Title: Code Breaker Studio: Kinema Citrus Genre: Action/School Life/Comedy/Supernatural/Romance Release: Oct. 6
Premise: Riding the bus one day, Sakura Sakurakouji looks out the window to see people being burned alive with a blue fire as a boy her age remains unharmed and stands over the people. When she goes back to the site the next day, there are no corpses or evidence of any kind of murder, just a small fire. When Sakura goes to class, she discovers the new transfer student is the same boy she saw the day before. Sakura soon learns that he is Rei Ogami, the sixth "Code: Breaker," a special type of assassin with a strange ability and a member of a secret organization that serves the government
Initial Thoughts: I'm going into this one completely green. It wasn't on my radar before I stumbled across it today and I'm not really familiar with any of the names working on the project. The studio, Kinema Citrus, is pretty new in the industry, but it appears they've done some solid work on Hanasaku Iroha and the OVA adaptation of Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki. I have a week spot for shows with lots of characters with special abilities (My favorite Marvel films are X-Men and The Avengers), so this will have to be really poorly executed for me to drop it. Let's see how Kinema Citrus does...
Post-Credits Verdict: This was a mixed bag overall. The animation is smooth and not too flashy, and the few sequences that did show Ogami's abilities gave the viewer a sense of his power. But therein lies the rub: if Ogami is so powerful, then why the hell do I care about Sakura now? I could feel the wariness creep into the back of my mind during the opening credits. One by one the super-powered characters were introduced, and they all had two things in common: A) they were super- talented and B) super-male. This was going to be yet another show about a helpless but well-meaning heroine and her harem of big, strong men who must come in to save the day.
I had some hope throughout the episode. In one scene Sakura is shown to be a more than competent martial artist, making short work of the male students in her aikido dojo. But when she decides to face down a gang of armed thugs in the episode's climax, it isn't long before she is down, out, and ever so thankful when Ogami shows up and starts smoking people with his flaming fist of fiery death.
Is it pretty to watch? Yes. Is there a sense of mystery and intrigue? Most definitely. But if you want a strong, badass, Major Motoko Kusanagi-type of female lead, look elsewhere.
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