8:56 PM
Friday, October 12, 2012
First Impressions: CODE:BREAKER
Finally, the first episode came out last Saturday, and the second episode is going to be released today. As a huge fan of the manga since the end of last year, I've been constantly typing "Code:Breaker anime" into the Google Search box. Because, I don't think anyone would pass the chance to adapt this manga into an anime.
And finally, it's out. Basically, Code:Breaker is about a group of law breakers who are allowed to break the law, by the law. They kill whoever they deem evil with their special abilities and that is what makes this series so special, because it all boils down to this one question: What is evil?
In the first episode, we are introduced to the main characters - Oogami Rei and Sakurakouji Sakura. The first half of the episode was pretty bland, since they focused much on the school life aspect, about how Sakura was the ideal girl in many guys' eyes and how Oogami Rei transferred into the school (in hopes he could kill Sakura if she had continued to suspect that he was the killer of many people in the park she saw that night). Thing happen and well, first half - nothing much. But when it came to the second half of the anime, I was really squealing right through the whole thing. There was action, and it was interesting to see Oogami tear off his mask (his 'nice-guy' mask) right in front of Sakura and burning criminals alive. It then ended with a real cliff hanger (not for those who had read the manga though), when Oogami placed his hand right on Sakura's face and of course, wanting to burn her alive as well.
I really, really, enjoyed the first episode, but there are a few things that I'm not satisfied with though. The voice acting cast and the animation. The animation seemed rather old school and really 2-D like (Of course, anime is 2-D), but if you compared the animation for Code:Breaker to many other animes like K or BTOOOM! Their character design for the anime doesn't stick closely to the manga, especially the females. Code:Breaker loses out majorly on animation and I had expected better though. Next, the voice acting cast, maybe it's just me, but... Even though we have Nobuhiko Okamoto and Youko Hikasa voice acting Oogami and Sakura respectively. Their voices just do not match their images. I hope Oogami's voice would man up, like honestly, and Sakura sounds just too man at times. It just takes time for their voices to grow on me I guess.
