Code Geass: Dakkan no Roze – Episode 12 Review (END)

「浅緋 -Breaking Dawn-」 (Asaake: Breaking Dawn)
“Breaking Dawn

NEVER SPEAK AGAIN

As hard as I want to be on this show, especially with how the last episode turned out, I’m going to miss these goofballs. There was so much potential brimming from Sakuya being a stressed out tactician needing to micromanage all of their alter egos and Ash being the kind yet oblivious knight who has to hash over their wavering emotions outside the battlefield. Building upon these would have made the show’s revelations all the more impactful while also keeping the bulk of the drama focused on our original characters.

But my biggest beef with this spin-off is how reliant the anime had gotten on cameos, nostalgia, and tying the main conflict back to Charles zi Britannia. As soon as the Charles clone reveal happened, it went from being another adventure in the Code Geass universe isolated from Lelouch’s story to a reunion special where we just have to see what everyone else is up to and why the remnants of Charles are haunting the world from beyond the grave.

While Geass as a mechanic is horrifically underutilized in Dakkan no Roze, I liked how Ash instantly thought of going back into Geass to strengthen his abilities. Using Geass as a steroid is commonplace, but it’s refreshing for someone to outright admit it. It’s what made Suzaku kill-proof and desperately drove others to fight for self-preservation, so Ash knowing that much makes it easier to see why he’d want to go under again and adds an interesting layer in the people of the universe being slightly aware of the superhuman agility that a Geass spell can have them do.

I wasn’t a fan of Ash being randomly killed off. It felt like they wanted to add some kind of cost to the battle with Norland, but throwing it in there was very out-of-the-blue and gave off the impression that they threw in a sacrifice scene because the stakes were too low at that point. Kudos to Reina Ueda though because her grieving wail as Sakuya gave me some goosebumps and sold the weight of Ash’s untimely demise.

It is a kick in the shins that the one time Geass was used in the post-credits is to silence Sakuya altogether. Even though her inner circle wouldn’t take advantage of her being unable to speak, it’s a shame that the ending that they planned for a female protagonist was making sure that she stayed quiet for the rest of her life while everyone else gets to keep their personal autonomy.

There was fun in seeing Sakuya navigate manhood with her Roze disguise, but it’s hard not to overthink why they presented their main character as a man only to keep her mouth shut once she no longer needed the disguise. Loran from Turn A Gundam had a situation where he was presented as a man, but had a woman disguise to give the show a roundabout way of putting a lady in the main Gundam’s cockpit.

But here, we’re selling the show on a guy being the main character only to show it off as a girl’s disguise when it’s time to see her breasts flopping about or when it’d look too awkward to see Roze’s agency being taken away by others. Whether you think this has a happy ending or not depends on what kind of future you would imagine for Sakuya now that she’s removed her ability to speak on behalf of herself or others.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

It’s been difficult coming around to this post because I know full-well that it will be my last Final Impression on an anime for Random Curiosity. I have one final post prepared for my farewell, but I’ll be stepping away from blogging once that is published. As you can tell from my release schedule, I’ve been having a harder time coming up with the words to say about the anime I’ve been following throughout the past year. It has more to do with the shows I’ve chosen than my other hobbies I’ve picked up throughout the years.

Instead of picking anime where my fingers can’t stop typing what I think about it, I find myself trying to come up with something, anything to say about the latest episode of shows I didn’t wind up liking in the end. It made me feel worse when I got invested in shows I’m not covering these past two seasons and know that I’d be able to do them more justice than the shows I’m covering. It’s more of a bad luck streak than anything, but it’s the kind of bad luck that makes me feel like I should be passing the torch to someone who can foster a more positive energy about this year’s anime.

My farewell post will be more detailed in how I feel, but I leave with a very positive impression on Random Curiosity and the opportunity it gave me to be expressive about two of my favorite hobbies; writing and watching anime. These weekly analysis posts have given me a chance to look at anime in a way that scratched the same itch I have analyzing films and movies. It was an awesome creative outlet for me, and although all good things come to pass, I’ll always cherish my time with Random Curiosity. Thank you all, and look forward to my farewell post soon.