Code Geass OVA: Nunnally in Wonderland

Summary

One day, Nunnally asks Lelouch to tell her a story, and he complies, using his Geass to make everyone submit to him and become characters in a huge, crazy production of Nunnally in Wonderland!

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Impression

Code Geass! Well, it’s not exactly more of the real show, nor the much anticipated Boukoku no Akito spin-off, but it’s still Code Geass nevertheless, which you can never have too much of. If you came in expecting seriousness and mind-blowing events, you’re gonna be disappointed…oh wait, I think my mind definitely won’t be thinking straight after going through THAT. Clearly, everyone on the production team at Sunrise were on crack while making this, and while I don’t know what they expected out of this love child from their latest drunken party, it still managed to achieve brilliance. Somehow.

If you’ve followed the Code Geass picture dramas in the past, then you’ll be familiar with the style of narration in this OVA; that is, limited animation and more still images, with frame changes occurring with changes in expressions, scenery etc. I don’t find it too bad a method, but it does make you wonder whether Nunnally in Wonderland is just the side crack project with a limited budget compared to Boukoku no Akito even though it most probably is.

I think everyone’s familiar with the basic plot of Alice in Wonderland, in which a girl follows a White Rabbit down a hole, and enters a magical fantasy land in which crazy things happen. What we have here is various characters from Code Geass playing various roles from the story – what’s surprising is that many of the characters actually fit their Alice roles quite well, Milly the Duchess and Kallen the March Hare not being bad choices at all. C.C. playing the Cheshire Cat (see what they did there) was very well played indeed, and I noticed that they spent lots of attention on animating her, which is favouritism I approve of. Also, if you noticed, her skirt was upturned when she hung off the branch…but they cut the screen off there, nuuuu ;_; And who could play the Mad Hatter but Lelouch? Completely insane at some points in the series, but we still love him for it.

Of course, some of the other roles hardly fit, yet were no less funny – Anya the monotone White Rabbit and Shirley the lost Fawn being some of them. I never did get why Tweedle Dum and Dee were given to Kaguya and Tianzi (though I suppose they can be twin lolis at heart) nor why Xingke was Humpty Dumpty, but I did have this vague unsettling feeling of why naked Rolo was naked – it’s a good thing Lelouch wasn’t narrating by then. He’s firmly in the siscon camp, backing his dear Nunnally.

It’s not a Code Geass spin-off without Code Geass references, and they were laid on thick and fast. I’m sure I missed some, but other than the glaringly obvious Knightmare ones, there was a fresh topping of Nina-made FLEIJA bombs dishes, Lloyd and his…weirdness, and Euphie campaigning for everyone to freely play croquet, in a special region where everyone can do so. I wish they went one step further and showed her shooting everyone with playing cards, but this is a family-friendly comedy after all. Even at the end, a last jab with Spinzaku had to turn up (HAHAHAHA, WTF?) and I respect them for having the balls to do that, really. Rewarding the fanbase, to the max. Who needs Charles, Marianne or Schneizel when you can ride off into the sunset with Spinzaku?

Oh Sunrise, whatever shall we do with you?

tl;dr It was all a dream.