Metallic Rouge Ep 5 Review: Fractured History
Instead of blinding us with amazing and extravagant action this episode, MR blinded us with a very confusing history lesson – with a bit of action at the end. However, it still doesn’t help us piece together a coherent story just from watching the episodes. MR requires you to watch it a few times, checking out the website then piecing the bits they strewn across the episodes together to make a proper timeline. With most of the major sides introduced, it really doesn’t help when they decided to add another (or maybe two) more.
Last episode introduced us to a funky carnival circus on a giant balloon ship – and now they have captured Rouge. We have no idea who they are or what they’re after, but the head of the carnival seems to be greatly interested in Rouge and knows a great deal about Rouge’s background. Speaking of background, the episode was pretty trippy in terms of visual presentation. It shows Bones is still Bones in terms of animation, but the confusing visuals only add to the unclear timeline. One can argue that it serves to show that Rouge’s memory are tampered with or faked, but the confusion of the character shouldn’t be the confusion of the viewers. With the rate they are going, I’m not sure if they will ever unravel all the woven threads properly and satisfyingly.
At least, from this episode, there are a few interesting tidbits that we learn about the Neans, the Immortal Nines and the Yunghart family. So the recap is when the aliens Usurper attacked, Prof. Roy Yunghart completed the Proto Neans – the Immortal Nine. They are the precursors to the Neans – mass produced androids – that helped humanity fought against the aliens. The Immortal Nine haven’t been active in a long time, but now they have started to resurface. Gene Yunghart – Roy’s son – led Rouge to believe that the Immortal Nine caused the death of Prof Roy and that she has to dispose of those failed legacies. Rouge and Gene were shown to be brother and sister – but later on we were shown something different – a girl who is identical to Rouge but with blue hair instead. That part was very well done at least.
And then we get the lead of the carnival, he’s mysterious and imposing, yet we don’t know what he was actually after. We thought he was interested in whatever Code Eve was – which is something he believes to be inside of Rouge. But then he gave her a “pep talk” about freedom and purpose. He essentially let her “go” and beat up his subordinate. However, considering the fact that the carnival is always traveling around Mars or to other “planets”, and they have a ton of alien war crafts, Bones may be pulling a Franxx and have them be Usurpers in disguise. After all, we’ve never seen them.
Naomi was great this episode though. She’s the sassy but actually caring best friend that Rouge needs to keep her straight. I’d really love to see more of her. Eden Varock was also intriguing this ep. It seems he’s more of a mercenary that do things for money. His design is also very cool as well. The side-skirt guns are pretty badass and it’s really reminiscent of Captain Earth, Star Driver and Diebuster. If only the story can be tighter and the characters more fleshed out, the show would have been amazing. Metallic Rouge is like a 1000-piece puzzle and different parts are being assembled in different locations and one can only comprehend it at the very end.
The visuals and music of the episode is still quite on point. The Crimson Lightning started just as Rouge snapping out of her daze is pretty amazing. And Varock’s combat scene was very well done – just like other fights in the series.
Aaron
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