Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture Part 3 Episodes 7-9

Guilt ridden over what she’s done to Ash, Roze finds herself captured by Norlan’s demented right hand man, Christoph.  At the same time, Neo Britannia launches an all out campaign to exterminate the Japanese resistance groups once and for all.  As all hope begins to fall around the Seven Shining Stars, Ash rushes to Roze’s aid.  But does he intend to rescue her or kill her?

Roze of the Recapture isnt quite living up to the legendary standards of the Code Geass name and nowhere was that more evident than in last weeks set of episodes that managed to make mecha action pretty boring.  Part 3 of 4 still carries many of last weeks hinderences (and in some cases doubles down hard on them).  But I have to say that Roze and Ash are doing their damndest to carry this not so great spin off on their collective backs cause it’s thanks to them that this set even slightly rebounded this week.  There’s plenty of the good, the bad and the ugly to look at so let’s jump in shall we?
 
Roze and Ash have had the some of the better moments of the series from the get go thanks to their fun and increasingly complicated dynamic.  The penultimate chapter of Roze the Recapture wasted no time from last weeks cliffhanger as Roze got the full backstory from the Nun who raised Ash for a time at his orphanage.  We not only got confirmation that he didn’t kill Roze’s Dad but Mr. Sumeragi was everything he had been hyped up to be: basically a taller, more physically fit General Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender, aka one of the best people you’ll ever meet.  I loved watching Ash and Sumeragi bond and slowly lay out the foundation for what would become Ash and Roze’s complicated arrangement.  It’s funny how Sumeragi’s death still hurts even if it’s a flashback cause he’s just that great of a guy, which is more than I can say for any other supporting character who has bought it in Roze of the Recapture.
 
Ash finally realizing what had happened to him kept me on the edge of my seat during this entire episode set.  He was well within his rights to leave Roze to her fate for what she’d done, misunderstanding or not.  And the show played with that until it was time to stop.  Nevertheless, gah it was so suspenseful, right up there with the many times Lelouch had to hide his identity from everyone in the original series.  Working on his resolve also threw Ash into action overdrive as he got some of the best Mecha combat sequences we’ve seen since the premiere  His rematch with his mentor, Christoph, stood out as Ash got some well deserved payback against the maniacal madman who was making Roze’s life a living Hell during her capture (so much fan service at her expense, poor girl).  As for where Roze and Ash go from here, I’d say Roze’s not quite back in Ash’s good graces…though this did allow for a much needed moment of levity when Roze confessed she was the Café Maid (Rasberry), Ash had fallen in love with…the looks on their faces were perfect.
 
Beyond Roze of the Recapture giving it’s main leads the much needed adrenaline boost in the storyline, everything else was as bog standard as we’ve come to expect.  I still cant tell you who any of the Seven Shining Stars are or any of their other resistance allies.  So when Neo Britannia starts wiping them all out en masse, it elicits no emotion.  I especially couldn’t care about Haruka getting her ass handed to her by the Catherine and her bouncy bust in a duel.  The only thing keeping me invested in their waste of screentime and action sequences was the musical score.  Kenji Kawaii of Ghost in the Shell fame has been handling the music for this series and hearing it recalls fond memories of Gundam 00 for me.  He knows how to let the music make up for not giving that much of a care about characters.  Kawaii does equally impressive work with his Guitar laden bad ass tunes to Ash’s scenes too, love it.
 
Ok so we need to talk about Norland.  He’s barely come up in the first two reviews because he’s barely been around.  Norland’s supposed to be the big bad of this series and yet, what do we know about him?  He’s buff, has a Char mask…and is the bad guy, that’s it.  What’s his plan?  Why is he suddenly wanting to destroy everything in the last episode of this set?  How did he come to power?  Why is everyone afraid of him?  These are questions Roze of the Recapture has failed to answer or tease at answering for over 9 episodes.  And with 3 remaining, I doubt we’re gonna get anything satisfactory.  Be that as it may, Norland is all presence and nothing else.  The most evil thing we’ve seen him do is that he kills Ash’s younger brother without hesitation.  Ok, that makes him a despicable human being who deserves what’s coming to him.  But does that make him a compelling character and a worthy foe to Roze and Ash?  Not really when all he’s doing is walking around going “Eh, I’m the bad guy” and that’s all his motivation.  Oh and speaking of that one question about killing everybody: is it just me or is he trying to recreate the final act of Gundam F91?  You know…that tracks and I’ll try to remember to talk about it in the Finale review.
 
Two quick last things of note.  I’ve been pretty frustrated with Sakura just complaining about her lack of power as a puppet figurehead.  To see her put Catherine in her place after several episodes of abuse showed the potential being squandered with her all series long.  Sakura is more than just Roze’s double and she should be doing more.  Hell if this were a 25 episode series we probably would see more of her (and honestly Catherine might have a fan service heavy body but she’s needed a scolding for a while now).  The other thing is the return of more legacy characters.  Cornelia got more screentime again (with her ever loyal Guilford at her side) and she’s seeking more aid from Kaguya…aka one of Code Geass’ most useless characters.  But the cameos that really got me excited was Akito and Lelia from Akito the Exiled.  I almost didn’t recognize Akito until someone said his name and I was like “YOOO AKITO!!!!”  More than that though, with death and destruction popping up everywhere, we caught a glimpse of Nunally (with Arthur the Cat) and good old Suzaku, still in his Zero disguise.  Does this mean we’re gonna get to see Akito and Suzaku help out Roze and Ash in the finale?  They’ll probably do far better work with them than any of the Seven Shining Stars that’s for sure.
 
There’s still plenty wrong with this set of episodes, including the overabundance of fan service from Roze’s embarrassing accommodations to Catherine’s chest bobbing around everytime she moves her mech.  But Roze and Ash’s partnership entering a new phase and the return of more old favorites gives me some hope that Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture can somehow pull of a decent finale.  We’ll find out if it can do so Next Monday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.