In Akito The Exiled, Leila Malcal, commander of her very own W-0 unit for the European army, takes on dangerous missions with her powerful and mysterious lieutenant, Akito Hyuga. With a group of rebels on their side, they fight the Britannian army but face more than the typical perils of war. A foe from Akito’s past seeks his life and a dark power threatens all that Leila has worked for.
The Plot
This OVA series takes us back into the world of Geass with a short 5 episode OVA. The plus side is each episode is nearly 1 hour-long. That makes this more equivalent to 10 standard anime episodes (nearly a full season). The story takes place between seasons 1 and 2 of the original series. We pick up some time after the screens went to black between Lelouch and Suzaku with gunshots. We meet Leila and Akito, her lieutenant and an 11 himself.
The Euro Britannian armies are pushing against Europa, but Leila’s W-0 unit, and more specifically Akito was code-named “The ghost of hannibal”. They have managed to wipe out large squads. Each time, it’s as if they appear out of nowhere. The first battle we see them in Akito is the only one who makes it out alive, and we quickly see why. He is under the influence of Geass. Akito forms up a new squad with others like him and Leila and fight for Europa’s freedom against Britannia.
I didn’t want to give away the entire plot above to avoid spoilers. But moving forward in the review: BE WARNED SPOILERS!
Review
There is something eerily timely about the story plot in Akito The Exiled. The use of fake news to spread panic and fight a war. The geo-political atmosphere and story line are very real feeling in 2017. But that is about as far as I am going to go comparing the story to real life. The OVA has all the feels and thrills of the original series with a different set of characters to focus on. Akito reminded me a lot of Suzaku at first, and pushed more towards Lelouch in the middle.
The character building was well done. Geass was brought in as a very different thing in the OVA. Here Geass was a power to save humanity, and it was corrupted by some men, while with Leila it was pure. In the original series it was all about power, not so much for good or evil. If anything, it just proved that like with Lelouch, this type of power would get abused.
New characters aside, we all got to see our favorite two leads from Code Geass, Suzaku and Lelouch, at least for a little bit. Lelouch though went under the name Lord Kingsley. If you have watched season 2, you know why. If you caught on watching the OVA you realize that he survived and the King has wiped his memory. It is also clear from what few scenes we got with them, that Suzaku has not forgiven Lelouch for what he did. Though in that very last scene we truly get to see how much he cares for his friend who is desperate to just end it all.
World building is something I enjoy, so even if the story of Akito adds no major movement to the main story, it builds the world more. Between that and a connect the dots style setup for Lelouch and how we end up at season 2 was nicely set. Akito The Exiled hit all the right feels spots and thrill spots for me. And I have to speak a little bit about the voice actors this round. The accent for Leila and the others were very well done. Enjoyed Micah Solusod as Akito, and the return of Johnny Yong Bosch as Lelouch with Yuri Lowenthal as Suzaku.
Whats Included
So what all do you get with this release? You get the Funimation standard Blu-Ray/DVD double pack of the series which comes with some episode commentaries but that’s about it on the discs. But that’s made up for with a really nice set of art cards. Check out the art cards which I posted on my Instagram and then check out Funimation’s “Hey, Nice Package” unboxing video of the Akito The Exiled release.
Pick up your copy over on Amazon.com today.
https://youtu.be/k-8heF3aeKU
