Highlights
- Metallic Rouge's premiere is well-produced and shows potential for a special story with its music, visuals, and character designs.
- The series shares similarities with director Motonobu Hori's previous work, Carole and Tuesday, in terms of the futuristic setting and conflict against a major technological norm.
- The first episode effectively portrays the prejudice and oppression of the androids, known as Neans, in this futuristic society, and builds intrigue around the main characters, Rogue and Naomi.
Warning: The following may contain spoilers for Metallic Rouge, Episode 1, "Crimson Is the Sound of Dawn," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
As much as some stress the importance of the journey rather than the destination, people still hold firm that the ending is paramount, but one could argue that the beginning is just as crucial. Fast or slow, simple or complex, a good premiere can guarantee that viewers are in it for the long haul, but does Studio Bones' momentous new series, Metallic Rouge, dig its hooks in just right?
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the studio behind Fullmetal Alchemist, Mob Psycho 100, and My Hero Academia, Metallic Rouge is a sci-fi action series by the director of Carole and Tuesday. From battles between mechanized transforming heroes to sleek and cool character designs to a jazzy futuristic setting, the series seems to have some of everything Bones has proven great at.
15 Best Anime By Studio Bones
Bones is one of the best studios, known for both anime classics and upcoming anime series with great potential. Here are some of their best works.
Expectation vs. Reality
The trouble with tackling a show like Metallic Rouge is two-fold. Firstly, the show's marketing has been somewhat reserved up to this point. There's a lot that looks cool about the show, but it's hard to latch onto a specific quality to get hyped for, be it the story, the characters, or even the aesthetic. Secondly, as a celebration of a quarter-century of work by one of the top animation houses in Japan, expectations are naturally high.
This puts the series in something of a bind, which doesn't exactly feel fair in the grand scheme of things. Bones isn't immune to some missteps, nor does every project have to be measured against its most acclaimed works. Besides, it's only the first episode of a season with an as-yet unconfirmed episode count.
As to why this show's potentially precarious standing in the discourse is even worth bringing up, it's because this premiere is simply... fine. It's not incredible nor is it disappointing. Rather, it is a well-produced start to a story that has the potential to be something special, and that potential is clear to see from the music, visuals, and character designs. The opening is particularly memorable and feels like an ode to 90s sci-fi anime with its retro R&B influence.
It's funny that director Motonobu Hori went from directing Carole and Tuesday to this, considering the two series share a very similar logline. Both stories are centered around two young women in a future where humanity has colonized Mars. To be even more granular with this comparison, the chief conflict stems from these women confronting a major technological norm in their society.
Of course, Carole and Tuesday was about two girls writing music in a future where popular music is predominantly written by AI. Meanwhile, Metallic Rouge is an action series where our leads are on a mission to hunt down a group of advanced androids known as the Immortal Nine, who are revolting against humanity. It's more of a funny coincidence than anything else, but it's not the only area where Metallic Rouge feels familiar.
The Conflict of Metallic Rouge
There is prejudice in this futuristic society against the Neans, another name for the androids of this future, who are a subjugated labor force reliant on an injectable liquid called Nectar to function. However, Nectar can also produce a high in humans, making the Neans' lifeblood a highly sought-after drug that humans have no issue taking for themselves. Worse yet, because of the "Asimov Code" ingrained into them, the Neans cannot fight back against humans.
Rogue Redstar is a Nean herself, but a combat variety known as a Gladiator, tasked with hunting down the Immortal Nine, who are themselves Gladiators. Robots being oppressed by humans is nothing new, nor is a robot protagonist who hunts their own kind. The final trailer for the series even suggests that Rogue will come to question her objectives as she learns more about the people she's hunting, but even the most tired ideas can be given nuance through good execution.
Metallic Rouge does an effective job of creating a sense of disgust at the treatment of Neans with very little. There's a small subplot involving a Nean whose Nectar is stolen, the tragic aftermath of which is presented briefly, bluntly, and without ceremony. The implementation of Nectar is also quite clever, as it has value for both the oppressor and the oppressed, but for very different reasons. It's the difference between privileged indulgence and survival under subjugation.
And then there's Rogue, the girl at the center of it all, and in the way that certain shows like to do, the premiere is fairly conservative with how it presents its leads. What this means is that the story tries to build a mystique around who Rogue and her partner Naomi are by not revealing much about them and almost presenting them as side characters. Then, at the climax, they take center stage and truly become the protagonists.
Were it not for the writing and the performances by Yume Miyamoto and Tomoyo Kurosawa, this approach could have seriously backfired. Rogue is a lot more emotive than her deadpan appearance in the trailers might lead one to believe, and she has good banter with Naomi. With that said, their little quirks can feel like a supplement for a proper introduction to the leads, one that no doubt will be offered in the episodes to come.
What might have helped the episode end on a more emotional high is if a bit more time was spent fleshing out certain narrative threads. The biggest example is Rogue's connection to Sarah, which might have had more payoff had even just one more scene been added to explore their brief history before the climax.
The climax in question is quite cool, and it's nice to see Bones going hard on more mecha-heavy action once again, and with practically no CGI to boot. Something about the mechanical design of the gladiators just floods one's mind with memories of Bones' past forays into mecha and transforming hero stories, because few shows today quite capture the same feel.
Metallic Rouge's first episode is pretty cool, and it gets cooler the longer one sits with it, but it would be a mistake to overhype it too quickly, just as it would be foolish to ignore it. Bones has made a lot of great shows, which makes it easy to expect the best, but naturally, it will take a few more episodes to know if it's on the path toward becoming their next hit.
The Best Mecha Anime, Ranked
The mecha genre's stories of bombastic battles with giant robots are best told in these shows.