A Spin-Off of the Code Geass franchise, Oz the Reflection uses the same formula as the highly successful Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray, using different mediums to tell an interconnected story of two long-lost siblings, both nicknamed "Oz" by their friends. The manga component focuses on Oldrin Zevon, a member of the Glinda Knights (Britannia's anti-terror taskforce) and pilot of the Lancelot Grail. The photo-novel focuses on Orpheus Zevon, member of the anti-Britannian terror group "Peace Mark" who seeks vengeance for his lover's murder. A Picture Drama was released on January 10th 2013 attached to that month's issue of Newtype Ace.
The story begins when Oldrin and Orpheus meet in person in the Middle East...
Oz the Reflection is one of two canon spinoffs following the Code Geass revival. The other, Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, also occurs in the same timeframe.
Oz the Reflection was followed by a sequel, Code Geass - Oz the Reflection O2.
The manga ran from 2012 to 2014 and ran for 5 volumes.
Tropes:
- Ace Custom: Loads of them for both sides.
- Ambiguously Gay: Marrybell is pretty damn affectionate towards Oldrin. Sometimes it stretches to areas that... must be seen to be believed (see
Les Yay on the YMMV page). - Arranged Marriage: There is one between Leonhart and Marika. That said, they are actually in love with each other.
- Back for the Dead: Even though her interaction with Orpheus in the novel is very well received, Monica only appears in one scene after the time skip, only to get killed by Suzaku like in the original anime series.
- Big Good: Marrybell is in charge of the Glinda Knights. Nonette in the second part of the manga, when Marrybel has underwent some serious PTSD and entered a Thanatos Gambit.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Amanacer from SIDE: Oldrin O2 is a customized Akatsuki; both names come from their respective languages' words for "dawn".
- Calling Your Attacks: Despite being a Real Robot series, Oldrin and her crew have a tendency to shout out things like "Knight's Strike!" and "Sattel Waffen!" whenever they attack.
- Clothing Damage: Oldrin, Marika, Marrybel, Oldrin... Oldrin in most of her fights have suffered one. Leon and Tink suffer them from time to time too, for nominal gender equality.
- Monica and Dorothea when they die in explosions of their Knightmares.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Orpheus suffers through one; Princess Marrybell also suffers through another.
- Doomed by Canon: Rolo is keeping an eye on Lelouch at the beginning of R2, so it's only natural that Clara is gonna die.
- Gambit Pileup: Everyone attached to the Geass cult.
- Heroic BSoD: Sokkia, who had previously been a member of the KMF Leagues (think Roller Derby with mecha), develops CSR (combat stress reaction) after seeing battle for the first time. As a result, her hands get shaky when she thinks about combat and for a while it's unclear if she'll retire from the Glinda Knights.
- Marrybell at the start of the second part of the manga. She never came out of it.
- Insecure Love Interest: In one chapter, Leonhardt admits that he's considered breaking off his engagement to Marika because he doesn't feel worthy of her. He gets over it.
- Knight Templar Parent: By the bulk. VV is shown to be one too.
- The Empire: Britannia, self-righteously so.
- Lethal Chef: Marika is known as one, but she insists it only happened once (she got nervous and put too much pepper in a meat pie). Leon ended up getting familiar with the taste.
- Made of Iron: Leonhardt, Oldrin and Tink took a lot of injuries each in their first battle, though survived to fight again. Later it's revealed Leonhardt undertook extensive surgery and was implemented with various synthetic parts, and Tink was already a cyborg since several years ago.
- Mirror Character: Marrybell's backstory is almost identical to Lelouch'snote and she has the same motivation (to make the world a place where her loved ones can be safe and happy). The main difference is how they reacted to their respective losses: Lelouch suspected Britannia of being complicit and became a terrorist, while Marrybell stayed loyal to Britannia and formed an anti-terrorism taskforce. As a result, it's no surprise that she willingly joins forces with Lelouch once he becomes Emperor and enacts the Zero Requiem plan.
- Moment Killer: In Chapter 6, there's a wonderful heartfelt moment between Leonhardt and Marika...which Tink gloriously destroys by saying "Oh hey, you're the fiancée who makes the super-spicy meat pies!", making both of them Face Fault.
- Mythology Gag: The design of the Test-Type Lancelot (the basis of Oldrin's Lancelot Grail) comes from an early design version of Suzaku's Lancelot that was used in some promotional artwork.
- Not What It Looks Like: In one chapter, Leonhardt is having trouble getting into his pilot suit and Tink offers to help. Then the elevator doors open, and Oldrin sees Tink standing behind a half-dressed Leon, with his hands seemingly on the younger man's waist as the latter complains "It's not gonna fit!" She responds by whacking them with her (sheathed) sword.
- Propaganda Piece: In-Universe, it's shown that Britannia prints manga loosely based off Oldrin to serve as propaganda. Emphasis on "loosely": one story is your standard Shoujo fare with schoolgirl Oldrin pining after her sempai Leonhardt, while the other is a Shout-Out to Tiger Mask. Both stories have the real Leonhardt in stitches.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Both the manga and photo novel have very different version of the events in Béjaïa base. The manga featured out-and-out battles, where Orpheus demolished both Leon and Tink, whereas in the novel it was a more quiet, stealthy afair. Both ended in a draw between the Byakuen and Lancelot Grail. Furthermore, Orpheus tried slitting Oldrin's throat in the manga, whereas it was the other way around in the novel.
- Furthermore, the novel has an alternate version of Code Geass: Akito the Exiled's first episode, taking place in St. Petersburg instead of a forest.
- Retcon: In the original Code Geass anime, Marika Soresi died along side the rest of the Valkyrie Squadron during the second battle of Tokyo against Kallen in the Guren SEITEN. However, Oz of the Reflection reveals that she managed to survive that day thanks to Leonhardt rescuing her in the nick of time after her Knightmare was taken out. Her fellow pilot, Liliana, might have also survived as a silhouette resembling her was present during her and Leonhardt's wedding in the epilogue.
- The Reveal: Wizard is Oiaguro Zevon, Oldrin and Orpheus' uncle.
- Robotic Reveal: In Chapter 6, Tink sustains some heavy damage that reveals machinery on the left side of his body; he admits to Leo and Marika that over 30% of his body was replaced by cybernetics due to injuries sustained before he joined the Knights.
- Shout-Out: The whole thing is full of references to The Wizard of Oz, but Side: Oldrin even moreso. The Glinda Knights members are all parallels to Dorothy and her friends, and just to drive the point further home, in the prologue chapter Oldrin sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to herself.
- Taking it a step further, the final chapters of the story introduce a Knight Giga Fortress named Elphaba.
- Spin-Off: The second canonical one, behind Code Geass: Akito the Exiled.
- Super Prototype: This series features Super Prototypes of Super Prototypes! Oldrin's Lancelot Grail is upgraded from the test-type version of Suzaku Kururugi's machine, while Orpheus's Byakuen was based off of the Guren Mk-I, and Leonhardt's Bradford is the prototype to the Tristan. Wizard's Agravain is said to be 79% identical to Lelouch's Gawain (and strongly resembles the mass-production Gareth from R2), but their exact relation is unknown.
- The Glinda squad's mechs in O2 are completely this trope, but they are also all noted to be defective or obsolete in some way.
- Swapped Roles: In the transition between the first and second "seasons", Orpheus adopts the masked identity of "Lyre" and becomes the Glinda Knights' ace pilot while Oldrin joins an anti-Britannian resistance group in Area 24 (Spain). They even get new Ace Customs: Lyre uses a Vincent while Oldrin gets an Akatsuki.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Byakuen has an almost a literal example: its right arm is equipped with "Type 7 Integrated Armament", which means it has seven different weapons packed into its oversized forearm (including scissors, a drill, and a long-range cannon) and can pop them out like tools from a Swiss army knife as needed.
- Western Terrorists: The Glinda Knights are tasked to take out the Wings of Talleyrand, a Britannian-based terrorist group who are against the country's imperialist laws.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: During the above-mentioned Not What It Looks Like scene, Oldrin accidentally lifts up Marybell's skirt while smacking the guys with her sword, giving everyone a nice look at her panties. When we return to the scene, Oldrin has a red slap mark on her cheek while the guys are lying on the ground behind her, having been beaten senseless. Since it's not really Marrybell's character, odds are Oldrin was the one who beat them.
