Do you ever pick up a delicious-looking, bright-colored candy and delightedly stuff it into your mouth only to find that it’s sugar-free? It has that distinct, slightly bitter aftertaste of fake sweeteners. It looks pretty and tasty. It fills you up and takes away the worst of the sugar craving – but all the joy is gone from it. In a way, that’s also how it is with Metallic Rouge.
A sci-fi anime that could have been amazing, it failed to deliver an interesting narrative, just as the sugar-free candy failed to give you any real sugar. It looks appealing on the outside but there’s no substance to it. It’s not a classic mecha, it doesn’t have a compelling story, and the two main leads are not confirmed to be romantic interests. What’s even the point?
So far I’ve been harsh, but I actually enjoyed this anime a lot when it first aired. Because it looks so visually appealing and has awesome music, I can’t bring myself to give Metallic Rouge a poor score. Let’s do this as fairly as possible and break down some categories to review.
Article Contents
- Story
- Visuals
- Audio
- Characters
- Personal Enjoyment
- Overall Score
Story
Score: 5/10
In this futuristic version of our world, the population is made up of humans and advanced androids called Neans. The Neans are second-class citizens bound by the Asimov Laws, meaning they are always subservient to humans. There are also a few beings known as Proto-Neans that are so advanced they look exactly like humans. They also each have a mechanical fighting form called a gladiator.
Rouge is a Proto-Nean with a red gladiator form called Metal Rouge. It’s her job to track down and kill the Immortal Nine, which is a group of powerful and dangerous Proto-Neans. They are free of the Asimov Laws and can therefore kill humans. Rouge’s partner and supervisor is a strategist named Naomi. Together, Rouge and Naomi unlock the truths of their world, their emotional bonds, and their core identities.
Despite how promising this show seemed to be at first, its story turned out to be a major letdown. This show promised a lot – philosophy, moral dilemmas, compelling sci-fi world-building – and it did not follow through. There were numerous problems and disappointing aspects, including the story structure. The series begins at a weird time; Rouge has already killed two of the Immortal Nine. This made it feel like I was thrown into the story missing two episodes worth of important context.
Early on, the plot meandered aimlessly. Then the conclusion was too rushed and there were too many random plot twists in the last episode. In addition, the world-building was never detailed enough. But it’s important to note that there were some genuinely good things about the story in Metallic Rouge. There were, for example, a few well-integrated themes like free will, discrimination, and the violent, emotional nature of humans. There were also cases of good political/philosophical references, like when Gene was seen reading what was probably Animal Farm.
The story had some ups and downs. It wasn’t all bad. I also think Metallic Rouge has potential to be read as a good queer romance between Naomi and Rouge. But overall, the story left me more disappointed than interested or impressed. It had so much wasted potential and so little clarity about the most important things. For all these reasons, the story as a whole is average at best.
Visuals
Score: 9/10
The strongest feature of Metallic Rouge is undoubtedly the visual aspect. First, let’s mention the art style. It has a classic but clean appearance. To me, it looks like what would happen if Code Geass were made with modern animation and no CLAMP. (No offense to CLAMP, but their proportions are weird.) The faces and eyes are pleasant and expressive in a similar way as Code Geass – and the colors have a similar richness – but the proportions are much more realistic and consistent.
The character designs are distinct and detailed, with pleasing colors, for both the humanoid forms and gladiator forms of the characters. Rouge is adorable with her purple eyes, silky black hair, and unique tomboyish outfit. Naomi is a beautiful example of a woman of color in anime. The gladiators/mech suits are simple in design concept (after based on colors) but gorgeous in execution. My favorite gladiator design – aesthetically speaking – was that of Flash Silvia.
There are two more powerful reasons to love the visuals in Metallic Rouge. Firstly, the action scenes are bombastic, fun, and colorful. Secondly, more specifically, the gladiator fights are mostly 2D animation and very little 3DCG is used for these fighting forms. When 3D is used, it’s well-blended enough that the average casual anime fan would probably not notice the switch. This anime certainly has some eye candy.
Audio
Score: 8/10
The opening song for Metallic Rouge is “Rouge” by Yu-Ka. It’s an upbeat song with female vocals and a style vaguely like 80s music. I love this opening song as it’s chill, slightly punkish, and has a wistful vibe to it, too. As amazing as the opening is, I love the ending song even more. It’s called “Scarlet” by Dazbee and it’s a beautiful song about living and loving in a corrupt, messy world. I learned and studied the lyrics so I could sing along. “Scarlet” became one of my top five favorite anime songs of 2024.
To be honest, even though I loved the opening and ending songs so much, the instrumental music didn’t leave a huge impact on me and I can’t remember much of it a year later. There were three composers for the instrumental music: Taisei Iwasaki, Towa Tei, and Yuma Yamaguchi. I went back and listened to a few tracks and was entertained by the music. Some of the best were “Gladiators,” “In the Shade of the Grove,” and “Red Butterfly.”
In addition, the insert songs in this series were also great. Toft Willingham performed “Crimson Lightning,” the theme song for Rouge and her character. There’s also “Falling Starlight and Moonlight” originally by Rich Dimare, and “I Seek The Voice” by Yuma Yamaguchi and Lanux. That’s enough about music, though; it’s time to spend a few minutes nerding out over the voice acting cast.
Tomoyo Kurosawa played Naomi Orthmann. I don’t know her from very many roles, but I’m hoping she’ll start to stand out more as I watch newer anime. She did a fine job as Naomi. The titular Rouge was voiced by Yume Miyamoto, who mostly had supporting roles before this point. I was genuinely impressed by her voice-acting and the way she made it sound natural. She really delivered the stubborn but pensive character of Rouge.
The two stars are not super well-known or experienced. However, a few famous veterans of the voice-acting scene did appear in Metallic Rouge. Yoko Hikasa played the small role of Eva Cristella. She is best known for her singing, but also played a few memorable anime characters. Afdal was voiced by Kenjirou Tsuda, whose fame is immense. Lastly, Hiroyuki Yoshino appeared as Giallon. He often plays annoying characters, but when he plays a trollish villain, it works surprisingly well. As you can see, the audio category for Metallic Rouge deserves a great score.
Characters
Score: 6/10
The character category is mixed but fairly good as a whole. One of the best elements in the series is the dynamic between Naomi and Rouge. They have great chemistry as a duo and can physically coordinate without even trying in intense situations like combat. The interactions between them are often funny and cute. Whether or not you like the idea of shipping them, there’s no denying they get along best with each other.
Because they have so much chemistry, I was sad that there wasn’t a directly romantic storyline for these two. One can interpret them as lovers, but the relationship isn’t necessarily romantic. In a way, it’s an even deeper connection than a romance by the end of the series. Personally, however, I wish the characters had been written to be openly lesbian/bisexual. That was probably too much to expect from Japan.
There were several characters that interested me, and I found all of them likeable in their own ways. In general, the character concepts in this series are solid, but the continued development of the characters is insufficient and uncreative. Silvia, for instance, deserved a lot more character development. I also wanted to see more about Afdal, the green gladiator. Why set up such an interesting character to quickly kill him off and never fully explain his thinking?
Some would say the biggest issue is that the cast of characters was too large. Another problem is the number of characters that are killed before they have any chance of actual character development. There were also a few other issues, such as Opera being presented as if she would be an important character, only to end up fading from the story completely. I really wanted to like Opera due to her amazing design, but she wasn’t really important. As you can see, the character category was a mixed bag.
Personal Enjoyment
Score: 8/10
More than anything else in this series, I enjoyed the audio-visual elements. It was fun to watch the mecha battles and other bombastic action sequences. I appreciated how mostly 2D animation was used, and the 3D wasn’t too jarring. Some of the character designs are memorable and attractive. The fashion of the characters and the general look of the art style are also elements I enjoyed.
I have already written about how much I love Metallic Rouge‘s ending song, “Scarlet” by Dazbee, but to restate – that song is special to me and I know the TV version almost by heart now. Additionally, I enjoy listening to any part of the soundtrack, such as the insert song “Crimson Lightning” by Toft Willingham. Besides visuals and audio, I also liked the characters – especially Naomi and Rouge. Personally, I interpret their relationship as romantic. I love my queer anime characters.
My personal enjoyment level was pretty high for this one, but I acknowledge it wasn’t a great anime. The story in particular failed to be anything special. This was disappointing to anyone seriously expecting a serious, layered sc-fi story. Metallic Rouge failed to deliver in terms of story and themes. But damn, it sure is nice to look at and listen to, in my personal opinion.
Overall Score
Score: 7.2/10.0 “Good”
Note: This was the overall score using the numbers that felt right to me after the first time watching the series in Winter 2024. This score is subject to change in later versions.
The overall score is the average of the five scores in the other categories above. As you can see, the overall score for Metallic Rouge is in the 7s range, which is good. However, it’s important to note that for honesty’s sake, it only achieved this score because I think it looks amazing and I got some solid personal enjoyment out of it. Others may disagree and think it deserves less – especially for story and characters.
You shouldn’t watch Metallic Rouge if you want a compelling, profound story or a flowery yuri romance. Basically the only reason to watch it would be to see some flashy battles, admire some character designs, and hear some cool music. If you have time for that, go for it! And if you’re a creative writer, you might also use Metallic Rouge as a “what not to do” in an original sci-fi story. That’s all for today.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
