Code Geass Akito the Exiled: The Interquel in Europe

Most people are familiar with the R1 and R2 seasons of Code Geass, but many miss out on their interquel: Akito the Exiled. The setting is the EU in 2017, under attack by the Britannian Empire. However, the main antagonist for the series is not Charles, but a native Japanese person who joined Britannia for the purpose of taking over Europe, Shin. The EU tries to fight back, but they have to do it in strange ways.

Akito the Exiled offers a great political drama, as well as sporting good characters, and some good fight scenes to back up up. The main political point is that being a democracy made the EU too weak to participate in actual war. They portray this by making the political leaders appear so sympathetic to their constituents that they would never send a European citizen off to war. They wouldn't want to lose any votes, after all. So instead, they send mostly refugees from other nations, such as Japan.

Enter our main character, an exile from Japan, European Soldier, and Shin's younger brother, Akito. He is an extremely formal young man who can, on ocassion, go on wild killing sprees in battle. He is backed up by a competent European commander by the name of Malcal (most of the European commanders are incompetent). Due to being a democracy and the need for voter support, the theme of media and information control play heavily into the story, leading many characters to make decisions contrary to their own benefit. In times of strife such as these, Akito the Exiled makes the point that populist leaders are the most likely to succeed, which is what happens with commander Malcal.

The drama between Akito and Shin is best experienced without spoilers, so I'll move on to the fight scenes. Whether or not you like CGI shouldn't matter too much. It may be a bit jarring to see CGI in Code Geass at first, but it doesn't take away from the animation quality. Each scene is so detailed, with just the right shading that watching it in any less than 720p is a tragedy. The fights are exciting, and much more dynamic than anything you can find in Code Geass proper. It drops most of the talk about strategy the originals were known for, opting for a more action-packed story, so if you disliked the original for having weak action scenes, you may want to try this instead. There's also this new mode the European knightmares have that make them crawl on the ground. I have no idea why they added this, but it looks cool. I also like how Britannia and Europe have completely different fighting styles. The Sutherlands used by Britannia Rely on their machineguns for ranged attacks and their slash harkens for grappling. The Europeans on the other hand, use the Alexander unit which has a lower profile, and is specialized for acrobatic melee.

I would say that if you were more into the political theory aspects of the original Code Geass, or if you want to see a similar story with better action, this is the show for you. It's only five episodes, but it might as well be a full 12 considering the length of each one. When I saw this for the first time, I couldn't stop, even with each episode being 50 minutes. For those of you expecting just more of the original series, you will get a few cameos, but don't expect anything significant.