Code:Breaker(コード: ブレイカー ) Japanese Anime Thoughts

    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!! I might be a day or so late(depending on when you see this post.) but its the action that counts. Holidays like this always seem to come and go so fast. All of it seems like a blur to me. I went shopping and traveled to see my family. Then I opened gifts and traveled some more. Everyday is Christmas honestly. The only difference is people have an excuse to go out and spend ridiculous amounts of money on presents that may or may not be forgotten about in the future. I gravely hope that people who received gifts are thankful and the ones that didn't are thankful to see another day with their health. Many people in this world don't get the chance. Alright, long opening aside, I also finished up a new anime called Code:Breaker.

  Student Sakura, witnesses a boy burning a group of gangsters to ash using blue flames one night while riding the bus home from school. She tries to stop the boy with no luck. She then wakes up the next morning shrugging the whole situation off as a dream only to get to school and find that the mysterious boy is a new student in her class. Sakura later discovers that the boy's name is Rei and he works for the Japanese government as a Code:Breaker.

  Based off a 26 volume manga and compressed into a 13 episodes anime, Code:Breaker was created by Kamijyo Akimine. The manga never made its way stateside as far as I know so the chance for me to read it will more than likely not come. I saw the trailer for the anime a few times while waiting to watch other anime and my reaction was always, "I want to see this anime!". I got the chance after finding the DVD/Blu-ray pack for under $40.

  I never knew anything about this series and went into watching not expecting anything. My eyes just watched the first episode unfold quickly. As you can imagine, The story this anime is based off of is quite long so there was not time to beat around the bush. The first episode jumps into things and keeps one sailing to the next episode. Second episode slows down a little bit only to establish a firm ground of characters and character personality. I'm not sure why I thought Code:Breaker would be dealing with problems outside of themselves but the plot stayed stagnate after awhile. I started to notice that the story shifted to more emotional feelings in the two male and lead characters than anything else. This makes for a good anime if the two were to be in some kind of relationship however, that was kind of hard due to the circumstances of their meeting. More than one Code:Breaker exists making the anime more interesting while you try to figure out where these people with powers to control the elements came from. Well, you know they work for the government but how did they come into being? A big portion of the plot also deals with the idea of what is right and what is wrong. Can you continue to be right even if your becoming a killer to kill the people that have murdered others? Where do you draw the line?

   Each time Rei does an assignation job for the government, Sakura raises this argument toward Rei. The situation is kind of like watching two people debate each other over the value of life. Sakura has a very passionate heart and I believe all viewers understand her fight to make sure none gets hurt. She still becomes overbearing after awhile. When people are going around hurting others and wont stop unless someone kills them then thats a whole new situation altogether. I also never believed for a second that Rei was a cold hearted as he tried to come off as. He was doing what he has been taught to do most of his life. A kind of social avenger that gets rid of the trash(gangs, drug dealers, etc.) that pollutes all societies. Each personality of the other Code:Breakers were either weird or just unlikeable from the start. I did enjoy experiencing their different abilities and trying to figure out what they were.

  My pros for this anime was that it went by pretty fast. Do you know those animes you watch where you don't feel any particular emotion? I feel this way about Code:Breaker. The effects for the Code:breaker's abilities sequences are eye candy. Producers used a mixture of digital computer effects and drawing to give the finished product a strong punch. One of the big reasons episode 12 was the best episode out of the whole anime. Most of the action happens there and its pretty awesome to watch the characters go all out. Cons are defiantly an unlikable cast. Writers tried to make the characters have complexed emotions that didn't resonate well with me. I understood the reasons behind each character's actions by the anime's conclusion but things seems more forced than occurring naturally to me. Great looking anime overall though.

  Code:Breaker isn't the first on my list of recommendations. Watch it if you want to. Skip it if your not interested. Now I want to check out the manga version...