Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito 1 - Yokuryuu wa Maiorita

The latest installment of Code Geass, Boukoku no Akito
The score I've given is strictly for this 1st episode, as a standalone story

At the beginning of the movie, we were shown a rescue attempt by an unit which the protagonist Akito is in. The staffs are all European (as far as we know) but the pilots are all Japanese. Their Knightmare Frame is solely comprised of Alexander, a state of the art KF. In addition of full range of arsenals capable of either melee or long range battles, this KF also has feature to transform from quadrupedal to bipedal to allows mobility in all terrains. This ... amazing KF are entrusted to the hands of "lowly elevens" pilot, so it's safe to assume that they are quite competent or even elite pilots. But then the battle unfolded and somehow rather than fully utilizing their KF abilities, they preferred to suicide bombed themselves one after another. Just when we thought they would lose, the scene shifted to our protagonist Akito, he easily demolished several enemy squads all by himself with other worldly ninja and acrobatic skills.

Going any further would spoil the story, so let's begin scoring

- Art : 8
Supposed to be 9 if they didn't CG the KF

- Story : 2
There's nothing important going on (or explained) as far as the Geass universe considered. Plot inconsistencies are numerous. There's racism and discrimination against elevens for no apparent purposes (the enemy of my enemy is my ally logic doesn't work here). These elevens took refuge in a land some 10000 km away (awesome, how did they manage such travel) from their homeland just to receive the same treatments they got under Britania occupation, making it pointless.

- Sound : 6
It was okay

- Character : 2
One of the most important factor of Geass was the characters. Just throwing random characters and Knightmare Frame won't make it as good as Geass. At this moment I can only score it 2 for characters random behaviors.

- Enjoyment : 4
Honestly speaking, it was a waste of time. I suggest to watch it in batch when more episodes are released.

- Overall : 5
scores are subject to change when more episodes are released

"Trying to make sense of everything is an exercise in stupidity" - General Smilas, being completely right.

Code Geass returns after a few years with a spin-off, and the results are mostly disappointing. Trying desperately to stick to the successes of the original series, it simply is a weaker version in the every aspect.

-The story
Akito basically has everything code geass had: A tyraniccal nation (2 now), a bunch of terrorists, geass, racial shmuck and a bunch of teenagers changing a war. Sadly, it all seems forced. The EU, featured very little in the original series, has been revamped to look like a clone of britannia, with ... hardly any difference. Somehow, they're also completely racist, referring to the japanese as elevens, just as the britannians do, and lock them into compounds. Being an enemy of the empire, you'd imagine they would hail the japanese as allies, even if just to spite the britannians. The ploy of japanese soldiers fighting for the EU is fairly weak, as simply enlisting them into the army should work too, seeing as their homeland has been destroyed by Britannia. Then there's the issue of the age of the characters. This didn't make much more sense in the original, but at least a big part of the cast was not actually employed by an official government, or were there in the position due to polical heritage (kaguya and tianzi). There's many more issues, such as Napoleon being a revolutionary (he came right after) and the fact that a Britannian force decided to retreat at the moment there was only one remaining enemy unit standing. Utter stupidity seems to occur when the Britannians begin closely circling enemies which they know use self-destruct tactics.

-The characters
It really seems like they needed a Lelouch figure. Perhaps they were right, the fanbase is expecting it, but they really did make a character way too similar to him in Akito. Listing traits they share would make a long list, and the only great difference may be that Akito is a soldier, not a general. He seems to have inherited the same traits of perceived moral superiority that Lelouch has. The other characters are not very original either. Leila is probably the only Britannian born, Eleven leading, 17 year old luitenant commander you ever see in the EU army, and she's already established as a damsel in distress, due to her forced marriage. Speaking of her, what was up with the self-destructing Alexanders? She claimed that she should've removed Auno earlier, does that mean she could've prevented the (very effective) self-destruction? That would mean she didn't care too much about the pilots, but she later expresses regret about their deaths. All EU characters are either dumb or just plain evil, but we already knew the series would center on Japan and Britannia, regardless of the actual location, because Japanese entertainment only seems to acknowledge two countries as significant.

-The mecha
A small issue, but an important one: why do the alexander knightmares move faster than anything else in the entire original series? One of the strengths of CG season one was the viability of knightmares as tactical weapons, but these streetfighting robots just don't seem to fit into the universe's technology. While there's some resemblance to the lancelot, these are far more atlethic, aside from being mass-production units.

-Sound and art
Both are simply solid. The sound is consistent with the theme of the original series, but with a new flair. The art is mostly the same, but i personally don't enjoy the CG knightmares, but that's just a personal preference.

-Overall
It's just trying too hard to be similar to the original series, without offering anything new. We've seen all of it before, but with more depth. There's resemblances to the original series everywhere, but if the series will be able to offer anything new, we'll have to see.

Welp, I couldn't sit through the entire episode. The art is a step above Rebellion, which is to say that it's phenomenal, but that is really the only good thing I can say about this series so far. Akito is basically just Lelouch, Suzaku, and Gino combined into one character. I was bored from the start and just couldn't go on.

It's a pity because I love Code Geass, but I really have no interest in this series.

Don't be fooled by the title of this movie. While it says 'Code Geass' in there, after watching, I'm pretty sure it isn't Code Geass.

It sure looks a lot like Code Geass.
Britannia has conquered everything in it.
Japanese people are also called elevens in it.
There's machines that look like Gundams in it.
There's even hints that a certain dude has a geass.

But nope. It aint Code Geass.
For one thing, you don't see a single Code Geass character throughout the entire film. Just some chick with eggs in her hair, a dude that can do acrobatics better than a Gliscor holding a flying gem, and three other terrorist ... dudes. Man who are these dudes? They fricken suck! Give me the charismatic Lelouch and the head in his butthole Suzaku!
For another thing, the plot was entirely irrelevant to anything that happened in Code Geass. Who's this blue haired ninja fighting against? Why's he doing that? Why should I care?
"Didn't you watch the movie you idiot? You should know the answer to those things."
I'm sorry myself, but I still don't know. It took all my effort to just watch the whole movie.

The preview at the very end of the movie showed some images (maybe stock footage?) of a few characters I recognize, like Suzaku and CC. YO, YOU GUYS ARE LATE! YOU MISSED THE WHOLE MOVIE! A BUNCH OF EXTRAS HAD TO COVER FOR YA!

But hey, there were some cool fight scenes, and some suave sax was playing during one of them. There was another cool scene where a Knightmare popped out of his jack in the box and some sick bass started pumping. It was almost kind of as cool as the bass in Redline.

Besides that, it was pretty boring. It's not much fun watching a movie called Code Geass that has nothing to do with Code Geass. The whole thing was clearly just building up for the next episode, and who knows maybe the next part will be the best thing since internet porn, but man, this movie was balls. I actually liked the stupid Nunnally in Wonderland OVA more than this. o_0

Honestly, the biggest selling point for this is that it's from the "Code Geass" universe. You could slap that brand name on anything and people will go crazy for it. Code Geass was/is one of the best anime ever and has a huge following.

The main problem - this isn't Code Geass.

There isn't any of the original cast. The characters in CG were excellent. The dynamics between different characters, and the way Lelouch used the Geass. In CG there is a giant overarching plot - the giant world war happening. We are shown how certain characters react due to that conflict, and it's through ... them the story (CG anime) is told.

This episode focuses on the overarching story, and we're introduced to characters though that. For example, we're shown a story about a war EU vs Britania, and the 11's fighting as basically slave fighters. Though showing that war we are introduced to different characters. The opposite is true for CG. We're shown the characters, and learn more about the war through them.

When the fight scenes are going on there is some pretty impressive animation, but it's nothing amazing. Mechs fighting each other. Been seen a million times before. A lot of times I have no idea what mech is on what side, or what side is supposed to be the "good" guys, or why I should care who wins. What are the stakes? I don't care about any of the characters yet, I don't care if they die or not.

Several times during the first fight when Akito keeps saying die, they do close-ups of his eyes, and they turn kind of angry red, and you can't help but notice this main character looks almost just like LeLouch. I believe they were using these are tie ins to the original story which many people loved, and perhaps by leaving easter eggs from the original CG it will make people like this spin-off for those reasons alone, just like labeling this as "Code Geass: something-something something".

I wish there was a spoiler tag I could use because the last scene before the EV is worth writing about.

Overall this was mediocre. Nothing super special. If the later episodes turn things around some of these scores may rise, for example if there was brillant forshawdowing I missed, and causes me to re-watch episodes and say "I can't believe I didn't notice that"etc.

Unfortunately, for me at least, with a series like Code Geass which is one of my favorite animes, and people have beenwishing for something like an R3 - after all the wait, and all the hype, this just wasn't what I wanted.

This is a review for the whole series of OVAs and also my answer to those asking themselves if they should watch it as fans of Code Geass. This means no spoilers. (Disclaimer: I´m not a native English speaker, sorry if you see some grammatical mistakes)

The short answer to that burning question is: if you love CG for everything that is not mecha related, this shows it´s not for you, the appearance of OP characters can be easily missed and it has nothing of the brilliant strategies and reflections about justice, power, treason, etc... Also, very poor writing, far away from the original series.

Now, if ... you love mechas, this series it´s spot on. The animation is incredible, and the fighting scenes with the Knightmares are very well made. In this show, they removed most of the greatness of Lelouch and his machiavellian personality and strategies, but they compensated it with great action.

That said, I gave it a 5 overall because it carries "Code Geass" in the name, and as a CG spin-off, it´s not good. Also, all that the main series presented as lore regarding the Geass, seems to be thrown away. At least I couldn´t understand a lot of things in this series, they use the Geass as a justification to name this spin-off but it doesn´t make sense.
Very poor writing in that regard. That´s why my score for Story will be a 3. Nothing regarding Geass in this one makes sense, and not to mention that the villain is the more generic villain a story can have: the "I want to destroy the world just because" type. That´s just very poor and lazy writing.

In the end, I think I wasted my time watching it. Most of the reviews I found said the contrary, but besides the great action scenes, it´s a very mediocre story.

Review of the first movie.

The production values are good and of the same quality as Broken Blade. I wouldn’t call them amazing as the CGI still feels rough when combined with 2D. The action scenes are otherwise spectacular if you are fond of quick motions and stuff blowing up.

Akito is a 4 movie side story to Code Geass, chronologically taking place between the two seasons. It has some cameos from the characters of the main series but in all it can be considered a stand alone mission with its own cast.

The first movie is only the introduction to the setting and the characters. The European ... Union is fighting Britannia by using kamikaze Japanese pilots, one of which is an elite soldier and Geass user named Akito. The themes of the plot are very similar to the main series but focus a lot more on the war aspect and leave out all the rest of the school life and romance bullshit. I liked that; it feels a lot more focused this way and the duration wouldn’t allow a complicating script anyway. It deals heavily to the sacrifices that must be made for peace to return, and how many are willing to give up their very lives in order to achieve that. Themes regarding terrorism and honour are also present but are directly related with sacrifice and thus don’t feel as needless extra.

The biggest question is of course if this side story can work without the presence of Lelouch, who was the main attraction of the core series. The answer is no, if you liked the main story mostly for him. The new cast hardly feels as imposing or even important in the longrun, with very little time available for fleshing out. In fact, half the duration is technically wasted on action scenes that serve as nothing more than guilty pleasure with robot battles and stuff blowing up instead of investing time to get to know the characters better.

So the only way to like the side story is to be fond of its action and themes, and not so much of its character appeal, which is quite weak so far. You get an emo super soldier protagonist, ala Gundam Wing, some other youngsters who are fighting for revenge, and a bunch of military jerks who act like assholes and are ridiculed five minutes after they are introduced just to make the rest seem heroic. Too rough and dry characterization to appeal much. There is also a Britannian commander who seems to have the same Geass power as Lelouch, but I doubt he will manage to be much of an opposition. Hell, he already is at the point he orders people to just kill themselves and doesn’t use any (actual) mind games. In fact, there aren’t any field tactics or elaborate plans on sight in here. Not that there were that good in the main series but you were constantly made to thing there that the enemies were losing with something more than just raw power.

In all, it looks like a nice time waster but I don’t expect it to be anything great.