Human technology is exponential in the way it increases. That’s why, in the not-so-distant future, androids with human levels of intelligence and emotions make up about 10% of the population. These androids are extremely similar in appearance to humans, with most of them having partly or fully biotic bodies. This is the setting for the new Summer 2023 anime, The Gene of AI. Within this interesting world, Hikaru Sudo is a “doctor” who helps humanoid androids with their particular issues and illnesses. Let the thought experiments begin!

Note: For this anime, I will be writing bi-weekly episode reviews.

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Episode 1: Backup

In this universe, up to 10% of the population is made up of “Humanoids,” incredibly lifelike androids with human levels of intelligence and sentience. The best way to tell the difference is to look at a person’s eyes. The shape of a Humanoid’s pupil is different from that of a human. In this sci-fi setting, it’s possible to make “backups,” or copies of the memories and personalities of Humanoids. Creating backups, however, is dangerous and unethical, so it’s currently illegal. Regardless of the legality, there are those who do it anyway.

Hikaru Sudo is a technologically gifted “doctor” who helps both human and android patients. When he was a small child, he was sick with a rare and serious disease. His adoptive mother, a Humanoid, agreed to participate in a sketchy “study” in exchange for her son’s treatment. The study involved making a copy of her mind for unspecified reasons. We don’t know exactly what happened, as the full backstory has not yet been revealed. But a copy was made of Hikaru’s mom, and the original was sent to prison for breaking the law.

25 years later, Hikaru has doubts about the current society, but continues to help humans and androids nonetheless. In episode 1, he visits a Humanoid couple with a human daughter. The mother has a “virus” that will destroy her mind, and the only way to save her is to install the backup that the husband illegally made a few weeks ago.

The interesting and sad part of it is that, in a case like this, a person’s current self must die. The same mind will be reinstalled, minus a week’s worth of memories. Essentially, the current wife and mother must die to make way for the clean, healthy copy. This is an extremely emotional thing for the family, but it’s their only option. Hikaru performs the switch and the family is able to keep existing. However, the human daughter cries when she thinks about the fact that her original mom is now dead.

For some new summer anime, I had next to no expectations whatsoever. But for The Gene of AI, I was hoping for something really good. While I’m not giving up on the series, the first episode did leave me feeling pretty disappointed. For one thing, some of the animation is weird and off-putting, such as the visual theme of fetuses growing in the womb. They look terrible and disturbing. There were many other issues, too.

There have been no explanations of the current technology, like how bionic bodies are supposed to work. The opening and ending songs are rather boring. Most of the voice cast is unfamiliar to me. Hikaru Sudo seems to be a grumpy and sort of boomer-ish main character, so I’m not sure if I’m going to like him. Finally, it was very unclear what exactly happened with Hikaru’s mother. I think that important bit of backstory should have been explained in the first episode. As you can see, I have quite a few complaints.

This episode wasn’t all bad. The sci-fi setting and starting character concepts are good. The philosophical dilemma explored in this episode was genuinely interesting. Also, the concept of the “Crying Man” was cool and creepy. The idea is that an illegal copy of an android man is being used in crime overseas. There are many copies of him in circulation that are forced to steal or commit other crimes. The characteristic of the android is to cry whenever he’s caught by the authorities. Anyway, despite being mostly disappointed by the first episode, I will hold out hope that this anime will get better.

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Episode 2: Limits of Growth

Most of the episode was about two friends on the track team who like to compete with each other. One is a human boy named Masa, while the other is a humanoid named Jun. Even though his body is mostly biotic, Jun was still created with set “specifications.” He isn’t making progress lately no matter how hard he practices. So, he thinks he reached his growth limit. Drama unfolds between the boys as Jun continues to fail and grows resentful. However, after Masa gets injured, the friends make up with each other. Jun starts making progress again in running, proving that his effort can still pay off.

The rest of the episode focuses on Sudo and his assistant Risa in the clinic. Risa likes Sudo, so she’s jealous when she sees performing an impromptu breast exam on a visitor. The visitor is a humanoid named Kaoru who recently modded her body to get better breasts. Sudo seems to know Kaoru very well. Their connection isn’t revealed until close to the end of the episode, when Sudo reveals that they worked in a lab together years ago. But at that time, Kaoru had the body of a man. Risa asks if Kaoru’s gender is male or female, and Sudo replies, “They would probably say neither.”

The end of the episode shows Kaoru going to see “Michi,” which is short for Multimodal Interface for Communication with Human Intelligence. The exact nature and duties of Michi are unknown at this point, but he seems to be the most advanced AI in the world. He resembles a human boy, and even his pupils are the same shape as a human’s. According to Kaoru earlier in the episode, Michi has proposed a new program for humanoids that will let them upgrade more easily. Kaoru is on the board of supervisors for the new program, which is why they get to see Michi. The episode ends there.

For me, the highlight of the episode was definitely Kaoru’s subplot. As a nonbinary person, I’m naturally intrigued by characters who are under the same gender identity umbrella as me. As long as the anime doesn’t make Kaoru into the bad guy because of their unusual ideas, I’ll be very happy. Now, I made the grave mistake of reading the comments under the video when I watched this episode. I normally religiously avoid doing that, since it makes me hate most of the anime fandom. The comment section, of course, contained bigotry and hatred toward the concept of trans and enby people. I am sick of bigots making war on me for existing.

Within the toxic comment section, a few people also argued the point that Kaoru is not enby because they are not human. It’s amazing the gymnastics people jump through to try to deny LGBT+ characters, isn’t it? Anyway, in answer to that point, it’s only reasonable to assume that a fully sentient AI with a humanoid body would have a gender identity. We are not even talking about biological sex. If the humanoids have human levels of consciousness – which is the entire premise of the damn show – then of course they have mental gender identities like any other member of society. In short, Kaoru is nonbinary.

There is certainly a lot more to discuss about this episode. For instance, why does Michi look so human and what is the new program he suggested? For other examples, there’s a lot of interesting discussion to be had about body modifications, sex and gender, and the question of whether we are limited by our individual “specifications.” But unfortunately, dealing with bigots is exhausting. I don’t have the energy to write discussions for all these points after dealing with the shit-show in the comment section. When my brain heals from all the stupidity and bigotry, maybe I’ll make a separate discussion post.

Note: There’s one thing I forgot to mention. Compared the first episode, the second one was much better, so I am now officially hyped for this series!

Thanks for reading~

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PATREON