© BONES, Fuji TV
Metallic Rouge will definitely keep you guessing. Last week’s episode was a jumble of non-linear memories and incomprehensible extraterrestrial carnival barks. This week, the story turns into a comedy about space travel, where serial murder and PEMDAS are the punchlines. To a lesser extent, the timing and content of this episode can feel as painful as slipping on a banana peel. Metallic Rouge, however, rides it like a roller skate into the funniest episode ever.
It’s important that the comedy lands because otherwise this episode wouldn’t make any sense. Hell Giallon ostensibly begins with the intention of being a spy, using his doppelganger abilities to sneak aboard the ship on Earth that brings our two leading ladies back home. However, this would become a moot point when he started slashing people in full view of both security cameras and law enforcement on the ship. Without any clear reason to create this chaos, we can only conclude that he is there to mess with Naomi and Rouge, consequences be damned. This is not a compelling villain. Currently, the media is oversaturated with coin-selling Jokers. Did he really cause all this chaos just so he could duel Rouge and tell her he killed her father (which, by the way, I don’t believe)? We need a little motivation from Giallon other than him doing it for lulz.
His saving grace was that Giallon’s antics became a powerful vehicle for Metallic Rouge’s off-kilter sense of humor. Giallon himself isn’t that funny but people’s reactions to him are. For example, I liked seeing Ash take a more central role this week. His no-nonsense detective schtick runs aground in the face of Giallon’s clownishness and Rouge and Naomi’s lack of seriousness, which amuses me. Ash panted and wheezed in the hallway but refused to quit, feeling like an awkward rhythm straight out of a Columbo episode. I also thought the passengers’ blasphemous reaction to a serial killer stowaway was quite funny. You don’t see many people panicking. Mostly, they just feel uncomfortable. Perhaps doppelgänger killers will appear more frequently in 2128. And, creditably timely, I laughed at Giallon as he flew into Earth’s atmosphere. I don’t believe for a second that we’ve seen the last of him, but it’s a funny image.
However, the real stars of this circus are Naomi and Rouge, so it’s no surprise that they’re responsible for this week’s silliest scenes. It’s hard to choose my favorite. Naomi’s experiment to find Rouge is actually a hilarious twist on that classic story, aided by the perfect comedic timing of the quick interval between Giallon opening his mouth and Naomi pulling the trigger. It’s also completely in character. Even when held at gunpoint, Rouge would never do math. Another prominent example of Rouge’s giant brain is her technique of choice to find Giallon, which involves punching all the suspects in the face until he reveals himself. The solid physical comedy leads to Rouge kicking a dog, the dog standing on its hind legs, the dog talking and then the dog dramatically transforming into Giallon’s tokusatsu armor. I love it. For a moment, I wasn’t sure if they were actually going to animate Rouge smashing a St. Bernard is big, beautiful—even if it turns out to be a fake—but they did it.
This episode proves that Naomi and Rouge’s relationship is essential to the tone and quality of Metallic Rouge. Kimiko Ueno wrote the scripts for both this episode and the second episode, and taken together, these examples show her firmest grasp of how relationships between girls can enhance bright and dark moments of the story. The voice actors also knock it out of the park. Tomoyo Kurosawa’s raspy voice “What the hell??” after being handcuffed was my favorite line of the week. I wonder how long it took her to reach that perfect level of desperation. Yume Miyato’s performance as Rouge was less flashy but no less impressive. When she breaks away from her usual goofy attitude, such as Rouge being upset at the thought of Naomi being accused of murder, Miyato adds weight to Rouge’s emotions.
The plot remains a kaleidoscope of many hints. , red herrings, twists, and proper nouns. It’s been six weeks and now we learn that Gene has an unknown ulterior motive separate from Aletheia, which may or may not coincide with Rouge and Naomi’s real mission, which may be related or not related to Naomi siding with Ochrona, which may or may not be related to her deal with Ash, etc. Do you really care? I do, insofar as these composite plans and allegiances sustain the plot’s momentum, invite powerful character interactions, and result in a compelling thematic message. But now, I’m no longer interested in putting together a puzzle with an unknown number of pieces. I was content to go with the flow of the story. This attitude got worse just like this week’s twist, but it was a lame change from the start. Do I believe for one second that Naomi betrayed Rouge? Of course not. But I also didn’t devote any mental processing capacity to speculating about what was going on. I will wait until the next episode.
Metallic Rouge is at its best when it tempers the narrative with Rouge and Naomi having fun together like an old married couple. The weekly tonal variety is certainly part of the anime’s appeal. However, I wonder if refocusing the show on isolated baseball adventures like episodes two and six might have made it more immediately engaging. I do not know. It will be easier to evaluate once we have the complete picture. Now, Metallic Rouge has its flaws, but I can’t hate anything that makes me laugh as much as it does.
Rating:
Metallic Rouge is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Steve is on Twitter while it lasted. He is not a biomechanical android in disguise. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure on This Week in Anime.