Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Code:Breaker: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Blue assassin.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 10, 2014

Some of you may recall the old Nickleodeon series What Would You Do?, which gave contestants moral quandaries and then asked them to vote on how the participants in the quandary responded. This idea has been used repeatedly for various television outings in both news and entertainment arenas, and in a way it plays a tangential role in the opening moments of Code:Breaker, a 2012 anime culled from a manga by Akimine Kamijyo. In the opening moments of the series, a pretty high school student named Sakura Sakurakouji is riding home from school on a public bus. She’s in that half awake state that is aided by the built in hypnosis of watching a road and scenery pass by. And then suddenly Sakura is startled from her semi-slumber by what appears to be some kind of conflagration outside of her window. The strange blue flames seem to be engulfing—something. And then Sakura comes to the horrifying realization that people have been set on fire by a mysterious figure standing next to them. In a panic, she manages to get a policeman to come with her to investigate the site, but nothing other than some scorch marks are found. Already some in the audience might be wondering how they would respond to something as peculiar as this, but that element is only reinforced when the next day at school, Sakura is stunned to see that a new exchange student named Rei Ogami is the very same figure she spied the evening before evidently taking out some kind of nemeses with weird blue flames. Was she dreaming? Is she crazy? Is he crazy? The choices and decisions Sakura makes once she comes to terms with this potentially dangerous interloper showing up at her school informs much of what gives Code:Breaker some of its dramatic momentum. Code:Breaker has some patently derivative elements and for some may seem like just another supernaturally tinged shōnen outing, but it manages to find a more distinctive voice as it goes along, offering yet another take on a sort of “odd couple” working together to fight the forces of evil.

While Ogami would seem to be the more menacing of the pair, Code:Breaker reveals that Sakura isn’t anyone to mess around with either. It turns out that the seemingly winsome girl can kick major butt with martial arts moves, something that soon comes into play when she’s accosted by some ruffians who may have a connection to the people she saw Ogami taking out with his magical blue flamethrower. And in fact Sakura has already decided she needs to be connected to Ogami, if only to figure out who he is and what he’s up to. Her original suspicion is that he’s up to no good, but it soon plays out that the boy is actually a so-called (no surprise here) Code Breaker, a super-powered assassin tasked with ridding society of undesirable elements.

There’s an interesting dialectic that springs up between Sakura and Ogami, where the young girl, despite her formidable battle talents, isn’t all that sure that burning bad guys into a dark blue crisp is that good of an idea. There are both some trite plot elements as well as an admitted surprise or two as the series goes along which help to explicate her feelings. One of the smartest things this series does is shy away from typical tsundere barbs which then melt into true romance, instead focusing on an actual developing friendship between Sakura and Ogami, albeit one occasionally beset by turmoil.

What really ends up working here are some manifest shades of gray in terms of motives and feelings of self worth. Ogami comes to believe he’s just as bad as many of the criminals he’s dispatching, but Sakura feels—perhaps without good reason—that there’s a salvageable soul underneath the assassin’s mask. The interplay between the two is remarkably real feeling despite the overall fantasy and supernatural elements at play in the series. Some may immediately think of Rin Okumura in Blue Exorcist when they see Ogami (and especially his method of dealing with criminals), but Ogami has some unexpected psychological depth in this series, something that helps to anchor and underpin some of the more traditional action elements.

If the series begins to teeter a bit precariously under the weight of perhaps too much inner turmoil, combined with an increasing emphasis on almost Oshii-esque labyrinths of political conspiracies, that’s at least testament to the fact that Code:Breaker isn’t content to simply trundle down a well worn path of oil and water partners learning to work together against considerable odds. Part of what sets Code:Breaker apart from at least some marginally similar series is its attention to detail, whether that be on a design level or (in my opinion more importantly) the slowly developing, evolving and changing worldviews of Ogami and Sakura. There’s a magical and perhaps ineffable formula to creating a convincing anime, and the good news is the creatives behind Code:Breaker have developed their own Enigma machine of sorts, crafting a nicely baroque but visceral series that manages to peer behind a typical action adventure veil to deliver some interesting insights into its two main characters.

Code:Breaker: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Code:Breaker is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. One of this series' strongest elements is its really well done design aesthetic, one that doesn't shirk on highly detailed backgrounds and some cool effects in the action sequences. The palette here is incredibly vivid and multivaried. An understandable emphasis on blue permeates many episodes, but there are also deliciously saturated primaries and pastels in abundance throughout the series. In fact, this very vividness points out one of the few artifacting issues with this release, prevalent banding, especially apparent when gradients segue from dark tones to light. Otherwise, though, line detail is sharp and stable and the image is clear and crisp.

Code:Breaker: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As is frequently the case with some of these releases, Code:Breaker offers the original Japanese track in Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and a rather well done English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Even original language purists may well want to at least sample the English dub, for it manifestly opens up not just the big action set pieces, but also simpler dialogue scenes and the typically very well done ambient environmental effects. Both tracks offer excellent fidelity, with clear presentation of dialogue, but the extra oomph in the low end of the 5.1 mix is extremely beneficial to the series' big action elements, and is a further reason to check out that option.

Code:Breaker: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 7 Commentary features Micah Solasud, Jerry Jewell and Todd Haberkorn.


• Episode 12 Commentary features Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jessica Cavanaugh and Ben Phillips.


• Japanese Commercials (1080p; 1:35)


• Promo Videos (1080p; 11:13)


• TV Spots (1080p; 1:12)


• Textless Opening Song "Dark Shame" (1080p; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song "Outsider" (1080p; 1:32)


• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:25)

Code:Breaker: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are a number of elements in Code:Breaker that will understandably remind anime fans of other similar properties, but the good news is this series manages to twist things around rather convincingly while at the same time managing to deliver some adroit psychological underpinnings for both Sakura and Ogami. The series is incredibly colorful, something that contrasts nicely with a somewhat dark and dour emotional ambience. Technical merits on this Blu-ray are very strong, and Code:Breaker comes Recommended.