The more of these they make the more I worry about the upcoming R3. Spoilers for Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito 3 Kagayaku Mono Ten yori Otsu Akito Movie 3 is stupidity at its finest. The Akito subseries is already filled to the brim with utterly ridiculous moments in the first two films alone but this movie takes it up to endearing levels of stupidity despite what it does to the series canon and how it makes the whole geass stuff even more convoluted than ever before. People claim that this was the start of the fall of the series when honestly it was horrible to begin with. All of the same problems except bad CGI because its improved here are on full display like dumb character decisions poor usage of Geass in terms of justifying it and how it works edgy writing and MC and bland characters though the main protagonists are far less dull here. However the writer managed to become even dumber than before which is quite an accomplishment and the pacing really ruins itself. Absolutely nothing makes sense in this movie. Somehow our military protagonists get financially locked out and unable to get into their military building and then a group of old ladies tries to hustle the group and then the group works for them for a while. We dont know how we got to this point. We also learn plenty of backstories like for Akito Leila and that one scientist lady who keeps her lover in some kind of stasis in hopes of him recovering however each of these backstories is rushed beyond belief making it hard to process them. The pacing of this movie is terrible because of that things rarely get to breathe and flesh themselves out properly. We then see Julius Shin SpinZaku and others coming together and then Julius enacts his fake terrorism plan and it works. After a game of chess against Shin we see him flip out after saying your majesty because somehow that triggers his actual memories as Lelouch now despite him saying it a lot beforehand. He flips out passes out and Shin tells them that he killed him though he obviously didnt since if he did R2 couldnt exist as well as some stuff shot killing people we never heard of and this EuroBritannia stuff we never heard of until minutes prior in this film with no explanation of what it is. Then this weird geass lady shows up from the TV somehow to tell Gene Smilas what to do and we end on a hokey fist fight. What a mess. Things are just thrown in there with no proper explanation and the pacing goes far too fast. It only added more problems to the already broken Akito narrative and has potentially jeopardized the continuity of R2. Aside from boring Akito the other 4 major protagonists actually get to show off their fun side even if it makes the rebel trio in particular feel like completely different people if not for their singular trait from before that occasionally appears. Ayano has the biggest personality change and it all comes out of left field though for her it compliments her beauty more. Let it not be said that these three arent more likable and that they arent less generic now because they are. The lightningfast pacing doesnt let the backstories tell themselves well either especially for Leila. Plus the gypsies are annoying and not well written. Now to the other side of this conflict. Julius is pathetic. Hes just an arrogant man who goes crazy for the most ludicrous of reasons and is reduced to someone pathetic almost like a sick parody of the man he was in the TV series. His plan is compared to what the real Lelouch did despite him never doing something like that in the original series and I cant explain why he is so pathetic about water. Shin is every bit as onenote as ever but its interesting to see how the other guys are dicks to him behind his back. We luckily only get to see the badass side of Suzaku and not the abhorrent and hypocritical side of him but he cant help much. Then we get this hot but disturbingly onenote lady of Geass who we know nothing about in the second to last scene of the film and apparently we dont see her again in the next one. Just...why? Yet with everything I said it seems like the movie did learn something as its visuals are a massive step up from the previous movies. For one the characters move quite a lot at least thrice as much as the first two films combined which shouldnt have been as big a relief as it was. Also the CGI in the second half of the film has vastly improved notably in the battle between Suzaku and Shins forces. Sure they would look more appropriate in a PS3 video game but the CGI is far more fitting for a mech given how metallic they all look now like the kickass Lancelot. Sure the action directing still needs work but everything including the looks and effects of geass is a major step up from before. Still doesnt beat the original series but hey its still better than what came before including the CGI in the first half of the film. Theres a surprising number of new songs in the first 40 minutes and they work much better and are more varied than the other ones. Unfortunately we still have to put up with the other generic tracks and the generic ED and even the new tracks dont stick out but theres at least some flavor coming from these new tracks flavor that actually fits unlike the flaring trumpets track. Its a step up here as well and I hope to hear more interesting tracks from this subseries in the future especially since it makes the OST actually have its own identity for once instead of just sounding like a lamer version of the main series OSTs. I wonder why people call this film worse than the other two and the start of Akitos decline. Its not much worse than the awful second film in terms of writing and theres actually a sense of charm here even if most of it came from unintentional hilarity. Is it because the first half felt weird and out of place? Perhaps but it at least had characters actually doing things and actually trying to get more fleshed out. Is it because its boring? Id disagree and say that the first film is far more boring but hey opinions. However you cant really say the series is starting to get dumb since it has always made absolutely no sense especially during the second film. Its just that the ball of suck keeps rolling even if this time around it manages to be enjoyably terrible. Plus the CGI and music improved and there is actually a lot of character animation. Perhaps an indepth discussion can lend me some insight but for now this is as entertaining as this subseries has been so far quality notwithstanding.