Anime TL;DR
Review
Code Geass OVA Series (2012): Akito the Exiled
コードギアス 亡国のアキト (Kōdo Giasu: Bōkoku no Akito)
Combat/Action
Music
Visual
Character design
Character development
Dialog
Plot
The animation for Code Geass: Akito the Exiled is beautiful and the combat scene is fluid and fun to watch, if not realistic. These Knightmares seem to have physic defying module upgrade, but I guess we don’t watch anime for realism.
Both the ending themes were sung by Maaya Sakamoto. The first opening is “More Than Words” and the second is “Arco” (アルコ). I like “More Than Words” but “Arco” is a bit bland and by the number. Now that we got the positives out of the way, let get into the negatives.
Akito the Exiled make me question whether the entire Code Geass series was actually good, or did I look at it from rose-tinted glasses? These characters were given vague backstory just to show how tragic their lives are. These backstory doesn’t help us understand their motivation in any way, as most characters seem to flip allegiance readily because the story needs them to.
A large portion of the OVA is a slow boring dialog to get us invested in these characters. It’s hard to be invested when we can not understand why they do what they do because the story dictates them to act a certain way. Take for example the European Union is fighting against Britania, but for some reason, the EU treat Japanese the same exact way Britania does. They all refer to them as “Eleven” and treat them with disdain. Why? It’s because the story needs to make us more sympathetic toward these characters as they are Japanese.
The OVA seems to take place during the one year gap between R1 and R2. This entire OVA could very well be just a filler story arc. Despite we seeing some cameo, this OVA doesn’t bring anything to the Code Geass series.
I will only recommend this OVA to Code Geass fan, and even then you may want to turn off your brain. Code Geass contains graphic violence and some suggestive themes/dialogs. Intended for young adults.
The sequel tells of Suō Pavlichenko, a Eurasian girl whose life is changed by a frightful incident regarding a meteor shower, and her subsequent encounter with the assassin Hei, who is still on the run from the Syndicate two years after the events in the previous season.
In an effort to learn more about the metallic aliens that have been plaguing the planet for the past years, Dr. Noguchi and his assistant Maki Agata try to bring to life a construct pieced together from the destroyed aliens. They recruit Takuto Kaneshiro, Maki’s boyfriend, into this project because of his talent for metallurgy. However, in the process of reviving the monster called Frank (short for Frankenstein’s monster), unidentified soldiers cut the power, leading to a power surge which violently brings Frank to life and causes an explosion that kills everyone, including Dr. Noguchi and Maki except Takuto.
“Mr. X” visits the scarred Takuto in the hospital, and offers him a chance to get his vengeance on the monster he blames for killing Maki. Months later Lt. Ryu Soma is reborn from the ashes of Takuto’s soul, as a military pilot who joins FUNERAL, an organization which deals with the attacking aliens and has also recaptured Frank. It quickly becomes clear that Frank has become the best weapon FUNERAL has to defend against the aliens, which leaves Ryu torn between revenge and the desire to protect his comrades. Further complicating the picture, the only person who can communicate with Frank is a young girl named Hattie (Harriet), who bears a striking resemblance to Ryu/Takuto’s lost love Maki. As it becomes apparent that Frank is more than a simple monster, Ryu and his FUNERAL comrades have to come to terms with questions of human identity, grief, and loss.
The series is set in a world with an alternate history, where magic exists and has been polished through modern technology. However, the ability to use magic is determined by genetics, limiting the number of magicians in existence. Following the Third World War, the world’s superpowers shifted to these four nations: The United States of North America (USNA), New Soviet Union, the Great Asian Alliance, and Japan. In Japan, the magic community is informally governed by the ten master clans in lieu of the government. Due to the limited number of magicians, they are treated as a commodity and are forced to enter magic related schools and professions. Nine magic high schools exist in Japan; they each specialize in different aspects of magic and are simply referred to by their numbers.
The story follows Tatsuya Shiba, a bodyguard to his sister Miyuki Shiba who is also a candidate to succeed in the leadership of the Yotsuba clan, one of the Ten Master Clans that govern Japan’s magicians. They enroll at First High School which segregates its students based on their magical abilities. Miyuki is enrolled as a first-course student and is viewed as one of the best students, while Tatsuya is in the second course and considered to be magically inept. However, Tatsuya’s technical knowledge, combat abilities, and unique magic techniques cause people to view him as irregular to the school’s standardized rankings.
Featured Music
A collection of notable music and song from this series.
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