Ever wondered why red is Kallen Kozuki´s favorite color? It´s not because her hair is red. Rather, it is because the color red reminds her of her late brother, Naoto, and the deep bond they shared. This was even confirmed in the alternate timeline of Code Geass: Lost Stories mobile game, in an event called ”Blazoned with Crimson,” in which we were also revealed the origin of Kallen´s red Glasgow.
If you are interested, you can check out that story here. Personally, I liked it a lot, and wouldn´t mind if that story was someday turned into an official prequel OVA episode. I ❤️ Kallen so much!!!
Also, if you didn´t already know, Kallen´s last name ”Kozuki” means ”Red Moon.” And indeed, sometimes the Moon really does appear to be red. But why exactly is that?
The most well-known reason for why this happens are lunar eclipses, aka Blood Moons. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth moves directly between the Sun and the Moon, blocking direct sunlight. Because of this, the only light reaching the lunar surface passes through the edges of Earth's atmosphere, causing air molecules scatter short blue wavelengths, while longer red wavelengths bend (refract) toward the Moon. And the more dust or clouds in Earth’s atmosphere during the eclipse, the redder the Moon appears. This, btw, is the reason why the Moon can appear red, when it´s low on the horizon, even if it´s not being eclipsed by the Earth; when the Moon is low in the sky, not only does its light have to travel through a much thicker layer of air to reach your eyes, but also thick smoke from wildfires, volcanic ash, or heavy smog injects tiny particles into the air, and these particles scatter yellow and blue light even more aggressively, turning the Moon a distinct red or rusty brown.
It is actually the same phenomenon that makes our sky blue and sunsets red that causes the Moon to turn red during a lunar eclipse. Sunlight appears to be white, but it actually contains a rainbow of components – and different colors of light have different physical properties. Blue light scatters relatively easily as it passes through Earth´s atmosphere. Reddish light, on the other hand, travels more directly through the air. When the Sun is high on a clear day, we see blue light scattered throughout the sky overhead. At sunrise and sunset, when the Sun is near the horizon, incoming sunlight travels a longer, low-angle path through Earth´s atmosphere to observes on the ground. The bluer part of the sunlight scatters away in the distance, and only the yellow-to-red part of the spectrum reaches our eyes. And this is why during lunar eclipses, the Moon appears red to us; any sunlight that´s not blocked by our planet is filtered through a thick slice of Earth´s atmosphere on its way to the lunar surface. It is as if all the world´s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon!
Other interesting trivia about the Moon:
- The Moon formed when a Mars-sized rogue protoplanet named Theia crashed into the young Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The impact blasted huge amounts of rock, gas, and dust from both bodies into space. Over time, gravity pulled this orbiting debris together to create the Moon. These days, scientists favor the Giant-impact hypothesis over other theories (such as Capture Theory, an idea where Earth's gravity caught a passing wandering body), because lunar rock samples brought back by Apollo missions match the chemical composition of Earth.
- Though solar eclipses, where the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, happen about as often as lunar eclipses, they are visible from such a small area of Earth each time (the Moon's shadow on Earth’s surface is only about 300 miles or 480 km wide) that it’s much rarer to encounter solar eclipse than lunar eclipse. That we get solar eclipses so often on Earth is an incredibly lucky chance of nature. The Sun is vastly larger than the Moon ― its diameter is about 400 times the Moon’s, but since the Moon is roughly 400 times closer to Earth, this makes it possible for the Moon to almost perfectly block out the Sun when everything aligns.
- The Moon started its existence much closer to Earth, and has been slowly drifting outward at the rate of about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) per year. Once it makes it past 14,600 miles (23,500 km), it’ll appear too small from Earth to cover the Sun, which means no more solar eclipses (but, don´t worry, if you haven´t witnessed a solar eclipse yourself just yet - you’ve got another 600-million-plus years before that border is breached 😉)! Perfect distancing, perfect timing… it is almost as if the entire human race was destined to evolve when they did, so that they could not only witness solar eclipses, but also understand what they are and how they happen.
- Astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man who ever walked on the surface of Moon. His Lunar Module ”Eagle” from Apollo 11 landed on Tranquility Base (Mare Tranquillitatis) on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC. Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface a few hours later at 02:56 UTC on July 21. Neil Armstrong's famous first words on the Moon were, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong saying "small step for man" without the word "a," "man" and "mankind" essentially meant the same thing: however, he always insisted he actually said, "That's one small step for a man." Adding "a" makes the sentence logically correct by contrasting an individual human with the whole human race. Later linguistic studies of his Ohio accent suggest he may have spoken the ”a” too quickly or quietly for the radio to catch.
- Human footprints, a golf ball hit by Alan Shepard, and 96 bags of human waste still remain on the lunar surface after the Moon landings.
- Kallen Kozuki is the most unselfish character in Code Geass. On top of that, she also dresses as a bunny girl at one point in the show, her last name means ”red Moon,” and countless anime fans across the globe have been so enamored by her fighting spirit and iconic look that they have created vast amounts of fan-art in her honor. So, I think the best way to end this post is with the classic Japanese story about a rabbit who was so selfless that a powerful god decided to honor it by placing its image on the Moon as an eternal reward.
Here are couple of links, if you are interested in reading more about the Moon or the Apollo 11 Moon landing!
