Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture Part 2 Episodes 4-6

With the sudden death of Emperor Calis, Sakura is named the next Empress of Neo Britannia, with no one aware of her true identity.  Meanwhile, the true ruler of Neo Britannia, Norland, orders the Damocles fortress to exterminate a Japanese district with the last remaining F.L.E.I.J.A. warheads.  As the Seven Shining Suns launch a desperate attempt to capture or destroy the Damocles, Roze learns a startling truth about Ash and the role he played in her Fathers death.

The premiere of Roze of the Recapture didn’t set the world on fire like the original Code Geass did but was a serviceable start.  But I found myself becoming weirdly kind of bored and uninvested in the new fight against Neo Britannia and what’s worse, I was similarly bored with the action.  Yeah Chapter 2 of this 4 Part saga kind of flounders not because it’s playing things safe but because its not giving me a reason to care about the bulk of the cast on screen.  It’s a complaint made even worse by the inevitable return of some familiar faces and I’m way more curious about what they’ve been up to since the last time I saw them.
 
Yeah, it was only a matter of time before the big man himself made an appearance.  I mean, it was plenty obvious from Roze’s flashback (and hearing Johnny Yong Bosch’s iconic voice) that Lelouch was the one to give her the power of Geass, which now makes him similar to CC in that regard.  That said, it was still good to see Lelouch and his beautiful green haired partner again.  It was a cameo that worked too well though.  I’m still very much interested in Roze and Ash but you cant just show Lelouch and CC and not want to know more.  Same goes for Cornelia, still as hot as ever and now working with the Black Knights (if she was already in the Lelouch of the Re;surrection Movie I don’t remember).  Then there’s Nina, who has the biggest role of any returning cast member to play so far.  Even though she’s still not my favorite character, Roze of the Recapture gives Nina a chance to rectify her biggest sins from the past, aka the F.L.E.I.J.A. She gets a lot of understandable flack but Nina finding some redemption actually felt alright.
 
Same cant be said about any of the supporting players in this series.  I’ve committed very few names to memory cause no one is really standing out, least of all in a positive way.  Haruka continues to be Kallen-Lite, just standing around pouting and not doing much outside of action scenes (her new mech though is pretty freaking sweet).  Even though her fellow freedom fighters are fewer, I still know nothing about them on an individual level so it’s hard to care about their struggle.  At one point, one player makes a sacrificial play to take down the Damocles…and it just felt hollow.  Maybe it’s because this was originally four movies instead of a 25 episode series so you have to use your time wisely.  But when you cant muster much more than an “eh” about a supposed pivotal character death, you’re doing something wrong.
 
As a result of this, the attack on the Damocles feels like a slough to get through.  The last time we saw a fight over this floating fortress it was at the end of Code Geass R2 and it was damn epic.  It also had the advantage of being the climactic final battle of the series where we couldn’t be more invested in who would make it out of the Lelouch vs. The World throwdown.  Here in Roze of the Recapture, I don’t know or care about anyone outside of Roze and Ash.  And even they have little to do in the fight.  I mean they do take part in the action but there’s nothing really exciting about it.  Sometimes the plans hit a snag and shows that Roze’s plans aren’t as full proof as she thinks.  Sigh, tl;dr, the action in this second part was mostly boring due to a lack of emotional investment in the bulk of the cast.  And it’s very hard to make the action in Code Geass boring.
 
Once the action was done, things picked up again when we focused back on the Roze/Ash dynamic.  First, I love Ash’s romantic interest in Roze in her true form as Sakuya when she’s a Maid at the café.  It’s not only cute to see Roze flustered cause she wants Ash dead but Ash trying any and all ways to woo her is pretty funny (especially when he talks about how great shape he’s in).  But then we learn from Ash’s chat with his old friend (and Ex maybe?), Narah, that he didn’t pull the trigger on Roze’s Dad after all?  Well that certainly changes things once more for Roze.  She seemed coldly steadfast to her wish to kill Ash once she saves Sakura (btw am I the only one confusing those two names?  It’s the reason why I’m calling Sakuya Roze for these reviews).  But what will she do now that it seems that wasn’t the case?  And why is Ash insisting he did the deed when Narah says otherwise?  Why am I more invested in this mystery than the Giant Robots swinging swords at each other?
 
Roze of the Recapture wasn’t at its best in it’s second act.  The action was dull, the supporting cast kind of sucks and both unite to make Code Geass more boring and by the numbers than the opening of Season 2.  Thankfully, Lelouch and some old friends stopping by and the numerous twists and turns with Roze and Ash are still keeping me very interested.  Now if only the series can strengthen those other fronts, it can at least be as good as Akito the Exiled (but right now it’s still far superior).  We’ll see if things improve Next Monday with more Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.