Metallic Rouge

Episode 10

They've done it again; Metallic Rouge made an episode I thoroughly enjoyed. Despite all of the narrative acceleration done to get us to this point, this week's installment takes its sweet time following Naomi and Rouge's misadventures on their spaceship to Venus. Elsewhere, the Alters, already on the morning star, have a quiet sit-down meal and swap memories from their family vacations at the lake house. Would it have been nice to know earlier that the antagonists used to have lake house adventures with Gene? Yes, but it would be foolish of me to fault Metallic Rouge for its nonlinearity now, especially when this episode's narrower and more intimate focus behooves its characters so well.

The notion of family is dead center of this week's target. It's even in the title. The Immortal Nine display a familial rapport that covers the gamut from deeply rooted camaraderie to the venomous barbs that only loved ones can throw down. Gene learns that he, too, is a part of this posse, even if they don't see eye to eye. Rouge and Cyan discover they have much sisterly catching up (and sparring) to do. Ash takes time to reflect on his fractured family and the void that Noid filled. Eden mourns his fading memories of the people he cared about the most. Though these are all decidedly nontraditional arrangements, they're family units all the same. Watching a Metallic Rouge episode with an intelligible thematic and emotional core is a welcome surprise.

Naomi is the odd woman out. When Rouge teases her with her Visitor-bestowed name, it betrays that she's not just the first Nean; she's also the loneliest. I suppose that's what happens when your oldest companions are a trio of emotionless mermaid aliens. It's also a good explanation for why getting a bead on what Naomi is thinking or feeling is always difficult. Is it all schemes on top of schemes? She still finds time to be shady on this spaceship, but the most revealing moment happens when she overhears Rouge telling Cyan that she's her "best stranger." That's a perfect turn of phrase. She and Rouge aren't family—not even of the found variety—yet they share an undeniably close (if strained) bond all the same. The story could easily pivot towards explicit romance here. I'm not holding my breath, but it would fit.

And should Naomi and Rouge never canonically smooch, their goofy buddy-cop relationship still entertains me. The bulk of this episode leans hard into the bouncier side of Metallic Rouge, and for me, it's further evidence that the series is at its best when it's farting around. Cyan sneaking on board in place of a weapon that Naomi sorely needed feels like a dumb gag ripped out of Dirty Pair or Outlaw Star. Cyan's presence then instigates a ton of primo bickering between Naomi and Rouge, and that's the content I'm really here for. Apropos of nothing, I also love the intense focus on Ash making his pancakes. These are the great character beats you can soak in when the show is allowed to slow down. It's a shame we couldn't get two cours of these goobers.

On a more serious note, it's nice to see Jill explain to Gene that the story of humanity is peppered with revolutions that upended the then-current social order in one way or another. Despite their chaos and bloodshed, history has absolved many of them, and Jill seems confident that she's on the right side of history with Nean emancipation. I'm inclined to agree. I also like the gnarlier and more nuanced acknowledgment that this plays out as a proxy war between the Visitors and the Usurpers. Think of the Solar System as South America during the Cold War. That doesn't preclude Jill and the other Alters from fighting for their sense of justice, of course, but they're ultimately bit players on a stage dominated by forces more powerful than either of them. That, too, however, is the story of human history. We've always been eking out the best we can.

Finally, on a completely different note, I have a new shot-in-the-dark theory: the Puppetmaster is the presumed dead Roy Junghardt in disguise. This episode more or less confirms that the big jester is human, and I think the elder Junghardt is the only figure who fits the bill. Now, I'm not even going to try to explain how that would make a lick of sense otherwise, but I do look forward to acting smug when I'm proven correct. There is also the staggeringly likely possibility that Metallic Rouge will never explain it. As I've said before, its narrative progression is largely vibes-based. To that point, I'm glad my senior high school English teacher made us read Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. The novel is a hilarious proto-modernist farce and includes several illustrations of nontraditional plot lines, each of which could easily apply to the experience of watching this anime.

If you think that looks fun, then you've probably been vibing with Metallic Rouge. Or you need to read Tristram Shandy. Either way, I know I have.

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Metallic Rouge is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. He is not a biomechanical android in disguise. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.