What They Say:
Heike is astounded by the full extent of his Ogami’s capabilities, as Ogami and Hitomi engage in a final showdown. Hitomi reveals why he had no choice but to carry out his plan, and swears vengeance against the Prime Minister. Sakura says her goodbyes.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the action picking up fairly well overall, events have come to that head that you’d expect for a season finale for a series. The events are all in place as you have surprise arrivals, Toki putting the Prime Minister in a tight pinch and Ogami and Sakura dealing with Hitomi himself. The show ramped up the action a fair bit before and that worked in its favor but it all has to come down to what you’d expect with Ogami and Hitomi. The two haven’t exactly circled each other all that much for the season, but it got serious rather quickly when Hitomi entered the picture a few episodes ago and it’s all coming to a head now.
Of course, as Ogami seems to ramp his abilities up a fair bit and actually comes across as rather intense and almost evil with the way he looks, he at least has an audience for it, which has Heike doing his best to stop Hitomi from going too far and Sakura worried about what Ogami will become if he really takes to all of this power. It’s brutal early on when the two go at it, after the playfulness that we initially see, and it’s the kind of moment that you feel could and should really change a person. Ogami’s use of his power in such a simple, controlled and calculated way definitely says a lot about him, but it’s also the kind of character we saw at the start of the series. While Sakura has had some impact on him, I rather prefer that it didn’t soften him so much that he can’t do what’s needed.
What’s interesting is that after that short, tight and critical fight, there’s a real rally around Hitomi by the other Code: Breakers that’s somewhat of a surprise. With the group having had divisions after what happened to him, it’s rather refreshing to see those that fought against him come to his side after all is said and done. It paints the group as tighter than has been presented, which is unfortunate since adding more of this kind of material elsewhere in the show may have made the whole situation even more engaging to watch. There’s some minor interesting twists as it progresses, especially once the Prime Minster gets involved, but it all feels anti-climactic in a way and almost too much reverence given to Hitomi the further it unfolds. Still, it brings an interesting epilogue of sorts for the show at this point and this arc, far more talkative than you’d guess. At least until some sharp moves come into play to set things “right”.
In Summary:
The end of Code: Breaker is an interesting piece overall, but mostly because it does the epilogue piece within it in a big way, taking up about half of the show. With this episode having aired just after episode twelve, I can imagine that it flowed a lot differently and likely worked a bit better. The fight comes across as a bit anti-climactic in some ways but it also sets the stage for what can come (in the manga). Removing Ogami for a good part of the second half doesn’t help too much either, but it does allow for others like Toki and Sakura to have some good bits brought into play and focuses on Sakura more. Which is useful since the series is largely told through her eyes, so giving her the closing bit for it and a renewed sense of what it is that Sakura wants to do going forward. Code: Breaker is a series that I still think has a lot of potential, but the flaws in what the original author does are simply adapted here rather than smoothed out and made better.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
