Code:Breaker

Although cheerful and delicate, Sakura Sakurakouji is a skilled martial artist with a sense of fairness that never falters—no matter the situation. Upon witnessing people burning in blue flames while on a bus ride home, she calls the police to bring their murderer to justice only to find that no evidence remains. However, all her doubts about what she saw vanish when the next day, the new transfer student Rei Oogami joins her class; he is the very boy she watched commit murder in cold blood.

Rei is kind, sweet, and quickly becomes popular, contradicting Sakura's accusations. Soon enough, she learns his true nature: a Code Breaker, or "one who does not exist." To Sakura's shock, Rei—armed with mysterious powers—seeks to exact justice according to the principle of "an eye for an eye." Determined to bring Rei to the right path, Sakura keeps close to him in the hopes of redeeming him from his ways before others are hurt.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Code:Breaker
Side story:	Code:Breaker OVA

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Characters & Voice Actors

Oogami, Rei

Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Sakurakouji, Sakura

Main

Hikasa, Youko
Japanese

Tenpouin, Yuuki

Supporting

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki
Japanese

Fujiwara, Toki

Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi
Japanese

Hitomi

Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro
Japanese

Heike, Masaomi

Supporting

Kimura, Subaru
Japanese

Hachiouji, Rui

Supporting

Saiga, Mitsuki
Japanese

Nyanmaru

Supporting

Itou, Kanae
Japanese

Yukihina

Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou
Japanese

Sagashimono

Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke
Japanese

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Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Tateishi, Kensuke

Producer

Irie, Yasuhiro

Director

Wakabayashi, Kazuhiro

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"DARK SHAME" by GRANRODEO

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Ending Theme

"Shiroi Karasu (シロイカラス)" by Kenichi Suzumura

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Reviews

Jan 6, 2013

Toucanbird

Mixed Feelings

Adaptation:Breaker

Talk about a poor adaptation. After reading some of the manga, I was anticipating what this series could do when moved to the big stage aka. adapted into an anime. Not only does this series fail as an adaptation, but it fails as a stand-alone anime series. There were so many failures with this series that I don't even know where to begin. I guess let's start with the plot.

The plot itself is at least interesting. A select group of agents within the government, unbeknown to mankind with special abilities are hired to eliminate evil. This story follows one such agent who is assigned to ... protect a "rare breed", someone who has the ability to nullify special abilities. In my opinion, it's a decent plot...but the story's progression was weak and stereotypical. As the story progressed, it made for the reveal and story behind Hitomi seem underplayed. That's where the characters come in and it's probably the biggest weakness of this series.

Sakura Sakurakouji is quite possibly the worst lead character I've ever seen...at the very least the worst in a shonen series. While it's understandable that she has a strong sense of justice, she takes it to a downright ridiculously stupid degree. Her beliefs and her actions are so boneheaded that I groaned at least once in every episode where she said or did something. While yes, I'm aware her righteous actions in the manga are a little over the top, the anime blew it FAR out of proportion. At least for the most part Rei Ogami stayed in character...sort of. While most of the other characters did stay in character, I found how they re-worked the introduction of these characters apart from the manga to be underwhelming. As I mentioned before, that brings forth the antagonist, Hitomi. His story seemed so stereotypical that he was just a boring villain.

The scriptwriting was some of the most lackluster I had EVER seen in an anime. In fact, I'll just come out and say that this might be some of the worst script work I have EVER seen in an anime. It's amazing that this is the work of Yasuhiro Irie because I applauded his efforts with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The only thing I can guess is perhaps Irie bit off more than he could chew with this project. He was handling the direction, the series composition, the script writing, and the storyboard. He's not an experienced script writer and it showed in this series. This series reeked of under-staffing and Kinema Citrus should be ashamed that they didn't put in a better effort when it came to staffing.

My biggest complaint with this series is I think it strayed way too far from the manga. The manga did a stronger job of executing character development, comedy writing, and dramatic tension. The small nuances and stories that Kinema Citrus decided to cut out from the manga slightly ruined the bonding the characters had in this series. While I know Kinema Citrus isn't exactly the biggest or strongest production company on the market, I think their handling of the Code:Breaker series was far too ambitious for them. Code:Breaker is a long-running manga series. It's the sort of series that needs to be tackled by a production company that can put out episodes on a weekly basis like Studio Perriot (and that's not a compliment of Studio Perriot's work). Trying to condense Code:Breaker's plot into a 12 episode season just isn't possible without ruining the story and characters in any way, shape, or form. The animation and music was nothing special. Nothing about it was really all that memorable, although I did like the OP and ED. I didn't love them or found them captivating, but they were catchy enough for me to like.

Overall, it's just a really poor adaptation. I'm not usually one who rips an anime for straying from it's predecessor but the problem is Code:Breaker did nothing for me as a stand-alone series to separate it from it's manga counterpart. Even looking at it from just an anime viewer's POV, it's a bland, boring, predictable, and stereotypical. It doesn't do anything to stand out, as an anime or an adaptation. If you're a fan of the Code:Breaker manga, I don't recommend watching this. If you do watch this anime and do like certain elements behind it, I would recommend giving the manga a chance. It's an entertaining read and was far better than this.

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Dec 22, 2012

Stark700

Mixed Feelings

What is evil?

It can be describe as something wicked, malevolent, sinister, ill, or something which holds responsibility for the bad things that happen in this world. It's a four letter word that strikes fear, anxiety, and many other emotions. In the real world, people commit deeds through free will. Some of these are good deeds, while others are evil. In the Code Breaker world, there exists supernatural beings who are able to judge deeds (good/evil) and carry out justice with an iron fist.

Rei Ogami: “An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth, and Evil for Evil”

Welcome to the world of ... Code:Breaker.

The series is written by Akimine Kamijyo based off the manga of the same name who is also known for her previous work, Samurai Deeper Kyo. It all begins one day when Sakura, a local high school student, witnesses some blue flames like she's never ever seen before. Likewise, from there on and out, her life is changed forever.

The hero or maybe better seen as the anti-hero of Code:Breaker is Rei Ogami. He is the local bad boy with a tough attitude who does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants as long as it gets the job done. In his mind, there is no justice for evil and as he quotes one more time, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and evil for evil”. He expresses a darker side of "justice" similar to those more like a vengeance hero rather than some ally of justice like we see in pop culture.

Code:Breaker doesn't avoid most of the cliches we see in most of today's themes. The common gag of 'boy meets girl' is employed but it doesn't just end there. Sakura Sakurakouji is portrayed as a school beauty and idol that is admirable by many of the students. Then, there's the mysterious transfer student Rei Ogami. Things like this is very common for anime viewers to see these days in the industry. To add on to this topping of cliches, there's an assumption that the two have a “thing” going on by nearly everyone at the entire school. They misunderstand their relationship and often misinterprets it as if the duo are dating.

From there on and out, the two seems to have a strained relationship. In every way, Sakura tries to explain Ogami that killing others is “wrong” because it's the wrong thing to do. She strives to get her ideologies to Ogami in order to convince him to be a good hero and do the right thing. However, her words are often deaf to his ears as Ogami kills to protect others, at least in his point of view. At times, Ogami even expresses himself as evil and that in this world, in order to save lives, sacrifices are needed. He presents himself as not a hero in this case but rather as someone who is trying to do what he believes is “right”. The question here remains though:

Would you kill to protect someone you care about?

The characterization of the other characters from the series is explored to a lesser degree although a few of them does stand out in particular of those associated with the Code:Breaker organization. Most if all of the Code Breakers has their own standard code of conduct (or rather their signature Code of Hammurabi) and coupled with them some supernatural abilities that makes them fearful of others. In fact, Code Breaker itself has become a term of both fear and hatred.

The Code Breakers themselves all have different personalities as well. Some are fun to watch such as the playful Yuuki Tenpouin while others are more straightforward and serious such as Rui Hachiouji. The most mysterious of the bunch are Masaomi Heike and Hitomi, two individuals who are very difficult to read. In fact, throughout the series they seem to be playing mind games with the other characters in particular Ogami. In the world of evil, there is injustice but in their eyes, they seem to represent evil themselves.

Luckily for the ladies, this series presents some good bishonen sketch work. The characters' designs all possesses a sense of style by the way they dress, act, and presenting their ideas not through words but by their actions. Most of the time, they engage in what they do best and that's to deliver “justice” to evil. At other times, they seem to be chilling around like ordinary people despite their feared status.

The series' theme itself also becomes a sense of philosophy. What exactly is evil and how it is defined? More importantly, how do we take actions against it? These questions often become ambiguous and may never have a direct answer. Nonetheless, the blue flame executed by Ogami seems to serve itself as a metaphor in which criminals are terminated by being burned to actions. Similar to how an individual goes to hell for wrong deeds, the flame itself manifests as a tool to destroy those who are evil, or at least those who are considered so under the eyes of the Code Breakers.

In the artwork department, everything seems quite generic. Most if not all the characters have the same design with different colored hair styles to match their themes. While pleasing to the female audience, it can become a bothersome after seeing it so many times. The backgrounds itself is just normal with nothing that really stand out as the setting is set in present time rather than a futuristic dystopia.

The soundtracks of the series is presented with mixed rhythms shifting from comedic, to action, to violence, and to mystery. The opening song, "DARK SHAME" by GRANRODEO has a rock beat and orchestrated with a montage of the main characters. From the song, a viewer can see some of the potential action and even foreshadowing of some events. It doesn't stop there though as it shows some of the violence in various scenes that are mostly presented by Ogami and his blue flames. As cliched as it sounds, the song does work effectively so no shame there.

Ultimately, Code:Breaker is a package of an action series that deals with the world of evil. It is cliched at many times especially with whole 'girl meets boy on a mysterious night' setting, the school life drama, the shounen like battles, and secret organizations. The drama and comedy also seems to be a bit forced as often times or not, they occur out of nowhere and tries to bring the audience a good laugh. It works sometimes but at other times just seems awkward. The series is just slightly above mediocre with the good premise and ideas but still contains too many overused tropes. However, if you're looking for some action packed thriller sequences with dark heroes, then C:B might be for you.

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May 15, 2013

tsuyo_sama

Mixed Feelings

[Spoiler Warning]

NOTE: This is my first review at MAL, so please bear with me. Also, I haven’t read the manga AT ALL, and I don’t know if the manga’s story is similar to the anime’s. Consider this as a point of view of someone who just watched the anime. There are some spoilers along the way to explain my point in the review, so read at your own risk. :)

I remembered watching the first few episodes of Code:Breaker (together with a few more anime) when it was still being aired last year. I got curious since I thought, “Hey another super power-themed shonen anime! Cool!” ... After watching those few episodes, I stopped watching it and simply waited for the series to finish since I got tired of waiting for a new episode, which was released weekly.

While watching the last episodes of Code:Breaker, I got disappointed to this anime due to various reasons, but mainly I got disappointed because of the plot. Well, it started good, but how the series ended is just bland and generic. Perhaps most of us (if not all of us) have seen a story with a character betraying the good guys, working for the bad guy, and then in the end, betraying that bad guy and saying that he has been in league with the good guys all along. Well, we have that kind of cliché here. How about the Big Bad showing up after the bad guy gets defeated? We also have it here. The great presentation made at the start of the story was wasted by how they ended this series, which is cliché-filled, and done in a bad way at that.

Another thing here is the characterization of, well, the characters, which doesn’t seem real and human enough for me, and it shows more as the series progresses. Come on, someone who really IS evil doesn’t say he’s evil; rather, he would say that he’s the hero of justice (or something like that). Besides that, there are also some dialogues in this anime that I find weird and/or just simply wrong. And being an adaptation of a manga, the series’ ending is rather inconclusive, since 1) the manga is not yet finished and, 2) the adaptation is only 13 episodes long, which is very short. What I find wrong about its ending is that it never left me wanting for more.

With that said, the anime isn’t all bad points and no good points at all. Just as I said earlier, the way the story was presented in the beginning was great, with a certain number of people with superpowers (called Code:Breakers) are working for the government to eliminate (i.e.; kill) people that the government sees as evil. The character designs are also great, although the design for the Code:Breakers have varying touches of bishounen-ness in them.

So if you’re looking for a groundbreaking new anime, this certainly is NOT it. Maybe if you haven’t watched a lot of superpower-themed anime, you might enjoy this. Just “might”, though.

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