Sep 7, 2024
It's been 16y since Code Geass ended, that sure was a long time ago, its epilogue was fairly conclusive and narratively speaking it really didn't felt like further exploration into the future of the franchise was needed (preque, interquel spin off, sure whatever you see fit)
Yet Roze is somehow a bit of that, but not really either at the same time.
It's a sequel because strictly speaking it happens shortly after the end of the original anime
It's a sequel because the overall world structure is a direct consequence of the events at the end of R2
It's a sequel because they made a parade of previously important
...
characters that happened to be more or less relevant (rather less than more)
It's a sequel of nearly everything that came before because they felt obligated to showcase older characters coming from OVA, spin off manga, mobile games or whatever
It's a sequel because visually speaking it does capture the whole Code Geass vibes, mecha and character designs alike
It's not a sequel because the whole main cast is made of new characters, protagonists and antagonists
It's not a sequel because the setting is in Hokkaido and doesn't explore any other place
It's not a sequel because, except at the end, it deals with a specific geopolitical conflict that bears not much importance to the world or the whole series
It's not a sequel because besides the chief animator, the whole staff behind this anime is farily new, the original Code Geass creators left to do other things
And in the end it manages to fail at both being a sequel and an original anime.
It fails a sequel because the whole legacy and cohesive structure from what came before fall off as soon as older characters show off, they're just shown there as if it was mandatory but are all used as a useless parade that bears no consequence to the unraveling plot
It fails as an original anime because everything is rushed beyond what you could imagine, characters come and go, events happen "because", evil guys are evil, good guys are good, battles strategies are non existant, mech battles are dictated by the rule of cool (and sometimes it is cool), the whole "Oh no the world is in danger" happens suddenly and is 100% undeserved and impossible to justify within the given informations shared by the plot.
And to top it ofl it tries to parade everything Code Geass had done but worse : nearly the whole cast are copy paste of Code Geass characters but worse, plenty of story beats are "oh that stuff happened in Code Geass but was much better", grandiloquent monologues feels like a total waste of time in a 12 episodes format, sometimes characters are jumping off between two scenes and it's hard to understand how and why they did it.
And overall you just wonder how the antagonist mastermind managed to gather a whole organization behind him considering he's a complete nazi and doesn't even bother hiding it (which is making the "good guys within the bad guy group" extremely laughable, what the hell are you even doing there in the first place ? Are you braindead ?)
There are good points here and there
- Grounded rolling mech battles, despite being in 3D, are actually quite enjoyable and typical of Code Geass, the jump in quality coming from Akito is appreciated
- Some good characters writing can be found... at times, the Roze and Ash dynamic is ok, so is the Sakuya/Sakura one, but not the entirety of it
- Musics can be dope at times, it's fairly different from what was done before but I'm in, the opening music is cool too (the visuals not so much)
- ... I think that's it really, struggling to come with others stuff despite racking my brain for a few minutes
Overall I wouldn't recommand that anime to anyone, it's a complete wet fart as a semi sequel and it's completely unsatisfying and downright insulting in terms of writing at times as a standalone anime.
Its production values make it stand off above most other things, it also has good action scenes, music and overall visuals, but a nice facade is not enough to make me want enter ever again a completely rundown building.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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