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Mirror Fragment 1: A New Twist on an Old Favorite
Forty-four years after Mobile Suit Gundam first aired in 1979, Char Aznable continues to be one of Sunrise’s—and Japan’s—most iconic characters. Char's popularity created such a massive impact that after Mobile Suit Gundam, Sunrise featured frequent “Char Clones” in their mecha anime to draw as much attention as possible. Like Char, the “Clones” wear a mask to hide his face as he works his own political agenda behind the scenes, righting wrongs of his hidden noble past through the destruction of a powerful villainous family or organization. He is the fierce but emotionally invested rival of the main male character, against whom he plays the heroic villain or villainous hero. He will kill his enemies without mercy, but will shed tears for his loved ones. His closest family member is usually his sister, though they may be estranged.
This description should sound familiar to any fan of Code Geass. Many Geass diehards are aware of some connection between Code Geass and Mobile Suit Gundam. On the surface, Lelouch is a fairly standard “Char Clone” character. Without closer examination, the entirety of Code Geass could be brushed aside as a simple “Role Reversal AU” of Mobile Suit Gundam, in which Amuro (Suzaku) fights for the empire and Char (Lelouch) opposes him.
With further consideration however, Code Geass is a more nuanced reflection of Mobile Suit Gundam, one which creates its own identity by crafting new ideas from the materials of old favorites. Certain elements are copied directly, while others are played with or subverted. Lelouch has a fully formed growth arc which grants him complexity that surpasses Char in his role as a secondary character. Lelouch, as the protagonist, becomes the center of gravity for other characters: Nunnally is framed through her role as Lelouch’s sister, while Sayla’s relationship to Char is secondary in her portrayal. Traits famous in Mobile Suit Gundam characters were often given to different characters than their direct equivalents to create new dynamics. Suzaku’s signature “spinzaku” attack with the Lancelot is based on Char’s unique and creative ace pilot tactics that use his robots’ legs to attack in a pinch, even though in most cases he inherits traits from Amuro.
The remixing of ideas allowed for the creators to approach classic themes from a new angle and reach new levels of popularity. Ideally, the new shows would use the strength of their established successes to take more risks, but unfortunately the opposite occurred: in an attempt to maximize popularity of the new show, Sunrise kept the politics as safe as possible, at the sacrifice of integrity. We can see such restraint illustrated in how both shows leveraged queer subtext in the marketing of the male leads without making them overtly queer, and in the non-threatening portrayal of Empire.
Mirror Fragment 2: Homoeroticism and Heteronormativity
Lelouch and Char were designed to have maximum audience appeal and cause minimal alienation. Both are attractive and charming, moving audiences through moments of magnificence and pathos. Their aesthetic and sense of style, along with their beauty, evokes a princely, dignified air.
The appeal, especially to women, is maximized further by deliberate homoerotic tones. Gundam fans have been picking up on the queer undertones since the start, particularly in the intense duel between Char and Amuro at the climax of Mobile Suit Gundam. Moreover, Gundam’s creator Yoshiyuki Tomino has outright stated that the homoeroticism was intentional:
“He really wanted to bring out a ‘raw/carnal feeling’ in the confrontation between Amuro and Char, ‘to the degree that you might wonder whether the two of them are homosexual.’” [1]
Similarly, Geass creator Ichirou Ōkouchi describes Lelouch’s connection to Suzaku as unlike any other:
“It’s a relationship you can’t describe in a word. To simply call it friendship isn’t quite right. […] It’s impossible to describe it in a word, but it’s a very strong bond.” [2]
With such deliberate intensity in the relationship between Char and Amuro, as well as between Lelouch and Suzaku, the decision to present none of these characters as explicitly gay is equally deliberate. To unambiguously depict any of these characters as having a queer identity would be to challenge heteronormative and homophobic audience members in a way that might jeopardize the popularity of the show. Male characters are allowed to have intense feelings about one another within a rivalry such as the kind between Char and Amuro, or Suzaku and Lelouch, but they cannot embrace any queer identity or relationship.
This approach is common in popular media because it works to maximize appeal to those who seek out homoeroticism, while also not alienating those who find homeroticism distasteful. As a result, Char and Lelouch remain popular among both BL fans and those who would not touch BL with a ten-foot pole.
Men who watch anime broadly tend to prefer male power fantasy characters, but the parameters of masculine fantasy can be flexible. Char models traditional masculinity more than Lelouch: Char is muscular and physically gifted, an excellent pilot with lightning reflexes and more than enough physical stamina to withstand the strain of mecha combat. He is experienced in sexual relationships and has several lovers across the Mobile Suit Gundam series timeline. Char is meant to be admirable and aspirational, a masculine fantasy of virility and military prowess.
Lelouch is neither muscular nor sexually experienced. Instead, he’s canonically depicted as a virgin and repeatedly shown to have no athletic ability. He is a mediocre pilot and incompetent fighter. However, rather than subverting masculinity, he embodies a “philosopher king” male fantasy instead, in which he exerts power through intelligence and tactical knowledge, amplified by his Geass ability. Plus, while Lelouch is not experienced in romance or sex, he nonetheless finds himself at the center of a “harem” fantasy.
Mirror Fragment 3: Empire and Innocence
Mobile Suit Gundam and Code Geass both exist visibly in the shadow of World War II but portray Empire differently. Mobile Suit Gundam portrays its empire in a way that is mostly abstracted from real world countries, with the clearest influences coming from Nazi Germany. The themes in Gundam are focused around what war takes from individuals emotionally. While one can infer ideas related to Japan’s role as both an Empire and as an occupied nation, Gundam is more about war itself than any particular war or country.
Code Geass, on the other hand, approaches its empire from the opposite direction, invoking real world nations and historical allegories. Here, too, we see the influence of decisions made to create maximum appeal in the target audience and alienate the fewest people in a Japanese audience. The Empire of Code Geass is based on a fusion of England and the United States, with Japan as the victim in a manner that invokes the US occupation of Japan after World War II. While we can infer commentary on Imperial Japan in the portrayal of Britannia, it’s meaningful that any such politically charged comparison is abstracted and textually contradicted. This makes logical sense as a choice in light of Code Geass being a product marketed first and foremost to a Japanese audience. This isn’t to suggest that Japanese audiences are uniquely nationalistic, but rather that popular media around the world like to play it safe politically. Code Geass has things to say about imperialism, but never overcomes the barrier of threatening the narrative of Japanese innocence. In this way, while it confronts real world imperialism more directly than Mobile Suit Gundam did, it remains a servant to the needs of marketing and mass audience appeal.
Mirror Fragment 4: Popularity versus Integrity
The success of Code Geass in the anime fan market, as well as Lelouch’s popularity as a character, speaks to the success of how it was crafted. It began as a spin on the Mobile Suit Gundam formula, “Char Clone” included, but grew to form its own identity in the anime landscape.
With Lelouch, Sunrise brought us a character even more beloved than the famous Char Aznable. In Newtype Magazine, Lelouch was the most famous character of the 2000s, while Char was in spot #2 in the 1980s.[3] Lelouch is the all-time most popular character on MyAnimeList, with 162,033 favorites as of this essay—a margin of 25,000 over the next most popular character.[4]
Lelouch was made to have the appeal and position of a protagonist, while also being seasoned with the sly cunning and cool flavor of an antagonist. Amuro’s relatively simple role of a protagonist and relatively clear moral place in the story is meshed with Char’s moral grayness to create a role for Lelouch that is just villainous enough to add spice without being off-putting. Lelouch’s popularity is thus maximized by having the widest spread of appeal for the greatest variety of audience members, without being too alienating to any demographic.
However, that popularity formula has a dark side, one of threatened artistic integrity. Political criticism and inclusion of marginalized protagonists can be threatening to conservative audiences, so these are smoothed over and relegated to implications and themes rather than overt depiction.
After more than four decades, Sunrise may be becoming braver. The Witch from Mercury, the latest entry in the Gundam franchise, has taken a step forward with a lead sapphic pairing. Hopefully future Sunrise shows will make braver political statements and feature prominent queer relationships, perhaps even with the next Char Clone.
References
- Gundam's Yoshiyuki Tomino Reminds Us All That Char Definitely Has Sex posted on 2021-06-17 13:45 EDT by Kim Morrissy [Retrieved from: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-06-17/gundam-yoshiyuki-tomino-reminds-us-all-that-char-definitely-has-sex/.174037]
- Ichirou Ōkouchi Interview in Continue Volume 42 (October 2008) [Retrieved from: https://codegeassfacts.tumblr.com/post/698279423616712705/ichirou-okouchi-interview-in-continue-volume-42]
- Newtype Magazine Character Popularity Polls 1980s, 1990s, 2000s [Retrieved from: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=158388]
- MyAnimeList Character Popularity Ranking [Retrieved from: https://myanimelist.net/character.php]