Under the guise of peace talks, Norland unleashes a new
technological horror on the entire planet.
As the Black Knights and other worlds forces face a desperate struggle,
Roze and Ash prepare for their final battle with Norland. But nothing can prepare them for the
revelations left to discover, truths that will test their resolve like never
before. What price is too great to save
the world and how far will Roze and Ash go to attain their own redemption?
During my first review of this series, I noted how Roze of the Recapture felt a
lot like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
It eased us back into the world of Code Geass with a familiar set up and
promising new characters.
As time went
on, this analogy began to become more apparent.
If the first third of this saga was The Force Awakens, then the middle
half was The Last Jedi.
Which means that
the final chapter of Roze of the Recapture is sadly The Rise of Skywalker.
I didn’t even realize until just as I sat
down to write just how apt that comparison really is.
Does that mean Roze of the Recapture ends up
being a total wasted effort?
Not
entirely but it’s still the weakest Code Geass project to date though.
I’ve yammered on and on about how terrible the supporting
cast of the show has been, how directionless and boring Norland is, and just
how insignificant Sakura has been despite her poised to play a big role.
Roze of the Recapture has never tried to
amend any of these obvious problems and the finale, like much of the series,
suffers for it.
I couldn’t give two
cares about whether or not the Seven Shining Stars pull of a big win.
I know none of their names and Haruka isnt
even Kallen-lite, Kallen was way more interesting, even in her own one second
cameo in the last episode.
And as for
Sakura, for a character who seemed to be just as important to the story as Roze
or Ash, she’s practically done nothing and does even less in the finale.
The main mission to rescue her that started
this whole series seems like a distant memory, as is the close friendship of
Roze and Sakura, who haven’t even gotten a scene together since the prison
break in back in the Premiere.
It’s an
overall waste of a cast that brought nothing to the table outside of randos to
fill out the required huge cast that comes with a Mecha Anime.
And then there’s Norland.
I wont spoil his big reveal but yeah this is where the Rise of Skywalker
analogy really comes into play.
Let’s
just say “Somehow (Spoiler) returned”, and it all goes downhill from
there.
It isnt just a lazy way to up the
stakes, it’s an equally lazy way to try and give Norland some depth and even
more importance.
Neither work.
This is summed up best when Roze demands to
know why Norland is suddenly running a global genocide from the cockpit of his
Mech.
Each questions is responded with
“it is not”.
It’s like the writers
really had no idea what to do with Norland outside of his character design:
make him big and scary and give him a Gundam Char Mask.
Other than that, he’s just been quiet,
brooding and prone to scaring the mess out of people when we’ve seen no reason
why.
The truth of why his is this
way…it’s so freaking dumb, just…it really is one of the worst parts of the
entire franchise.
Why was this a thing?
Speaking of needless returns, remember seeing Akito,
Lelia and Suzaku at the end of the last set?
Remember how exciting it was knowing they were being called back to
action to protect most of the world?
I
honestly shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up because we check in with all of them
for like 15 seconds each before cutting back to the Seven Shining Stars trying
to be useful.
For all my wanting of Code
Geass to have a story work without resorting to having Lelouch or Suzaku
appear, I couldn’t help but want them back.
Heck, how cool would it have been to see Ash kicking ass alongside
Suzaku and Akito?
How fun would it have
been to see Kallen totally school Haruka?
What about Cornelia showing up with the Black Knights to show the SSS
how real freedom fighters get stuff done?
I wanted the old crew back together again (except for Kaguya, she’s
still one of the most pointless characters Code Geass has tried to push who
contributes nothing of value).
Guess you
could say that’s another Star Wars Sequel Trilogy comparison there.
Where the Series Finale does succeed is where most, if
not all, of the writing went to: Roze and Ash.
Forget their allies, forget Sakura, heck forget Norland…well you cant
cause they need someones ass to kick in the end.
This has been Roze and Ash’s show from the
start and their complex dynamic has been an incredible rollercoaster, saving
the show from becoming just another cliché run of the mill Mecha series.
In their final battle against Norland, Roze
and Ash had their resolves and partnership tested in the way only Code Geass
knows how to do.
There’s no easy
solution, no risk without sacrifice, and even moments where the two had “all is
lost” moments.
There’s more raw emotion
poured into every moment of Roze and Ash’s final scenes than anything else in
Roze of the Recapture, more than the action (which is still pretty
impressive.
Roze and Ash’s mecha taking
on Norland and Ash vs. Arnold in a sword duel were some of the best action in
the show), more than anything happening with any other character.
Hands down, if nothing else worked with this
project, Roze and Ash sure as hell did, joining Lelouch and Suzaku and Akito
and Lelia as co leads worthy of Code Geass legends.
Final Thoughts.
Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture feels familiar but is nowhere near as
good as the Anime it’s spinning off from.
The setup feels lazy; the heroes and villains are more characatures than
actual characters; the action suffers from lack of emotional connection to
characters and their lack of motivations; and when the fan favorites do show
up, you wanna see them more than anything the show can offer.
Only Roze and Ash come out the strongest from
this whole endeavor as one of the best pairings in all of Code Geass.
Whenever theyre not on screen, the show
suffers considerably.
Had this been a 25
episode series a lot of the problems could have been ironed out and even
improved upon.
Instead, this 12 episode
story, broken down from four movies, lacks time to develop anyone besides Roze
and Ash and doesn’t bear much of what made Code Geass such a hit in the first
place.
Even Akito the Exiled did a
better job with six episodes than Roze of the Recapture.
Yeah, Roze and Ash are the only things worth
investing time in with this spin off…but damn they deserved a better series
around them overall.
5/10
Before we head into our
Macross heavy back half of
Mega Mecha Summer, we’re going to be doing a special look at an OVA Trilogy
that apparently inspired a lot of scifi epics from the late 90s and whose first
chapter was used as the basis for the non canonical Robotech: The Movie.
This Wednesday, we journey to the far off
world of
Megazone 23 with
Megazone 23, Part I right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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