Never throw a surprise party for a Code: Breaker. What They Say:
Toki has a breakfast meeting with the Prime Minister. On their way to school, Sakura and Ogami run into Rui Hachioji, who has a message for Ogami. Sakura urges Ogami to open up and befriend the others in their class, but the class has a surprise of its own.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With five episodes now behind us, Code: Breaker continues to have an unusual feel to it. I liked the introduction of Toki in the last couple of episodes with the kind of attitude he brings to the table as well as some of the revelations that help to flesh out the show. He also has some good banter when it comes to Sakura, and as we see here, has access to some places of power. But the series still feels like it’s missing something that really brings it all together to a coherent work. Sakura and Ogami are still the leads but their relationship is really tenuous at best and there seems to be little driving Ogami outside of the missions he takes on seemingly at random.
This episodes starts off with some interesting little teases, one with Toki dealing with the places of government power while Ogami is just walking to school with Sakura, only to be stopped by Rui with some nods towards orders from Eden. The show wants to give these touches of what’s out there with these young men, but only because it wants to focus more on the school side of the show. With Sakura, she’s intent on getting Ogami to be more a part of the school life and that of their fellow students, but he has the basic idea that if it doesn’t contribute to his mission, it has nothing to offer him. Of course, with her working up a plan of her own, there’s the suspicion on his part that she may be revealing the truth to some of the students in order to make him feel more at ease, which it certainly won’t.
Not surprisingly, the whole thing is a lot simpler than that, but the reveal of a welcome party just makes it clear that Ogami is quite certain about not connecting with anyone. Thankfully, this doesn’t really dominate and instead turns to a Code: Breaker problem that comes in when an attack happens and he has to get involved in a very physical manner. But because he has tried to stay away from the others in the class, it still gets to him on some level and we see just how much he puts himself into a situation and goes as far as he possibly can in order to deal with his enemies. Amusingly, he’s not alone though as a little fiery redheaded help comes into the mix with the introduction of Yuki, another Code: Breaker that’s there in the nick of time to deal with Heike and what he’s up to.
In Summary:
Code: Breaker still feels like it’s missing some important connective tissue to make it an engaging series, but it’s hitting some good marks here. With the show bringing in some new characters, expanding what the Code: Breakers can do and making it clearer who the villain will be, it starts tightening up in a way that I wish it had done earlier. We do get some nice little bit of school drama that doe sin the end really make it clear what kind of person Ogami is an dhow hard it is for Sakura to really understand and accept it. But it also has things become clearer for her about what Ogami is really like and how far he’ll go to do what he needs to, something that she can certainly be impressed by. While the show still isn’t winning me over in a big way with the story, it feels like it’s coming together just a little bit better here but with some twists still yet to come.
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.
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