Code Geass Star Chaser Aspal Reveals Leads, Plans January 2027 Preview Screenings

Bandai Namco Filmworks announced Thursday that its new Code Geass anime will hold advance previews in five major Japanese cities in January 2027. A limited run of public event screenings will follow that year.

The company also unveiled the main visual, lead cast and additional staff for Code Geass Star Chaser Aspal (Code Geass Hoshi Oi no Aspal). The anime will premiere in 2027.

The lead cast consists of:

• Ivan Shibata as Aspal
• Hibiku Yamamura as Zoe

Bandai Namco Filmworks also shared a visual of Chronos, an Agarmatha.

The story takes place in Kōreki year 606. Citizens of the Roman Empire endure Emperor Fokasu’s tyranny and repeated wars with neighboring nations.

Aspal, a young enslaved person in the imperial city of Neapolis, meets a mysterious woman who exists only as a disembodied head. The encounter between Aspal and Zoe begins a new tale.

The newly announced staff members are:

• Sub-character designers: Yumiko Nakamura, Madoka Hirayama, Kumi Horii, Hiroo Nagao and Moaang
• Heikon design: Isasa
• Cockpit design: Hisayoshi Kijima
• Effect design: Kanta Suzuki
• Zenex design: Entei Ryu
• Setting research: Seiichi Shirato
• Assistant director: Shinnosuke Itō
• Art director: Yoshio Tanioka
• Color key artist: Naomi Nakano
• 3D CG director: Takayuki Shigekawa
• Compositing director of photography: Kenji Fujita
• Editing: Kengo Shigemura
• Music: Taro Iwashiro
• Sound director: Kisuke Koizumi
• Sound production: dugout
• Animation studio: Sunrise

The core creative team includes:

• Director: Kazuya Nomura, whose credits include Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, both seasons of Moriarty the Patriot, Robotics;Notes and Sengoku Basara - Samurai Kings’ second season
• Series scripts: Mado Nozaki, author of the Hello World light novel, with credits including KADO - The Right Answer and Another World
• Character design: Rolua, illustrator of the original Yūsha Party kara Tsuihō Saretakedo light novels
• Agarmatha design: Yoshi.
• Background and special effects: Junbun Lin, whose credits include design for Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- and concept art and key animation for Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - Prologue
• Title logo design: Ichinogi

Elsewhere in the franchise, an official Code Geass and Gundam Wing crossover manga launched July 10 on Kadokawa’s KadoComi platform.

Its title is Mobile Suit Gundam Wing x Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - Minuet Zero (Shin Kidō Senki Gundam W x Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Minuet Zero). Sunrise’s Kōjirō Taniguchi receives scenario credit.

The Code Geass 20th anniversary project also includes a previously announced new musical stage play. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - A Knight who Follows His Beliefs 2 (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion - Seido ni Jyunzuru Kishi 2) ran January 23-25 in Osaka and January 29-February 1 in Tokyo.

The 20th Anniversary Exhibition has three city stops:

• Tokyo: opened September 4
• Osaka: opens November 6
• Fukuoka: opens December 25

In December 2024, the franchise announced that multiple new works were in production.

The original Code Geass television anime debuted in 2006, with a sequel series following in 2008. It spawned various manga and original video anime.

These include the five-part spinoff Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, which received limited theatrical screenings from 2012 through 2016 before arriving on home video.

The franchise’s three compilation recap films opened in Japan on this schedule:

• Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Kōdō (literally The Awakening Path; official English subtitle: Initiation): October 2017
• Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Handō (literally The Rebellion Path; official English subtitle: Transgression): February 2018
• Code Geass - Hangyaku no Lelouch - Ōdō (literally The Imperial Path; official English subtitle: Glorification): May 2018

Funimation released all three on Blu-ray Disc.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection opened at 120 Japanese theaters in February 2019. Funimation brought the film to North American theaters in May 2019.

Producer Kōjirō Taniguchi described the film in April 2019 as the first phase of a 10-year plan for new Code Geass content.

Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture screened in four theatrical parts in Japan from May through August 2024. Disney+ also streamed it as 12 weekly episodes.

Source: Press release