First Impressions – Code:Breaker
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and evil for evil.
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Judging from just cover art alone and trailers I always thought Code:Breaker looked a bit like Ao no Exorcist thanks to the blue fire and also the title just sounds like a random anime series about hacking or possibly breaking codes? Thankfully Kara is here to provide some important information on the story, so stick around for our exciting first impressions! |
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I absolutely adore Code:Breaker the manga, so I was extremely excited to find out that there was an anime adaption coming out. I think it brings up an excellent argument about morals and such, so I’m looking forward to that. …As for this episode, I wasn’t surprised at they way they did things, but they didn’t disappoint me either. |
Animation is on fire
While this might not be the most amazing looking series of all time because it looks sort of generic to me and for some reason I though Kinema Citrus was a new animation studio, but they have a fairly long list of great shows ranging from Another, Hanasaku Iroha, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and many more! Then again I was digging the character designs by Yukie Akitani who also worked on certain episodes of Durarara, Toradora. So which character has the best design? Every time I saw Rei Oogami I couldn’t help but think of Yuu from Persona 4! Even though the hair color is completely different and then we have Sakura Sakrakouji who also looks Yukiko from P4 as well to me, but I loved the whole blue fire ability from Oogami even though it just screams Ao no Exorcist or possibly K project? One thing I did notice was in the opening there were several “super-powered-teenagers” running around so that gives me hope for some amazing battles in the future.
We all have our personal favorite voice actors from series to series and usually some of them get type casted in certain character roles! I have mentioned Ao no Exorcist a few times in this post because our main character Oogami uses it to fight the “ultimate evil” which makes me laugh a little bit inside because Nobuhiko Okamoto also voiced Rin from Exorcist and what power does he use in that? BLUE FIRE! Now I don’t know if that is pure random or done on purpose, but of course the producers could have hired him because he does great voice work as the “crazy-ass” character? I always liked his Accelerator screech. Aside from the blue fire main character we have Sakura who is voiced by the always popular Youko Hikasa! Most of us know her better as Mio from K-On or my personal favorite Seraphim from Kore wa zombie desu ka! I bet Tofu is watching this series right? So what character trait does Youko always end up with most of the time *cough* black hime-haircut *cough* well most of the time anyway I guess the exception is Miu Ousawa, Rias Gremory, Junko Hattori and Nobara Yukinokouji? I know my mind is totally random…
The main thing that I noticed was the difference between character designs. Anime Sakura looks a LOT more feminine (while her voice is the complete opposite and is way deeper than I thought it would be). That being said, anime Rei looks pretty different as well. I was always under the impression that he had almost black coloured eyes since that’s how he always looks in the manga, but here he is with blue ones. The manga has it’s own style, but I quite like the changes they made here. Even Toki’s heterochromia is more prominent as well… I’m getting ahead of myself though, back to the episode at hand. I’m surprised they downplayed the fanservice and upped the violence used on Sakura this episode. …Er, or I guess they downplayed the sexual violence and upped the regular kind. Putting it that way makes more sense as to why they did it. They didn’t really take anything important out and abridged the beginning so that the story flowed better, so I’m liking the decisions made between the anime and manga already.
Soooo this was a decent episode even though going into this series I had no idea what to expect other than main character has a cool super power to fight evil with and the main girl becomes a bad side kick in terms of fighting, but Oogami appears to have a messed up view on what he thinks is “evil” however that could make everything fun and it is somewhat different or is it? I know Accelerator had issues with trusting people and technically that character is still kind of evil. I like Sakura but she did come off as slightly annoying and also dumb…who seriously charges head first toward a DANGEROUS gang? I suppose she has the heart to save people but she is lacking powers to back it up and Oogami is about to kill her? Part of me doesn’t believe he will go through with it but who knows! Maybe he will take her out for good next week? Of course you can’t just kill a Youko Hisaka character that easily right Tofu?! So readers did you like Code:Breaker or did you find it dull and boring? I have to see a few more episodes before I decide to continue or not.
Code:Breaker doesn’t exactly have the best of openings, but once it gets out of these one episode… episodes, the other characters come in, and the first arc actually starts, things should pick up. I know I wasn’t completely taken with the manga at least until Yuuki arrived. So yeah, I have no complaints about the first episode’s adaption. The animation could use a bit of work in the further away shots, but overall, I like the liberties taken with the character designs and how they’re showing Rei’s power. Those blue flames look awesome. I can’t say that I’m fond of the censoring, but hopefully that doesn’t appear too often. I don’t even know what they were censoring half the time this episode. They cut off a part of Sakura’s chin for no apparent reason (unless they were censoring blood… which still doesn’t make much more sense). They seem okay with showing people burning to death and I can’t really remember the manga being overly violent aside from power-related things and the occasional dead body, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 304 comments
Ehhhh, I’ll give it a few more episodes to see if I like it or not. I’m not a big action or shounen fan so this episode was a bit boring to me. I’m also not sure I like the girl. She seems a bit too perfect. Totally digging the bishie though! So yeah, I’ll see if it picks up some in the next few episodes.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
You might like this for the fact that there are A LOT of attractive bishies in this. xD I’m sorry to hear that the shounen vibes put you off though. I’d say that one of this story’s strengths is is’s battle scenes.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Agreed with you Amutofan! I have to see a few more episodes before I am sold, but so far the animation is decent even though I have never heard of Code;Breaker until watching this first episode xD
Yeah bishies for the ladies to enjoy <3
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Kara and Fosh are together again. You must have gotten over the sadness of Lagrange ending on us all. I’ve never heard of this anime or the manga version before the season started but it looks good.
I’m seeing patterns. Nobuhiko Okamoto and Yoko Hikasa have jumped from being leads in Hagure Yuusha to this and it seems Nobuhiko is getting typecasted for playing leads with blue flame powers. Rin Okumura (Ao no Exorcist); Rei Ogami (Code: Breaker). Same initials, similar facial features (also taking the eyes into account), same powers. Coincidence?
Rei’s personality strikes me as Rin Okumura meets the Punisher with the way he exacts vigilante/antihero justice with his belief in the Code of Hammurabi and adding on “evil for evil”.
A part of me sees Sakura as the typical female lead, the kind that gets herself into very dangerous and unnecessary trouble. I mean, come on, running right into the middle of a dangerous gang with no means of defense other than her martial arts training and telling them to their faces that you’ve called the police and that they’re on their way? They’d kill you and scatter long before the fuzz gets there in time. The other part admires her for being a strong, independant girl capable of taking care of herself, not the kind that’s always helpless and needs a constant bodyguard glued to her at the hip.
The best part of the animation, in my opinion, is when Rei uses his powers. Blue flames looks way cooler than regular flames.
If the studio follows everything through and if we’re still interested, we’ll be in for a long haul with this anime. I haven’t read the manga but I recently saw on a site that right now, it has a total of 195 chapters. That’s a lot of arson to look forward to.
Overall, this looks like a good show and is now on my “must watch” list.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahah yes! The power of sadness brought us together once again for more epic tag teams of AWESOME! That and we really needed more Lagrange…where…are….you….
You know what? I never noticed that! Ahahahah Mio and Accelerator at it again I see…interesting and I agree that is freaky! I bet it is on purpose LOL
I started to like that quote after hearing it what 5 times? I guess it will grow on me even though I found it to be a bit annoying.
This series is on my “might watch” depending on what happens because I try to give everything like three to four episodes before dropping it.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I wonder if we’ll see more similarities between the two characters as the show continues. But it’s already clear Rei’s personality is ice cold for someone using flames.
I think that quote will become famous for a good while just like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. Almost everything that guy says is an epic quote: “Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Haha! Yep. I don’t think there’s been a single season where I haven’t tagged something with Fosh~. You’ve never heard of this? …I’m not surprised. I don’t remember there being any vampires.
…Oh my god they do have the same initials. That’s crazy. Code:Breaker has been around longer though, so read into that what you will. Rei also originally had black eyes. …I think the anime just made them blue to match his flames/ raise his bishounen levels.
I like Sakura better than most female leads, but there’s no denying that she’s… well, a bit stupid. To be fair, she was raised by yakuza (that should come up in a few episodes, so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything), so she probably thought that she could take them on.
Yes, I was very impressed by the flames as well. One of the characters uses shadows and I’m very excited to see that when it comes up since they did such a good job with Rei’s power.
Yay! More arson, more fun! The recent chapters kind of sort of hint towards an end, so hopefully this studio pulls through.
Yes! watch this! Even despite the lack of vampires!
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Pfft.. hahaha! True. Maybe in my search for more manga of that genre, I missed this one in particular. Though my searching has been paying off handsomely lately.
I guess the creators for Ao no Exorcist and Code: Breaker had the same ideas and if it’s the case, they added small differences to each character so it wouldn’t be said they were copying off of each other.
Ah, so Sakura has yakuza influenced arrogance. It’s not so surprising when you put it that way but she still bit off more than she chew, martial art experience or not. Confidence can only take you so far unless you have monstrous powers like Rin.. eh, I mean, Rei.
A character using shadows sounds very interesting. How can you compete with a shadow?
Don’t worry. Heh, your enthusiasm just adds more to the motivation.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Has it? Any more good vampire manga you feel like recommending? I’ve been too busy keeping up with what I have to bother searching for more to read.
I’m not sure how the two authors are related, but I never even noticed how similar the two characters were until people pointed it out. Seriously.
Well, she has other problems from childhood as well, but yeah. She’s around delinquents all the time, so I figure that that’s one of the reasons she just went ahead and fought them. …Aside from the whole justice obsession thing she has going on.
The shadow powers are very cool. I hope they get far enough to show them.
Yay! You have to watch this since I don’t think many people will keep with this.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Ku ku ku. You bet! I have names, new and old and it’s my pet project to create more Vampire Lovers (Much like OC’s Phi Brain cult). Starting with those who love seeing blood. I know two bloggers fitting that description. The rest would be easy pickings. Sounds good, right, Kara?
I recently read the new chapters for Bloody Cross and Blood Parade with each have landed on unbearable cliffhangers and I’m anxious to find out more.
As for the recommendations, there’s: In Bura!, Kiryuuin Kaya ni Chi o Suwareru dake no Kantan na Oshigoto (The Simple Job of Having Your Blood Sucked by Kiryuin Kaya), Crime Zone (Definite must see for you, OC and anyone else who loves blood and unforgiving gore. There’s death in basically every chapter), Yougen no Chi (It’s really good!) and Bara to Juudan. The first four have become my favorites.
There’s one I have yet to look at. The name is Servamp. And to give you hope against the dominating female vampire bias, the vamp is a guy.
There were so many similarities between the two that we just couldn’t leave it alone and go with it.
She’s an idealist and idealists in anime tend to get themselves in dangerously stupid situations. I find they’re the most dangerous type of person if they ever lose faith in their ideals. They could turn into the most vile criminals ever. Look at Two-Face from The Dark Knight.
No problem. This looks good and I seem to watch some animes few people would watch. Fosh can vouch for me with Eureka Seven AO.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
HNNNGGGG EUREKA SEVEN AO! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME T____T
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I didn’t think it was a great first episode, and frankly some of it was pretty clumsy, but I like some of the ideas (like the clash between ethical positions). Hopefully after a few episodes the show will find it’s stride.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah this was a weak first episode for me as well, but I am curious to see more of the main character and the others from the opening…they looked really interesting!
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Like I said, the first couple of chapters aren’t the greatest. Things might improve once they introduce character #2, but until the real villains show up, I don’t think the story ever really takes off.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Anime Sakura’s eyes are much bigger than the manga Sakura. In the manga her eyes are slanted like Ogami’s. It kind of bothers me whenever I see her face, and she’s front and center in this episode. Plus as much as I love Hikasa Yoko’s voice, it doesn’t quite fit Sakura but oh well.
It was a great episode much like the manga. The first few volumes of this was great when it was about the Code of Hammurabi. But then plot twists happened and it kind of went downhill there. Judging from the OP, it might only cover up to Hitomi arc where it was still decent. After that…
I’ll still watch nevertheless.
And well, only manga readers would understand that part about Emperor but I’d like to see that too.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I thought Sakura’s voice was a bit odd and it didn’t feel like a true Hikasa Yoko role! I mean usually she plays the tsundere role aka Saraphim from Kore wa zombie, but I suppose that wouldn’t work in a shounen? LOL
Hmmm I have to see a few more episodes of this then hopefully things get fun when the MC meets up with some other super-powered humans?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
YES. that’s the difference there. …I don’t really mind the giant feminine eyes, but her deep voice kind of throws me off. I was definitely expecting Hikasa’s Mio or Rias voice. Nothing this deep.
Oh, see I didn’t start liking the plot really until the plot twists. I admit that the story has wandered really far from it’s initial premise, but I like where the manga is now.
Yes! As well as the Emperor, I want to see Rei’s newer flames as well. Leviathan or whatever that dual color one is called would be awesome animated.
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
I’m not really sure if I will continue the series or not at this point. The premise is interesting but not sure if it is enough to hook me yet. I do like both Rei and Sakura(but something about her hair bugs me. I guess it’s how her hair is black with very light purple highlights) for their personalities and motives but I can see Sakura becoming the damsel a lot even if she can kick some butt. Of course I felt so bad for Inu. T_T Always sad when the dog dies.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Story sounds like a lot of fun and the characters seem interesting, but overall Code:Breaker seems generic to me as far as shounen goes…then again I watch and read a LOT of shounen stuff so this will probably stay on my watching list for a bit! I have to see what happens after the first four to really decide if I want to continue with it xD
Poor anime animals! They always get screwed
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…I think they were aiming for brown for Sakura’s hair, but I’m not sure. If it’s any comfort, Sakura does eventually become a badass… after about 100 something chapters.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
That sounds like Sakura from Naruto! She is terrible in the first series, but later on she fights…then again her fights were zzzzzz after she fought the puppet master LOL
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I KNOW. She had that one fight and then nothing!!!! OTL
Uhh, Sakura and I think it was Rei go against each other later on in the series. I can definitely confirm that this Sakura is more useful than Naruto Sakura.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ahahahh good! I look forward to it <3
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 192 comments
I was not expecting the twist at the end. I thought he would go all mushy and ask for her help. Seems like I was wrong, very wrong. 0_0
I definitely will be sticking around for more awesome flames and cold, hard justice. Hope the generic/90’s-looking art doesn’t get to me though.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
If he really kills her I will be completely sold, but I have a feeling he wont kill her off just yet…then again I bet the manga readers are laughing at us? LOL
Right the artwork is a bit on the dull side.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ahaha you’ll see. Just wait until next episode. xD
…I don’t know what to tell you about the art, but it’s a lot of people being burned alive and cold justice from here onwards~
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I love the blue fire, best part of this episode for me.
I was expecting this to be not very good, but I found it to be alright; a decent shounen show especially with that blue fire and good action animation. If Kara says it gets better, then I’ll give it a fighting chance longer than just 1 week.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
BLUE FIRE FTW!
Yeah I am sticking with it up to three or four episodes just to see what happens or if the plot picks up or not, but I will take Kara’s word that it gets better ;D
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
D’aww your faith in me is heartwarming. …I do think it will be a couple of weeks before this picks up though. I don’t know if this will make most people’s 3 episode trials or not since it took 2 entire manga novels to get off the ground.
POWUH: 600-699 and Wingman with 655 comments
i dont know ;(
i like the main character, and the story is appealing,
but the female character keeps disrupting my motivation to continue with this series… its on my list so i should prolly watch till ep3 to decide to drop it or not
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Same 100% agreed we shall see where the story takes us.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…It might take more than 3 episodes to take off, so I’m not sure if this will pass your 3 episode test or not. Sakura aside, all of the main characters are pretty awesome right from the start, so hopefully that keeps you interested.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Nobuhiko Okamoto, the best guy to contact for blue flames.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
They picked the right guy for the role.
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
As long as there are blue flames, he’s getting a pay check
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, I am not a shoenen anime/manga fan by any stretch. Look at what I comment on the most. I love my fuwa fuwa anime. So this should have been on my miss list, no first viewing at all.
But, I gave it a shot. It looks typical. Nothing in it attracted me at the start. But two things popped out that have me paying some attention.
One. The score. It’s completely cinematic. It provides great underscore not just to action and dialogue, but to the quiet moments as well.
Two. This wasn’t until the second episode, and not to the end, but I\ the admittance to being evil to destroy evil is quite the impact.
Bonus Three. I dig Sakura. The Implacable Man in nothing next to The Implacable Woman.
So, this is on my watch list.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Welcome to the club, skylion. They did the second episode better than I thought they would, so maybe we’ll get more members.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 60 comments
The only reason to watch this is the fact that the whole entire male cast has rape face. Like literally. I can hardly tell who’s a bad guy and who’s a good guy and I watched the opening twice. And no I haven’t seen the manga, I’ll go read that next. Still the first episode was both boring and intriguing.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 60 comments
The only reason to watch this is because of the serious rape face every male is sporting in this anime. I cannot tell clearly who is a bad guy or good guy just from the opening. Generally in other animes you can, but in this case I can’t. They all look pretty damn evil. I should go read the manga of this. The first episode was not very impressive.