BEYOND BRITANNIA: A HARSH CRITIQUE OF AKITO THE EXILED

RAHM JETHANI - Writer, 2nd Year, English & Japanese

“Or: The Side Story Nobody Needed (or Wanted)”

SPOILERS FOR CODE GEASS: AKITO THE EXILED!

In one of my previous articles, I briefly described my then-current thoughts on the Code Geass OVA spinoff project, Akito the Exiled. Even though my opinion has since changed, and I neither consider it a “true hidden gem” nor “peak”, I’ve maintained appreciation for Akito the Exiled’s merits that set it apart from the rest of the ever-expanding Code Geass multimedia series. That being said though, appreciation does not always equal enjoyment, so let me elaborate.

In many ways, this show is an awkward entry in the Code Geass series. Taking place in Europe instead of Japan, Akito the OVA series follows Akito the brooding teenager along with a ragtag group of soldiers who stage their own revolution against the reign of Britannia. The story is on a much smaller scale than the original anime, which isn’t something to necessarily complain about. However, its ideas ultimately culminate into nothing because the events of Akito the Exiled are awkwardly sandwiched between the first two seasons of the original Code Geass anime, leaving little room for meaningful depth (and therefore reasons for this side project’s existence) to occur. This anime doesn’t quite reach the level of ridiculousness present in other Code Geass spin-offs like Renya and Oz, but even its triumphs only serve to isolate it further from its own series. In no world is it favorable to fully evaluate Akito the Exiled as simply “another Code Geass anime”, exactly because its strengths and focuses are so different.

And contrary to popular belief, Akito the Exiled does have strengths. Relationship dynamics, fight choreography, visual aesthetic, and music are all really solid here, and are the main aspects I enjoyed while watching this series. The ways in which these elements combined in certain scenes, like the dramatic confrontation between Leila and Shin at the end of OVA 4, absolutely blew me away. However, in line with popular belief, Akito the Exiled also has strong detracting factors such as a convoluted story that makes literally no sense (and actively undermines the original’s impact), lazy and pointless fanservice, and forgettable one-note characters in comparison to the original colorful cast. Constant comparison to the original series, while perhaps not fair due to the different targets each anime aimed for, clearly highlight the narrative nosedive the Code Geass series underwent after the original series concluded.

In regards to Akito the Exiled’s flaws, it should be noted that they are relatively tame and that these problems only became exaggerated in the subsequent Code Geass multi-series projects. As a result, I still consider Akito the Exiled the best spin-off in comparison to the descendingly abysmal quality of Renya, Oz, and R3. But, bad writing is still bad writing, and I’m still very disappointed that Akito the Exiled didn’t live up to its predecessor.

While I did praise this OVA series for having good relationship dynamics, the dynamics are unfortunately more interesting than the actual characters involved in them. For example, the dynamic between the two main characters Akito and Leila was clearly well thought out, and their relationship with each other allowed for both characters to make important decisions, as well as for interesting story sequences. However, their dynamic ultimately felt unsatisfying because there was no profound or meaningful character growth. Both characters, at the start and end of the series, could be described using the same short and boring archetypes (I’ll try it now: Akito is the distant, lonely, “cool” edgelord; Leila is a caring, thoughtful woman who the public likes because she’s the one politician who’s not corrupt or racist). Likewise, pivotal characters to this story like Shin and Ashley have arbitrary and contrived reasons for doing what they do, which makes the audience’s connection with them equally arbitrary and contrived.

The fanservice in Akito the Exiled is also quite bland, clearly only used to get people to watch this series. In fairness to the Sunrise team, they did create an admittedly awesome design for the returning Lelouch, but his implementation in the story was quite forced. His segments of the story took away from time that could have been spent developing more central characters to the plot of this OVA series. Furthermore, Lelouch’s inclusion here doesn’t add anything to his character either, due to him being brainwashed during the time of Akito the Exiled. He doesn’t really do anything either, aside from making one general political announcement and getting his plans discovered by Shin so that the writers can tell the audience that Shin is really cool. This kind of storytelling is boring, belittling, and desperate.

The story of Akito the Exiled faces a lot of scrutiny, especially with its additions to the Code Geass lore, and the role of Geass in this story (although the strange pacing is an issue too). The inclusions of the Caretaker of Spacetime, “fragments of Geass”, and the reasons why certain characters have Geass are all simultaneously complicated yet unnecessarily vague. There are moments when the specific loopholes of a certain Geass allow for victory (Akito’s interpretation of Shin’s “die” command as a child), and also moments where the unexplained nature of certain Geass powers are used as a deus ex machina (Leila’s Geass can transport her back in time and also summon ghosts for some unexplained reason). This weak point of Akito the Exiled can be grouped with and described like the other two flaws I pointed out earlier: the story has arbitrary contrivances, and makes lazy writing decisions that come off as desperate and shallow.

I should say that despite these problems, I enjoyed watching Akito the Exiled. It’s a good anime to turn your brain off to, if that makes sense. As stated previously, the fight choreography, landscapes, and energetic jazz soundtrack are phenomenal. These aspects are probably better than the original series, at least in my opinion. Furthermore, this project has its unique quirks that make it worth watching as a standalone thing. The smaller cast allows for more nuances to be present and develop in relationship dynamics, and while many characters are flat, they can be quite entertaining too (Ashley in particular was awesome). However, the story and character writing can range from passable to outright atrocious, with no semblance of logic to tie it together. This series is definitely worth watching if the world of Code Geass intrigues you, but it is also full of careless writing that doesn’t care to justify itself.