Anime Review: Metallic Rouge

Androids and A.I. They are my second weakness next to time travel in the world of science fiction. Metallic Rouge deals with both. Another favorite type of show that I like is kind of gritty and has seedy undergrounds and the such. Think of things like Black Lagoon and Jormungand. Now mesh all of that together and you have Metallic Rouge; however, just because it meshes a few of my favorite things together, doesn’t necessarily mean that this show is going to be any goo— oh, wait. It’s made by BONES.

Let’s go!

The Story

The story for Metallic Rouge was all over the place. First, it starts off on Mars where we are introduced to the concept of Neans and Humans living together. Neans, being A.I. Androids. Of course, humans feel they are superior so there is some prejudice there. Neans also need something called Nectar to keep them going otherwise their systems go haywire and they can even cease to function. Apparently, humans can inject Nectar into their bodies and get high off of it. Neat.

We are also introduced to a terrorist group known as Alter and some pretty sophisticated Neans known as the Immortal Nine who wish to create a world for Neans, even if that means eliminating humans. Enter our hero, Rouge Redstar, and her partner Naomi who are tasked with stopping the Immortal Nine.

Pretty simple so far until a few episodes in where we leave Mars and spend more time learning about an organization named Alethia who oversees the Neans and another group known as the Ministry of Truth led by its Deputy Chief Jean Junghardt. Jean’s father, Roy Junghardt is the creator of Neans. Jean is the one who ordered Rouge to dispose of the Immortal Nine.

Next, we turn our attention towards Venus where Neans are being used to terraform the planet, much like they did to Mars. From here, the story goes in an erratic direction but to avoid as many spoilers as possible, we learn of the true nature of Venus’ colonization, where the humans got the technology to build the Neans, why the Immortal Nine are being targeted and what it had to do with Roy’s assistant Eva Cristella, and how a traveling space circus fits into all of this. (Yes, you read that last part correctly.)

Through all of this, we have a detective named Ash who is trying to get to the bottom of things and discovers quickly that he should have put in for a desk job.

The Characters

Okay. I might have to be vague as the cast is huge and talking in-depth about some of these leads to major spoilers.

First, we have Rouge Redstar. She is a highly sophisticated Nean with the ability to transform into battle armor as if she were a human-sized Gundam. All of the advanced Neans, including the Immortal Nine, can do this. She is described as being very human-like and has even developed emotions similar to humans. Despite not needing food, she’s addicted to chocolate. During the show, her journey to destroying the Immortal Nine takes a detour when she learns that not all Nine of them are evil. Some even befriend her. She also learns about who created her, how she was created, and why everyone in the universe is after her.

Despite all of that, Rouge does have some quirks about her that make her seem very human. At times, you forget that she’s a Nean. Despite the sometimes carefree and rebellious attitude, she’s a hell of a fighter. Sadly, outside of this, she wasn’t all that interesting. Her past, her creation, and the characters responsible for her existence carried a much heavier weight than she did. She was decent enough but I was hoping for something a little more out of a main character.

Naomi Ortman is Rouge’s partner. She often times communicates through a little blue robotic bird; however, she serves as the brains/informant for Rouge. She leads her from one battle to the next; however, her true affiliation is quite a shock when it gets revealed. Hint… it has nothing to do with the Immortal Nine but it has something to do with a certain “group” that has a vested interest in the colonization and terraforming of Venus.

As far as her personality, it’s light and day versus Rouge. She’s very witty, outgoing, sassy, yet intelligent. You’d think she would be the type to put herself in harm’s way with her gutsy persona but she remains in the distance, lurking in the shadows, acting more like a strategist most of the time… as well as a voice of reason for Rouge. I really enjoyed Naomi as a character. She was very diverse and the twists with her down the road were pretty interesting.

Jean Junghardt… wow… does this guy have one messed up family tree. I’ll leave it at that but as the Deputy Chief of the Ministry of Truth, he spends a good amount of time in the beginning sipping wine, playing a piano, and making blanket statements as if he knows everything that’s happening but won’t go into detail about any of it. As the show progresses, you find out exactly why that is, as well as what kind of a major role he truly plays. I didn’t care for him at first but he ended up becoming a pretty good character, even if his personality is a bit on the bland side.

Next up is our detective, Ashe Stahl, and his Nean partner Noid 262. Ash is your typical detective in a series such as this. He starts off just trying to do his job while believing it’s a pain in the rear and then he morphs into the person who just can’t stop getting involved. He stops acting like a detective and simply becomes another member of the party. If you’ve seen this trope before, there’s nothing new here. While he was pretty cool for the things he did throughout the series, he didn’t truly add much overall. Noid… even less.

This is where I’ll have to stop. If I talk about the Puppeteer and Opera from the traveling circus or go into detail about the Immortal Nine Members, as well as Eva and Roy Junghardt, it’s going to be unavoidable in spoiling the second half of this series and every single major twist that comes along with them. I can say that Puppeteer and Opera have a vested interest in Rouge and Roy and Eva were the ones who created Rouge as well as the Immortal Nine. Beyond that, it’s all spoiler territory so watch the show and enjoy.

Art, Animation, and Sound

BONES did a hell of a job with this show’s artwork. If you want that futuristic feel of what life would be like on other planets in an era where humans and androids co-exist, then I believe they nailed this down as best as they could. From the Cyberpunk-style cities to typical slum-style facilities, to modern technology (for the future, that is) back on Earth, all of it is here while being grounded in reality. Nothing is truly far-fetched or so bizarre that it would seem impossible to exist in our own world.

As for the animation, it’s about as standard as it gets until you get to the fight scenes… then let the sakuga begin! The very first episode features a fight between Rouge and one of the Immortal Nine and it just hooks you immediately. Smooth animation, colorful attacks, and great choreography, this show has it all. Some of the later fights are also very impressive as well. BONES did a great job in this regard.

The soundtrack is also a banger. A few variations of the same insert song are used during the battles and it adds a fantastic energy to them. The rest of the soundtrack is pretty decent but nothing truly sounds terrible or out of place. The OP is a banger and the ED is… well… it’s a bit nice but it just doesn’t pan out like I would like. It’s one of those where the vocals kind of transform the initial vibe into something that you’re either going to like or not like. I didn’t like it because I was expecting something else based on how the track started but that’s just me.

Overall Thoughts

Okay… for an original anime (meaning no source material), this wasn’t bad; however… that ending. A lot of people had a problem with the ending and I can see why. The massive twist in the final episode wasn’t the jarring part. The revealed identity of the Puppeteer was a shocker; however, their master plan was a bit… dull? Yeah… dull. You would think that the plan would have been a lot grander but the reasoning was just a bit confusing and non-sensical… then, we get, in the final three minutes, a reveal of who Opera really is, and then she introduces a brand-new plot which makes us think we’re going to get a second season only to have that plot’s problem solved within seconds of it being introduced, into a final fight scene that doesn’t explain how it started, how they got there, what’s going on, or anything of the sort… then the show just… ends.

It felt as if they thought they were making a 25-episode anime and about halfway through the 13th episode, someone reminds them it’s only a 1-cour show so they go “Well, we have all this material to get through, just jam it in and call it an ending! Not like there’s a source for them to check this against!”

I would say that this is just about BONES ending but that typically means there’s a source for BONES to change the ending on… there’s no source… so the best way I can describe this is that this is the most BONES ending that BONES can do without actually doing a true BONES ending by technical definition. It was one of those endings you’d swear that you were watching something from Gainax.

Ending aside, I enjoyed the heck out of this show. It is the epitome of show don’t tell because they drop you into this world, explain nothing, things just happen, and some things happen seemingly out of left field, but then if you stick around long enough and keep paying attention, it all falls into place and that feeling of revelation is much more impactful. You feel as if you’re rewarded for immersing yourself in this world. Too many shows will have long-winded information dumps to get you to realize what’s going on and while this show has them, they’re not long-winded. They are spread out and bite-sized but they feed you the important information and let you piece together the story yourself.

If a show can confuse you but make you come back for more, you know it’s doing something right and Metallic Rouge did a lot of things right…until that ending, but I digress.