This movie (or the theatrically released trilogy, if you prefer) is the “dark chapter” of the story—you know, where things go from a generally stable status quo to “the worst thing ever.” In just a few unfortunate moments. But while there’s plenty of action (and some of the best mecha battles in the series to date), the internal conflicts—personal and spiritual—are really the focus here.
The main setup here is that Sakuya and Ash learn the truth about each other. For Sakuya, this means discovering that Ash was always her ally—and that her Geass command was the worst thing she ever did to him. For Ash, this means having to accept not only Sakuya's casual cruelty, but also his full past and the promises he made at the worst possible times.
In a meta sense, this conflict is another comparison between Sakuya and Lelouch. For much of the original Code Geass anime, Lelouch is focused solely on his ultimate goal—often doing terrible things to both enemies and allies to achieve that goal. His selfish actions often have unintended consequences—especially when it comes to his Geass. Yet even when confronted with them, he still doubles down on his original goal—continuing the cycle.
Sakuya, on the other hand, is able to learn from her mistakes. Faced with the fact that her unrestrained use of Geass has caused great harm to the person who should have been her greatest ally, she is more than repentant—she is willing to die for her sins after Sakura is rescued if that is what Ash wants. And it is important to note that her promise is not empty words. Sakuya had plenty of opportunities to try and reset her Geass on Ash but never did. She knows what she did was an unforgivable mistake and thus refuses to repeat it even when her life and goals are at stake.
All the scenes focused on the couple—and their internal struggles to come to terms with everything they know now—work brilliantly. There's a lot of drama and some incredibly shocking moments—especially with the mortal danger Sakuya finds herself in for much of the show. However, once the whole Ash/Sakuya situation is resolved, things get a little shaky.
Sakuya's time in captivity has left her with some major psychological wounds to work through. She's clearly so traumatized that she's barely able to function. Instead of a gradual healing process, we get a flash-forward moment where she's suddenly okay again. It feels horribly unnatural and was clearly done to get her in tip-top shape for the series' big climax—which suddenly starts near the end of this movie.
And honestly, this climax feels completely out of left field. While the pacing up to this point has been brisk, the story has always felt tight and focused—so there’s no real issue with pacing. With this ending, however, it suddenly feels like Rozé of the Recapture needed more than 12 episodes to tell its story. The logistics of what we see happening just don’t make sense. It’s hard to believe that so many complex machines could be built in secret—let alone deployed across the planet without anyone noticing.
Compounding this is the issue of the cameos we get in the closing moments. On the one hand, they're incredibly fun—especially for anyone who's been heavily involved in Code Geass' side stories and spin-offs. However, these cameos aren't just quick shots of what the characters are up to while the action is happening elsewhere—each of them is shown to be in mortal danger. Given how important these characters are to their own stories, it feels like we need to spend more time with them than a few quick cuts—especially considering that some of them either have powerful Geasses of their own or are under the command of multiple Geasses that they use in creative ways when fighting. I'm wondering how everything will be wrapped up in the final film—especially if the cast really explodes in size as both the end of this film and the previews for the sequel seem to imply.
Still, aside from the questionable moments of chaos, this is a solid film. It hits most of its emotional beats—especially those involving Ash and Sakuya—and the story is entertaining with some truly excellent twists. This is honestly my favorite Rozé of the Recapture film to date.
…though I admit I could have done without all the creepy shots of Sakuya in the amount of rope bondage equipment.