© BONES, Fuji TV
I’m still enjoying this limbo state where I can’t tell if Metallic Rouge has a brain the size of a pea or a planet. This is the magic of weekly television, and this is why the serialized format failed streaming services so spectacularly. It’s possible (even likely!) that the complete Metallic Rouge package will disappoint. But the weekly experience was fun, and it’s fair to factor that into our assessment of the show’s successes and failures.
Metallic Rouge spends most of this episode falling into stupidity. However, it is a seesaw. It’s not a mess yet, and that’s because I have to consider the possibility that the program might know very well exactly what it’s doing. For example, let’s take Dr. Junghardt’s memory library. Its presence requires suspension of disbelief, which goes beyond the end result of Rouge and Gene admitting that their father might have been a jerk. It smells of narrative convenience. But discovering it broke my heart. In fact, every episode of this cartoon features a “Clair de Lune,” so when Gene stumbles upon a piano that hides a secret underground lair, what will he play to open it? That’s right, that’s the C major chord. It was a perfect setup and ending. Not only does that chord not appear in “Clair de Lune,” but it’s also the equivalent of setting your password to “password.”
Here’s another example: Ash comments on how sketchy this situation is before the party goes down to the library. He’s depicting a trope that the audience already knows and he lays it on so thickly that it’s hardly surprising that nothing bad happens down there. It was another overthrow, but an expected one. In this case, however, it’s a double bluff. The show advertises a clear danger, lulls the audience into a sense of security when nothing happens, and then pulls the rug out by killing the Noid later in a completely different location. Was it a clever misdirection or a sign of a messy drafting process that was never fully cleaned up? The choice is yours.
Those examples are largely structural and unimportant, so let’s consider something more integral to the show’s theme: the morality of the Asimov Code. During Rouge’s argument with Gene, Metallic Rouge drew many false parallels between the horrors currently being inflicted on the Neans and the violence and chaos that would arise if the Neans were freed. Ash chimes in to say that both sides of the argument are right, which is the kind of centrism that sounds smart and measured until you realize that people say freeing slaves was just as bad (if not to say worse!) than maintaining the status quo. That’s an argument that ignores how much “order” Gene values. His was a society built on relentless, fundamental, and systematic violence against those who had been stripped of their freedom, dignity, and power. If that society can only function under those circumstances, then it deserves moral collapse.
I wanted to write off the film’s politics as irredeemable. It has flirted with both sides before in the Nean slums, but it seems to have doubled down here. And despite all those periods of soul searching, Rouge finally agreed with Gene. That was the final nail in the coffin, wasn’t it? Well, not really. Ash steps in as the voice of reason, but he’s a cop so it’s no surprise he thinks that way. And the show rewards him for that stance by killing Noid in the most cruel and senseless way possible, at the hands of a few trigger-happy security guards. It’s a scene that puts systematic violence at Ash’s feet and asks what he cares about. Will he be radicalized now? Is Metallic Rouge smart?
I can’t say anything for sure, but the possibility is there, and that’s enough to keep my attention for another week. That’s the secret to Metallic Rouge’s success so far: keeping its cards close enough to its chest to keep its illusions strong. Overall, this is the most perfunctory episode the anime has had in a while. There’s hardly any connective tissue between any of the plot points. Cyan’s entrance and exit are especially hilariously abrupt. And I don’t understand why the writers thought it was a good idea to separate Naomi and Rouge. They are the show! They should kiss and make up better next week.
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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 see him chatting about trash and treasure on This Week in Anime.