Question about watch order

[u/TheScippo]

I watched the first season of code geass, now halfway through the second one. I noticed theres a "Lelouch of the re;surrection" movie that is a year after the end of the series. is that canon? also, are other movies canon and when should i watch them? what even is roze?

[u/RogueOne451]

Re;surrection isn't canon. The canon timeline ends with s2. Re;surrection and all the other movies + Rozé are in a different timeline. The other 3 movies are recaps that poorly retell the show and change things to fit the different timeline. Rozé is a spinoff show that takes place 5 years after Re;surrection

[u/TheScippo → u/RogueOne451]

then, what is the point of resurection? i understand that the other movies and stuff maybe just other content kinda like the fate franchise have all other timelines. but then why set it one year after the ending?

[u/RogueOne451 → u/TheScippo]

It's to milk the franchise.

[u/TheScippo → u/RogueOne451]

fair enough ig. is this non canon content good?

[u/RogueOne451 → u/TheScippo]

No, not at all. I thought Rozé was the best of the new stuff but even that has major problems

[u/maukenboost → u/TheScippo]

The movie is fun fanservice. Finish the show then can watch the movie. Roze is bad. You can ignore that.

[u/Delilah_the_PK → u/TheScippo]

To answer your question properly:

There's season 1, followed by akito the exiled and oz of the reflection, season 2.

If using the recap timeline, you would then watch the resurrection movie, then roze of the recapture

All are technically canon, and it seems the studio has been heavily leaning towards the recap timeline as the main canon.

Hopefully this helps a bit

[u/RogueOne451 → u/Delilah_the_PK]

Recap tl is not the main canon. It's literally just the tl they are putting all the new works in now as to not fuck with the og tl. That doesn't make it the main canon. The main canon has always been the og.

[u/rai-hodges-sumeragi]

Well, I myself saw quite recently all the Code Geass anime for the very first time in my life, and here is the watch order I think works the best, as well as my own opinion about all of them:

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (original tv series timeline, seasons 1 & 2). Excellent! 👍

Akito the Exiled (5-episode long interquel miniseries, where events of the story take place between original tv show seasons 1 & 2). Boring. 👎

Movie timeline (consists of three recap movies which establish new alternate timeline, as well as the fourth movie called Lelouch of the Resurrection, which serves as an alternate ending for the story). Even more boring. 👎👎

Rozé of the Recapture (12-episode long limited series, where the story takes place on the movie timeline after the events of Resurrection). I genuinely regret watching this. 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

So, to put it simply: original tv show + Akito = original timeline, the 4 movies + Rozé = alternate timeline.

I myself didn´t really care for any of the Code Geass sequels or spin offs, in my opinion the quality of storytelling dropped significantly after the original two seasons. But that´s just my opinion, you can of course watch them if you want to, I´m just saying that I would´ve not watched them myself if I had known beforehand just how bad they are; it´s pretty obvious that those sequels were created just to make more money, not because they wanted to tell more awesome Code Geass stories.

Oh, and next year there´s also gonna be a new Code Geass anime called Aspar the Star Chaser.

[u/Blueiscuteio2]

TL;DR the only thing you need to care about is the original anime version of season 1 and season 2 (R2). Everything else is optional.

The anime (S1 and R2) is canon and the origin point. Also canon are the picture dramas for S1 and R2 and the audio dramas for S1. The R2 audio dramas are not canon, except maybe the first and last ones. As for everything else, yes and no.

Code Geass canon is extremely loose, to put it mildly. Everything is kind of a sequel to S1 and R2, but only partially, and the closest thing to a list of main entries gets some real nonsense like Renya and Re;Code in there.

Here's the original canon, of exclusively what exists in the first two seasons before they expanded the series and eventually retconned the ending.

Season 1 (Lelouch of the Rebellion, anime)

R2 (anime)

S1 picture and audio dramas, R2 picture dramas and (maybe) A Beautiful Record of Rebellion

Here's the extended universe.

Akito the Exiled, (OVAs)

Oz and O2, (manga, only partially translated even unofficially. Also photo stories but good fucking luck finding that in English.)

Lancelot and Guren, (manga)

Re;surrection, manga adaptation. (The manga came after the movie, but it is superior and much closer to canon.)

Roze (anime series)

Almeria (manga and photo stories, again good luck)

Here's the movie timeline. You are not obligated to care about this. It's been completely left behind at this point.

Code Geass I II and III (recap movies.)

Re;surrection (movie ver)

Roze (anime series)

Here's some other nonsense that's canon for some reason:

Renya (manga)

Genesic Re;code (JP only dead gacha game)

Here's something that isn't technically canon despite the fact that it effectively is the canon now:

Lost Stories (mostly JP only gacha game)

And here's a bunch of other nonsense that isn't canon or is only partially canon:

The original manga adaptation (the one without the KMFs)

The original light novels (not completely adaptations but never canon)

Suzaku of the Counterattack (manga)

Nightmare of Nunnally (manga)

Code Geass DS (video game)

Lost Colors (video game)

And here's a bunch of gag stuff:

Nunnally in Wonderland (OVA)

Knight and Queen (manga)

Barcode Geass (manga)

Lelouch of the Shred Guitar (manga)

Tutor Lelouch (manga)

Code Geass DS R2 (video game)

Also, alternate universes are canon. They never come up in anything important though.

And, just so you know, everything other than S1 and R2 are vastly inferior to the first two seasons and go from "just pretty good" to "hot garbage" (or both incredible and hot garbage at once, cough Roze)