In a world where humans coexist with androids called Neans, a group known as the Immortal Nine rises
up against society. Tasked with disposing of the revolters, a Nean named Rouge Redstar (aka Metal
Rouge) and investigator Naomi Orthmann head to Mars to track them down…but first, Rouge wants some
chocolate.
(Source: Crunchyroll)
~~~webm(https://v.animethemes.moe/MetallicRouge-OP1.webm)~~~ #####~~~(Video contains audio. Be sure to unmute)~~~ There is a distinct difference between something working out in theory versus it working out in practice. If you were to visually lay out or list everything within *Metallic Rouge* in terms of its characters, places, and concepts, you’d be able to have a pretty firm grasp on what’s going on. In part because it is deliberately drawing such heavy influence from other cyberpunk or science-fiction media before it (with Ridley Scott’s *Blade Runner* being the most overt), the pieces to put everything together are indeed there, even if you don’t happen to know of its inspirations. However, the anime’s sense of revealing this information is to have revelations or twists come in rapid succession, proposing a whole slew of questions for each one it answers, and bloviating the world to be so all-encompassing that one could be easily forgiven for getting confused or lost in the wash. It is true that it is the viewer’s responsibility to be able to grasp what a piece of media is doing and try to meet it halfway, but that doesn’t mean *Metallic Rouge* is freed from the fault of its haphazard storytelling. With so much “stuff” that is explained and only thirteen episodes to get it all done, the parsed-out result is not a project that is poorly conceived, but one that struggles as a realized product to find its stable grounding. And there is plenty to work with, too. As an oppressed synthetic population within the world, Neans are essentially shackled to the Asimov Code—itself named after science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who coined “the three laws of robotics” in the 1940s—which means they cannot harm humans both directly or by inaction or indecision. Coupled with their dependence on a substance called Nectar, Neans are robbed of any real sense of self-signification, clearly positioning them as a population both within society and metaphysically to be pitied by the audience. Within the Neans is the so-called “Immortal Nine,” proto-Neans that can exercise free will beyond the Asimov Code and take matters into their own hands, violently if needs be. Enlisted to stop them are Rouge Redstar, a Nean who isn’t particularly bright but can punch really hard, and Naomi Orthmann, the brains and tech-wizard who seems more relaxed. For all the players involved, *Metallic Rouge* poorly orients how they all factor into the grand scheme (or, to use a framing device that the anime loves to employ with Puppetmaster, roles to play). If the series opted to have the two main characters as the main force walking through the narrative, it doesn’t succeed at this. A pair of characters embodying a tried-and-true “buddy cop-esque” dynamic is not poor by itself, though in terms of what makes Rouge and Naomi tick, there’s surprisingly little that feels distinct. The early interactions are occasionally tinged with remarks that border on yuri-adjacent signifiers, or turns of phrase that are meant to be endearing, particularly from Naomi. Yet, it assumes that tiny touches like these are substitutes for actual meat, rather than the potato chips or chocolate that our heroines like to indulge in. Given especially how much of the show Naomi and Rouge hardly see eye to eye, if not just being uncommunicative, dishonest, or not even within the same proximity of each other, it’s hard to care about them as a binding tether within *Metallic Rouge’s* story. ~~~img550(https://i.imgur.com/Qa6Ptft.png)~~~ ~~~img550(https://i.imgur.com/wl0q0Vv.png)~~~ #####~~~(Rouge and Naomi’s relationship rarely extends to anything resembling actual deep-seated trust, with a few moments framed as adorable or cute as trying to do too much characterization and dynamic heavy-lifting, leaving their relationship lacking)~~~ The Immortal Nine, despite being for the notion of Nean freedom and actualization, take actions that are bizarrely counterintuitive to their goals. Part of the reason for this is the wide disparity between its members; some of the Immortal Nine are docile and just want to live peacefully. Others are quick to violence, even if it means that some of their own fellow regular Neans—the group that they are ostensibly trying to help—die because of their actions. In making the Immortal Nine ununified and having both extremes as operating ideologies within them, *Metallic Rouge* unintentionally undercuts the very issue of Nean independence that it is proposing via the Immortal Nine’s stance. It is difficult to care about an oppressed class when the group most representative of them has characters killing “for fun” or murdering their own kin. This is not a case of “a few bad apples spoiling the barrel,” as the old saying goes since there’s only nine of them. When half your apples are spoiled, it’s a sign that you’re a poor farmer. Because Rouge and Naomi as the protagonists cannot be positioned as antithetical to Nean freedom (because that would presume the series is advocating slavery is a better option, which…uhh…), the narrative thus puts them at odds not with Nean freedom, but rather against the Immortal Nine. And since the Immortal Nine possess personalities or cause actions so cartoonishly outlandish or evil to give the “good guys” and the audience a force to understand but not sympathize with, *Metallic Rouge* cannot elicit any meaningful introspection. The complexity of the Nean Freedom issue is relegated to battles with easily identifiable antagonists, defeated / killed in tokusatsu fashion in favor of gradual integration of Nean rights into human civilization to prevent “chaos.” The result is a civil war narrative in which even if both sides are simultaneously right (the investigator Ash [even says this outright]( https://i.imgur.com/BaLNCpN.png), just in case you missed it), the actual sense of exhilaration to see the conflict play through to the end just isn’t there because there is not a good enough reason to care. This, of course, does not discount the idea of the Asimov Code still restricting their options for self-defense or self-preservation at human hands. ~~~webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/f7ad1bd5a57a75a920f71cc92da0e71b.mp4)~~~ ~~~img550(https://i.imgur.com/5knE0O2.png)~~~ #####~~~(The Immortal Nine, despite being framed as freedom fighters for Nean independence and free will, wildly swing between docile and murderous, even to their own fellow Neans. It unintentionally takes away the sympathy inherent to their plight since some of them seemingly don’t care how many of their own kind they kill as collateral)~~~ Part of what magnifies this uncaring is the mis-prioritization of what transpires within these thirteen episodes. The Neans themselves as a larger collective seem strangely out to dry. While there is a visit to a Nean settlement for a short while, and the first episode involves watching a Nean suffer Nectar withdrawal and die as a result when no one offers to help (itself a good moment of worldbuilding), most of the interactions within the story don’t involve the Neans themselves as communicating bodies. The latter half of the show has so few Neans featured within it that further opportunities to see their interactions within the world are rather nonexistent. The Immortal Nine, in essence, speak on behalf of virtually all the Neans, and given their own wildly contrasting personalities, it’s a shame that they are the primary representation this population has within *Metallic Rouge.* For non-proto-Neans, Noid is the only one who has any kind of longstanding presence within the show, and that’s mostly as Ash’s subordinate. The show instead more heavily focuses on the interpersonal—and familial—drama and having so many revelations or actions come one after another for the sake of shock or worldbuilding / expositing. It makes the mistake of thinking that the intrigue of Rouge’s contemplations, the Immortal Nine’s ideology, Naomi’s quips, etc. can map onto or substitute itself for the Neans. For supposedly being about creating revolution, the people who would most benefit from it are barely anywhere to be found. It is perhaps the irony of ironies that the oppressed Nean class within *Metallic Rouge* is so underrepresented in their own longing for freedom, shoved to the side for those proto-Neans and other humans that are not slaves to the Asimov Code that imprisons everyone else. For all the things within the anime, it feels so hollow in the end. I do not doubt that Bones wanted *Metallic Rouge* to be their next big showstopper and a massive celebration for their 25th anniversary of bringing joy in anime to millions. Part four of the 25th anniversary documentary on Crunchyroll is essentially a giant ad for it. But perhaps in their efforts to make it the “most thing” that it could become, they didn’t realize until it was too late that it had become so large that there was no way that it could be as fully developed or realized as it could have been. In what should have been their crowning hour, it turns out that the emperor had no clothes. That is, in essence, *Metallic Rouge’s* great failure – in trying to “cram in everything,” it doesn’t ultimately amount to anything. Its characters are caught within a moral conundrum that leaves no particularly delicious food for thought or thrills, residing in washed-out ideological shadows. It assumes that twists (out of left-field or otherwise) or other “big moments” are enough to cover when the inner cohesion is lacking. The result is a cyberpunk anime that has no real life within itself, keeping itself fueled with doses of its own Nectar and burning through its supply so quickly. Much like that Nean in episode one who was pleading for Nectar in his final moments, the anime was desperately searching for something to grasp onto. Anime could always do with some more originals IPs, but an original IP does not make a good show by default. Most regrettably, *Metallic Rouge* demonstrates this to be the case.
Something I always do before watching an anime, specially an original one not based on a source material, is seeing the previous works from its director, as that’s usually a good sign of what you’re getting into. Motonobu Hori being the name at the helm of this anime was an instant red flag, as he had previously helmed 2 shows (Carole and Tuesday, Super Crooks) that are very bad, and Metallic Rouge ends up unsurprisingly suffering from many problems. Its attempts at a story are slow paced, but not because it can actually set anything of substance, but because it feels like it has no idea what it truly wants to be, between the CGDCT-type protagonists that feel straight from a Lycoris Recoil rip-off, cyberpunk world that’s the millionth take on the long used “robots can dream” plot, mystery story with no actual driving question, this show feels like a mismatch of ideas that never truly gel together. Aside from its aimless plot, the characters have no chemistry, the attempts at making them feel like friends being incredibly forced, while the animation is bog standard from the Bones staff, and the scenes they seem to actually care about (the fight parts) just feel so bland, I literally stare at them with a blank expression as none of them make me feel anything. Even worse, the series suffers from a major case of what’s known as narrative gaslighting. It tells you things, but these things don’t match up with what’s actually happening, and it refuses to accept it’s wrong and instead convince you it’s right. Neans are treated as these poor little things that are always suffering… when we see that the reason they’re like this is because they’re very clearly a danger to people, they seek to attack humans and only don’t because they were wise enough to put restrainers on them, the ones we see entering fights are clearly the type who’d kill a person the second they got a chance, with Rouge’s clearly violent behavior from not having these restrains being the best example. Neans are supposed to be seen as victims, when they very much either a) shouldn’t have issue with being unable to attack people given they literally exist for labor and thus should carry no desire to fight or b) are a restrain away from becoming dangerous criminals, so it feels very rational for them to not be allowed to become murderers. At the end of the day, the biggest sin of this series is that it’s just so empty. I scrambled to even write what to say here as this show is just so lacking in terms of substance, it’s hard to critique something in a constructive manner when I can basically sum up every single issue with this show by saying “every part of it sucks”, as it’s really just a bunch of bad writing that doesn’t have anything to make it stand out. Metallic Rouge is simply a fundamentally flawed series to its very core, with barely any aspect of it that doesn’t suck, so a project so blatantly doomed to fail as this one is painful to see, because it was a forgone failure from its inception. Thank you for reading
Metallic Rouge is a series that boasts of grand ideas from the outset, invoking names such as Issac Asimov and ideas from titans of science fiction such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Unfortunately, it lacks the substance to back any of this up, the disorder from its very first episode never abating and only devolving further into an incoherent mess punctuated by mind-numbing action and ostentatious dialogue attempting to resemble drama. It is almost entirely style over substance with constant obfuscation of what turns out to be relatively simplistic or tropey plot points and ideas to anyone familiar with the wider sci-fi genre. It gets to the point where one wonders if they can only follow the narrative because of how tropey everything is instead of the exposition and causality within the text itself actually making any sense. There is a serviceable, albeit much less intellectually compelling, show buried beneath the crushing weight of the ideas and plot Metallic Rouge has failed to execute. Yet we only get glimpses of this in the few moments the show unburdens itself from convoluted exposition or trying to aggrandize its simplistic ideas and is just satisfied to be a quirky buddy cop show in a sci-fi setting. All of it reaches a point where Metallic Rouge has little going for it, with even the relatively strong portrayal and voice acting of its characters unable to make up for how detached the viewer feels from them due to the flimsiness of the world they inhabit. At the very least, it only botches its themes due to a glaringly simplistic and underbaked conception of these lofty questions instead of producing any kind of distasteful conclusion. Metallic Rouge opens with a homage to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, with the first of the special androids known as the Immortal Nine that Rouge fights being an opera singer. In fact, one could reasonably argue the entirety of Metallic Rouge has been derived from Blade Runner with an anime veneer plastered on top of it. However, the show goes beyond taking inspiration or doing a more light-hearted adaptation of Philip K Dick’s work when it decides to cram elements of other sci-fi series into its narrative to the point of overload. Within just the first two episodes, we are told of regular androids (Neans) being controlled by a code in the vein of Asimov’s Laws, that there are alien visitors involved, and that there was an inter-planetary war between humanity and a third alien faction, all of which involved the Neans somehow. While these certainly can be made to interweave together into an interesting plot, it is abundantly clear that leaves little time for anything else in only 13 episodes. In fact, an astute viewer already notes that these elements leave only a few possible directions the plot can go in while having them all intersect in any meaningful way. This predictability is not necessarily a problem, but it does shift the weight of the show onto its execution given its ideas are almost entirely borrowed and mysteries hamstrung by the massive number of plot threads it needs to tie together. This starts to fall apart as soon as the third episode when the show attempts to complicate its premise of androids being treated as lesser beings with the Neans “reservation”. It is frankly mind-boggling that an android population, created by and entirely subservient to humans, would need to exist in such an absurd arrangement where they are placed in a guarded ghetto. Unfortunately, most attempts in Japanese media to tell a story about an underclass or slavery tend to end poorly, for whatever reason. In this case, the show conflates the sci-fi question of the point where an android stops being a tool and becomes a person with the very real problem of having a part of human society being systematically maltreated. While these questions undoubtedly touch on similar and overlapping points, their associated scenarios would transpire in vastly different ways given that Neans need to be built instead of being born into the world, among a myriad of other issues that makes mixing the two dubious at best. The situation is in fact so incongruent that it makes the viewer question if they are missing something and if this is somehow a set up for the Neans to be some kind of bio-android that needs to reproduce organically, in effect something closer to intelligent beast of burden. Unfortunately, instead of going for that variation of androids to claw back some semblance of sense, it is simply one of the many instances of this show’s obfuscation of basic facts the viewer ought to know since it is later confirmed that Neans are indeed manufactured. Even then, this key detail is still largely left implicit from dialogue and is ever explained in a way appropriate to high concept sci-fi. The regular Neans barely appear in episodes after this, giving the impression that their oppression is being set up to justify the plot instead of this being a narrative that actually involves them. At best this is a poor and patronizing storytelling choice made due to how bloated the plot is, needing to resolve it aliens and super androids among other frivolous ideas it has dragged into the mix. But for most of its run, the show uses the plight of the Neans as merely an abstract point of contention the other characters clash over, which ultimately does a disservice to its themes. Having conflated the fictional and abstract question of whether a robot can become human with very real ways humans are abused has only made it more glaring. It is from this shaky premise that Metallic Rouge brings out its core idea: what does it mean to be free? While a natural question to arise out of the show’s premise, it conflates many ideas of liberty and freedom together so as to make the discussion intellectually vapid. It is certainly unfair to the show to demand an academic level of distinction and debate on the matter, but the extremely surface level prattling the characters occasionally launch into is sore lacking given how prominently the show emphasizes its theme of liberty and attempts to frame it in a serious manner. The central premise of the plot surrounds the oppression of the Neans and their effective enslavement by Asimov’s Laws. And in a similar but distinct vein of discussing liberty, Rouge and the other special Neans of the Immortal Nine are constantly asking superficial questions and parroting truisms about if they are really free. It gets to the point where it feels like a transparent attempt by the writer to clumsily remind the audience that they ostensibly have a grand theme behind the nonsense, especially with how these musing happen in predictable pattern as if there is a checklist task for each episode to bring it up. Yet instead of dedicating time or effort to having scenes of real introspection or debate, the majority of narrative time dedicated to discussing freedom is used on vague, abstract or poetic sounding bits of flowery dialogue which are at best sophistry. Arguably there was never enough time for the show to have any real discussion on this given how much is crammed into the plot, but that merely shifts the blame onto the conceptualization of the story instead of its execution. More importantly, it assumes that there would even be a compelling answer or problematization the show could offer on this idea of freedom. The main issue with the show attempting to link Rouge’s question of freedom to that of the Neans is that it conflates freedom from interference with freedom to do as one wishes. There are more formal academic terms for this like negative and positive liberty, but a simple, less technical explanation will suffice. These two ideas of freedom are certainly linked, do overlap to a degree, and are still being debated upon, but they are useful distinctions in Metallic Rouge since its ideas of freedom sit at literal opposite ends of this dichotomy. Rouge as a character is not coerced by other actors into her choices. In fact, it would be incredibly difficult to oppose her agency in any situation given her immense power. Instead, she is convinced, or perhaps manipulated into actions she might not agree with or does not fully understand. The central struggle Rouge has for her freedom rests on internal questions, what her desires really are and who she really is. While her desires do stem from external expectations, they are notably appealing to Rouge’s emotions or ideas of herself instead of her being physically impeded or deprived of the opportunity to act on whatever choice she finally makes. If this sounds intuitive, it is because this is generally what the lay conception of freedom is and what most narratives tackle since it digs into the beliefs and psyche of their characters. However, the plight of the Neans is the most extreme example one can give of having their freedom denied by interference. Asimov’s laws are ostensibly binding, hard coded into their existence that makes them subservient to humans and a source of their plight. They know what they desire but are unable to attain it due to others stopping them. To then have most of the plot revolve around Rouge and the special Neans like herself searching for freedom from expectations or preconceptions not only misses the point but also diminishes any themes to do with the Neans. Rouge is seeking a very personal and philosophical kind of freedom while the Neans as a whole are seeking freedom in a concretely material and political sense. One could argue that this is simply Metallic Rouge trying to address both conceptions of freedom, but given how little we see of the Neans and how vapid the show’s actual discussions of freedom is, this is simply far too much credit. Even when the show finally attempts to connect the two conceptions in its finale, it appears more as an unintentional accident as a result of yet another plot twist than anything self-aware. Adding insult to injury, the narrative somehow botches even its ideas around Asimov when it is revealed the Neans are not compelled to action by an innate programing but are threatened with termination by the Asimov code if they fail to follow its rules. While this is still certainly coercion to an extremely high degree, it waters down and misunderstands the central themes to do with exploring if androids truly have a will or if it is merely complex programming mimicking a human mind. This conception of Asimov’s Laws renders them little different than draconian rules a normal human would face, they merely happen to be self-executing instead of requiring a court of law to pass judgement. There is no longer a question of if an android even has the capacity to disobey an order like a human being innately does despite the consequences. A more capable and cerebral show might turn this into an interesting discussion of freedom given that a choice to do something or die is really only one by technicality, but here it seems like the writers not having the required understanding to write on the topics they chose. Ultimately, every possible theme surrounding androids that has been covered in other sci-fi becomes muddled or at best conflated in its narrative. This extends further into other elements surrounding the Neans, such as their seemingly innate ability to tell Rouge is not a human, and therefore do not need to obey her despite there being no obvious outward signs that she is not. While it is understandable for the writers to occasionally make mistakes, given how intricate and complex these concepts can get, there is simply nothing else done to help a viewer look past these incongruences since they occur on both the conceptual level and in the execution of the plot. It is then even made more glaring when the show implies Neans were meant for hazardous environment work on Venus despite them being modelled after the human form without any significant leap in durability. It brings into question if the writer actually knows what the purpose or nature of the Neans are in their own setting or if they are just trying to force the concept of a possibly human android into all the premises that have been mashed together for the plot. Using Neans on Venus is the equivalent of employing a quantum computer to do the job of a Raspberry Pi and is hard to find convincing. The introduction of conventional metallic robots with limited autonomy later in the series only makes it worse, establishing a clear pattern of thoughtlessness behind the conception of Metallic Rouge’s premise and world. All this gives the impression of a lack of effort that was meant to be concealed by convoluted storytelling and mystery boxes. Now if these ideas are starting to sound rather complicated, and perhaps a little unfair to a show that has its veneer being cute girls fighting androids in Iron Man suits, it is worth remembering that Metallic Rouge brings all of this up by itself. The initial impression the series gives with its cast and voice acting is that it will be more in the vein of a quirky buddy cop show. And that could have been the case if not for all the additional sci-fi premises layered atop an already complicated framework surrounding the singular topic of android life. For all the grandiose, high concept elements of the premise, the whole series does eventually boil down to a bunch of characters fighting each other with superpowers. Everything else, from the freedom of the Neans to the aliens being involved, is just there to give the pretence of stakes and greater meaning to these battles. All this betrays a desperate attempt to justify the drama playing out on screen as more than it is than any real exploration of its themes or ideas. There are numerous other small allusions or references that constantly work to give the impression of intelligence or depth. The appearance of the works of William Blake in the hands of Noid during the opening sequences perhaps suggests religious undertones and allusions to anti-slavery. Similarly highbrow, the show decides to reference Heidegger by having the trite, and ultimately pointlessly named, ‘Ministry of Truth’ Rouge and Naomi work for be officially called Aletheia, a conception of truth as “unconcealedness”. These allusions could be explained in detail but suffice to say they do not support or link to any robust central ideas and are thus not worth the time. To put it more directly, this is name dropping things with the reputation for being cerebral in the hopes of deceiving the viewer into thinking the show is complex and they are simply “not getting it”. The same can be said about all the out of place, “avant-garde” imagery and motifs the show uses with things like the travelling carnival and puppet master. Many of these metaphors and symbols are painfully on the nose, while other more poetic connections are convoluted at best and only serve to distract the viewer or waste their time looking for deeper meaning where there is none. At their lowest point they even attempt to create some kind of metanarrative layer by winking at the fourth wall and claiming this is all a performance. This ends up being more insulting than anything since the show has already crammed far too much into its narrative for its own good and has done nothing to earn or support a metanarrative reading. These theatrical motifs can only be seen as another cheap attempt to confuse the viewer into thinking the show is smarter than it really is and distract from how disjointed its themes and premise is from the actual drama playing out. But the most painful aspect of this style over substance approach is how these surface level aesthetic connections are sometimes the only rhyme or reason for “twist” reveals like with the identity of the puppet master. With how deliberate these quasi-intellectual allusions are, the self-aggrandizing framing of the plot, and its blatantly obtuse exposition, it is hard to justify the audience then being asked to pare back their expectations to this being a simple feel-good buddy cop show that happens to have a sci-fi setting. It is a pity since there are glimpses into a much more entertaining show being led by Rouge and Naomi in episode 6. Without being dragged down by onerous and needlessly confusing exposition, the chemistry and charisma of Miyamoto Yume and Kurosawa Tomoyo can finally shine through in what is a simple and zany murder mystery onboard a cruise ship. Not only was it the only enjoyable episode of the series, but it is much more in line with the impression the series gives and perhaps what it is more suited to given its many more anime-ish elements like Cyan. It even made the caricatured and obnoxious mannerisms of Fate Giallon bearable, primarily due to his nonsensical “chaotic” or “twisted” behaviour no longer being used to drive the plot forward in an eye-rolling arbitrary manner. Even then, most characters are still left rather lacking with how little time there is to them beyond a surface level charisma from their portrayals. What exploration we do get is vague and occasionally melodramatic backstory dumps that suggest things about the characters but never confirm anything or tie ideas together. What the core themes or even narrative of Metallic Rouge would be if it did make the pivot would be hard to say. Even episode 6 feels like it is mechanically placed as the “endear characters” section with how it exists almost entirely irrelevant to the plot and could easily have been skipped over given how pressed for time the show is. The world of Metallic Rouge does not even function very well as a sandbox since it only manages a veneer of a dystopia. The power structures and society of the setting remarkably unclear with only a smattering of information about there being a Ministry of Truth and a Public Security Bureau. While certainly sinister sounding, it relies on being a reference to better works instead of actually having any meaning within Metallic Rouge itself. What is abundantly clear is that many of the characters and their voice actors are being wasted in a narrative that is overwhelmingly dominated by attempting to resolve its plot at the expense of all else. At the very least there seems to be minimal dropped plot points with only the narcotics angle surrounding Nectar falling by the wayside, which is perhaps a testament to there being some degree of competent planning, but clearly not enough. Overall, instead of being satisfied with being Do Nedoroids Dream of Electric Mareeps, Metallic Rouge insist on trying to have its cake and eat it too without doing any of the work. It overloads its premise with too many concepts for its run times, fails to explore with intelligence any of its themes, and frustrates the viewer by obfuscating everything about its simplistic plot, which then all proceed to smother its character performances, robbing the series of its one possible saving grace. It is even possible to call Metallic Rouge an abject failure with how onerous it can become to watch given its seeming allergy to any kind of effective storytelling. Giving the show the last bit of credit possible, it is at best a 4 out of 10 when accounting for episode 6 actually being pleasant to watch and hinting at the potential it could have had. However, that is still being incredibly generous and a 3 out of 10 would be more appropriate given it neither appeals to the sci-fi fan hoping for something interesting, nor an audience looking for simpler entertainment given how needlessly convoluted it is.
This review contains a Discord mod’s favourite kind of spoilers - minor spoilers. If you want to avoid those, or just don’t want to have to read the entire thing, then skip to the last paragraph right at the bottom of the review, after the last rainbow breaker. ~~~img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)~~~
_Metallic Rouge_ is an anime that's a bit hard to talk about, on the one hand you have a well directed and engaging sci-fi mystery story with a main duo with a better dynamic than just about any pair of characters that weren't the leads of a romance anime this season, and on the other hand you have a story with some messy politics, unresolved ideas and flat characters if you take one step beyond the main cast. Somewhat ironically, I almost entirely missed this show, only managing to start it and catch up a few days ago, resulting in a viewing experience that was probably orders of magnitude better than watching it week to week would've been just because of how many characters and how much plot and lore this show requires you to remember. My mixed feelings on the show as a whole notwithstanding, the one thing you can never reasonably accuse this show of is being boring, so I wanna start this review with some positives before we can circle back to the couple of issues that ultimately weigh it down.
Right out of the gate, one of the show's strengths is its visuals, it may not have the greatest artstyle you've ever seen in your life, or the most fluid animation ever, but what it does have is some stellar storyboarding, fight choreography, character designs - particularly for the Gladiator forms of the Neans - and above all an unimpeachably strong aesthetic and feel. The look of a show is the first and therefore arguably the most important thing that will get an audience's attention and Metallic Rouge sets itself apart from your typical seasonal anime quite quickly by using its distinct world and visual style to its advantage right from its first episode. But of course, weeb cannot live by visuals alone, and it's the writing that manages to hold onto the attention that its visuals earned it. This may not be an especially favourable comparison for some people, but there were aspects of this - especially the tone and worldbuilding - that reminded me of _Darling in the Franxx_. You don't need me to tell you that that anime is not at all remembered fondly, nor was it much loved as it aired. Without getting too caught up in the weeds of any argument surrounding Franxx, something it did quite successfully was to create a fairly unique sci-fi world while drip-feeding just enough information to create a compelling mystery around how that world came to exist in its current state. Of the various connected mysteries that form the backbone of _Metallic Rouge_, what I personally found to be the most interesting was the interstellar war we get a very basic outline of before details revealed in the latter episodes start to fill in the gaps in genuinely interesting ways, moving beyond a basic good and bad dichotomy to one where essentially every side had genuine aims that just happened to be in conflict with each other, with unfortunate consequences rising out of that.
Additionally, in the midst of that more grand mystery, lies the mystery of the main and titular character, Rouge, as each mortal encounter with members of the Immortal Nine brings her - albeit unknowingly, for part of the show - in contact with the truth behind her creation and her hidden past. A mystery the show begins to unravel in parallel to Rouge's development as a character, going from self-centred, immature and unthinking, to someone who's capable of genuine friendship and empathy, captured through small gestures like her finally being able to share her chocolate with someone else, and also more overtly through her ability later in the story to comfort and support another character who's in an early point of the very same arc that Rouge herself went through. Naomi, Rouge's partner in crime (literally and figuratively) is one of the standout characters from this season as far as I'm concerned. Voiced by [Tomoyo Kurosawa](https://anilist.co/staff/106661/Tomoyo-Kurosawa), she's lively and energetic in a way that adds some fun to the mix without necessarily breaking or taking away from the serious tone or subjects that are an integral part of this anime, and as the literal adult in the room she serves as something of a counterweight - in-universe and at a meta level - to Rouge's inexperience. The result is a dynamic that always feels perfectly balanced, at least for my sensibilities, and it's not all sunshine and rainbows, there's an earnestness in their relation to each other that creates feelings neither of them really know how to process but that bind them together regardless. Some of that is, of course brought forward in the episode titled "Family Portrait" which in part asks the question of whether family is something you choose for yourself or something you're forced to deal with by virtue of your birth, and it's an episode of uncomfortable contrasts that I'd like to think I will remember even after this show's done airing.
Now, having glazed and slobbered all over _Metallic Rouge_'s metallic rouge thus far, cutting a little further into it does start to reveal aspects of the show that are a bit unfortunate. If this anime's handling of issues surrounding family, personal identity can be deemed successful because of how sincere it all came across, that same sincerity in the show's messaging around discrimination and inequality makes its ability to deliver a coherent or agreeable message in that aspect much weaker. The Neans, artificial lifeforms that are an oppressed underclass bound to serve and die for humanity without a single vote of thanks, are the characters collectively given the short end of the stick. I could go on about how any attempt to mirror or depict racism that loses sight of the lack of any logic behind any form of prejudice is going to go over quite poorly, or how Rouge herself falls into the same "defenders of the status quo" problem that's such a big part of why superhero movies don't feel all that compelling, or how the arguments presented by various characters on this issue are nonsensical to the point of parody, but the bottom line is that At Best this anime just does not devote the time and does not have any interest in doing much of anything with the ideas it set up. It's hard to come up with any other interpretation when the only rebuttal to the push for equality is essentially just that equality is,,,,a slippery slope? Of course, any given character expressing a certain viewpoint is not the same as the story at large or the author adopting that same viewpoint, so I wanted to give this anime the full 13 episodes to do literally anything with that idea. On that front, the end of the show may not provide the most satisfaction, seeing as it only really ties up the family drama and (parts) of Rouge's backstory, but it does at least leave the audience with the fairly inoffensive stance that freedom is an end unto itself. You could point to this as the literal bare minimum it could have done, and you would be absolutely correct, but that doesn't exactly make it pointless to bring up.
While I'm talking about the ending, it is perhaps more than a little disappointing that we didn't really get anywhere in terms of the wider conflict that served as the backdrop for this story and the history of its world. What we did get felt like a "to be continued" from a story that had barely gotten rolling, a bit of a recurring theme here. Metallic Rouge is rife with the beginnings of interesting ideas or plot points that don't end up really leading anywhere or paying off into anything. At a point I expected, hoped even, that the Neans in Wellstown were a portent of things to come, rather than the simple detour they ended up being. But we left Wellstown and any potential coverage or discussion of Rouge's symbolic value for and possible relationship with wider Nean society in the dust. I can and do appreciate stories that feel bigger than just their main cast, so it's not inherently a problem for me when stories leave some of their food on the table, so to speak, something to keep my imagination going, but if that's what the writers were going for I'd say they failed due to the simple fact they seemingly forgot to write any of the Neans outside of the main cast to be actual characters at all. I loved Aerkos from the start, I loved Sylvia, I loved "First" and of course Rouge herself, I think a great job was done of humanising some of these Neans, but it did end up feeling like a handful of player characters in a sea of literal NPC's because the show didn't spend any time on establishing the Alters as an actual organisation or movement, or how Neans at large really felt about their actions a lot of the time . At some point I even considered that a second season might be necessary to fully unpack everything in a satisfying way, but is that really always the case? In that sense I can't help but compare it to [_Akudama Drive_](https://anilist.co/anime/116566/Akudama-Drive/) which was another single cour cyberpunk series with a strong aesthetic, but one that managed to pack in much more emotional impact, thematic clarity and narrative stakes than it had any reasonable right to. This, on the other hand, feels like a set of what could've been interesting ideas to explore that ended up thrown together barely even half-finished, bailed out by decent (but not always fully realised or developed) characters, worldbuilding and visuals.
A more minor complaint I do need to get out of the way while on the subject of this anime's visuals, is that at points the way this anime's episodes are edited feels somewhat off. We have cliffhangers that just feel like someone cut the episode in half before it could build enough momentum to earn a moment like that, rough cuts that were definitely intentional but still sloppy, and some distractingly jolty animation. It's not a problem consistently enough for it to take away from the show's overall quality all that much, but if you're not enjoying what you're watching to begin with it's definitely going to be something you notice and get frustrated with a lot. The pitifully flat cliffhangers are, I think, a consequence of how little happens episode to episode, or at least how little is actually Resolved from episode to episode, which is a structure or trait more reminiscent of show that follow the netflix binge-model of release, which again leads me to conclude that I might only be so much more positive on this than most people seem to be because I did not watch it week to week like most people here have, but anyone watching this in the future won't necessarily have that problem unless you just happen to dislike that episode structure to begin with. ~~~img(https://files.catbox.moe/afsqmm.gif)~~~
So in the final assessment, _Metallic Rouge_ is a show that really deserves a lot more love for all the things it does right, ranging from its great aesthetic sense to its ability to weave together a mystery plot with compelling character drama in its sci-fi setting, though it does have its shortcomings, including some muddled political messaging and iffy editing and episode structures. Nonetheless, if you're able to connect with the characters at all, and don't mind the occasional binge-watch, then _Metallic Rouge_ earns itself a respectable __70 out of 100__, which for me is the mark of an anime that's pretty fun to watch as long as you aren't thinking about it too hard.
__Metalic Rogue__ is a Sci-Fi, Action, original anime series by studio Bones and created by Izubuchi Yutaka. ~~~img300(https://s4.anilist.co/file/anilistcdn/media/anime/cover/large/bx162985-3J7PrG5oO67v.jpg) ~~~ Set in the far future, where human technology has progressed to space travel, the settling of other planets, and the creation of androids called Neans. The main character, __Rogue Redstar__ is a Nean, tasked to stop a certain group of rebel Neans. When I first realized this was an original anime by one of my favorite studios, I was very intrigued. The trailer and concept seemed promising and the art style looked nice, I was sold. While watching the first 5 episodes weekly, and later binging the remaining episodes. This show reminded me what boredom from certain media feels like, and how grateful I am for the existence of the Playback speed feature. A feature that greatly secures my sanity when dealing with shows like these, since I prefer not to drop shows. ~~~img820(https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/metallic-rouge-banner.png) ~~~ The premise sounds promising, but it is overly complicated to seem smart, poorly executed, and boring. It tries to show you how mistreated the androids are, you know the same cliche of robot slavery and freedom for machines, but it is so forced and non-dynamic. I developed 0 attachment to any of the characters throughout this show's runtime. There are too many characters and they do not get enough screen time, and their motivations are convoluted and all over the place. One character is just a troll, switching sides, playing a murder mystery game, and just being random for fun. Maybe my attention span was diminishing too fast and there was a reason for all of it, but I do not care really. This is not a show worth caring about trust me on that. Rogue and Naomi, the main duo... their relationship is very static. Some good moments, but they ultimately feel like and I quote a user's comment: "like a parent and their autistic child" and they go trying to save the world or whatever. The production quality is solid, the fight scenes look cool and I like the idea of the characters transforming into their battle armor. A lot of the scenery looks nice, especially in the 1st episode. The voice acting is pretty good and so is the music, the opening was hard to skip. ~~~img820(https://a.storyblok.com/f/178900/1920x1080/483e4862a2/metallic-rouge.png/m/1200x0/filters:quality(95)format(webp))~~~ Overall this show is incredibly mediocre, but the final episode is particularly bad. Stuff just happens... daddy issues. deus ex machinas. a bait and switch. bad character conclusions. unanswered questions. The ending just makes you go "Ohhh this was supposed to be a 2 cour that got cut down to 1 cour, I see". My personal enjoyment was low, if you wanna watch an anime featuring androids and sci-fi just watch [Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song](https://anilist.co/anime/128546/Vivy-Fluorite-Eyes-Song)
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___"Nothing to really applaud in the end, but to hate on it would just be grabbing low-hanging fruit."___ Metallic Rogue. Where do I begin with reviewing this? I feel like I'm investing more time writing about it than it deserved. I was drawn in by the cyberpunk designs and the initial sense of mystery. The beginning felt like a blend of Ergo Proxy and The Soultaker, two anime that I've really enjoyed in the past. Once it begun, the series had a promising and interesting start, but once episode three rolls around, the story starts to become rushed and convoluted. Tons of information dumps and monologuing really start to turn the middle of the series either confusing to watch or a slog to get through. I found out later that the series was crunched from 24 episodes to a twelve-episode production. However, instead of streamlining the story and cutting off unnecessary fat, the writing decided to mush everything together. Sudden changes in characterization, relationships left undeveloped, and sudden hollow motivations are symptoms of this. It didn't really give me an opportunity to bond with any of the characters. Aside from the poor production itself, I wanted to watch this in Japanese. However, the subtitles were poorly synced. I am unsure if this is an Amazon Prime issue or if the fault comes from Crunchyroll. Also, music choice gave my ears whiplash. It really messed with the tone of the story. It felt like there were ten songwriters for this anime but none of them actually knew what project they were working on nor who they were working with. I couldn't help but roll my eyes that the main battle theme for the series starts with the line, "The moment has arrived for fighting." It felt as if the series itself was telling me, "Okay, exposition is over. Enough of the boring stuff. Here's the big fight scene now." It treats the audience member as if they were a baby and going to dangle flashy and noisy keys to distract us from everything wrong with the series. Animation quality had no consistency. Some scenes were stilted and just moving backgrounds while the dialog droned on. Other scenes the amount of keyframes and in-betweens would ramp up in the weirdest places. I don't understand how this could be a solid production from Studio Bones, especially to celebrate their anniversary. Either way, Metallic Rogue is a decent anime at most. Nothing to really applaud in the end, but to hate on it would just be grabbing low-hanging fruit. Watch if you're a fan of Bones, but you can pass on it if you want. I don't think anyone would judge you for doing so. Visuals: 5/10 Music: 3/10 Story: 2/10 Characters: 2/10 Design: 4/10 Animation Quality: 3/10 Overall: 2.5/10
~~~img220(https://cdn.epicstream.com/images/ncavvykf/epicstream/4103e74559f9087d46837c3b391045b8d2bee071-811x488.png?w=811&h=488&auto=format)~~~ ~~~Metallic rouge is up next for my review list and let's just say I arrived happy and hopeful in the beginning of this anime but left utterly clueless at the end. Literally what was the end goal for this anime? Did the MC complete the mission? I guess in a way yeah, but we’ll talk more about that below. __Story __ I’ll try to keep the synopsis short. Far within the future people coexist with robots called Neans... on Mars. There is a code provided to all Neans called the Asimov Law which makes robots unable to harm humans except the immortal 9. Within this anime we see the immortal 9 (super robots) try to help overthrow the Asimov Law which they don’t abide by to help all Neans become the superior race to humans. I guess nothing is wrong with that, but with our MC we see Rouge Redstar and her partner Naomi take on the task of their mission to take out the immortal 9. However, as the mission continues Rouge begins to question if she’s acting of her own accord or if she’s just preprogrammed to do whatever her mission entails. The synopsis sounds great honestly speaking but this is where Metallic Rouge loses most points. Just being blunt, the plot of the show isn’t bad, but it’s so convoluted with more information provided each episode. There are 13 episodes in the anime and the show rarely answered any questions the plot provided. There are many things I want to question, but we just never got an answer. __Animation __ I won’t turn this review into a questionnaire but something Metallic Rouge did hit the bullseye on is the animation. Personally, I love the design of the characters especially Naomi but even down to the immortal 9 the animation to when they turn to their robot forms is nice too. Now even though this is a Sci-Fi genre anime there is still action within it and the fight scenes just left me wanting a little more. The fight scenes literally lasted for 2 minutes then they would stop to talk. __Characters __ There are only two characters I will talk about, which is Rouge and Naomi. The introduction of the characters was pretty dope, Rouge playing undercover to get to one of the immortal 9 and Naomi being her guy in the chair. Now don’t get me wrong, neither character is a bad character but with it being a robot show imitating humans the characters could have shown more emotion. For example, Naomi portrayed being Rouge’s best friend when there were multiple instances where she betrayed Rouge which was pointless then to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her which I had many questions regarding this. Now as for Rouge she seemed more of a human than anyone, but I find it abysmal to have the main character journey throughout the entire anime without deciding what she wants to fight for. There was more of a I’m doing this just to prove that I’m not being controlled feeling than I’m doing this because it’s right from Rouge. img220(https://magicplanetanime.design.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/nghnmtq.jpg?w=984) To conclude, even though I did give Metallic Rouge enough of a beat down it does capture the audience's attention with the cyberpunk and Sci-Fi vibe. The animation is great nothing too crazy but well enough to appreciate it and shout out to the studio for making Naomi as a black anime character. However, in the end there were just too many questions and not enough episodes to help answer the questions. Not one character really stood out to me, even though the robot form of the immortal 9 was cool. Ultimately it was a cool show but as it progressed it slowly but surely bored you and made you wonder why you are watching it. I rate this anime with a – Eh why am I watching this ____Anime with a score of 60-70 receives a “Eh why am I watching this”. __ _ I almost forgot the opening song was FIRE!!! ~~~~~~~~~ youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnDUYan0a88)