The Real Reason Everyone In Code Geass Loves Pizza

"Code Geass" tells the story of two friends on different sides of a colonialist conflict. Lelouch Lamperouge is the exiled prince of the Britannian Empire, who joins the freedom fighters seeking to free Japan from Britannian control. He is given a superpower, the "Geass" of the title that allows him to give people unbreakable commands. Suzaku Kururugi is a Japanese national who joined the Britannian army to change it from within. Both young men want to see an end to hostilities, and they're also fighting for "the wrong side" if you go by birth. Fans love "Code Geass" for its thorny moral relativism, but they're also obsessed with its food choices. 

"Code Geass" is set in an alternate earth where England won the Revolutionary War but lost the Napoleonic Wars. Having lost the motherland, a fictional Queen Elizabeth started a new Britannian Empire in the Americas. There was no World War II, no Victorian Egyptomania. And yet, somehow, Pizza Hut is exactly the same? Pizza as we know it today only happened because explorers brought the new world fruit to Italy. Then the food came back to the Americas, where it really took off in the Italian diaspora. But there was no Italian diaspora in "Code Geass."  

But it is still the favorite food of our freedom-fighting heroes. The show is famous for its constant use of Pizza Hut. It's almost the only food CC (the mysterious woman who gives Lelouch the power of Geass) eats. In a show about alternate history mechs fighting their version of WWII, the biggest reality-breaking question left hanging is: what's up with all the Pizza Hut?

Pizza is the favorite food of Ashford Academy because Pizza Hut Japan was a sponsor of "Code Geass." Anime cross-promotion is a very common tactic for Pizza Hut Japan, according to YouTuber Red Bard, who documented some of the crazier campaigns.

The first anime Pizza Hut sponsored was "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence," and they were given special thanks in the credits along with KFC. The Hut has done promotions with "Fullmetal Alchemist," "Attack on Titan," and yes, "Code Geass." It has become fandom lore that Pizza Hut only paid for 3-4 logos in the show. But the animators thought it would be funny to include it everywhere, all the time. And thus a meme was born.

Pizza Hut Japan has diverged wildly from its American parent company. They offer shrimp, mayonnaise, and chili threads as toppings, and even pigs in a blanket crust.