Code;Breaker is based on a manga by Kamijyo Akimine, who also originally wrote Samurai Deeper Kyo, and the anime is directed by Irie Yasuhiro, who also directed Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It tells the tale of an ordinary high school student, Sakurakouji Sakura. One day however, while riding a bus, she sees a man burn several people with blue flames, but when she goes tot he scene of the crime, there are no ashes. The next day the man has became a transfer student at her high school, and Sakura learns he is a Code;Breaker, who seems to be a group of people with special powers who work for the government. Sakura makes it her goal to stop this man from killing, no matter how much stalking it takes. The man himself is interested in Sakura as for some reason his flames won't burn her...
The sad thing is, Code;Breaker could've been a good show. I man, we have just about the same exact theme as Death Note, (is it okay to kill criminals?) an rather decent anime. However, Death Note never got preachy, it allowed you to form your own thoughts on the theme instead of running around having the lead saying, “don't kill, killing is bad” over and over again. There's also some really pointless school scenes that fail in every way. I mean, chances are they're for comic relief, but they are not used very well at all. It just seems out of place in such a dark shonen anime. They're also very annoying as you see, Sakura's friend believes that Sakura likes Ogami as, well, she stalks him more or less, and Sakura, who doesn't seem to like Ogami, does nothing at all to deny this, just brushing it off. They're just not very funny and are not used well.
Another thing is just how damn unambitious this show is. First, this is one of those shows where most of the side characters seem interesting, but the main leads are hopelessly dull. Our male lead is little more than a badass, and Sakura- They try for her, but her going around yelling at everyone why killing is bad gets old fast. Also, there are interesting powers in this show, such as controlling sound waves, controlling metal, and light, which we don't see much... So they of course give the lead the power to control flames and the main antagonist the ability to control electricity, two stock superpowers. The of course the leads also have these dark and troubled past hinted throughout. And there's of course a shady secret organization. Another thing is the power distribution makes no sense. In the final fight, guy gets totally surrounded in flames... And yet is still in not-half bad shape afterwards. And even if Code;Breakers are more resistant to powers, the clothes aren't even burnt off.
The characters are a mixed bag. At first glance Sakura seems strong, but she falls under the damsel in distress role too many times in this series, not to mention the fact she stalks Ogami to try to get him to stop killing people. Ogami's got your classic generic badass personality like I already mentioned, but the others Code;Breakers are typically better. Yuuki was my favorite by far. He has a strange obsession with cats and a very relaxed personality. Heike was also pretty good, he has a mysterious over-the-top personality. Prince, who despite her name I believe is a girl, acts very boyish. Toki, who has sort of the rival personality, is annoying in the comedy scenes but okay in the drama parts. The big bad isn't nothing spectacular either, he's just a bit cliché for my taste.
The music was rather decent, with a rather epic and very catchy opening song, and the ending isn't that bad either, just a little more generic sounding. The animation does his job I suppose, though some of the character designs do look a little weird, mainly Sakura's.
The show did end obviously with a sequel hook, but it didn't sell very well so that sequel probably won't come, and boy does that hurt the show. Only the arc is ended well, for the main storyline, almost nothing is concluded. In the end, Code;Breaker is well, just another shonen action anime. Sure some of the supporting cast is interesting, but the main cast is not very good. If you're a fan of shonen action anime and are running out of ones to watch, then give it a whirl. I can't recommend this to anyone else though.
