CODE GEASS TO LIVE ACTION:ADAPTING SUZAKU KURURUGI

By Sam-2 aka wildmoo6

As I tried to adapt Code Geass, I found that without a good idea of how the characters needed to be converted, no plot seemed sufficient and no themes felt applicable. I had to start with the characters. I reasoned that if I could think of live action films that had characters that reminded me of Code Geass characters, then I could piece together themes, plot points, or a full script for an adaptation. To do this, I made a list of the most memorable characters in the series and tried to think of movies and characters that were valid comparisons. My first character was Suzaku Kururugi, foil to Lelouch the protagonist, and Lelouch’s most consistent opponent.

Partial Comps List

How I see Suzaku: 

Suzaku is a tenacious glass half full idealist who is incredibly skilled, armed with unflinching conviction driven by a deep seeded guilt. His fighting style is persistent and reveals much of his character. Suzaku doesn’t quit. He leaps headfirst into battle fights with tunnel vision, never letting his target escape. Suzaku will gladly give his own life for a civilian, and he considers himself less valuable than the smallest of children because he doubts that he can be redeemed. His strength is the only quality in himself that he values. Suzaku is confident in it; he knows it well and will not back down from anyone. He will never try to outwit his opponent. He storms their castle by kicking in the front door. He is a youth who fights with all that he has in order to die. 

My live action comps list as follows:

Spiderman (Toby McGuire), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Batman (Christian Bale), Danai Gurira as Okoye in Black Panther.

These are not perfect comps; nor are they intended to be. Each character is like a close cousin or perhaps an elder sibling to the character. They are all different and none of them perfectly embody Suzaku. There are details that are overlooked. Yet, despite them, the characters on my comp list are similar enough to Suzaku that I was able to imagine what he might look like in live action. 

Character Profile

Each of the comps shares something in common with the Suzaku I know. Batman’s story highlights grief, guilt, regret, and a search for redemption. Spok’s highlights the themes of illegitimacy. Both have heroic facades. Spiderman’s backstory is tragic. Most of them are also exiles or outsiders with rigid, self-determined moral codes; tragedy is also a core ingredient in each comp’s moral code. 

Suzaku’s backstory makes some of these comps make sense. Suzaku grew up in Japan while it was being invaded by the fictional empire Britannia. As a child, he killed his father, a military officer, in order to prevent senseless bloodshed in further battle for Japan. In western tradition, this is a tragic but contextually forgivable act. In the west, we would weigh the situation and then make a decision based on our own individual values. Yet in Japanese society, patricide is a huge taboo, period. Good reason or not, it is a crime that makes Suzaku instantly damnable, no matter his rationale. His heroics are part of his fight for redemption, even as one knows that in his cultural context he cannot be redeemed. 

To compensate for this cultural difference, we will alter his back story to make it more accessible to a western audience:

After the fall of Japan, and 3 years before the events of the movie, a young Suzaku has contempt for his father who surrendered an entire division without a fight, not knowing that this was a ploy to prepare for a guerilla war. A year before, Suzaku joins the Junior Britannian Guard (a paramilitary organization), hoping to “fix” his father’s mistake. He does not know that his father is the one behind a string of revolutionary operations against Britania. Constant friction occurs throughout the movie between father and son about Suzaku’s path. 

While trying to track down Zero (Lelouch the protagonist), Suzaku accidentally exposes his father’s operation to Britanian authorities. Realizing that the cause is now hopeless, Suzaku’s father commends him for becoming so strong, and then surrenders to his son. The guilt ridden Suzaku is forced to turn him in, thus helping Suzaku to become a true knight of Britannia.

Thus, Suzaku’s guilt will be wrapped up in wrongly judging his father and ruining a valid shot for freedom in Japan. It is more nuanced than patricide, and in a way, far more tragic. He made a mistake and now feels that he must atone for his sins, while knowing that he can’t fix the past.

The Final Pure Comp and CASTING

This brings us to our pure comps for Suzaku: Henry Cavil’s Superman, and Chris Evan’s Captain America. Together, the characters have the necessary feel of Suzaku. The nuance of the character, the back story, the headfirst leaping, the quiet guilt, the weight of responsibility, all of these allow us to translate the character to live action. Cavil himself would not be able to play Suzaku without adjusting the character’s back story, due to age and ethnic concerns as Suzaku is a Japanese teenager. A Japanese or Japanese American actor would be required, one who could pull off a similar aesthetic to Cavil. I would not cast a star in his role, I would prefer an up an up and coming actor who had:

• Played a few friendly and likable characters who are one dimensional. Preferably having at least one very convincing performance in a TV episode as a guest star.
• Played a nice guy who was a bit socially awkward-in television or film.
• Played a multi-dimensional villain in television or film; a villain who displayed wit and guile but was not intended to be empathized with. A clear baddie.
• Displayed a clear charisma, someone that while not necessarily technically refined as an actor, is very adept at drawing the eye of the audience.
• Played in a role where they reacted to teen comedy perhaps in a Disney esq TV show.
• Played a role in which they displayed shock at disasters such as Kaiju styled movies including Godzilla, or weather disasters such as The Day After Tomorrow.

This is a wish list; I do not imagine that I would find someone with all of these, but it is what I would hope for. I am not as familiar with Japanese live action TV or movies so please make some recommendations!