For the current Xia Nation film and television industry, no one was particularly surprised anymore when Su Yan's new drama once again displayed a level of quality beyond industry standards after its premiere.
Over the past few years, Su Yan had proven his strength time and time again, and through these repeated successes, he had gathered a massive fanbase around him.
A premiere rating exceeding 6.5% for 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' was certainly astonishing—but the industry had already been shocked too many times by Su Yan before. At this point, everyone was numb.
When most of Su Yan's peers saw media reports flooding in, their first reaction was simply:
📰"Oh, he broke another record again. And it's his own previous record too."
Because this kind of thing had happened so often, they no longer felt surprised—nor did they bother feeling envy or jealousy.
After all, they knew they weren't competing on the same level. Instead of treating Su Yan as a rival, it was better to think about how to capture the parts of the market he didn't cover.
No matter how capable Su Yan was, he only produced one drama per quarter, airing just one hour out of the more than one hundred hours in a week.
To put it bluntly, his peers in the Xia Nation had already "given up" when facing him.
Su Yan's fans were the same. They no longer cared about ratings, rankings, or comparisons like before. After all, it was always first place—what was there to worry about?
As a result, media coverage of 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion's ratings didn't generate much traffic. Instead, throughout the week, fans were more focused on the show's settings, its mecha designs, and when merchandise—like the Lancelot unit piloted by the male lead, Suzaku—would go on sale.
Soon, time moved into the second week of July. After a week of buildup, 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' rapidly expanded its popularity across the Xia Nation.
What surprised people most about the show's performance, however, wasn't its domestic success.
Due to time differences, the drama aired in six overseas countries with a delay of 12 to 24 hours.
It was also released one day later on NKNet, the second-largest video platform overseas that had collaborated with Su Yan many times.
Although Su Yan had invested heavily in advertising across these platforms and TV stations, Episode 1 still broke into the top three ratings of the week in all six major regions, with three of them ranking first.
On NKNet, among all newly released shows in the past month, Season 1 of 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' held the undisputed top spot in streaming numbers.
When 'Fate/stay night' aired overseas, it mainly served to familiarize international audiences with Su Yan, building recognition and attracting fans.
But its success made it incredibly easy for 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion'—whose main cast largely overlapped with 'Fate/stay night'—to spread among those same audiences.
After all, the actors who played Gilgamesh, Shirou Emiya, and Artoria in 'Fate/stay night' were now playing Lelouch, Suzaku, and C.C., respectively.
That afternoon, Chu Yi lifted his gaze from the latest trailer for 'Weathering With You' on the official website of Dimensional Pictures.
As always, it was stunning—carrying the same feeling as '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'Your Name'.
Even though it was only mid-July, the film's presale box office had already surpassed 90 million, and it would likely exceed 100 million in just a few more days.
But for today, Chu Yi opened an online forum. Just as he expected, it was filled with analysis posts about 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion'.
After scrolling for more than two hours, Chu Yi let out a long breath, checked the time, ordered takeout, finished dinner, took a shower, and finally, it was almost time for the next episode to air.
At times like this, Zhongxia TV's ratings would begin to climb, forum activity would double, and search trends related to 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' would frequently appear on rankings across major websites.
At exactly 8 PM, Episode 2 aired.
The story picked up from the end of last week—Lelouch had personally killed his half-brother Clovis.
Using his Geass, he extracted information from Clovis, learning that his mother's death might be connected to the Second Prince and the Second Princess.
Thus, the two greatest enemies of Lelouch in Seasons 1 and 2 were revealed:
Schneizel and Cornelia.
Chu Yi frowned—these foreign names were really hard to remember.
But whatever. Since Su Yan made this drama to break into overseas markets, some compromises were expected. After all, making money wasn't something to be ashamed of.
Throughout the entire series, 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' essentially ran on two narrative lines—one in the light, one in the dark.
The light side followed Lelouch as a well-behaved student at Ashford Academy, living out his daily school life.
The dark side revealed the hidden identities of the students.
Lelouch, the leader of the rebellion.
Kallen, his ace pilot and strongest subordinate.
Suzaku, the son of the former Prime Minister of Area 11, who killed his own father in the name of peace and joined the Britannian military, became a heavily criticized character in Su Yan's previous world.
Even their teacher was actually a Britannian soldier, acting as a spy within the school.
And then there was Shirley—the second female lead, secretly in love with Lelouch, yet whose father had died in a battle commanded by Lelouch under his alias, Zero.
On the surface, they were a harmonious group of teachers and students.
But in reality, once they put on masks and entered their cockpits, they fought each other on the battlefield—each carrying blood-deep grudges against the others. They simply didn't yet know each other's true identities, maintaining sincere friendships in ignorance.
These entanglements were one of the drama's greatest highlights.
Episode 1 laid out the world.
Episode 2 shifted focus to Lelouch's school life.
His younger sister Nunnally—blind and paralyzed—was his greatest weakness.
Despite his academic excellence and poor athletic ability, Lelouch had many close friends at school.
Among them, Shirley—who clearly liked Lelouch from her very first appearance—left a deep impression on Chu Yi.
There was also the student council president, a shy girl in the council, and a science-loving girl named Einstein.
If this were audiences from Su Yan's previous world, they would immediately guess what kind of shocking things she might do in the future based on that name alone—but Xia Nation viewers felt nothing.
These characters, who currently seemed like background roles, would all become extremely important later in the story.
They might be newcomers, but they were really beautiful.
However—
["It's still not the same feeling as when Su Yan, Shen Liqian, and Gu Qingyuan acted together back then. Those three were the true golden trio. These newcomers may look good, but their chemistry with that old thief is far behind."]
Chu Yi took a deep breath and continued watching.
The classic "transfer student" trope—overused in Su Yan's previous world—was actually quite fresh when 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion' originally aired.
And in the Xia Nation—
When Kallen appeared in Lelouch's class as a transfer student, Chu Yi nearly spat out his tea.
[?]
[Isn't she a resistance fighter from Area 11?]
[How did she end up transferring into Lelouch's elite Britannian school?]
But soon, the story provided an explanation.
She was of mixed heritage—but identified herself as a citizen of Area 11. So on the surface, she attended a noble academy, while secretly acting as a revolutionary, taking up arms against the Britannian military.