A hundred years in the future, on a colony on Mars, humans are helped by Neans – extremely human-like androids. Despite the fact that they seem as sentient as humans, the Neans are at worst an enslaved race, and at best a group of second-class citizens. To preserve this order, Neans are programmed so they cannot harm humans. They also cannot survive without a daily dose of “Nectar,” a mysterious injectable substance.
This is the setting for Metallic Rouge. Working with her human partner, Naomi, Rouge the Nean is tasked with identifying and defeating the Immortal Nine. These nine dangerous entities are apparently different from other Neans, but we don’t know yet what that difference entails. When Rouge encounters one of the Nine, she puts on a powerful mechanical fighting suit to do battle. Naomi supports her from a safe distance.
My first impression of Metallic Rouge is that it’s interesting but underwhelming. There are a lot of overused elements and nothing special about the narrative style. The set-up within the first episode is also extremely vague on some important points. I’ll discuss more of my thoughts on the pilot after I review the events in the recap section below. Note: I don’t know if I understand everything in this episode yet, but I’ve done my best with limited time to figure out the gist of it.
Episode Recap
Rouge is investigating a popular singer named Sarah Fitzgerald. After a concert one night, Rouge reports to Naomi, who is there by proxy speaking through a mechanical bird. The two agents are trying to figure out if “Sarah Fitzgerald” is actually one of the nine whose real name is Viola. Meanwhile, a strange man attempts to steal a huge shipment of Nectar from a company that employs Neans. (The man’s name is Jaron Fate according to MyAnimeList.net)
Later the same night, the supposedly human singer, Sarah, injects herself with Nectar via a hidden port on her body. She’s a Nean. Suddenly, a person in a red mech suit – “the red gladiator” appears and tries to attack Sarah. She flees and manages to escape with help from security guards. After this, she reports to Jaron, who tells her that the mission to seize the Nectar shipment was a failure. It seems Sarah agreed to help arrange the Nectar heist in return for Jaron’s protection. But now, their plans are falling apart.
Sarah, who is indeed Viola, is angry when she figures out Jaron was the one who attacked her even though they are on the same side. Jaron is a Nean with a yellowish, joker-like mech suit, but he also has the ability to disguise himself as other mech types. He imitated the red gladiator – Rouge’s battle form – to commit the murder and attack Viola. When Viola demands to know why, Jaron says he was giving her the push she needed to eliminate the enemy who was investigating them: AKA Rouge.
Speaking of Rouge, she was with Naomi, meeting in person for the first time. Jaron killed the robot surveillance bird Naomi had been using, which is why they had to meet at a restaurant. There, they hear the news that a red gladiator murdered someone and went on a rampage. Regardless of that, the current mission is to defeat Viola. Even though Rouge had been reluctant to see Sarah as an enemy, Naomi nowfeels certain that Sarah is Viola. (She saw the singer inject Nectar before the robot bird was destroyed.)
Now that the truth has been exposed, Rouge and Naomi close in on Viola. Jaron initially seemed like he would help Viola fight, but he ducked out at the last second, leaving Viola alone. With Naomi analyzing everything from a nearby building-top, Rouge dons her battle suit and begins the fight. Viola also becomes a mech gladiator, this one mostly purple. The two metallic androids engage in a fierce fight.
During the battle, Viola screams that she just wanted to be happy and sing. She demands to know how she is any different from a human. Additionally, Viola is furious that two of her friends – other members of the Immortal Nine – had already been killed by Rouge. The onslaught of Viola’s firepower almost melts Rouge, but in the nick of time, she uses her superior agility to leap behind her enemy and pull out her heart. (The “heart” or core looks like a glass ball with some colorful stripes and a barcode.)
With their mission complete, Naomi and Rouge return to safety. They have now killed three of the nine dangerous Neans. If Rouge has any doubts about the mission to kill her own kind, she doesn’t voice them. She doesn’t seem to care that the beautiful singer is dead, which is especially heartless after Viola said she had really liked Rouge. No doubts or regrets – Rouge is just happy to eat a chocolate bar that Naomi had ready for her. The episode ends there.
Thoughts and Responses
Firstly, I have a few notes about the androids in this universe. The narrative doesn’t explicitly establish whether Neans are equal to humans in terms of consciousness/ sentience. But it definitely seems to me like they have minds and feelings. I would venture to guess that although Neans have individual personalities, many of them behave similarly, playing out their roles as servants and just following orders. They are unable to harm any humans, meaning they can’t fight back against abusers.
This became obvious in the subplot about the Nean whose Nectar was stolen by some malicious humans. I didn’t mention this in the recap because it was already lengthy. A male Nean with a dark grey complexion died because the cruel humans stole his Nectar. A boss called the Nean “Scar Head,” but it’s unclear if that was his name or an insult. The Nean worker tracked down the humans who took his Nectar, but all he could do was beg for them to return it. They refused, so the Nean shut down and was discarded.
I hope the injustice against Neans is addressed as this series goes on. In the meantime, let’s talk about Rouge and Naomi. Though I love Naomi’s character design, I don’t like her personality so far – mostly because of her response to the dead Nean being thrown into a dumpster. She shrugged it off and said, “Well, that’s reality.” Naomi also seems rather fussy and bossy when it comes to working with Rouge. However, it was very nice of her to give her partner chocolate at the end. Maybe I’ll like Naomi more with time.
Rouge has an adorable and stylish character design. But as you may have picked up from the ending of the recap, I’m a bit frustrated with her. It’s clear that Rouge is a “space cadet,” and has trouble staying focused. She’s forgetful and clumsy. All of that is fine. In fact, I think spacey girls are cute. It’s just that I don’t like her complete lack of emotional response when faced with Viola’s desperation to live.
Other than giving her name when directly asked, Rouge didn’t even say a single word to her opponent. This, despite Viola clearly liking Rouge and tying to understand her motives. If Rouge is so “out of it” that she can’t even respond to something like this, I don’t know if I’m going to like her. All I can do is hope that her cute spaciness eventually gets balanced out as she starts asking questions and having doubts.
Now let’s briefly go over the visual aspects. Metallic Rouge was produced by Bones, a very well-known and well-respected anime studio. It’s not surprising that the art and animation look great. The lighting, backgrounds, and sets are perfect for an atmospheric sci-fi with elements of cyberpunk. There are some creative shots and angles. The character designs are detailed and delightful. Best of all, the mech suits are not 3D/CG. They were made with normal animation techniques and they look amazing.
As for the audio elements, they were also excellent. I’m not immediately familiar with the voice actresses playing Rouge and Naomi, but they are doing fine in their roles. There was an insert song – “Crimson Lighting” by Taisei Iwasaki – that played during the battle sequence. Though it was corny, I love the musical style. The opening theme – which for this episode was only played at the very end – is called “Rouge” by Yu-ka. I love the sound and style of this song, too.
As I mentioned in the opening, the pilot episode is vague on some important points. For a relatively simple episode plot, it was surprisingly difficult to piece it all together. Some episodes with confusing plots are just complex but extremely well-planned and well-written. Others, like Metallic Rouge, have plots thrown together in a messy way that doesn’t flow well. That’s one of my top criticisms after seeing the first episode.
Other issues included the underwhelming battle, a lack of world-building, and character concepts that don’t feel interesting right off the bat. Despite these problems, I definitely think there’s still hope for Metallic Rouge. It might not be anything special, but it could still manage to entertain me and show me some moderately interesting sci-fi elements and character dynamics. The first episode of Metallic Rouge is pretty damn good from an audio-visual perspective, so I think it deserves a 7/10.
Thanks for reading~
PATREON
