As some of you may already know, I'm a big fan of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Season 1 remains my favorite television series to date, and R2 was still pretty fun and equally ambitious. You can imagine how intrigued I was when I heard that it got a sub-series that was meant to explore some new territory in the lore of the franchise. After all, there is so much we don't know, like the origins of geass or what exactly happened between the 1-year gap between the events of R1 and R2, or even delving into the EU, which was never actually shown in the main series. Unfortunately, as you will see throughout this review, I was disappointed by it, in part due to one reason: Akito the Exiled has no ambition.

This film has no drive. It simply feels like an addition to a franchise rather than a brand new installment that explores uncharted territory. Whether or not you liked the original series, you have to admit that it had a lot of ambition. It tried to be fun, humorous, and nuanced at the same time, and it balanced each part well. Whether or not you think the attempt worked is up to interpretation. This doesn't have that, and it shows given how boring this slop is.

If there's anything I can compliment about Akito, it's that it treats the franchise with respect. It never does anything to jeopardize the continuity of the main series, and it expands on one key thing I wanted to know about: the EU. Also, the first half doesn't have many story issues. Simply, after a battle in which the only survivor is Akito, he needs up with one of his superiors, Leila (the one in charge of her main crew and the operation), and they head to a party in which he threatens a scumbag who was mistreating the one he is meant to guard (Lelia). Little goes on here aside from an action scene but that's alright; it's just the first 24 minutes.

The second half is what really killed the story. There’s this rebel trio who blows up their douchey superiors for seemingly no reason. I mean it, we don't know why they did that aside from possibly not wanting to take orders. Then, they attack or protagonists for seemingly no reason. Did they believe they were defenseless officials? Did they know those guys were armed and ready? We sure don't know what was going through their heads. They get captured by Leila (she never explains why she spared them), and then a guy killing his boss and potentially becoming an antagonist in the future. He grasses him, but we don't know what it does aside from the boss killing himself afterward. The lines of taking a trip don't help matters either. We end on Akito being edgy and saying “I died once” and that's a wrap. I know you can't really get much out of 50 minutes, no can you always put a lot into it, especially when it's introductory, but that's hardly an excuse for what happened here.

Let’s start with Leila since she’s the first MC we see. She's a bland “righteous princess and poor people activist” archetype that happens to know some self-defense techniques. Conversely, Akito is surprisingly malevolent, even by Code Geass standards, with his first scene showing him in a bloodthirsty rampage and many subsequent scenes having him sport the most wicked of evil grins. Other than that, he’s pretty standard, and the last scene really paints him as edgy. Neither of these two really have much to them, but they're better than the other characters who are literally archetypes as nothing else, like Leila’s older “brother” or the geass guy towards the end who makes his master kill himself. There’s also the heavily enteric rebel trio who apparently want a place to belong, but their actions are clearly not indicative of that. What a dimensionless bunch.

As for the character art, while it is missing the shine that the characters in the original do, making these guys more akin to what comes out of Light Novels, their designs feel strictly “Code Geass” with the even more exaggerated version of the already exaggerative CLAMP style. Unfortunately, unless someone is disarming someone hand-to-hand, don't expect much to any movement with these characters. The most you'll usually get is a little bit of walking. Calling this animated is a formality at this point, at least for the characters.

Now for the elephant in the room: the CGI. The CGI Knightmares tend to look terrible here, and are equally poor in terms of integration; some of the background vehicles aren't an exception either. The mecha designs mostly remain the same, but the new ones from the first battle are awful, especially the eyes that make the Knightmare that Akito pilots look non-threatening. I appreciate the detail that went into the mechs of the first battle, but it doesn't work that well. The mechs in the second battle look like they were ripped from a cel-shaded GameCube game from 2003, and it is also poorly integrated, chief among them being what one of the rebels fights to take out most of the soldiers surrounding Leila before Akito steps in. The CGI explosions look hideous as well. Hopefully, the subsequent films improve the CGI integration and Knightmare designs.

The directing in this film is also pretty terrible, especially for the action scenes. The camera looks like it was operated by a schizophrenic cameraman, which makes it difficult to process what's going on at times. Even outside of battle, sometimes the camera doesn't keep up that well, notably in one instance in the beginning before we heard back to the first battle. However, I do like the cockpit screens. Still, all in all, whenever there is actual animation, it's done with poorly integrated CGI mechs that we can't properly see fighting due to the camera, unlike in the original series. In fact, you'd think they'd be able to make even better fights on a 50-minute film than on a 25 episode television series (applied to either season of Geass) but I guess not.

The music was not done by Kotaro Nakagawa this time around, and it honestly shows. Someone else was in charge, and while the music does feel reminiscent of the feel of the amazing tracks of the main series, it's shockingly bland. There's this one piece with the crazy trumpets used in an action scene, but it doesn't fit well at all with either the action of the scene or the atmosphere surrounding it. The ED theme is also pretty bland, but EDs aren't really the franchise’s strong suit, unlike the OPs and OSTs, so I guess that's to be expected.

Ultimately, this was an unremarkable and poorly executed project, and I desperately hope this sub-series doesn't get much worse. Its characters are as dull and lifeless as its narrative, the action is terribly handled, and overall I'm left without a reason to care. Say what you will about the original series (and I have), but it always tried its damnedest to give you a reason to be engaged, whilst this right here is the epitome, nay, the embodiment of being sub-par!