Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Series Review: Nowhere Near As Impressive As The Amount Of Punctuation in the Title Suggests

Posted on by Karandi
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Overview:

Set in the Victorian era, Cardia is alone in a tower when the military come for her. She’s then kidnapped by a thief. Turns out she has some weird poison in her that burns pretty much everything and there’s some terrorist plot to destroy London and then the world. However this is based on a game and at times that probably shows.

Review:

There’s a lot about Code: Realize that makes you think this anime feels it should be more epic in nature than it actually is. Firstly, the overly grandiose and punctuation filled title. Secondly, the scale of the conflict. Finally, the large and mostly under-realised cast of characters. Basically this story has a lot going for it but ultimately ends up pretty mediocre as it plods through introduction episodes of the cast of pretty-boys who seem to exist only in reference to source material before we finally get around to a fairly run-of-the-mill defeat the bad-guy kind of conclusion with a bit of romance thrown in.

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That isn’t to say there is a single thing wrong with any of that. It actually works fairly well and as a story and an anime it remains highly functional. It is visually fairly appealing and while the sound track is forgettable it isn’t bad and even the characters work well enough even if none of them are particularly exceptional. And that’s where reviewing this show is challenge. Everything is there and works well enough and yet nothing stands out or makes you want to take note.

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I would have liked more of Van and Drac’s story. Learning more about Fran rather than one episode of focus and then fade into the background would have been great too. Less of Nemo (and there wasn’t much) would have been fantastic. A narrative more focused just on Cardia and Lupin could have been amazing. Yet, what we get instead is superficial skimming over a range of characters’ and a plot that will get us from A to B but not make you want to remember the how or why of it.

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I could continue but basically the end result is everything about this story was pretty average. The one complaint I will level at it is a personal one and that is Cardia’s personality. She starts almost completely blank and it takes about four episodes before she’s really exhibiting anything close to a personality and then she essentially stalls for the remainder of the series wavering between damsel in distress and tragic heroine. Neither is particularly appealing though her interactions with Lupin remained fairly entertaining.

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All and all, if you really like this style of story with the girl who is loved by all the guys and you happen to be a fan of kind-of Victorian settings, than you will have some fun with this. If you are after a deep and meaningful story line or characters with some depth and substance, look elsewhere.

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Episode Reviews:

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Karandi James

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Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 12: A Neat Package

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

I know I complain when things don’t resolve, but this was a very neat conclusion. Finis, father, Cardia’s poison, her relationship with Lupin, everything tied up in a pretty little bow. I guess that’s kind of been this show from start to finish though. It just kind of did its thing never particularly well but not making many mis-steps either.

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The end result has been a fairly sterile viewing experience. Nothing really to complain about but nothing to be excited about and this final is no different from anything else in the series so far. All in all, not a terrible watch but nothing amazing. I’ll do a full series review soon.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 11: Save Cardia, Save the World

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

The race is on for Lupin and co to rush off and save Cardia off of Nemo’s Nautilus. That sounds a lot more dramatic than this episode actually is, but it kind of speaks for this show. It remains very careful as it steps through all the necessary parts of a story including this build to a climactic finish and yet there remains something lacking from this show.

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Part of me wishes the harem didn’t exist and the story had maintained a tighter focus on Lupin and Cardia, or maybe more was done to build up Finis as some kind of threat and not a giggling maniac who ultimately just serves as a vessel for the actual and yet unseen villain of the story. Of course, the story is functional as is, it just isn’t terribly exciting.

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Next week I guess we’ll see how Lupin didn’t die at the end of this episode and how he saves the girl. I just can’t really imagine any other ending at this point.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 10: I Guess We’re Building to a Climax

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

I guess this is what happens when your story has everything it needs and yet still falls pretty flat. While some people might really be enjoying this I just found this episode (much like most of the series so far) incredibly paint by numbers and just kind of soulless. We have the heroes doing that thing as they run toward the final battle where lesser members of the crew keep peeling off to hold back the enemy.

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Maybe if I’d cared about Drac’s character or, well, anything this could be touching and dramatic but mostly it was pretty much just a matter of side character E now stops to…

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Van get’s a few moments this episode mostly just to remind us that he’s never really been on board with the rest of the crew because he has his own revenge thing going on. Still, even he realises how pathetic that is mid-way through the episode and I wonder if we’ll hear about it again or whether that’s kind of been given its token screen time and done.

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Lastly, we get the over the top revelation of Code Realize and accompanied by Finis’ best impression of a villain’s cackling laughter and the end result just left me shrugging my shoulders. There’s not one thing inherently wrong with this episode and not a single thing to actually get me to care about what happens next.

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Karandi James.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 9: Rallying the Troops

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

Right, so we still don’t actually know what Code Realize is, other than a plot to destroy the world for reasons unknown. And we still don’t know what Idea is actually up to or what they think the ‘correct’ course is for humanity, other than they think killing Cardia is a step in the right direction. But we have learned that we should never, ever let an anime doctor perform first aid given the state the troops were in as they prepared to go to battle. Why a bandage would be wrapped around the outside of shirt, jacket and everything else is entirely beyond me.

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Basically this episode consolidates each of the main guys in Cardia’s harem (even though clearly we have a Cardia/Lupin pairing going on). Saint gives Cardia poison to kill herself with and then does some soul searching before returning at the end. Each of the other characters voice doubts, motives, other random bits of exposition with a few lame jokes, and Lupin recovers from being shot multiple times (by lying on the side with the arm that has the bullet wound – logical) and then they all come together for a pep talk.

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I didn’t actually dislike this episode. It is just more of the same for this show. It goes through the motions and is watchable enough but nothing exceptional or particularly noteworthy.

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Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 8: The Enemy of My Enemy

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

For an episode that actually had a pretty dramatic ending (predictable but still dramatic) the rest of this episode just kind of felt like it was going through the motions. London is burning, soldiers are rebelling, and Cardia and Lupin return, reunite with the others and decide to save the Queen.

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I don’t know why Cardia and Lupin had to return and reunite with everyone before that could happen but I guess it worked out better than what the other guys were doing before they reunited which seemed to be nothing except staring around and terrifying already terrified deserters from the army.

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Finis remained a cackling cliché of an unthreatening villain spouting various threats and declarations in between cackles but still accomplishing almost nothing as the group slip through his fingers yet again.

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All and all, pretty ordinary. And yet, Saint finally gets a little bit of a story in this episode and while it wasn’t unexpected, it turned out to be more interesting than anticipated. More importantly, it set up that fairly dramatic ending. Now I don’t doubt that this show will squander most of that drama with an overly simplified conclusion to the scenario in the next episode, but at least it let the episode end on a high note.

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Karandi James.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 7: Is Finis Relevant?

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

This episode begins with a recap of Finis tormenting Cardia in his own internal monologue and ends with him laughing maniacally, but I have to wonder what purpose he actually serves. It is Cardia and Finis’ father who actually has the terrorist plot that we are slowly closing in on. Finis at this point seems more like a side-show. The child who didn’t get enough attention and is blowing things up with a ‘look at me’ mentality. Maybe he’ll prove to be more than a distraction but I just don’t see how at this point.

Code7bThis episode instead focussed first on Cardia returning to a place from her past and being confronted by a mob of villagers stirred up by a priest who act exactly how you would expect them to in this kind of setting. This is where we do actually get a step closer to the plot which is a welcome relief at this point. Then we move on to Lupin’s tragic back story because despite being fairly prominent thus far, he was a character we knew very little about.

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Anyway, Lupin is bringing Cardia back to London and that’s where we see that Finis has made his move. Not sure what burning London down accomplishes but he seems pretty pleased with himself. All and all, this episode is about what you would expect if you’ve watched up to this point. Neither particularly good or bad to be honest.

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Karandi James.

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Code Realize Episode 5: Fran Get’s His Angsty Back Story

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

Something I will never ever understand is why so many writers feel that every character needs a tragedy in their back story. Some people could just have normal lives until the event that is occurring in the story. They don’t all need to have overcome multiple tragedies prior to the story in order to be interesting.

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So having safely established that Van has a dark and angsty back story and now that he’s helping Cardia he is slowly healing even while harbouring towering resentment, this week we get treated to Fran’s dark past as an alchemist for the state. I’m kind of indifferent to his history during the Vampire wars but I did like that Cardia was proactive during most of this episode. She follows Fran, engages in an actual conversation with him, and at the end lays many of his fears to rest. It is almost as though she has thrown off blank slate protagonist mode and become a real character. Almost. She’s still a little dull but at least she is taking an active role here.

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Still, four soldiers being unable to shoot fleeing targets in a straight alley, no matter how bad the guns were back then, is just a little pathetic. Again with incompetent trained soldiers or at least having to really suspend any kind of logical thought. The alley isn’t that wide so even if they can’t shoot straight you would think four of them would manage to hit something.

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I wonder what they will get up to next now that the whole train issue is resolved and swept under the rug.

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Karandi James.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 4: Just a Few Holes in the Plan

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

While this show is obviously not trying to be a super spy thriller  (quite obviously so), this episode still made me raise my eyebrows more often than I would like as I struggled to ignore lapses in logic that were just trying to throw me out of what was an otherwise enjoyable romp (even if not a realistic one). But before I get to that, basically we finally see the attempted train job where they want to abduct Finis and it goes about as well as you would expect such a plan to go this early in a series.

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The actual train job itself is fun to watch but you really can’t spend too much time thinking or it all kind of falls apart. Firstly, what is with the plans they are looking at in the mansion? Basically it is the drawing of the outside of a train carriage. It isn’t a map of the tracks, nor a detailed view of the carriage interior. There aren’t even enough carriages for them to be mapping out who is going to be where. Yet all the characters gather around and stare at it as they discuss their plans like it has any kind of significance.

Secondly, what did Cardia think her role was? She seemed totally surprised when Lupin passed her the explosive and told her to take care of the decoupling. Given she served no other purpose in the plan up to that point, what exactly did she think she was accomplishing other than escorting Lupin? Admittedly, they could have made that work if Lupin had given her the explosives after being confronted by the hilariously named Herlock Sholmes and Lupin was improvising but he gave her the explosive and the explanation before that as though it had always been his plan. If Lupin had always planned it, why wasn’t Cardia in on it? Seems weird to suddenly thrust that on her mid-job.

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There’s a couple of other bits and pieces but the biggest one is the flying contraption thing that originally carries Lupin with Impey flying and Lupin comments on its shakiness to which Impey points out it is only designed to carry one. Then at the end we have Impey flying, Lupin hanging from a ladder carrying Cardia in his arms and Van holding onto the end of the ladder and yet no issues flying away from the air ship. Um… If it was shaking with two and you add an additional two common sense would suggest the thing shouldn’t still be in the air.

None of this really stops the episode being fun because we get to see all the characters in action and Cardia actually doesn’t repeat anything back to anyone this episode as a question so has come a long way in the last three episodes. It is good fun, just not logical.

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Code Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ Episode 3: Well I Guess We Had To Expect Vampires

Posted on by Karandi
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Review:

It didn’t really click last week given the nature of this show but I guess when you introduce Van Helsing into your mix of characters, having vampires actually be real and show up in the story just makes sense. And then making Cardia see herself as the lonely monster reflected by the orphan vampire boy… Well, it all makes sense even if it does lead to a little bit of eye rolling.

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They are also working to make Van seem like a tragic character given he has so little other personality at the moment. When all else fails, kill off his entire family after forcing him to kill innocent vampires. That will really hit the audience empathy button.

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In fairness, it worked pretty well and by the final scene where Van is training Cardia for the upcoming mission against Twilight, you kind of do have a bit of sympathy for Van and his cause. What did bother me was that they set up this episode by planning to attack a train and the whole vampire story was just a training exercise for Cardia so it made this feel like filler while we delayed getting to the actual story. This story felt like it deserved better than to be squeezed in as training filler.

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Karandi James.

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