Hey y’all – thanks for dropping by Anime Rants. I’ve fallen behind on my episode reviews for Winter 2024, but I’m here now to try catching up and getting back into the swing of things. Although I love blogging and anime, I have trouble lately working up the motivation or energy to do more than the bare minimum of necessary things like hygeine and chores. Depression and ADHD are still major forces in my life, but I’ll keep fighting on. Anyway, it’s time for the next three episodes of Metallic Rouge!
Episode 4: Freedom and Phantoms
A lot of stuff was crammed into this episode, but I’ll try to make sense of it by writing out my thoughts. Metallic Rouge in general is lacking in clarity and narrative quality, but I can follow if I pay enough attention. Anyway, in episode 4, the settlement of “Free Neans” was attacked by a swarm of brutal police. Many Nean civilians were shot and killed. The rest were tasered unconscious, and god only knows what will happen to them next. They will probably just be used as slaves.
It took me a bit to understand why this violence happened, so let me explain in case it was unclear to anyone else. The humans didn’t like the CFN and their progress towards independence. They were looking for any excuse to attack the settlement and take control. When Yuval was killed, order within the settlement collapsed, and the apparently incompetent secondary leaders were flailing cluelessly. So, it was a great opportunity for the humans to charge in and take over.
For much of this episode, Rouge was held as a prisoner in the settlement. The CFN accused her of killing Yuval. Eventually, Rouge got to the bottom of the incident and uncovered the truth. Dumas the Nean was secretly Jaron, one of the Immortal Nine. He wanted to kill Yuval, though I still don’t know why exactly. When Rion overheard Dumas asking Dr. Afdal to help in the murder plot, the young boy Nean took matters into his own hands. To “save” Dr. Afdal from dirtying his hands, Rion helped subdue Yuval.
Unfortunately for Rion, the doctor wasn’t the good, sensitive man he assumed. Dr. Afdol is revealed to be Phantom Verde, another one of the Immortal Nine that Rouge is tasked with destroying. After shockingly murdering Rion, Phantom Verde begins battling with Rouge. Though it’s a tough fight, the red gladiator wins again, ripping Verde’s core out of his chest. Meanwhile, the people from the carnival are approaching the settlement.
There are a few things to comment on. Firstly, Rion injected a hallucinogenic drug into Rouge, causing her to become temporarily delirious. She hallucinated Sarah singing to her while impaled on a spike. That scene was extremely well-executed and genuinely unsettling. It was interesting that the visions Rouge saw reflected her inner turmoil and guilt. Despite trying her best to follow orders and impress her “big brother,” Rouge still feels bad about killing Sarah and the other two Neans before her. I’m glad we’re seeing some insight into Rouge’s emotional world.
Another interesting aspect of this episode was the character of Afdal. I believe he represents despair. Metallic Rouge deals a lot with the question of free will. In a universe that’s at least softly deterministic, there are different ways people react to the idea of freedom. Some, like Rouge, stubbornly assert that they are free. Others, like Afdal, despair when they see the limitations of free will. If you look at Afdal’s behavior since his first appearance, he seems legitimately depressed. Hopeless, he decided any form of freedom must be an illusion. Gloomy antagonists are fascinating.
On a final note, I’m enjoying the themes in this anime and how they are shown through colorful characters. Besides Afdal, the best example in this episode was Jaron, the chaotic troublemaker who murdered Yuval. Jaron takes his perceived freedom to a whole other level, believing that one is permitted to act on any desire. He enjoys violence and will kill others when he feels like it – even if there’s no purpose or plan behind it. A hedonistic crook, Jaron exemplifies the theme of nihilistic freedom.
Episode 5: Carnival Dances with Lost Memories
Episode 5 was definitely the best episode yet, in my humble opinion. It was very “trippy,” and that’s the kind of thing I like to see in anime. I love weird and psychological stuff. At least half of this episode was just Rouge having strange dreams under the influence of the mysterious carnival leader, Puppeteer. Some of what Rouge saw were also memories of the past. There’s a lot to unpack from this episode, but I’m going to speed-run it for this post and possibly discuss it more thoroughly at the end of the season. Let’s go over the new information and my interpretations.
First, we learned that the Immortal Nine are special Neans capable of “creating” other Neans. The mechanism is unknown, but it’s probably some combination of biological production, sci-fi technology, and spiritual elements. It doesn’t seem like ALL Neans were born from the Immortal Nine, but “many” Neans were. The Immortal Nine want to remove “Code Eve” (AKA the Asimov rules of robotics) from all Neans. This would free the enslaved Neans on Earth and Mars, changing the world(s) drastically.
According to Gene, the Immortal Nine were responsible for the death of his and Rouge’s “father.” In order to avenge their parent and to stop the Nine’s plans for destroying Code Eve, Gene sent Rouge on a top-secret killing mission. As for Rouge, based on her memories and trippy dreams in this episode, she is almost certainly being lied to and manipulated by Gene. I seriously doubt he sees her as anything but a tool. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some kind of hypnotic power over her, too.
Rouge has some flowery memories of listening to Gene play piano and eating chocolate with him and their father in a beautiful indoor garden. I don’t know how much of that is representative of reality, especially since it was interspersed with other imagery and weird elements. If nothing else, the song played by Gene must have been real, because Rouge still remembers it, and shared it with Sarah before their fateful battle. The song is clearly important to her sense of identity and connection to her “brother.”
We don’t know exactly who Puppeteer is or if he’s human, Nean, or other. But it’s clear that he’s interested in freeing Neans from Code Eve. He seemed to want only one thing from Rouge for now: the image of someone from her memories. That “someone” looks identical to Rouge except her hair is short and pale blue. We don’t know who she is yet or why Puppeteer is so interested in her. Though he’s creepy, Puppeteer is also a fascinating character. I look forward to seeing him in future episodes.
This episode also showed us a bit about the strange man from the bus – the one who collects antiques from the war. His name is Eden Varock and he has a carefree, charismatic attitude. Also, he is either one of the Immortal Nine or some other special Nean who has a mech armor suit like Rouge and the others. In this form, “the black gladiator,” Eden intervened to help Rouge and Naomi fend off the enemies from the carnival. I think the character is slightly too forced, but otherwise, I like Eden so far.
Moving on to other characters, I thought the loli-ish clown girl was extremely cool. Her design is great, and she’s voiced by Mariya Ise, an extremely talented VA with an unusual pitch range. The episode didn’t tell us her name as far as I can remember, but according to MyAnimeList.net, she is called Opera. I’m not sure if she’s a human or a Nean – or neither. It’s possible Opera is one of the Usurpers – though if that’s the case, they are basically indistinguishable from humans. Regardless, this character is awesome.
This episode review is already very long, but I have one more note. It’s great to see Naomi and Rouge bonding and getting closer. I forgot to mention in episode 4, but Naomi took back what she said to Rouge about being a tool. That made me happy. I also liked when Naomi carried Rouge and then when Rouge saved Naomi from Opera. At the end of the episode, they lie in a field together and share a chocolate bar. So wholesome. 🙂
~Thanks for reading~
Anime Rants 
I can… not necessarily “understand,” but I can *comprehend* why the humans invaded the neans’ home, took over, subjected them under the heels of humans again, etc. But the violence? That was the definition of needless, useless, and pointless. The neans were not only unarmed, they were physically incapable of fighting back. But the officers came in and shot them for sport. I mean, just how pathetic does one have to *be* to do that? It was one of the hardest to watch scenes I’ve ever seen.
I was suspicious of Afdal, even after they explained why he had nectar with him on the bus, but I didn’t suspect at all that he was Verde. They actually rode on the bus with the guy as he went to his hiding spot.
I have to wonder… why didn’t Jaron kill Naomi? He doesn’t exactly hesitate to kill as he likes, but he didn’t kill her. He even said she’d be a problem. So what prevented him from killing her?
…wait, the immortals can create more neans? I totally missed that!
There’s a lot of information in the fifth episode, but I’m not sure it can be relied on. There is definitely a mixture of lies and manipulation added to the truth, which makes it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not. The whole idea that the Immortal Nine are back in action for something is highly suspect, given that Jaron and the new, black one are the only ones we’ve seen making moves at all, and of very different kinds. Viola was just enjoying a career in music, and Afdal went into hiding, while Jaron is just having fun killing and stirring the pot at random. The black one moved in direct support of Naomi and Rouge, who have been hunting him and his kin. That doesn’t seem like much in the way of deliberate enemy action, ya know? So are they even “after” anything at all, as a group? Or is that a lie?
As such, the entire claim that Rouge’s “father” was fighting them and they killed him for it is highly suspect. As are even some of the memories Rouge carries, like the one of her “brother” playing a song. That memory seems like it was overwritten to make Rouge forget about the woman who was really playing it, so she’d be loyal to him.
It’s also confusing why the Puppeteer would seem to be egging Rouge on to hunt the Nine while Opera retrieves Verde’s id and tries to bring him back to life. Though, if they’re associated with Usurpers, maybe they want to break the Nine and bring them to their side via some sort of reprogramming, like Rouge’s “brother” seems to have done with her?
I have a pet theory that is incomplete, where Rouge herself is one of the Immortal Nine. I mean, she’s a nean who looks human, and who better to hunt them than one of their own? The only point I have against the idea is why the others are not recognizing her. If the image associated with the Code Eve thing is of her true, original self, then it might make sense, but why wouldn’t they recognize her robotic face either? Unless it got an overhaul like her human face did? Hmmm.
Now, if Code Eve is about freeing the neans, it goes without saying that such would destroy much of human civilization, what with the neans being everywhere and being persecuted so terribly. That would be excellent for the Usurpers, turning their enemy’s former protectors back on them. I wonder, though… could it just be some way, given the name of “Eve,” for neans to actually propagate? On their own, biologically? Now *that* would be huge… it would give rise to a breed of free neans which could never be wiped out, one that would not have the same restrictive programming as their ancestors.
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