Code:Breaker – 10

And to this day, he still doesn’t know what time it really is.

Well this backstory was completely new to me. I liked it though and the movement of the OP song felt like it fit. All in all, a pretty good episode considering they’ve gone waaay off the storyline. I don’t think any of this flashback was in the original.

I don’t think I’ve talked about Rei for a while (or at least I won’t be saying much on him this post), so I figured I would point out that he was the same ‘evil for evil’ kind of guy back in the day. Even Hitomi thought he was a special case among the Code:Breakers. I’m sure you would have figured this out yourself if you had seen more interaction between the Code:Breakers, but I don’t think they’re going to give us that with only 3 episodes left. As for Sakura… well she was pretty useless this episode, but what else is new? I don’t think she’s going to prevent any killing while she’s hanging from the ceiling like that.

Anyways, on to the important person of the episode: Hitomi. From the manga, all I really got from his character is that he was a good guy/team mate, but he didn’t like the fact that the Code:Breakers lived and died in the shadows. Here, they seem to have taken things further and added a bunch of traits that make him a great guy. Of course, this adds a lot to the tragedy of Rei having to go against a guy he was close to (as well as the other Code:Breakers), but I liked the fact that they even added a younger Kanda in there. …Or maybe I’ve just forgotten if it was in the manga (the situation does seem familiar), but in any case, it explains why she would be hesitant to attack him a couple of episodes ago.

The story might have moved far away from the manga, but it seems like a pretty necessary action. Not only because it highlighted the type of person Hitomi was, but it seems like the right choice since they’re ending things after this arc. The story might have felt a bit empty if we didn’t have a good idea as to why the Code:Breakers felt so betrayed by Hitomi or why he even betrayed them in the first place. Though I’m not sure if they thought this whole thing through since Hitomi’s character traits don’t add up entirely. But more on that later.

So finally they stop beating around the bush with the Lost part of being a Code:Breaker and finally inform the viewers about Code:End. I’d say that having your own powers destroy you is a pretty bad way to go and unfortunately, there is no escape from being a Code:Breaker unless you die or your time runs out. I suppose this is all part of the unknown hero of justice job, but it still seems a little unfair. It feels weird having Heike be the one to look into the Code:End for Hitomi, but maybe he isn’t in the same position as he was in the manga. I’m pretty sure the Code:Breakers knew about Code:End in the manga as well, but this does give Hitomi a good reason to go against Eden. They clearly showed how and when his obsession with the Code:Breakers dying started. …Even if his objective seems to have changed completely.

I could have sworn that a couple of episodes ago, Hitomi proclaimed that his goal was to get recognition for the Code:Breakers, not free them of their job completely. Even if he is getting rid of the Prime Minister, which might put the Code:Breakers out of a job, I thought the whole reason why he set up the bombs was to make people recognize that they needed someone to protect them. The government could put research into finding a way to prevent Code:End, but they’ve never really had problems with the replacement system they’ve been using before, so I don’t see why they’d change it. They’d probably just hide it from the public or say they died in an accident. Also, for a guy who had so much emphasis put on the fact that he hates unecessary sacrifices, Hitomi sure seems to be making a lot of them to prove his point. It seems like a pretty big jump from not wanting anyone to die to putting his teammates before the general public. Maybe I could accept it if he did something like save a Code:Breaker instead of a normal person in a dangerous situation, but the thing is that he’s proactively killing innocents. You could argue that he’s becoming the bad guy on purpose, but unless his bombs happen to be non-lethal or something silly like that, he’s become quite the hypocrite and they’ve given us no explanation. Hopefully they come up with a good one and don’t expect us to come up with our own conclusions on the matter. It’s just too big of a character shift to leave to assumption.

Overall, I actually enjoyed this episode since it gave a lot more insight into Hitomi than the manga ever provided. Yes, there are some things that don’t quite add up, but overall, you can see why the other Code:Breakers would follow the guy in the first place. One other question I have though is since Hitomi lost his rank as a Code:Breaker, why didn’t Eden replace the Code:01? I’ve had this question ever since the manga and 100+ chapters later, there STILL doesn’t seem to be a new Code:01. Though I suppose they could be hiding the character somewhere. They’ve done that before. Anyways, back to the episode, the quality was… okay. Toki just doesn’t seem to have much luck with having the animators giving him actual faces instead of two dots and a line. Hopefully they’re saving the budget for the final episode or something.

The next episode, Rei finds Hitomi and for whatever reason, he’s still fighting with a sword.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.