Metallic Rouge Ep.13 Review: Curtain Calls

Here comes the finale! With all cards on the table. The revelation that the Puppetmaster aka Prof. Roy Junghardt is the actual final boss surprised no-one actually, since we can already tell 2-3 episodes back. But we do get a very controversial reveal about the Alters – most notably Flash Sylvia. One of the most regrettable parts of the episode must be how underutilized Aes/Alice was. But nevertheless, the ride ended here.

Prof Roy went on a tirade about how he basically is the god that govern the Alters – aka the Immortal Nines. He can see through their eyes, hear through their ears, and peer into their very hearts and manipulate them at will. He can instill love – like he did with Eden, as well as rage – like he did with Sylvia. Although he seems to have absolute control over them, it seems there’s a tiny bit of freedom left in them – like when Sylvia begged Rouge to free the Neans in her stead. If Roy had full control of the Immortal Nines, he wouldn’t have wasted time letting Sylvia say anything. In addition, Roy is confirmed to be a body hopper – a very tired trope that took away from the character. He’s basically just Ribbons Almark from 00, but with less charisma.

Back to Giallon, they tried to redeem him by eluding that he was just going along with Roy because he couldn’t defy him physically. And his snarky nature and sarcasm is just a way for him to cope with it. I mean…it kinda explain his personality but doesn’t make him any more likeable. He’ll still be hated either way because he didn’t do anything to warrant redemption.

It’s a bummer that we didn’t get the rematch between Sylvia and Rouge, but I guess from a narrative and screentime perspective, it’s unnecessary since we later found out that Rouge wasn’t as strong as she was due to mismatched ID. A rematch between Sylvia and Rouge would have ended the same as it did in 12 because only when facing against Cyan/Roy can she unleash her power-up.

The way they treated and used Cyan was downright criminal. They introduced her in one episode, making it seemed like her whole purpose was to crush Rouge. Then they did a 180 by having her be an adorable sister to Rouge. And then they shelve her until she basically did another 180 and was possessed by Prof. Roy. Her character is undone when it’s still incompleted and that’s the end of Cyan. Just a plot device that was used and then disposed of like a normal equipment. There could have been so much more if they didn’t pull the “Roy is god of Alter” thing.

The fight between Rouge and Roy was really well done though. Roy’s fighting style remind me of a certain golden a-hole with the floating swords and stuff. Although the fight is quite brief because of all the talking the expositional clown did. And then a miracle that could only happen because Naomi’s ID was inside Rouge – a Nean that is far more advanced than others and is not under the control of Prof. Roy. Basically if it was anyone else it wouldn’t have worked.

Before that, just want to give a shoutout to my boy Aes for trying to go against the director’s order and tried to attack the last boss. You tried your best. Amen.

The upgraded Rouge looks like a mix between Getter Hien, Nirvash and Tauburn. The color is consistent with Rouge’s primary color-scheme but slightly inverted and the wings really reminded me of the Jehuty’s wings. This design is similar to a knight and really shred the “feminine” feel to Rouge’s original battle form. They even put in a similar itano circus sequence just like when Tauburn was fighting against Samekh – this is one of those times where BONES making Rouge a true anniversary show. Metallic Rouge’s visual is on point, mostly during fight scenes but it’s a shame the majority of them are quite short. Unlike other series where we get long fights with breaks in-between, for Rouge we got long talks with brief “action breaks” in-between.

All-in-all, everything ended nicely…for Rouge’s party at least. The pandora box that they open – granting freedom to all Neans – is basically exactly what Silvia wanted (and kinda what Roy wanted to, just that he want to rule over the world after). Sooooo basically all the struggles from the start of the series only to lead to a single guy orchestrated the whole thing and the protag did what the antagonist wanted anyway. The social status quo of the Metallic Rouge’s world will be undoubtedly turned on its head. And I reckon a literal civil war will be on the horizon. Furthermore, the Usurpers are also sending their army to invade – which was an issue that hasn’t been solved in any shape or form. Metallic Rouge ended with more issues than it started with, and left more people down than it hyped up before. Quite a shame for BONES’ anniversary series. It is not without its merits but knowing BONES and their works, they could have done a much, much better job.

Aaron

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