Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust

I don’t often write reviews because most things I watch have so many reviews already there’s nothing left to be said, but at the time of my writing this there is only one other review for Mardock Scramble: The Third Exhaust, so I thought I’d share my opinion of it.

Spoilers for the review (not the movie): I thought it was absolutely fantastic.
The end, you don’t have to read the rest of my ramblings, watch it and enjoy.
Wait… you actually want to know HOW it’s fantastic. Well ok I guess I can do that.

Mardock Scrambled Eggs doesn’t do too much new in the cyberpunk genre, but ... that’s okay because what it does do is executed fabulously in all three movies. (Slightly less in the second but we’re not here to talk about that one)

Rune’s inner and outer conflicts come to a head in the final movie, and while the resolution of Rune’s case against Shell might seem too short in terms of crime drama or mystery, it fits the themes of the other movies perfectly. These movies were never really about the case, the case was the driving force behind Rune’s mental trauma and character development, and through the resolution of the case here we see how she’s changed from the first movie.

And again the weight of the action scenes falls on the arguably more main of the two antagonists; Boiled, whose feud with Rune and her shape-shifting AI partner Oeufcoque reaches a satisfying and bombastic conclusion.

The action scenes in these movies are spectacular, but few and far between, this a character focused drama first and an action second, it’s not a movie for people who just want explosions and action all the time, might I suggest Ghost in the Shell: Arise for that.
However, because the action is not happening at all times, it makes the action scenes in this movie stand out due to excellent pacing that never leaves any part of this movie boring and doesn’t make you feel a scene has overstayed it’s welcome.

The voice acting and sound direction is top notch, though as I’m not an expert on these aspects I can’t go into much detail besides two key points.
1. the soundtrack is incredible, it fits every scene so well you barely notice it’s there, it never sticks out but always complements the scene it’s in.
2. Rune’s voice actor is incredible; she gave s such an amazing performance that even without being a native Japanese speaker I could fully understand all the emotion behind each line.

Like the first two movies, Mardock Scramble 3 has some of the best animation I’ve
seen, every shot is near perfection, Easily in my top 10 for best animation, the contrast of colors leads to a drab, dark yet beautiful city.

The characters are all very well crafted and enjoyable to watch, with the standout Oeufcoque stealing the show and reminding me quite a lot of the dynamic between Kino and Hermes in Kino no Tabi.
Rune Balot, the star of the show gets a good share of development and by the end you will feel like she’s actually changed and matured as a person.
The other characters are somewhat of a mixed bag with most at the most filler for the cast, though the resolution of Shell and Boiled’s character arcs were quite good as well.

The ending, while left quite open, also felt very final, the openness really only leading more to the cyberpunk nature of the series where open endings are quite common.

In conclusion, I found the series as a whole to be a very smart, well thought out cyberpunk story, sure it retreads old ground but it has enough unique ideas and style to get past that. I would highly recommend them all to anybody who wants a strong cyberpunk drama in the vain of ghost in the shell.

Out of 100 Nobles watching…
72 were impressed!
18 didn’t know what they were watching exactly…
10 would like a hand drawn car just once…


Mardock Scramble is a series of serial novels starting in 2003 that have been adapted to a host of different mediums. Three OVA movies were made from 2010 through 2012 “The First Compression”, “The Second Combustion”, and “The Third Exhaust”. For the purposes of my review I’ll be talking about all three movies because they’re only 70 minutes each and function as a single narrative.

Mardock Scramble takes place in a dismal dystopian cyberpunk future. The main character Rune Balot is a young girl ... who has been chewed up and spit out by the world around her. After Shell Septinos her lover/pimp betrays her to have her burned alive she is saved by a government case worker who saves her with an experimental procedure that grants her the ability to communicate through and manipulate electronics. In exchange for saving her life Rune is asked by the doctor who saved her to help prosecute Shell who’s murdered many other girls before while other forces work to try and assassinate Rune.

Rune partners with another character Oeufcoque who normally appears as a yellow mouse but is a multidimensional shape changing entity that came from another government experiment. With Oeufcoque’s help Rune essentially becomes a super soldier, kills a bunch of people, and then plays blackjack.

Honestly the plot of the story here is a huge mess. Nothing makes much sense and there’s a lot of pointless dialogue about philosophy like this is a Fate series story. The only thing consistent is that everything is eggs. Dr. Easter, Dimsdale Boiled, Egg powers, Egg ships, even Oeufcoque means Eggshell in French. There’s a lot of symbolism and attempts at big ideas but most of the story is so rambling you’re left wondering if there was an issue with translation or if the author really knew what they were even trying to say. Tow Ubukata the original author of the novels has a writing credit on the movies so I assume his voice was maintained in these films. Despite rambling on about Adam and Eve and a bunch of dialogue that doesn’t even read clearly sentence to sentence there is an overarching plot involving Rune, Shell, and Dimsdale Boiled, the previous partner of Oeufcoque. Things happen, there’s a beginning middle and end so that’s good.

The tone and setting of the world leave the viewer in an unusual place. The world the characters live in is an abysmal place where young girls are killed and butchered for parts. Psycho’s keep collections of human fingers grafted onto their own bodies, government case workers “solve cases” by shooting defendants in the head in the parking lot behind the court house, but society is apparently still structured enough that regular cops are shocked by finding out a girl became a prostitute because her father raped her when she was 12? The world didn’t feel lived in or believable and often came across as more comedic than anything.

Despite my gripes there’s a lot to be enjoyed from the films if you want a visual spectacle. The movies have a very unique style with odd angles, use of bloom, and interesting iridescent filters. The action is high octane Devil May Cry meets Kingdom Hearts spectacle and feels like appropriate payoff to all the sitting around you do. While some CG car driving scenes feel like you’re watching a cutscene of Midgar from Final Fantasy 7 (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) most of the shots in the films are artistic and interesting.

I don’t feel like Mardock Scramble should be heralded as a must watch classic, but the distinctive style and surrealism of the experience will leave a memorable impression on anyone who’s watched it.

For Mardock Scramble, a 7.5 is the correct score. This means I technically rate this an 8 personally, but for review purposes, I would have it more so as a 7. Mardock is a show that I watched, back-to-back-back, and it was enjoyable. It was not exactly in the thought-provoking department, as my attempts to understand some of the plot and dialogue (aka "how the world even works"), went poorly. Yet, regardless of understanding, I was able to watch with the three movies, three hours of an engaging story of someone's redemption arc to reclaim their life.
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Story-wise, this movie was progressing in a linear ... fashion from the past two movies, which, give or take, was comprehendible. To be blunt, this is a story of revenge, which makes the standard fundamental core of the story quite cliched. I think that the science elements and futuristic flare give this movie more of a leg to stand on, but there weren't many elements that make this show stand out specifically in the revenge genre. However, as an anime, this show stands up pretty well, as even if there are some confusing elements, you can disregard most of that commentary and still enjoy the story. I really loved the arc of the characters in the casino, since it's something I haven't seen in anime, and was pretty entertaining.
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The art was great!
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Music was great!
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Characters were a bit bland, and that goes for the past two movies as well. This is not inherently a bad thing, as I liked all the characters. They were just not as well-developed, which made my attachment to them a bit wonky, but alas, I did feel engaged enough to want them to survive and flourish.
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Enjoyment was at an all time high for me. I will be honest and say that I enjoy animes based on feelings, and then I do analysis of components later, which, as you know, is based on how I would personally rate it. I liked this series, even with its glaring flaws. It had gorgeous visuals, and I was engaged. There is nothing more to it than that. If you have a show that appeals to you, and even with flaws, you still like it. In the end, it will be a show that you will always remember and have on your lists.
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Overall, it's a 7. Not a bad score, just an acknowledgement of some issues relating to it. For all you readers, I would say to go try it yourselves. Some elements are hit-or-miss, but for me, a sci-fi world with a revenge twist, and some characters that are likeable enough satisfies me greatly. Try it, and if you like it, great! If not, oh well, I respect that too! This was just a chill review on my part as a casual viewer of shows, so my opinion may not be the will of god, but hey, as a fellow peer, this show was fine, so try it!

***This review is for the whole trilogy and contains minor spoilers***

Mardock Scramble could've been a landmark in Cyberpunk genre.It had everything,literally everything. Rune & Oeufcoque as a duo was pretty solid and Rune's chatacter study was neatly done plus the story was damn good enough to keep you hooked despite being pretty fast paced.
There's flying colours with breathtaking visuals,decent amount of action & batshit crazy characters accompanied by evenly intriguing plot-heck even the final movie was pretty on point too followed by a nice backstory saga in the 2nd one as Rune's character development reached it's peak and we get to see a satisfying end.

That ... being said,why didn't it end up as one of the best Cyberpunk anime?

BECAUSE THE AUTHOR SHOVED SO MUCH KAKEGURUI INTO THE SOURCE MATERIAL THAT IT ENDED UP BEING A GODDAMN DISAPPOINTING.

Let's look through this-These three movies combined screentime would be around 3 hours and 15 minutes.Guess what? Almost 1+ hour went into mindless gambling that no one understands in a friggin casino that has very little to do with the plot.

You could have added a bit more worldbuilding,character exploration and backstories-nah leave that even 1 hour of mindless action would've been way better. But putting that much screentime into gambling-that too in two different movies just ruins the fucking point,and that too after a great buildup in the first movie.Every single issue that this franchise had could have been treated but no-mindless Blackjack it is.

If you are ready to endure this much pain then sure go for the trilogy,but I'd recommend to stop right after the first one.