Metallic Rouge

Episode 3

Metallic Rouge expands on the plight and systemic oppression of the Neans this week with a dive into their largest settlement on Mars. This development was inevitable. The premiere portrayed Neans as an abused servile class while also relishing in our heroines' job exterminating the exceptions to this system. The story needed to resolve that friction, and this episode is the first step. Rouge, herself one of those "exceptional" Neans, experiences firsthand the hopes and horrors of an average Nean barely surviving in the slums, and we can see her gears beginning to turn.

These beats are tried and true, but their handling is clumsy. This episode is the first half of what I presume to be a two-parter Wellstown arc, so I don't expect us to have the full picture yet. However, this individual story slice has its shortcomings, and the most emblematic of these is the fight that erupts between Naomi and Rouge. It's way too sudden. They're chummy one minute, and the next moment they're having a heavy existential argument about Rouge's agency as a person. I can understand Rouge being immature and Naomi being obstinate—those are known character traits—but come on, I need a little more preamble for a conversation carrying that much philosophical weight. As-is, it's lobbed like a grenade separating Rouge and Naomi mainly for the sake of the plot.

Now, I'm going to speculate a bit. Metallic Rouge's length has not been confirmed, but I'd wager it's single-cours because the timing and pacing of this episode indicate to me a story that's in a hurry to get going. That's not ideal. While a single cours may be the industry standard, two cours allow a flexibility that especially behooves a piece of science fiction with an expansive setting and backstory. For instance, one way to make the aforementioned falling out feel less jarring would have been to allow us more time with Naomi and Rouge. Give us a few more one-off adventures like last week. Show us more of Mars. Season their dialogue with more seeds, indicating Rouge's simmering dissatisfaction and Naomi's short temper. Make this argument feel inevitable. Not only would that better establish the show's mood, but it would also add dramatic heft to their separation. In its current form, this episode feels like the writers are shoveling important developments and information out of the way to make enough time to dig through the actual meat of the narrative. Again, I may be off base here, but if they're racing against a 12- to 13-week clock, it definitely shows, and this installment suffers.

The story fares better once we're inside the Nean settlement, partly due to the show's excellent visual storytelling. The slums look appropriately destitute. The contrasting opulence of the space station and the city proper makes this point even clearer. Rouge's body language is expressive. These strengths offset the lack of substance behind the familiar story beats. The government-enforced segregation, the resistance movement, and the idealistic leader are all there, but they feel like sketches rather than complete portraits. Only Juval receives appreciable characterization, and I like how his arrested childhood dovetails with the themes being explored. He acknowledges both the bad and good parents he's had, but the big picture still displays the inherent injustice and exploitation suffered by Neans, as well as his naivete in hoping for a peaceful resolution.

The strongest thread here deals with the contrasting perspectives of Rouge and Doctor Afdal. Rouge is bewildered and enraged by what she sees. Whatever upbringing she had was sheltered, facilitated by her brother's position in Alethia, so reality crashes down hard against her abstractions. Meanwhile, Afdal is too jaded by the brutality and unfairness inflicted on the Neans, and he can no longer see the world in terms of heroes and villains. He can only portend the violence that, by the end of the episode, seems inevitable. I'm interested in how the second part of this arc will resolve these two perspectives. This is tricky territory that comes with any sci-fi concept utilizing androids to comment on actual racism, discrimination, and oppression. In the best-case scenario, Metallic Rouge wrestles honestly with the terrible complexity of these systems, confronting both Neans' right to resist and the unavoidable tragedies of that resistance, a la Akudama Drive. Worst-case scenario, the show seeks comfortable platitudes from the feckless middle ground.

That Metallic Rouge has yet to reveal its whole hand is encouraging. There are many directions it could go. Detective Ash, working for another proper-nouned group called Ochrona, is also looking for Rouge. That Joker guy continues to meddle. Juval hints that Rouge's target, Verde, is helping the CFN as an informant. The true nature of the Neans is a big question, too. While described and treated like disposable automatons, they're sentient and (at least partially) organic. My current crackpot theory is that the Neans are the Visitors, i.e., the first alien race that came to Earth. Humankind found some way to control them, used them to fight off the Usurpers, and then corralled them like cattle. The Immortal Nine are trying to liberate their people, and Alethia uses Rouge to stop them. I'm probably wrong, but something sinister is going on.

To that end, next week's clash should prove important. I just wish Metallic Rouge didn't contort itself so much to get us there.

Rating:

Metallic Rouge is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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