Chapter 312 - 311: End of Season One

Chapter 312: Chapter 311: End of Season One

For anime fans, Sunday night at 8:00 PM had become something of a holiday. Whenever this day rolled around, fan groups and online discussion boards became several times more active than usual.

It wasn’t that everyone loved Haruto’s work; he certainly had his share of haters. However, whether they were die-hard fans or dedicated haters, they all contributed to the massive viewership army. By 7:00 PM, the forums were buzzing with activity as both camps geared up for the finale.

In a sense, now that Haruto’s influence had reached this peak, his works functioned more as a social currency than mere entertainment. If you weren’t watching his latest series, you simply had nothing to talk about with your friends in the community, and you couldn’t participate in the rapid-fire group chats.

So, even though the plot of Code Geass had been highly controversial, it did nothing to slow the show’s momentum. Since a second season had not yet been officially announced, Episode 25 was being treated as the grand finale, drawing an unprecedented amount of attention. Salarymen and students alike, no matter how busy their schedules, fought to be in front of a television.

By 7:30 PM, the viewership ratings for Tokyo TV1 had already surpassed 5.1%, and the station was still only airing commercials. The head of Tokyo TV1 was currently torn between celebration and regret, cursing himself for setting the advertising rates too low when they negotiated earlier in the season. He felt like he was giving the sponsors a free ride on a rocket ship.

Yamato, a high school student, was one of those glued to the screen.

He had been a devoted follower of Haruto since middle school. Fortunately, his home was only a short distance from the headquarters of Haruto’s company, Haru-Yuki Animation. Over the past few years, he had managed to spot him several times, securing memories of the genius creator.

Tonight, he was restless.

He looked out his window toward a nearby office building where a specific floor was brightly lit. That was the Haru-Yuki headquarters.

Clearly, every employee there was working late, anxiously monitoring the performance of the finale. The final half-hour of commercials flew by as Yamato chatted with his friends online.

"Okay, gotta go. It’s starting!" one of them posted, and the group chat went silent as everyone turned their focus to the TV.

The opening theme played as usual, but Yamato felt a lump in his throat this time. While Code Geass could be melodramatic at times, its ability to connect emotionally with the audience was peerless. Just seeing Euphemia appear in the opening credits made his eyes sting with unshed tears.

The episode picked up exactly where the last one left off: a direct confrontation between the Britannian military and the Black Knights. This finale served as a grand ensemble piece, giving almost every established character a moment to shine.

In the duel between the supreme commanders, Lelouch outmaneuvered Cornelia strategically. In terms of raw combat, Cornelia was overwhelmed by the Knightmare piloted by C.C.

With their combined strength, Lelouch and C.C. successfully neutralized the enemy leader.

If the story had ended there, the winner of the war would have been obvious. However, at the most critical juncture, Lelouch chose to abandon his army of hundreds of thousands. Driven by the need to save his kidnapped sister, Nunnally, he and C.C. fled the front lines and headed for Kamine Island.

Yamato watched this in disbelief. From a realistic standpoint, for a supreme commander to desert his troops in the heat of battle for a personal matter was a historical crime of the highest order, an eternal stain on his reputation. But this was anime, not a history book. While Yamato and other fans found Lelouch’s actions selfish, they supported him emotionally. No one wanted their favorite protagonist to be a cold-hearted guy who would sacrifice his family for a victory.

In fiction, we want the hero to care. Predictably, the commander’s sudden disappearance caused chaos.

The next few minutes depicted the rebellion crumbling without Zero’s guidance. What was once an unstoppable advance turned into a bloody stalemate. On Kamine Island, Lelouch and C.C. found themselves walking into an ambush. The high-stakes aerial combat between C.C. and the pursuers wasn’t the main event; rather, it was the moment they had to part ways. C.C. stayed behind to hold off the enemy, allowing Lelouch to press on alone to save Nunnally.

Then came the legendary kiss.

The black-haired boy with violet eyes and the beautiful green-haired witch shared a moment that made the audience’s collective breath hitch.

In that single instant, all the frustration over Lelouch abandoning his army evaporated.

A smile spread across the faces of fans everywhere. Yamato clutched his face, his eyes sparkling as he stared at the screen.

"C.C., don’t you dare die," Lelouch commanded as he stepped out of the cockpit.

A soft, melancholic background track began to play, giving the scene an epic, cinematic feel.

"Who do you think you’re talking to?" C.C. replied with a faint, cocky smirk.

That cool, older-sister vibe melted the hearts of countless fans. Many might not have screamed it aloud, but internally they were shouting for the two to get married on the spot. As C.C. engaged the enemy in a desperate struggle, Lelouch turned and ran deep into the cave. He didn’t look back. He trusted her to win, and his silence spoke volumes. Meanwhile, the Black Knights were being slaughtered without their leader.

And just as Lelouch was about to reach the place where Nunnally was being held... the ultimate meddler, Suzaku Kururugi, appeared yet again.

The moment he stepped onto the screen, fans saw red. The group chats exploded.

"What is this idiot Suzaku doing here again?"

"He’s always in the way! Shiori-sensei, please, just kill him off already! You killed Euphie and let this guy live? That makes no sense!"

"Every time I see his face, I get a headache. Nothing good ever happens when he’s around."

"And Lelouch is alone! He can’t take Suzaku in a fair fight!"

"Wait, Kallen is here too. She followed Suzaku. That’s good, at least she can actually fight him."

"Why did a war epic turn into a family drama about saving a sister? This is stressful."

The animation continued.

A perfectly aimed shot from Suzaku shattered the black mask on Lelouch’s face. Having been told about the existence of Geass by the mysterious V.V., Suzaku finally understood the truth behind Euphemia’s horrific order.

As the mask fell away, Lelouch’s true face was revealed to his enemies. Suzaku’s best friend, Kallen’s classmate, and the leader of the world’s most dangerous rebel group were one and the same. Kallen’s world shattered.

To realize that the man leading the resistance was actually a Britannian royal was a betrayal of her entire belief system.

The friendship between the two boys had finally curdled into something unrecognizable. Suzaku, standing on his moral high ground, began to condemn Lelouch’s actions. Lelouch, however, wasn’t having any of it.

"Kill Euphemia? That’s in the past. Didn’t you kill your own father? You can repent as many times as you want once the deed is done!"

Lelouch’s blunt, savage comeback made Yamato burst out laughing. That was the way to handle him! Suzaku preached about justice and morality, but his own hands were far from clean. Lelouch might be a villain, but he wasn’t about to take a lecture from a hypocrite like Suzaku.

Driven to a frenzy by Lelouch’s words, Suzaku leveled his gun at his former friend.

Lelouch drew his own pistol in kind. The two stood at point-blank range, ready to kill.

"SUZAKU!"

"LELOUCH!"

Their faces were contorted with madness and rage. Suddenly, the screen cut to black, accompanied by the sharp crack of a single gunshot.

The ending credits for Code Geass began to roll.

Yamato sat paralyzed on his sofa, his mind blank with shock. The episode had been so intense that time seemed to have vanished. And now... the credits?

"What? What is this?" he whispered. "This is supposed to be the final episode! How can it end like this?"

He stared at the screen in a daze. Two minutes later, after the credits finished, a post-credits scene appeared. It showed C.C. in the aftermath of her battle, her Knightmare sinking into the depths of the ocean.

"What stands before Lelouch is the past he created himself... the hatred that makes humans what they are. Even so, one should be grateful. Yes... at least for the fact that humans pursue happiness. A sliver of a wish, a faint hope, born from the depths of despair."

C.C.’s internal monologue was somewhat abstract, but it didn’t slow the momentum of the reveal. As her voice faded, large letters appeared on the screen.

CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE REBELLION - SEASON 2

The text vanished, replaced by a new line:

"The one who is wrong is not me; it is the world!"

"October 3rd..."

And then, the screen went dark for good.

Yamato felt a cold sweat on his forehead. His eyes were wide with disbelief. "Was that really necessary?" he muttered. "Did you have to split it into seasons just for that? Why can’t you just air the next episode next week and keep the story going?"

The cliffhanger was agonizing. Who fired the shot? Who was hit? Was someone injured or dead? To leave it there was a special kind of cruelty.

Across every fan group and forum, the backlash was louder and more creative than ever before.

"Haruto, you bastard! Just go to heaven already! How can you leave us hanging like this?"

"I’m actually nauseous. You can’t just stop there! What is this ’Season Two’ nonsense? Just air the show next week!"

"Everyone, just stay calm. Take a deep breath."

"How can I stay calm? He couldn’t give us even two more seconds of footage to show who won? Why?"

"It’s for the suspense. If he didn’t do this, how could he drive the interest for the second season?"

"I swear, after I finish this show, I am never watching another anime from Haruto. It’s too much stress. If I ever get tricked into one of his works again, you can film me eating a shoe on live stream."

"Don’t talk big. You’ll be back in three weeks, and we’ll all be laughing at you."

"You have to admit, the guy is a master of the cliffhanger. Madoka Magica was bad enough, but Code Geass is his masterpiece of frustration. I’ll say this now: if the Season Two premiere doesn’t break a 6% rating, I’ll run three laps around my campus naked."

"Three weeks of waiting... my world is ending. Does anyone have any old anime recommendations to kill the time?"

"Give up. Just suffer with the rest of us."

While fury and desperation brewed in the hearts of the fans, the first season of Code Geass had officially come to an end, having successfully established itself as a phenomenon.

It was a hair’s breadth away from breaking the all-time record set by the finale of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Despite Haruto’s incredible popularity and months of build-up, Code Geass hadn’t quite managed to topple the champion in its first run. This only served to remind the industry just how legendary Madoka truly was.

However, everyone also knew the truth. Given the massive foundation laid by the first season, when the show returned in three weeks... the second season of Code Geass was likely to grow into a monster that would exceed everyone’s wildest expectations.

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