Akito the Exiled: Yup, it’s still Code Geass

Code Geass is a show is incredibly nostalgic for me. I remember binge watching this show twice in my life time. Once was even a nonstop watch of ALL FIFTY EPISODES. OMG. I cannot believe that I did that. That was in college too. My junior year of being an undergrad. That is the time of show that Code Geass is. An insane mixture of “AH HA” Moments, a bombastic soundtrack, and crazy shenanigans and powers that don’t make any sense grounded by an interesting emotional core and some fun characters. While I as much of a fan of the show as I used to be, because my thoughts on this show has changed a lot, I was still excited to hear about an OVA series that takes place between R1 and R2. (Less enthused about R3, but I will probably watch it anyway because it might turn out to be okay.) The world of Code Geass is vast and interesting and focusing on Japan/Area 11 and some countries around it was very much to the show’s detriment. What Akito the Exiled turned to be was interesting, but lacking in a lot of ways. I wanted more. This OVA series should have been twice as long as it was.

Akito the Exiled is set around a war between the European Union and Britannia (what a shock). Even simpler than that, it’s focused around a small unit called the Wyvern squad which are known as the Ghosts of Hannibal. It’s a suicide squad that uses 11’s/Japanese citizens while putting them in dangerous situations in order to achieve maximum results. Even in the European Union, they are still put down upon and are the main focus of the story. Leila is French, a noble, and is also the female leader and strategist of this group and Akito is the Japanese pilot who was the only survivor of the latest mission. Through crazy happenstance, Leila and Akito acquire three other Japanese pilots who used to be terrorists for the wyvern squad, Ayano the tough female, Yukiya the hacker, and Ryo the insanely awesome yet caring pilot. From that point on everything goes crazy. The characters are more then what describe them, but their basic attributes are what I am going to use here. Akito the exiled also has a lot of side characters and some have many character development then others. It’s a lot of fun.

Yes, this show still has a lot of the attributes of the main Code Geass series. I mean the whole “Ge-ASS” thing is still a thing. Pilots still wear their tight suits and the camera still focuses on their rear ends from time to time. Which means, yes, the fanservice element is still there. Especially around the female characters. Still, that’s not the only Code Geass stamp. There are a lot of elements like the mech fights, political intrigue, clamp character designs, a focus on 11’s/Japanese, and completely things. Like Sending mechs into space around the world in order to get troops into enemy lines a hundred or so miles away. A stupid yet awesome thing that only a Code Geass would do. Also, some characters from the original series leak into this OVA series as well. I won’t spoil it, but fans of the series will recognize them as soon as they see them. While they only appear for a short amount of time, these two characters move the plot forward quite a large amount. Akito the Exiled is not hiding them at all. Lastly, the ending. It seems Code Geass’ tradition of having good endings. It was a very satisfying ending that made sense given the context of what time period this OVA series ended.

Despite all the interesting attributes that came with this OVA series, I wanted more. Five fifty-minute ova episodes is enough for eleven episodes of content, but I wanted more. At least twice as much time, so it would be a two cour show. That would give the series enough time to flesh out this conflict a little more. I know why Britannia and the E.U. are at war, but what lead up to it? Is it because Britannia wanted to rule the world like usual? What about the problems of the European Union itself. It’s a democracy that is having a lot of issues due to its population. This is barely touched on. Seeing more details about where Leila’s position is and more about what the political issues of that society are. We know what they are, but we don’t know see them on any level. Lastly, the villain. Code Geass is famous for having bombastic and memorable ones. The villain in this show isn’t. He’s just another “I want to destroy villains” which is rather cliché at this point.

In the end, Code Geass: Akito the Exiled was a fun watch. It is far from flawless and relies too much on the main series to be completely be its own thing, but the ride is a great one. If you have ever been a fan of Code Geass, then give this one a watch. The great animation and soundtrack make it worth a watch as well. IF you want to get the feeling of Code Geass back into your mind before season three appears around the block for some reason and you don’t want to watch all fifty episodes of the original show, then this is what you should watch this. If you haven’t watched Code Geass before, then this isn’t the place to start. While most of it is standalone enough for the casual watcher to get invested in, there are some things that require the main series to understand.

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Now my second post based around Akito the Exiled is complete. It’s not a major thing, but it influenced me quite a bit surprisingly. For of you who watched it, did you enjoy it? If you haven’t watched it yet, does it sound interesting to you?