Code Geass: Sub or Dub?

Code Geass is two 25-episode seasons, Lelouch of the Rebellion and R2, made at Sunrise and directed by Gorō Taniguchi. Its English dub was produced for Bandai Entertainment and broadcast on Adult Swim, and the record on both tracks is tidy: ANN credits the same five principal actors in each language across both seasons, and the Japanese cast won awards. This page does not judge performances itself; where it describes them, it names the critic.

The short answer

Either track is a complete telling of both seasons with the same lead actors throughout, so neither choice strands you halfway. On the Japanese side, Jun Fukuyama won Best Actor in a leading role for Lelouch at the first Seiyu Awards. The English track carries a documented script decision that matters to anyone comparing lines: ANN's first DVD review found it often taken word for word from the subtitle script.

The English dub

Anime News Network's encyclopedia lists Bandai Entertainment as the original licensor (now expired), with ADR production by Animaze and ZRO Limit Productions, Kevin Seymour as ADR director for both seasons, and Neil Nadelman as translator. It also lists FUNimation Entertainment as a licensor from 2013.

The same encyclopedia dates the Adult Swim broadcast of the first season from 2008-04-27 to 2008-10-26, and R2's run from 2008-11-02 to 2009-06-07. ICv2 reported in August 2008 that Bandai Entertainment had announced R2 for Adult Swim, after the first season debuted there in April 2008. In Japan the first season began on October 5, 2006, and R2 on April 6, 2008.

Both casts, both seasons

Principal cast credited by ANN for both seasons

Character	Japanese	English
Lelouch	Jun Fukuyama	Johnny Yong Bosch
Suzaku	Takahiro Sakurai	Yuri Lowenthal
C.C.	Yukana	Kate Higgins
Kallen	Ami Koshimizu	Karen Strassman
Nunnally	Kaori Nazuka	Rebecca Forstadt

Awards on the Japanese side

At the first Seiyu Awards, held in Tokyo on March 3, 2007, ANN reported that Jun Fukuyama won Best Actor in a leading role as Lelouch, and Ami Koshimizu won a Best Actress in a supporting role award as Kallen. Those awards came during the first season's original Japanese run, before R2 began airing.

What the critics recorded about the dub

Carl Kimlinger's August 2008 review of the first DVD for ANN graded both tracks B. He wrote that the English adaptation was intended for Cartoon Network, singled out Kate Higgins's C.C. among the supporting cast, and observed that the English actors tone down the original's theatrics. His most specific finding concerns the script: he reported that the adaptation is often taken word for word from the subtitle script. Jacob Chapman's 2017 review of Funimation's Blu-ray collector's edition graded both tracks B+.

For readers who look up quotations, Kimlinger's script finding is the practical one. It describes the early episodes he reviewed, not a guarantee for every line in both seasons, so this site still records which version each quote comes from.

Where each track streams

Crunchyroll's Code Geass page lists Japanese and English audio, with English subtitles, for its two seasons and 50 episodes (checked October 7, 2026). Catalogs differ by country and change, so check your own service before choosing.

Both tracks reach the same ending. Lines from the series are collected on our Code Geass quote pages, and once you have finished R2, the ending explainer takes the last episode apart.