Metallic Rouge Ep.2 Review – A slight flex in animation
After a somewhat modest opening, the Metallic Rouge anime series continued the adventures of Rouge and Naomi in the second episode. Although there was nothing much to admire, the second episode showed improvement, most clearly in the fight scenes, as well as leaving me with some impressions.
Episode two begins a new journey of the main character couple on public transport with a group of reluctant companions diverse in personality, occupation and age. In this episode, information about the world of Metallic Rouge continues to be revealed: viewers learn about the war between humans and Usurpers, the role of the Neans in that war, the Sons of Ares, and Cylinder Head. Not only that, a number of characters that seem to play an important role in the plot later are also introduced in the episode: silver-haired tomboy journalist Jill Sturgeon, Nean specialised doctor Afdal Bashal, mysterious guy Eden Vallock, and investigator Ash Stahl and his Nean, Noid 262. With a large cast of characters yet to show much connection to each other, Metallic Rouge makes me curious about how they will push the story forward.
As for the story of the episode itself, it’s a small story about Rouge’s change in character. After interacting with Jill and the two siblings, Miguel and Emily, she (perhaps for the first time) decides her actions on her own instead of following Naomi’s orders. In addition, episode two also has some funny and adorable moments, such as the scene where “Sonic Lady” shows off her talents and Rouge barks. To me, the content of episode two is somewhat more enjoyable than the first one.
The highlight of episode two is the visual. Although I still don’t like the mechanical designs in the series, the design of the Cylinder Heads revealed in episode two is quite good, carrying a lot of “alien’s invasion weapons” vibes with spider-like limbs and cylindrical heads. The action scenes in the episode are genuinely satisfying. Rouge’s transformation scene is extremely well done: the storyboard is smooth, and the effects are excellent, taking place to a faster version of the “Crimson Lightning” song, which makes me excited to watch. Not stopping there, the animators continued to show off their talent with a short but extremely high-quality battle scene. This small performance smoothly combines 3D, 2D animation and impact frames. The production team started showing off a bit in this episode.
With episode two, studio Bones declared, “Don’t be so quick to judge our show,” with a slight display of its animators. However, the plot is still not convincing to me after the anime continued to info dump viewers in episode two. Let’s wait and see how the anime will cook with the ingredients that have been laid out.
Getter Andy
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