk. This turning point just pushed the show to a whole new level for me."
"Same here. I’m getting those same chills I had when I was following Madoka week to week."
"What is there to be excited about? At this rate, Lelouch is definitely going to kill her in the next episode."
"Not necessarily. Haruto is the one holding the pen. If he wants to fix this mess, he’ll find a way."
"I don’t want Euphie to die. This was Lelouch’s mistake, why does she have to pay the price?"
"Look, it’s an anime, but don’t be naive. Who says good people always get a happy ending? This isn’t a fairy tale."
"I’m done with Lelouch after this. Seeing him just shift the blame onto her like that... I’m losing respect for him."
"What? He’s not just shifting blame. He’s out of options! Euphemia is under the Geass command. It’s either she kills every Japanese person in sight, or she dies. If Lelouch doesn’t kill her, she’ll just keep ordering the army to continue the slaughter."
"There’s no medicine for regret. Lelouch is suffering too, but he’s stuck. He was ready to negotiate with her, and then the Geass failed. It’s all Haruto’s fault."
"Everything is Haruto’s fault."
"If this happened in real life, we’d blame God. But since it’s an anime, we just have to blast the writer."
"Stop playing dead, Haruto! We know you’re lurking on these forums. Say something!"
Haruto blinked as he scrolled through the comments.
To be honest, this was exactly what he expected. People were bound to be furious. The show had suddenly shifted gears. Previously, the death of civilians was rarely shown in such graphic detail, but the twenty-second episode had wiped out a whole plaza of people. It was enough to make some viewers physically uncomfortable.
There wasn’t much Haruto could do about the backlash. If the fans wanted to yell, he would just have to take it. Besides, this wasn’t the last time he’d be cursed at. The first season was just a grim beginning; the second season would be a non-stop emotional gauntlet, especially the finale. He could only imagine the firestorm that would erupt on the forums then.
With a sigh, Haruto shut down his computer and went to bed.
That night, while Haruto slept, the discussion surrounding Code Geass reached a fever pitch, with activity levels more than doubling. Even the casual viewers who usually stayed quiet were joining the fray. Though veteran fans knew that no amount of protesting would change the story at this stage, people couldn’t help but beg Haruto not to give Euphemia a tragic end.
The next day, Tokyo TV1 released the viewership ratings for the twenty-second episode. 6.09%.
It was a number everyone had been bracing for. Code Geass had officially broken the 6% barrier.
Anime news outlets across the country immediately went into overdrive.
[The King of Anime is Crowned: Haruto claims three of the top ten highest-rated episodes in history. In a shrinking television market, his records may never be broken.]
[A Legend in the Making: Haruto, who hasn’t even graduated from university, has achieved a divine level of success. He is the undisputed ruler of this era.]
[Code Geass proves that you should never underestimate Haruto. After twenty-one weeks of hovering just below the 6% mark, a single, unforgettable, and controversial plot twist has catapulted the show’s popularity to new heights.]
[While some fans claim the plot has collapsed and Lelouch’s character is ruined, others call it a masterpiece of writing. The true verdict will depend on the ratings for Episode 23.]
[Another God-tier anime is born. This is truly the Year of Code Geass.]
[The summer anime market featured over 120 shows, but the gap is staggering. The second-highest-rated show this week only hit 3.04%, less than half of Lelouch’s numbers. Has Haruto simply transcended the era, leaving everyone else in the dust?]
[As of today, there are only two types of anime: those made by Haruto, and everything else.]
[Euphemia’s popularity is skyrocketing. Since Episode 22, she has nearly overtaken C.C. in the popularity polls.]
[Merchandise orders for Euphemia on the Haru-Yuki and Tokyo TV1 official stores sold out within two days. Will this affect her fate in the next episode?]
The entire industry was buzzing. With three hit shows in three years, Haruto’s status was untouchable, but the controversy surrounding Code Geass was also growing. Beneath the fame lay a crisis. Countless legendary works had fallen from grace due to a single poorly handled plot point late in the game.
Everyone was keenly aware of the risk.
The twenty-second episode was brilliant, but such a volatile plot twist was a double-edged sword. It broke the 6% barrier, but if the resolution in the following episodes wasn’t perfect, the ratings could plummet just as quickly.
Both the die-hard fans and the jealous critics were now united in one thing.
They were all desperately waiting for Sunday night at 8:00 PM to see how it would all end.
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