If I had a nickel for every time a renowned animation studio released an animated project that was meant to celebrate the anniversary of their studio’s founding only for it to end up as a critical disappointment in critic and/or fan reception, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?
Comparing Studio Bones and Disney in terms of their impact on animation and the production libraries they boast would normally elicit a positive analogy based on how influential they were for creating so many beloved works that still hold up today. It really goes without saying that Studio Bones might just be one of the most iconic and important animation studios that is as significant to the world as Disney itself. The likes of Fullmetal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, Mob Psycho 100, and so many other classic Studio Bones anime are as industry-defining towards Japanese anime as a good chunk of Disney Renaissance and Disney Revival films are towards animation in cinema and in general. Disney has been around for over 100 years and Studio Bones has been around for a quarter of that time. So, of course both studios would have cranked out a vast majority of masterpieces with a few bombs here and there, right?
Enter Disney’s Wish and Studio Bones’s Metallic Rouge. Admittedly, I haven’t seen Wish myself (at the time of this writing), but I can definitely attest that I kept up with Metallic Rouge weekly all the way to the end of its 13-episode run. Regardless, the similarities between these two distinctly different works becomes eerily clear when you analyze how they were marketed and how they were received critically. To reiterate, both Wish and Metallic Rouge were promoted as highly anticipated anniversary milestone celebrations that would harken back to the roots of what put their respective studios on the map. For Disney, it was making 2-D animated film adaptations with sing-along musical numbers and classic love-to-hate evil villains. For Studio Bones, it was pumping out thought-provoking and action-packed science fiction TV anime. Wish and Metallic Rouge were poised to become modern crowd-pleasers that would call back to the good old days of their respective studios while also appealing to newer generations in the same vein that previous ones had once experienced the joys of… Until they weren’t.
Both Wish and Metallic Rouge ended up suffering from a lack of proper marketing hype following their initial announcements and were met with a public opinion of either indifference at best or disappointment at worst. In Wish’s case, it tried so desperately to recapture the magic of what made Disney’s films so great that it ended up recapturing how soulless corporate Disney is nowadays. As for Metallic Rouge, the promotional push by Crunchyroll with Bones 25: Dreaming Forward was probably just about the only care given to the series by Studio Bones outside of the obligatory trailers and PV’s. Otherwise, Metallic Rouge got barely any attention within the anime community for all the unfortunately right reasons.
Metallic Rouge is a science fiction mecha show about two female protagonists, an android named Rouge Redstar and a government agent named Naomi Orthmann, who travel across the solar system on a mission to eliminate the Immortal Nine, a group of prototype androids who are allegedly plotting against the government in an attempt to liberate the android race known as “Neans” from their human oppressors. Pretty much, Metallic Rouge does indeed fit the bill of a science fiction series as it focuses on themes of freedom and self-determination that drive both Rouge’s goals of maintaining peace among humans and Neans and struggles of what it means to live and be human. Said themes also play a pivotal role in showcasing how dystopian the lives of Neans are as they are at the mercy of their human masters who distribute the fuel known as “Nectar” that powers their life force. They also serve as core motivations for various factions of Neans who are operating to change their dysfunctional coexistence with humans for their own social uplift. All in all, a pretty decent setup that, while not entirely original, has a lot of potential to put Metallic Rouge on a level of greatness comparable not just towards Studio Bones’s anime like RahXephon or Eureka Seven, but perhaps even something like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, or Gurren Lagann. So how did Metallic Rouge turn out?
“That’s not what he wanted to cook!” - Patrick Star
“No, I think he burnt whatever he was cooking!” - Some random NFL commentator I don’t know the name of
Never have I seen such an abysmally depressing score for an anime series produced by Studio Bones since Soul Eater Not!. I fell into the camp of people who felt that Metallic Rouge’s starting score in the low-to-middle range of 7 was unwarranted when I first started watching this series. Going into this series, I was expecting this to be a certified 8/9 out of 10 banger that truly lived up to its status as an anniversary title for Studio Bones. The first episode, while not perfect, did show a lot of promise with what direction Metallic Rouge could take. Yet, each episode following it was either a hit or miss in the overall narrative that the show was aiming for. I desperately clung to the belief that Metallic Rouge would get better as it progressed. Yet, not only did the final episode put my score out of the 8-9 scoring range, but any and all goodwill I had towards this series was drained out of me by the series’s end harder than Dan Schneider’s set-silencing child star abuse completely and utterly capsizing Nickelodeon’s PR. Let’s go over the general aspects of Metallic Rouge before finalizing my verdict:
Story:
Like I said earlier, the first episode, while not without its flaws, was still a worthy show opener of what to expect in Metallic Rouge. The first few seconds of Metallic Rouge introducing Naomi really had me gravitating towards her for her confident and spunky demeanor. A beautiful woman of color setting out on her mission against the backdrop of an expansive Mars settlement really set the exciting tone for the premiere. But then there’s Rouge, who actually doesn’t have much personality in her debut. She just takes on her first target for the episode and that’s that. However, Rouge does get slightly better in characterization through gradually understanding the society she is fighting for and how it influences her decisions. Otherwise, the first episode did indeed start the show off with a banger as we peer into how Asimov’s Law dictates the actions of our main characters and the targets they are pursuing.
As for the rest of the series, it is, once again, hit or miss. Not just episode by episode, but within each episode themselves. Metallic Rouge mainly caught my eye whenever there was some badass tokusatsu mecha battle commencing or the character interactions were funny and witty. Some of my favorite episodes of Metallic Rouge are the second episode where Rouge and Naomi get lost in a forest and eventually fight their way through enemy robots that involves riding an armored bus across the desert and the sixth episode where the stakes are raised when a murder plot arises aboard a spaceship Rouge and Naomi are staying at. From what I can remember, what I considered the best parts of Metallic Rouge made up at most 50% of the general quality of the anime. The other 50% may as well be expository info dumps that require astute memory retention and a heavy passion towards Metallic Rouge’s universe to even recall what each of them entailed. Now in the first episode, Metallic Rouge seemed to want to take a “show, don’t tell” approach when presenting its characters and the world they lived in. That approach does kind of still apply to certain scenes that do implement visual storytelling in later episodes, but more than half the time, Metallic Rouge would backtrack on that approach and just resort to feeding its audience tons of unnecessary philosophical posturing that defeats the purpose of “show, don’t tell”.
Speaking of backtracking, Metallic Rouge has a gear-grinding habit of contradicting itself in more than one aspect. Going back to Rouge’s characterization in the first episode, she was mostly introduced as an aloof, emotionless android girl who obeyed her mission to hunt down the Immortal Nine. Her only quirk, although one of the most memorable traits about her, in that episode was her addictive love of chocolate bars. Otherwise, her character in the first episode fell slightly flat, even by typical emotionless robot standards. The second episode, to its credit, did try to rectify this by making Rouge more expressive and even childish towards her love of chocolate and desire to be independent. However, the sudden change from a hunting machine devoid of emotion outside of a craving for chocolate to a woman-child who refuses to share her chocolate can feel a tad too forced and rushed. And this doesn’t just apply to Rouge. At least one other character introduced later on goes through the same forced change in personality from one episode to the next. But the biggest offender has to be, without spoiling anything major, the key character in the final episode who ends up totally rendering who they were initially presented as throughout the series as 100% moot! Darling in the Franxx’s later half does not even come close to how infuriating this story direction was to me in the final episode. And I know a lot of people have heated opinions regarding Darling in the Franxx’s later half and twist(s). Yet, I still do actually like Darling in the Franxx more than Metallic Rouge overall on the grounds that it had more hits than misses and that it at least took more risks compared to how safe yet rushed Metallic Rouge was. And in case you have forgotten, which animated movie brought to you by the makers of Awkwafina’s Scuttlebutt song played it safe for their studio’s anniversary again?
6/10
Animation:
I will say the animation is good, but I honestly do not have much to say about it. Compared to Studio Bones’s other works, it’s kind of hard to pin Metallic Rouge as one of the most well-animated shows in the studio’s library. Of course, it is well-animated when it comes to action scenes and especially the mecha battles. It’s just that while the animation quality is objectively good, there is just nothing that makes it stand out enough compared to other shows in the same genre, studio, or season it was airing in. Otherwise, the mecha battles, and especially the first mecha battle in the first episode, are a treat for any chick digging giant robots… Okay, that was a blatant attempt at making a Megas XLR reference that doesn’t work since there are no giant robots, but in all seriousness, the tokusatsu mecha fights both in the designs of each mecha and the fights they engage in remind me of Accel World.
7/10
Music:
If there’s one (or two) things that I wish Metallic Rouge was just as phenomenal as, it would have to be the opening and ending songs. “Rouge” by YU-KA is without a doubt a catchy opening theme song that perfectly captures what Metallic Rouge is all about. Or at least what it should have been all about… As for the ending song, “Scarlet” by DAZBEE has a pretty airy and whimsical vibe to it that perfectly complements the futuristic setting Metallic Rouge takes place in and the Lycoris Recoil-esque female duo who are Rouge and Naomi. I guess the main battle theme, “Crimson Lightning”, is good on its own, but I sometimes felt that the battle theme in question felt a bit too grandiose for its own good when set against the lesser mecha battles that weren’t as fast-paced or flashy. Otherwise, my opinion on the music of Metallic Rouge is relatively so-so.
7/10
Characters:
Honestly, I already talked a lot about Rouge and Naomi so much in the other sections that I may as well not have a “Characters” analysis section for my review, but I thought I would discuss a little more about the general quality of Metallic Rouge’s cast before reaching the end. Despite how I felt about Rouge’s earlier characterization, I do believe Rouge and Naomi are the best characters on the show. Although, I could say certain members of the Immortal Nine tickle my fancy enough that they steal the show more than Rouge and Naomi combined. Giallon in particular is a very entertaining jokester of an Immortal Nine antagonist who indulges in sadist mimicry and wisecracking. I really feel with just some more spotlight and prominence as a recurring villain for Rouge and Naomi to tackle, the audience would be enjoying the show just as much as Giallon enjoys toying with his targets. Of course, the same could be applied to the rest of the Immortal Nine. As a matter of fact, a lot of characters, heroic or villainous, are interesting in their own right, but almost, if not, all of them don’t get the proper time and care to be fleshed out. Yes, the episode count is 13, but I feel like with anime like Angel Beats! that were originally supposed to be longer in episode count but got cut in half while still telling a great (if slightly too fast-paced at times) story, Metallic Rouge still could have at least kept things close to the chest by focusing on fewer yet more important story beats and characters that would allow them to feel the slightest more developed. That Opera girl definitely looked lit, but her spotlight was not. People who watched all the way to the end know what I’m talking about…
6/10
Conclusion:
I stayed up at 4:00 AM in the morning weeks ago just to watch the final episode that was essentially the second coming of The Promised Neverland Season 2 (like Wish, I haven’t seen it yet at the time of this writing) for anime originals! And I stayed up until 6:00 AM in the morning as I am writing this just to pump out a review for an anime that may or may not get traction due to how silently this show has fallen by the wayside! Man, that can’t be good for my health. Metallic Rouge made me feel something I had not felt so intensely in a long time. Sure, there have been a lot of disappointing works in previous years that are objectively worse than this, but for an anniversary celebration, what other work can I compare Metallic Rouge to than Wish?
I’m honestly surprised this isn't a more common analogy considering how heavily hyped up these two works were by their respective companies. This is probably the first time I watched weekly for each episode just how careless an anime studio, no matter how well-regarded, can neglect an anime series they had propped up so heavily. Why the 13-episode count that was left relatively unknown until close to the series’s end? Why the lack of marketing to promote Metallic Rouge outside of some documentary exclusive to Crunchyroll subscribers? Why the lackluster bonkers conclusion to Metallic Rouge that both rushed to resolve the main plot points while also leaving other plot points’ resolutions unrealized? Whether Studio Bones just knew Crunchyroll would be more laser-focused on marketing Solo Leveling (and they actually succeeded in marketing Solo Leveling very well) or they wanted to put more focus on My Hero Academia despite putting less budget and effort into maintaining high-quality animation for that franchise, I honestly wonder if Studio Bones is still as good as many people praise it as. Because right now, more anime studios are standing out in the current landscape of anime productions such as MAPPA (treat your animators more fairly, you executive leeches!), ufotable, A-1 Pictures, and many more. I’m not going to be some gatekeeper insisting that Studio Bones is going downhill and will never climb back out of the hole that it dug for itself. I’m sure in the best case scenario, this was just a one-off dud that everyone will forget as people look to more seasons of My Hero Academia, Bungo Stray Dogs, SK8 The Infinity, or that potential Ouran High School Host Club reboot or revival that may or may not ever come. Otherwise, this is all I have left to say:
This is easily one of the most disappointing anime I have ever watched from Studio Bones. Metallic Rouge truly deserved better as an anniversary celebration and perhaps if Studio Bones had more faith in it and invested in more episodes instead of just cutting everything down to what was shown, maybe the dwindling score on Metallic Rouge’s MyAnimeList page would be slightly higher than it is currently. My Wish analogy just only makes more sense when you consider how much was cut during the production of that film compared to how much was cut during Metallic Rouge’s production. Metallic Rouge had the right production values for it and it could have truly been something marvelous. Regardless, I have no ill will towards fans of Metallic Rouge who enjoyed it for what it was. I do certainly wish Studio Bones gave Metallic Rouge fans the Metallic Rouge they deserved, and maybe something even more…
Studio Bones, Metallic Rouge was your Wish and it did not come true.
