Although cheerful and delicate, Sakura Sakurakouji is a skilled martial artist with a sense of fairness that never falters—no matter the situation. Upon witnessing people burning in blue flames while on a bus ride home, she calls the police to bring their murderer to justice only to find that no evidence remains. However, all her doubts about what she saw vanish when the next day, the new transfer student Rei Oogami joins her class; he is the very boy she watched commit murder in cold blood.
Rei is kind, sweet, and quickly becomes popular, contradicting Sakura's accusations. Soon enough, she learns his true nature: a Code Breaker, or "one who does not exist." To Sakura's shock, Rei—armed with mysterious powers—seeks to exact justice according to the principle of "an eye for an eye." Determined to bring Rei to the right path, Sakura keeps close to him in the hopes of redeeming him from his ways before others are hurt.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Toucanbird
Adaptation:Breaker Talk about a poor adaptation. After reading some of the manga, I was anticipating what this series could do when moved to the big stage aka. adapted into an anime. Not only does this series fail as an adaptation, but it fails as a stand-alone anime series. There were so many failures with this series that I don't even know where to begin. I guess let's start with the plot. The plot itself is at least interesting. A select group of agents within the government, unbeknown to mankind with special abilities are hired to eliminate evil. This story follows one such agent who is assigned toprotect a "rare breed", someone who has the ability to nullify special abilities. In my opinion, it's a decent plot...but the story's progression was weak and stereotypical. As the story progressed, it made for the reveal and story behind Hitomi seem underplayed. That's where the characters come in and it's probably the biggest weakness of this series.
Sakura Sakurakouji is quite possibly the worst lead character I've ever seen...at the very least the worst in a shonen series. While it's understandable that she has a strong sense of justice, she takes it to a downright ridiculously stupid degree. Her beliefs and her actions are so boneheaded that I groaned at least once in every episode where she said or did something. While yes, I'm aware her righteous actions in the manga are a little over the top, the anime blew it FAR out of proportion. At least for the most part Rei Ogami stayed in character...sort of. While most of the other characters did stay in character, I found how they re-worked the introduction of these characters apart from the manga to be underwhelming. As I mentioned before, that brings forth the antagonist, Hitomi. His story seemed so stereotypical that he was just a boring villain.
The scriptwriting was some of the most lackluster I had EVER seen in an anime. In fact, I'll just come out and say that this might be some of the worst script work I have EVER seen in an anime. It's amazing that this is the work of Yasuhiro Irie because I applauded his efforts with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The only thing I can guess is perhaps Irie bit off more than he could chew with this project. He was handling the direction, the series composition, the script writing, and the storyboard. He's not an experienced script writer and it showed in this series. This series reeked of under-staffing and Kinema Citrus should be ashamed that they didn't put in a better effort when it came to staffing.
My biggest complaint with this series is I think it strayed way too far from the manga. The manga did a stronger job of executing character development, comedy writing, and dramatic tension. The small nuances and stories that Kinema Citrus decided to cut out from the manga slightly ruined the bonding the characters had in this series. While I know Kinema Citrus isn't exactly the biggest or strongest production company on the market, I think their handling of the Code:Breaker series was far too ambitious for them. Code:Breaker is a long-running manga series. It's the sort of series that needs to be tackled by a production company that can put out episodes on a weekly basis like Studio Perriot (and that's not a compliment of Studio Perriot's work). Trying to condense Code:Breaker's plot into a 12 episode season just isn't possible without ruining the story and characters in any way, shape, or form. The animation and music was nothing special. Nothing about it was really all that memorable, although I did like the OP and ED. I didn't love them or found them captivating, but they were catchy enough for me to like.
Overall, it's just a really poor adaptation. I'm not usually one who rips an anime for straying from it's predecessor but the problem is Code:Breaker did nothing for me as a stand-alone series to separate it from it's manga counterpart. Even looking at it from just an anime viewer's POV, it's a bland, boring, predictable, and stereotypical. It doesn't do anything to stand out, as an anime or an adaptation. If you're a fan of the Code:Breaker manga, I don't recommend watching this. If you do watch this anime and do like certain elements behind it, I would recommend giving the manga a chance. It's an entertaining read and was far better than this.
Stark700
What is evil? It can be describe as something wicked, malevolent, sinister, ill, or something which holds responsibility for the bad things that happen in this world. It's a four letter word that strikes fear, anxiety, and many other emotions. In the real world, people commit deeds through free will. Some of these are good deeds, while others are evil. In the Code Breaker world, there exists supernatural beings who are able to judge deeds (good/evil) and carry out justice with an iron fist. Rei Ogami: “An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth, and Evil for Evil” Welcome to the world ofCode:Breaker.
The series is written by Akimine Kamijyo based off the manga of the same name who is also known for her previous work, Samurai Deeper Kyo. It all begins one day when Sakura, a local high school student, witnesses some blue flames like she's never ever seen before. Likewise, from there on and out, her life is changed forever.
The hero or maybe better seen as the anti-hero of Code:Breaker is Rei Ogami. He is the local bad boy with a tough attitude who does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants as long as it gets the job done. In his mind, there is no justice for evil and as he quotes one more time, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and evil for evil”. He expresses a darker side of "justice" similar to those more like a vengeance hero rather than some ally of justice like we see in pop culture.
Code:Breaker doesn't avoid most of the cliches we see in most of today's themes. The common gag of 'boy meets girl' is employed but it doesn't just end there. Sakura Sakurakouji is portrayed as a school beauty and idol that is admirable by many of the students. Then, there's the mysterious transfer student Rei Ogami. Things like this is very common for anime viewers to see these days in the industry. To add on to this topping of cliches, there's an assumption that the two have a “thing” going on by nearly everyone at the entire school. They misunderstand their relationship and often misinterprets it as if the duo are dating.
From there on and out, the two seems to have a strained relationship. In every way, Sakura tries to explain Ogami that killing others is “wrong” because it's the wrong thing to do. She strives to get her ideologies to Ogami in order to convince him to be a good hero and do the right thing. However, her words are often deaf to his ears as Ogami kills to protect others, at least in his point of view. At times, Ogami even expresses himself as evil and that in this world, in order to save lives, sacrifices are needed. He presents himself as not a hero in this case but rather as someone who is trying to do what he believes is “right”. The question here remains though:
Would you kill to protect someone you care about?
The characterization of the other characters from the series is explored to a lesser degree although a few of them does stand out in particular of those associated with the Code:Breaker organization. Most if all of the Code Breakers has their own standard code of conduct (or rather their signature Code of Hammurabi) and coupled with them some supernatural abilities that makes them fearful of others. In fact, Code Breaker itself has become a term of both fear and hatred.
The Code Breakers themselves all have different personalities as well. Some are fun to watch such as the playful Yuuki Tenpouin while others are more straightforward and serious such as Rui Hachiouji. The most mysterious of the bunch are Masaomi Heike and Hitomi, two individuals who are very difficult to read. In fact, throughout the series they seem to be playing mind games with the other characters in particular Ogami. In the world of evil, there is injustice but in their eyes, they seem to represent evil themselves.
Luckily for the ladies, this series presents some good bishonen sketch work. The characters' designs all possesses a sense of style by the way they dress, act, and presenting their ideas not through words but by their actions. Most of the time, they engage in what they do best and that's to deliver “justice” to evil. At other times, they seem to be chilling around like ordinary people despite their feared status.
The series' theme itself also becomes a sense of philosophy. What exactly is evil and how it is defined? More importantly, how do we take actions against it? These questions often become ambiguous and may never have a direct answer. Nonetheless, the blue flame executed by Ogami seems to serve itself as a metaphor in which criminals are terminated by being burned to actions. Similar to how an individual goes to hell for wrong deeds, the flame itself manifests as a tool to destroy those who are evil, or at least those who are considered so under the eyes of the Code Breakers.
In the artwork department, everything seems quite generic. Most if not all the characters have the same design with different colored hair styles to match their themes. While pleasing to the female audience, it can become a bothersome after seeing it so many times. The backgrounds itself is just normal with nothing that really stand out as the setting is set in present time rather than a futuristic dystopia.
The soundtracks of the series is presented with mixed rhythms shifting from comedic, to action, to violence, and to mystery. The opening song, "DARK SHAME" by GRANRODEO has a rock beat and orchestrated with a montage of the main characters. From the song, a viewer can see some of the potential action and even foreshadowing of some events. It doesn't stop there though as it shows some of the violence in various scenes that are mostly presented by Ogami and his blue flames. As cliched as it sounds, the song does work effectively so no shame there.
Ultimately, Code:Breaker is a package of an action series that deals with the world of evil. It is cliched at many times especially with whole 'girl meets boy on a mysterious night' setting, the school life drama, the shounen like battles, and secret organizations. The drama and comedy also seems to be a bit forced as often times or not, they occur out of nowhere and tries to bring the audience a good laugh. It works sometimes but at other times just seems awkward. The series is just slightly above mediocre with the good premise and ideas but still contains too many overused tropes. However, if you're looking for some action packed thriller sequences with dark heroes, then C:B might be for you.
tsuyo_sama
[Spoiler Warning] NOTE: This is my first review at MAL, so please bear with me. Also, I haven’t read the manga AT ALL, and I don’t know if the manga’s story is similar to the anime’s. Consider this as a point of view of someone who just watched the anime. There are some spoilers along the way to explain my point in the review, so read at your own risk. :) I remembered watching the first few episodes of Code:Breaker (together with a few more anime) when it was still being aired last year. I got curious since I thought, “Hey another super power-themed shonen anime! Cool!”After watching those few episodes, I stopped watching it and simply waited for the series to finish since I got tired of waiting for a new episode, which was released weekly.
While watching the last episodes of Code:Breaker, I got disappointed to this anime due to various reasons, but mainly I got disappointed because of the plot. Well, it started good, but how the series ended is just bland and generic. Perhaps most of us (if not all of us) have seen a story with a character betraying the good guys, working for the bad guy, and then in the end, betraying that bad guy and saying that he has been in league with the good guys all along. Well, we have that kind of cliché here. How about the Big Bad showing up after the bad guy gets defeated? We also have it here. The great presentation made at the start of the story was wasted by how they ended this series, which is cliché-filled, and done in a bad way at that.
Another thing here is the characterization of, well, the characters, which doesn’t seem real and human enough for me, and it shows more as the series progresses. Come on, someone who really IS evil doesn’t say he’s evil; rather, he would say that he’s the hero of justice (or something like that). Besides that, there are also some dialogues in this anime that I find weird and/or just simply wrong. And being an adaptation of a manga, the series’ ending is rather inconclusive, since 1) the manga is not yet finished and, 2) the adaptation is only 13 episodes long, which is very short. What I find wrong about its ending is that it never left me wanting for more.
With that said, the anime isn’t all bad points and no good points at all. Just as I said earlier, the way the story was presented in the beginning was great, with a certain number of people with superpowers (called Code:Breakers) are working for the government to eliminate (i.e.; kill) people that the government sees as evil. The character designs are also great, although the design for the Code:Breakers have varying touches of bishounen-ness in them.
So if you’re looking for a groundbreaking new anime, this certainly is NOT it. Maybe if you haven’t watched a lot of superpower-themed anime, you might enjoy this. Just “might”, though.
RWM13
Well, I came to this Anime like a "Meeting-by-Chance"! I've never heard of it, I had no idea about what's going on there and so on... After I finished watching it I must say, I did not waste my time with it! It's got a good visual quality, some nice characters (in my case I liked Ogami and Yuuki most) and nicely choreographed battle scenes. The balance and the dynamic between Humor, Action and a little bit drama is done wonderfully and keeps the audiences attention, throughout the anime, "upright" ;) The little problem tough is how this anime has been set out so far. I don'treally like the ending. I mean, everything before was done very nicely and I did enjoy it - that's why my expectations grew over the time while I was watching C:B. But the end can be compared to a crash with another car - suddenly, unexpected, fast, ... finish...
They should have done at least 3 to 5 episodes more, just to give us a better end and more screen time for the remaining 3 code breakers.
Anyway, I can recommend it to everyone because I believe it's worth watching ìt!
Altazon
Code Breaker was probably one of the animes i had more faith to be good when it came out. Well i can say it didnt fulfill my expectations. Probably the worst aspect of the anime is the characters, specially the female protagonist. She is just annoying with a ridiculous sense of justice, and probably its one of the characters in any anime with more repetitive dialogue. I swear i have heard her yelling "oogami-kun!" (the male protagonist name) like 20 times in each episode followed by the sentence "dont kill him" or "dont do this" or similar stuff. Anyone that has watched the fighting scene betweenIchigo and Grimmjow in Bleach will remember how annoying Orihime was by repeating non-stop "kurosaki-kun", well, the girl from code breaker is far worse and she does it in every chapter of the 13. The rest of the characters are kinda meh, nothing to say about them, they are not as annoying and the girl but they dont add much, even the male protagonist is a meh character, he's just a cool guy who kills bad people, he doesnt even talk too much.
The story is really non-sense. to be fair the premises arent bad, some people with incredible powers erradicating evil. its not great but its ok. But the thing that makes the story so bad is the plan of the villain and why he is trying to do such evil thing. i dont want to spoil anything to anybody, but i will just say it is retarded. he is trying to obtain something by doing actions that doesnt make any sense and even if he succeded in his plan i am not able to understand or grasp how it would benefit him in obtaining his goal. let me put an example to explain myself: imagine you want a new car, but you cant have it, instead of working, or stealing it from the shop or whatever it takes to get the car, you go killing owners of the car you originally wanted. remember your main objective, you wanted a new car, so why would you benefit by killing people?Exactly it doesnt make any sense, and Code Breaker Plot is something similar to this, im not kidding, its dumb.
To be fair the art is not that bad, though some guys looks seem to belong to a shoujo manga, but its okay i guess, and the animations during some battles are good though i should say the battles themselves are not very interesting or epic.
To conclude this, Code Breaker a very dissapointing anime, with the worst character i've seen in almost any anime and a plot that is absurd. I am really sad....
fbh
Code Breaker is a very typical if not just generic shonen anime following the story of Code:Breakers, people with special powers that are used by the goverment to kill criminals that for one reason or the other are untouchable by regular authorities Story: The story stars off a bit slow but sets some good foundations of the world the story takes place in, and who the Code:Breakers are. Sadly there are a bit too many filler scenes (and chapters) that would be expected from a Anime that will have 50+ chapter, but with only 13 Code:Breaker is on the short side and spends too much time developingcharacters and locations (like the highschool) that end up having no relevance to the main story.
As for the rest, it's fairly entertaining and does pick up towards the end but never really leaves the generic side of anime story or setting.
Also be warned that it's open ended with a clear indication to a sequel, but I guess that will depend on how popular it is and how well it is recieved.
Art:
The art and animation are quite average for a weekly Anime. Not look too bad but nothing stands out and some of the CGI effects used on some powers look a bit cheap and ugly. The animation is fine for the most part although some fights feel a bit underwhelming.
Sound:
Nothing to complain here. The OST does not stand out but fits good enough with the mood and style of Code Breaker and personally I found the voice acting solid.
Character:
My biggest complain with Code Breaker is in this area as I really found the mian female character to be really, really annoying. She seems to have little relevance to the story, has absolutely no evolution and for the most part seems to be there only annoy the viewers.
Because of some traumatic event in her past (which is never revealed ,BTW) she seems to be obssesed with protecting people and not letting anyone get hurt... and in a story about people with powers that KILL criminals this is a bad thing as we have to hear her screen and complain about this every single episode. What is worse is that the story makes a good point as to why this criminals have to die, the story makes focus on explaining that they can't be arrested or captured by regular authorities and it also shows them off as evil, sadistic people that deserve to die... yet many of the chapters are filled by scenes of the "heroine" talking to Ogami, the main character, about how he can't kill people and how it's wrong. And yeah, it also doesen't help that half here lines in the 13 episodes are repedely screaming Ogami's Name (and I really whish I would be exagerating... but I'm not).
Enjoyment:
Even with all generic story and annoying characer, I have to say that it's still fairly entertaining show.... just aproach it as something to sit back and relax for 20 minutes.
OVerall Score 6
Zaku88
Code Breaker is not about Java security breaches but rather about a Japanese version of X-Men, cast with bishounen guys and a female version of Touma from Toaru Majutsu no Index. Basically, there are a great deal of children with "special abilities", which the government takes care of. The most powerful of these ability users are turned into 007-type agents that do the bidding of the Prime Minister, unbeknownst to the greater Japanese population. Our protagonist, Sakura, one day discovers one of these "code breakers" in action as he kills some unimportant fodder characters. Will her investigations lead her down a path of disaster? The ideaof elemental super-humans is nothing new, explored in other shows like K and, more thoroughly, in the Toaru series. While the huge bishounen to female ratio is different, this only adds further questions to the show's purpose and target demographic. While the pretty-boy to girl ratio might seem to hint shoujo, don't expect any semblance of relationships here- it's all about calling out pointless catchphrases and battles. The plot is mildly entertaining but builds to a climax that just doesn't make sense. Not in the way of K's "there's some crazy s**t going on here" but in the illogical reasoning of the antagonist. Some may argue that this would have been better if it were longer but I'd say I'm pretty glad it's over. Unless you love action and are too young to use reason, please do yourself a favor and watch something else.
Animation:
In general. the animation is fairly good. There's good detail, shadowing, and color balance. Character designs are unique and emotions (or lack thereof) are conveyed appropriately. However, combined with the plot, certain elements don't seem to mesh. For instance, you'll see Sakura getting pummeled (kicked in the face & body repeatedly) yet two minutes later she's walking fine with no bruises. Not to mention the special abilities themselves, which makes Dragonball appear scientifically sound, relatively speaking. Think you know chemistry? Ice vs fire? Forget it as here willpower and shouting determines which "element" wins.
This is ultimately a shonen show with lots of fighting and no fan service (unless you count Sakura's weird mother who constantly cosplays as a schoolgirl). Expect a lot of fighting and a lot of special effects.
Sound:
The show opens with a techno-heavy rock piece, but the dude almost makes it feel shoujo appropriate. The ED reminds me a bit of some of Naruto's EDs, standard rock fare. More unique is the BGM, which is almost always on during the show. I'd go as far to say that BGM is overused in this show, as if they're afraid you'd lose attention if they stopped.
VAs do a fair job but are limited by the script and, well, lack of unique characterization in general.
Story:
The show follows Sakura as she shadows the cool, calculating, and emotionless Rei Oogami- supposedly trying to stop him from killing other people. Despite her moral cries of "there must be a better way", nothing is ever proposed and she basically ends up as a spectator to the works of the Code Breakers. The central plot line is indeed contiguous, but it is also riddled with unanswered questions and fallacies that end up ruining the show for those of us who have a brain. All the seemingly isolated terrorist events and killings eventually get linked to a single individual, and then the show builds to a predictable climax encounter that is resolved in just about the worst possible way, that is other than the Mass Effect 3 ending.
You get the impression that Code Breaker was going for something deep (moral questions, government conspiracy, etc.) but it ends up all feeling shallow and not terribly thought out. For instance, there are only six Code Breakers at a time. Why only six when they show literally hundreds of special ability children? Also, the support organization for the Breakers, Eden, seems to employ just about every other person in Japan so it seems that the general "populace" isn't as ignorant as suggested. In the end, this show ends up somewhere between K and Zetman. Not as baffling as the former and not as outright disappointing as the latter. While Code Breaker has decent action, the reasons behind it is underwhelming.
Characters:
Sakura reminds me of other shoujo female leads (think Special A & Maid Sama). She's apparently every guy's crush at school and academically/physically gifted, though I find it odd that no one realizes that she's a child of basically a yakuza family. She's definitely labeled as "slow when it comes to love" as her actions make everyone else think she likes Oogami, when in fact she obviously has no interest in any guy. Both Sakura and Oogami have bewildering moral beliefs, Sakura will put herself at risk to help others while Oogami is on a crusade against "evil", whatever he thinks that is. So what character development can we expect here? Oogami goes from trying to kill Sakura repeatedly to being her bodyguard at the government's request. Yes, at the government's request. He himself shows little if any interest in Sakura's well-being.
Likewise, you'll find very cold relationships between practically everyone in this show. Confusingly, at times the code breakers act like a well-oiled team. Yet at other times they themselves claim that they almost always act solo. Ultimately, all the characters are given cookie-cutter personalities and are in general impossible to relate to.
Value:
The greatest value in this show is finding all the inconsistencies in the directing, presentation, and story. The story itself a mess that isn't worth telling and the characters might as well be amoeba. If you're not particularly desperate for a bit of action, steer clear.
phantomrose96
If you like original, innovative anime with dynamic characters and complex storylines, turn away now. Turn away and don’t look back. However, if you’re looking for something with super-powered, angsty pretty boys and rather cool fight scenes, you might want to give this a try. By far, Code:Breaker is the most generic anime I’ve ever seen, and its start is much rougher than its conclusion. For the first 5 or 6 episodes, I had this anime pinned as a 4. The two main characters, a Mary Sue and a cliché, angst-ridden teenage boy, were the perfect broken record duo. Every fight turned into a bland, depthlessargument between whiny Sakura and expressionless Ogami. “Don’t kill this man!” says Sakura. “But I’m evil,” says Ogami, and incinerates the man’s head. “Oh, well then don’t kill THAT man!” says Sakura. “But I’m evil.” Ad. Nauseum.
The only saving grace of the anime came in the later episodes, with the slightly more interesting other Code:Breakers and the steady break-down of Ogami’s heartlessness. The save wasn’t amazing, but it made the series watchable despite its flaws. I remember being genuinely excited maybe once or twice.
Story: The concept has a lot of potential that simply fell flat. “Code:Breakers” are government agents who do the politicians’ dirty work. They all have special abilities, and were recruited due to their uniqueness. The main conflict has an X-men-esque taste of mutant super humans wanting to be recognized in society. Unfortunately, they don’t explore this any further than that. Code:Breakers want recognition, government won’t give it to them. The end?
In addition, each arc was generic. Generic bad guys, generic reason for being evil, generic take down, move on. The fights were well-animated, and the Code:Breakers’ special abilities made the fights at least interesting to watch. On the whole, nothing special. The final fight with the “big bad” Hitomi, an ex-Code:Breaker, was more interesting, if not for it being bogged down by Hitomi’s motive making no sense. More on that later.
Characters: Oh god…where to start? Well the main character Sakura is one of the most useless main characters to come out in recent history. She is perfect in every way, the beauty of the school whom literally EVERY guy chases. She opens her locker every day to find it stuffed with love letters. A Mary Sue start is never good, and Sakura never redeems herself. She preaches non-violence like it’s going out of style, but never with a good reason. Moral characters can be interesting, usually depending on their motives and backstories for being so moral. Sakura, though, has none of these. If I had a dime for every time she said “Killing is wrong!” or “You can’t kill people!” I’d be a very rich person. It’s vaguely hinted that she experienced violence in the past, but it’s never built on. She’s a depthless foil to Ogami’s cool, collected murder. This senseless, shallow morality of hers wouldn’t be half as annoying if she were of any use. Unfortunately for her, she’s not super-powered. She can only sit in the background whining about killing while Ogami sets everyone on fire.
Ogami. I’ve been trying to avoid using any internet lingo in this review, but he is the perfect representation of a “2edgy4me” character. For those unfamiliar with the term, he is a character who tries to be dark, mysterious, and edgy simply for the sake of being dark, mysterious, and edgy. Most of his actions serve no purpose other than to show “Wow, Ogami will do edgy stuff!” Sakura is guilty of egging this on, since most of her broken-record complaints serve as fodder prompting Ogami to dive into a monologue about why he must be dark and edgy. He claims to be evil for no real reason. He claims to be inhuman for no real reason. At the end of the day, he’s just a super-powered boy who’s been hired to kill bad guys, nothing more, nothing less.
The bad guys are, if anything, worse than Ogami and Sakura. They’re perhaps more tolerable because they never stick around long, but for the short time they’re around, they suck. The prime minister in charge of the Code:Breakers is as two dimensional as it gets. He’s the man just there to piss off Sakura with level-headed speeches about how unimportant the lives of Code:Breakers are. He’s also the character who doesn’t know when he’s been defeated. He transitions instantly from wetting his pants in sheer terror (since he’s hanging over the edge of a 100-story building) to mocking the Code:Breaker who saved him for being “too soft.” The villains have the most potential for depth, since many of their twisted mindsets for doing evil are downright fascinating. For this bad guy, he’s evil for the sake of evil, depthless, and cold for no reason.
Every other goon is as generically evil as possible. They abuse super-powered children because edgy bad guys do that. They kick dogs because that’s what edgy bad guys do. They never seem to have any motive for the time they’re on screen. They simply gloat about their evilness and dick around until Ogami incinerates their heads. All the while Sakura begs Ogami to spare them. Lather, rinse, repeat. The big bad Hitomi is more interesting, considering his fleshed out character. He is an ex-Code:Breaker, who loved protecting his friends and citizens like nothing else. That is, until he discovered Code:Breakers eventually self-destruct from using their powers. At this point, he decides it’s a good idea to flee, plant bombs around Japan, and kill 50,000 people so that Japan will be forced to recognize the Code:Breakers who protect them. WHAT?
Luckily the other characters save the cast from being complete crap. Toki, who has the rather generic motivation of “protecting his sister”, at least has more depth than most of the lot, since he tries to hide this fact. Most of the other Code:Breakers in the cast have enough depth to be tolerable, and Sakura’s parents are decently entertaining. The Sakura fanboys, though, could definitely have been left out.
Art: I won’t lie, the art is nice. The animation, for the most part, is smooth. The fights are well-executed, and the boys are all very, VERY pretty. Code:Breaker is eye candy: the anime. I’d be tempted to say that the art makes Ogami the perfect guilty-pleasure character, essentially the Sasuke of the series. In summation: pretty boys, cool fights.
Music: This will be short, because I never really noticed the music throughout the show. It was certainly not bad, but nothing of note stood out.
Overall: about a 6/10. It was saved from a lower rating by the slightly interesting side characters, cool fights, and semi-decent backstory for the big bad. Ogami’s cold shell starts to melt around the seventh episode, which saved his character from being completely static. The change wasn’t too drastic, but it helped. Working against it, of course, are the poorly executed plot-line and the depthless, annoying main characters. At the beginning, I watched it because it was fun to make fun of it. Toward the end, I watched because of its redeeming qualities. At no point was in unwatchable, but certainly not something that was ever impressive. However, if angsty pretty boys are your guilty pleasure, and you like super-powered fighting scenes, Code:Breaker might be worth a shot.
-Sonal-
This anime had a lot of potential, but for me its biggest flaw was how it handled its female characters, particularly the lead, Sakura. This review may have mild spoilers so don't read it if you intend to watch the anime. 1. It's frustrating to see a teenage girl THIS oblivious and idealistic in today's world. All that comes out other mouth are the words - please, stop, I beg you, you are wrong, don't do this, no, blah blah blah. I'm assuming her role was to act as the moral compass to Code Breaker 6's staunch ideals, but she only came across as a whiny,useless teenage girl.
2. She is trained in martial arts and yet her best weapons are her tears. All she does is cry and beg for evil people to NOT be killed. Wow.
3. The man:woman ratio. In a world where half the population is female, this anime had only 3 female characters. And let me sum up these women for you-
Sakura the wimp
Sakura's mom who could have easily been her younger sister, what with her huge breasts and tiny waist
6's assistant, who also had big breasts and wore tiny mini skirts to her job and did everything in heels.
So essentially, the women were nothing but stereotypical props put there to please men. They could have easily been replaced by men, or better yet, could have their existence erased from the anime and nobody would have even noticed it.
4. Stereotyping women. Is this really what shounen anime and mangas are all about? No wonder young boys believe that women should be meek, submissive and have impossibly big breasts. People say porn gives men impossible expectations, but I'd say manga like Code: Breaker easily beat porn to it.
5. I hated how sexual assault is downplayed as "harmless" playfulness. When 4 grope's Sakura's breasts (TWICE) he does get a beating but not once does she say that it is WRONG of him to touch her without her CONSENT. This is a recurring theme I've seen in many shounen anime - sexual assault is okay, and women only either blush or slap you in exchange. And then everything is normal again, because that is exactly how it is in real life
*sarcasm*
Deeply saddened to see HOW women are portrayed, and how few of them even exist in shounen anime. They have 3 primary purposes it would seem -
Loving and caring mothers or elder sisters
Girlfriend/meek, sweet woman
Hot woman who fights her way through but eventually ends up falling for the man anyway.
Disappointed.
jokubasinc
To start i liked this anime. It had action, superpowers, romance and many good stuff. Another feature i liked was the number of episodes.13. I like anime that has a little series. So this anime is about a girl Sakura and a mysterious guy Ogami. First it has romance and mystery.Soon the whole series turn into action. The characters were good, especially i liked Yuki and Heike. To sum up it is a good anime if you like superpowers but still realistic setting
suprasaiyajim
Art is old school so I thought this show will have an old school feeling. But I ended up being bored. At first, the protagonist is badass, but they show later on shows him as being kind-hearted, which is contradictory because of the things he did and attempted to do. Fight choreography was mediocre, wasn't really impressed with the fight scenes. So much time was wasted at the school. Extremely repetitive. They will fight, then not fight. Be all buddy-buddy and then hate each other. And they say their names every 5 seconds. I know their names already.
Mercifa
After just finishing all the Code:Breaker episodes, I must say that I am extremely disappointed. As a lot of the reviews already mentioned other aspects of why the series didn't run well, I am here to discuss my overall disappoint in the character Sakura. As she was one of the main leads, I had great expectations until the very last episode waiting for the final moment were she wasn't a useless, stereotypical whiny teenage girl. As seen in the beginning, she has a brilliant talent in martial arts and is supposedly a very capable fighter, but in the entire series never really did anything with it whichwas a huge disappointment.
And when she was discovered as a 'rare breed' and had the power to nullify others powers, I kept thinking that we would see much more of her exploring it and other ways for her to be useful and possibly a powerful character, but to add to my digression, they did nothing with it.
Another thing, they did get into her past were she was dropped at her current adopted parents door step covered in blood, and another disappointing dead end led me to yet again believe that we might be able to explore her past and perhaps find a very interesting discovery about her powers.
The amount of expectations I had for this anime were fair, I thought they could do so much with it! In my head I making all these predictions, and I'm left with nothing. I have watched many bad anime's, but this one left me hanging in the wind. How could they leave so much? I almost feel betrayed.
3apa9lo
Story - "from the beggining you know the end". Thats pretty much it. Characters are standard. Sakura is concentration of universal goodness and justice. Only the "sixth" as a character aroused my interest in its non-standard compared to other mainstream TV series and films. He is not nice, two-faced, cynical and ... enjoys committed justice. Animation is so-so. Backgrounds are nice. Verdict: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, evil for evil. Rating overall: 5/10I bet you drop it on 3 - 5 episode.
Mythical_Truth
Looking at the image of this anime, I thought it would be amazing, but i was sorely disappointed. It's not necessarily a bad anime, its the characters themselves that leave something to be desired. Normally, as time goes on in an anime, characters develop and change. Here they don't Sakura probably changes the most throughout this anime when she meets a Code:Breaker named Oogami Rei, who, sadly, is a A-hole pretty much the whole anime, though she some how manages to fall in love with him. Admittedly he does have a tragic back story and does deserve some pity, but he never changes. I would talkabout the other characters, but such little is known about them that it would be practically impossible.
The plot is the one good thing this anime has going for it. A secret organization called Code:Breakers, consisting of agents with super powers that quite simply "do not exist". Their goal is to stop a former Code:Breaker named Hitomi who wants only one thing. Recognition for the accomplishments of him and his comrades, who "do not exist". And he will do almost anything to get it.
explicit707
I didn't expect a lot from Code: Breaker going into it. This was probably from reading some of the bad reviews. The synopsis wasn't even that intriguing, and it really sounded as if it would be a mediocre anime series at best. I know it is an ongoing manga series, but I decided to try the 13 episode anime first because it is so short. I am glad I gave this series a look, and it's definitely better than I expected. Though it has some low points in quality, it has some really high points that bring it to a low 8 in my book. Thesynopsis doesn't really tell you much, nor does it prepare you for what you are about to watch. The synopsis is quite simply an introduction to the first episode. This series is about Code:Breakers (people with special abilities or super powers) that hunt and kill evil people. I don't want to say more than that because the reason why they kill is part of the reveal as the story progresses. Ultimately, this perfect "do-good" girl attaches herself to the main male lead and we learn more about the Code:Breaker world as she does. She has almost an obsessed opinion and it is a little stalker-ish how she takes to Oogami. This is a super-power battle anime series, and it's not too often over the top. It's sort of an "X-Men" like story, but it is a roller-coaster as far as quality goes.
Now let's talk the basics. Animation and artwork are fairly solid. There is a quality drop when they attempt to drop humor into a scene, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The music and sound are pretty well done, except I think the opening song is a little cheesy at the end. All in all, it delivers for the most part in these two areas.
The story for Code:Breaker is simply good. It's not "great" or "thrilling" but it works and it kept my attention. As I said before, it's very "X-Men" like, but this is mostly in regards to the plot. This works for the story in a lot of ways, but the anime is so short that it is never really developed. It ends like most of these partially adapted series, with a cliffhanger right as things are getting going.
I want to say that the characters are "amazing" but they are are not. I wasn't overly fond of any, but I did like their overall dynamic. As a group they worked really well, and I found that the personalities worked well together. Most are underdeveloped, but the main male and female characters are developed enough for the scope of the story we get to see.
Overall you can tell that this series should have been better. It's the potential that I think captured me the most. I give it a low 8, pretty much right at the the 7-8 threshold. We're talking a photo finish here folks. There were a lot of elements done better than others, and then there were a lot of inconsistencies in quality throughout. Some scenes felt rushed, and others felt dragged out, while some scenes were right on. Even with all of it's flaws it still found a way to grab me, so it gets a lot of points from the enjoyment category. The bottom line is that I enjoyed it, and that's all you can ever really hope for when dedicating a few hours of your time to something like this. It definitely has been added to my "plan to read" manga list, so it's done enough of it's job on that front.
In short, this should have been an amazing series, but it wasn't. That aside, it was pretty good and it is worth watching. If you enjoy super-power battle series then you should check Code:Breaker out. If not, then move along now, nothing to see here.
Fujaku
So, Code;Breaker. A 13 episode adaption of an over 200 chapter manga. Of course it doesn't come out that good... 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 highschool, 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.
mouthpiece
MENTALITY Code: Breaker is a standard superpower shounen and one should get into it without having many expectations. Proof of which is the very opening song. It’s a nice dynamic piece, but it shows nothing besides the main characters doing a demonstration of their superpowers. No context besides that; it’s just what it seems. There is enough bravado and flashiness to keep the average viewer somewhat interested to see what will happen but in the long run it is nothing memorable or special. CAST You get Sakura, a high school girl in the role of Ms Pacifism. She is presented as a Mary Sue, perfect in anything, grades,sports, martial arts, and with a perfect morality that makes even boy scouts to feel ashamed. Everybody loves her, everybody wants to be like her, her life is perfect. Until a transfer student named Rei enters her life.
Rei is in the role of the Bad Boy, and has the bad habit of killing people by incinerating them with magic blue flames. Meaning, he is a vigilante who fights fire with fire, an identity hidden by everybody besides Sakura. Who, of course, will do her best to bring him back to the light side. Although the people he kills are unredeemable scumbags, Sakura is still against killing and tries with all her might to stop fights, and make sworn enemies to be friends, and is full of friendship speeches, and I WANT TO STRANGLE HER!
She is so bloody annoying and nags like an old maid all the time. You almost think she is in desperate need of a good c*** to calm the f*** down and leave people alone; jeez! And sadly the show doesn’t kill her right away because she is plot-armored with a magic barrier that makes her immune to death and a secured way to stay alive forever and piss us off for infinity. The saddest part is that the show is not about her realizing that the world is not a perfect place that can turn into a fairyland because she nags a lot. She never develops and instead tries to turn the others into irritating bitches like herself.
Rei seems cool for a protagonist at first, for being amoral and willing to kill his enemies instead of letting them go or trying to befriend them. He is also willing to kill innocent witnesses just for the sake of not letting others know what he does. Not that this is taken as far as it sounds sadly, as he gets pretty mellow after a few monologues by Ms Pacifism and turns fast into a mediocre shonen lead who just wants to protect his friends. Also, despite his awesome power at first, as soon as others like him appear, he is in constant need of getting stronger with new power-ups. Meaning, all the development you get from this guy is turning from powerful amoral youth to sappy shonen who wastes his time in getting stronger. LAME!
As for the rest of the important characters, we get half a dozen more psychotic dudes with superpowers, who have a similar demeanor with Rei, and are also fond of Ms Pacifism. And that is all you get from them; shallow ambiguous morality, big explosions, excuses for fighting each other… and the Beautiful People’s Club. Seriously, there isn’t a single ugly important character in this whole show.
PRODUCTION VALUES
Made by Kinema Citrus, a minor studio with good budgets that has created the esteemed Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and flashy brain dead fun titles, such as .hack//QUANTUM. Nothing particular great in their roster but at least they try a bit to make their works to look interesting. There is nothing bad in the show; it has fairly clean outlines and nice coloring but also nothing particular great to stand out from the lot. It’s just that most are dressed as typical high school kids, with the bishies being trendy just to stand out. There are also lots of scenes where the characters look too cartoony, crudely drawn and with stiff motions, as if the animators didn’t bother much with them.
This anime really blurs the boundaries of shonen and shojo, since the protagonist is not Rei but Sakura. The whole plot unfolds through her eyes… and damn does she have big shojo eyes. The other dudes have narrow and sinister ones, which makes a very big contrast that feels almost comical. And since they are all pretty-looking bad boys in love with her, the whole thing could easily be seen as a date sim for girls. Which is lame since it’s nothing much in terms of both the demographics it aims for.
SCRIPT
The story is based on the manga by Kamijou Akimine, who made the very good Samurai Deeper Kyo (manga, not anime). He is good when it comes to action but in terms of storytelling he tends to kick around a lot just for the sake of staling progress. Also, despite the big build-up that escalates for several episodes/volumes, the resolution is a typical brainless superpower showdown, which is what you could get right away and it wouldn’t make any difference despite the attempts at fleshing out. Also, Code Breaker is far more basic and commonplace than Samurai Deeper Kyo, having a very typical setting and a mostly generic cast of commoners; thus far more boring despite being made after it. I mean, for how long can they stretch the “Oh she likes him” misunderstanding gimmick? Sorry Akimine, you won’t be remembered if you keep acting like that.
The directing is done by Irie Yasuhiro, who is somewhat famous for his work on FMA Brotherhood. His roster is otherwise pretty short and full of forgettable titles; the current one being not something different. Sorry mate, you can’t make a good omelet with rotten eggs.
As far as hooks go, the series is supposed to attract you with ambiguous morality, flashy action, and steamy romance. And guess what, it offers very little since there is close to no actual or meaningful development.
- The moral dilemma is completely shallow and never goes beyond “might is right”. Sakura will start by bitching about something a criminal does is bad. Then the villains will start laughing and attack. Then Rei will pop in and trash them all. BIG DEAL!
- The action scenes are very simple and short. To the most part the fighters stand still and just throw energy beams at each other, with no choreography or tactics.
- And the romance part is to the most part just fascination and big misunderstandings. Sakura stalks Rei for making sure she won’t kill again and everybody immediately assumes she is madly in love with him. This becomes a running joke that gets old pretty fast.
Even if you try to see this as a basic story, there are lots of derp moments which easily reveal poor writing and directing. The hero will constantly be killing and destroying yet nobody around him will be giving a damn. He incinerates a whole gang of thugs, and you see nobody even noticing they existed in the first place. He trashes walls and windows, and nobody cares to even ask what happened. Why is he even doing all that if nobody cares? The only one who notices all those obvious events is Sakura, and she doesn’t even have heightened senses to excuse all that. She will also be the only one who constantly yells like an old maid and trying to prevent things far above her capabilities, with her shallow morality just making you to bitch slap her. Shut up and go back to the kitchen!
The ending is complete BS. Some super villain is about to blow up Japan, Sakura nags, Rei will get a convenient power up to beat him, the villain dies with everybody forgiving him for having killed thousands… and then nothing. We are back to square one like absolutely nothing changed after such a world shaking event. WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THAT?
LEGACY
I also am not fond of the directing, or the storyboard. Most of what happens is presented in a very crude way, too slow or unexciting. So many people die, so many places get trashed, everybody acts like a retard, and nobody seems to care. Not even the protagonists. By extension, not even the viewer. Nothing much to see here; a watch once and forget show. I suggest you watch the much similar Full Metal Panic instead of this trash.
And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 5/10
General Artwork 1/2 (generic)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 1/2 (basic)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 1/2 (basic)
SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Voice Acting 1/3 (retarded talking)
Music Themes 3/4 (not great but dynamic nonetheless)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)
STORY SECTION: 2/10
Premise 1/2 (typical)
Pacing 1/2 (erratic)
Complexity 0/2 (none)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 0/2 (completely pointless)
CHARACTER SECTION: 3/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 1/2 (cheesy)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 0/2 (none)
Catharsis 0/2 (none)
VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (no reason to rewatch)
Memorability 1/4 (generic and forgettable)
ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Art 0/1 (looks typical)
Sound 1/2 (nice songs)
Story 0/3 (horse shit)
Characters 0/4 (irritating cardboards)
VERDICT: 3/10
BabyGirl06301
Think this is a ripoff of Blue Exorcist because the main character has black hair, blue flames, and the same seiyuu as Rin Okumura? Well, you're wrong; those are all just very big coincidences. I don't know why this is rated so low? I mean, maybe the people that've seen it have read and prefer the manga, I don't know. I'm gonna read the manga next, so I guess I'll see, but this anime still felt really amazing to watch. So, the art and sound were pretty average. I like the opening and ending, but in between, the music was touch and go. The Code:Breakershave special abilities that probably could've been translated a little better to screen than they were, but it was still interesting artwork.
The voice acting was on point. I loved it. I don't normally point out voice acting when I review anime, but Code:Breaker stuck out to me because of how engulfing it was. As far as the characters themselves go, they were very well done. None of them felt static at all. Every character that was given more than two lines was dynamic. Obviously, not all of the manga's story takes place in the anime, so you couldn't get proper backstories on all of the characters, but the illusion to something greater was brilliant.
The story and concept itself was so freaking cool. I feel like the world was very well thought out without being overly complicated. One of the things I really liked about this anime was the villain. Not only did the villain have a proper motive (which is surprisingly overlooked in a lot of anime), but the motive made sense. You could actually sympathize and understand where that character was coming from rather than them having a redemption arc while the audience is just sat there like, "Yeah, I don't care, he's still a jerk." You know? So, I really appreciated that aspect of the story.
Beyond that, I'm just really excited to continue the story in the manga. I've been watching anime for a while now, and no other story has prompted me to read the manga more than this one. On that fact alone, I really think that anyone who is interested should watch it. I think it deserves more love.
Kane-san
Just to clarify, I am only reviewing the Code Breaker anime, not the manga which is apparently both longer and from some of the early scans I've seen appears to follow a different story. At the time of this review, I've only read the 1st chapter of the manga so for fans of the manga keep in mind this review is aimed specifically at the anime. That being said, Code: Breaker is a very strange anime to review. This is not because it is so much as unorthodox anime as it is a confusing one. After finishing it, I had very mixed feelings. So before Iprovide a very long analysis of the 13 episode season I want to state my general thoughts: It's not a bad anime but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.
Code: Breaker starts off with the story of a young girl named Sakura who while riding the bus one night, witnesses a young man setting several others on fire in the park. Running off the bus to investigate the scene however she sees no trace of evidence of an actual crime committed. Confused, she goes to school the next day and a new student, Rei Ogemi has arrived as a transfer student and he looks just like the young man she had seen the day before.
The story itself has a good premise. We have Sakura, a girl driven by her feelings of righteousness, and Rei, an executioner for the wicked. The two early on play off each other well, with Rei playing mind games against Sakura as she contemplates the ethical debate brought up by the show: Killing killers. Quite frankly, the best part of this series is the earlier episodes with Rei still being a dark entity and Sakura a witness to his actions. I very much liked how they played off each other with their ideologies clashing with the other. However, this concept soon becomes repetitive for the viewer as it seems for the first half of the show, before the main story kicks in, they keep repeating the same concept in differing scenarios. Every time, Sakura questions Rei's right to judge and he clarifies why he feels it's okay for him to take another's life.
The story further struggles because it feels in a word, compiled. Interesting ideas such as Sakura's mysterious back story never are fleshed out and so the story feels increasingly incomplete. While I can understand there is much to cover in a 13 episode series and some ideas could be left out, there are several pointless moments that I'll refer to later that can easily be removed.
By the end of the 13th episode, the plot seems to be unclear as to what is going on, what has been going on and what will happen later down the road. This ultimately leads to just a bitter ending for the viewer who feels like nothing significant changed for these characters by the end of the show; Rei never changed his ways from taking another life from the show and while the anime may have meant to justify vigilantism, it was never made clear.
Moving onto the characters I'd say that this is, while stronger than the story, still a weak aspect of the show. Starting off we have Sakura. The show makes it very clear early on that she is an optimist, always trying to see the morality in people. While not necessarily original, I think Sakura was a nice sort of conscience for Rei. She makes clear points that murder is wrong and her character does help fuel the ethical debate greatly. However, Sakura is constantly undermined by the series. First off, the cops are in on what the criminals are doing, as explicitly stated in episode 1. As a result, thugs would not be properly prosecuted which makes the argument that killing is not the only way to stop evil a fallacy because it practically is. it's particularly strange to see the law's corruption because the manga's 1st chapter implies that the police actually do legitimate work. The only reason I can think of as to why this change was made to the anime is because it might make Rei seem more justified.
However, this is the opposite of what happens. Rei's character is a mass murderer, taking the lives of criminals throughout the course of the series. He views his actions as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and evil for evil", meaning that in his mind what comes around goes around. The show constantly justifies this view point by putting Rei and Sakura in positions where its clear that Rei's way is the only way. The problem with this is that while yes you do what Rei to not be a complete bastard, he seems to be ALWAYS in the right so his darker character seems incapable of ever being wrong. As a result, Rei comes off as a glorified mass murderer, making his character difficult to like because his view point is never proven wrong.
The show does a commendable job with the series villain, Hitomi. Without going into too much detail, he is portrayed as one of the most sympathetic villains I've seen in anime, making his character very likable. In one of the last episodes, we are given a fantastic insight into the character from his back story and therefore making him pleasant to watch throughout the series. Unfortunately, the anime makes a mistake with his character as well. The problem is Hitomi is too justified, similar to Rei. Hitomi's reasons for what he's doing are not just sympathetic but almost admirable. Although he does do terrible actions later on that doesn't make this problem too extreme, Hitomi is easily the most likable character in the series because of his ideology.
I viewed the English dub for Code: Breaker and while not a fan of most English dubs, found this one to be pretty strong. Rei's voice actor in particular, Micah Solusod, does a great job applying a dark tone for his character's voice. While later on Sakura's voice actress Jackie Ross seemed not as strong, I found this issue to be more with the dialogue she was given rather than the actual performance which in the earlier and better written episodes was very well done. Other highlights such as the Prime Minister and Hitomi deserve recognition as well. The music from both the opening and ending I'm indifferent to because while it was not bad, there's nothing worth noting.
The art direction for the show is not anything worth noting either, the best parts of the show being the fights and use of the character's powers, particularly Rei's blue flames.
Before I conclude this review though, I'd like to address two very important issues I found with the show that I feel don't really fall into any of the categories previously discussed. This is mostly from what I mentioned very early on in the show, its misuse of time. This first has to do with a scene where a girl at school fondles Sakura's breast. I have a series issue with this for various reasons. Firstly, the scene has no reason to exist. These 30 seconds or so could be better used for things related to the actual plot, particularly the bitter ending which needs great fixing. Secondly, this is inappropriate in my opinion. Others may find this funny and I am a male so my opinion lacks any actual "experience" but this is just sexual harassment. It's clear Sakura is uncomfortable with the scenario and there's no real reason to have it in there. I'm from America so I am aware there's going to be a difference in humor between where I grew up and Japan but all the same this is just wrong to me. As a result such scenarios weaken my enjoyment of the show because of its poor taste and treatment of the heroine.
My second complaint is with the focus on Sakura's family. This is a plot point randomly given to the story and I'm not sure why because up until the show needed her family to be powerful enough to have so many "guards" it was never clear. This seems to be for convenience and annoys me because previous episodes never even hinted at this home life DESPITE us seeing her at home previously. This issue only annoys me more after an incident where multiple people at her home become injured and she feels guilty. They give her a cliched speech about how they believe in her, only further irritating me because it is so unnecessary. These people have no reason to be in the show and for the 1st half weren't present. This randomness hurts my enjoyment further by causing me to only resent them for existing in the medium without proper justification.
Overall Code: Breaker is okay at best. I want to like the show but I can't because its characters and story are generally flawed. If you have nothing else to do, maybe watch the first 3 or so episodes and see if you want to continue from there. Otherwise, this series is not worth the watch sadly.
