Metallic Rouge Ep.9 Review: Revelations & Reconciliation

Episode 9 of Metallic Rouge is quite productive. We split half for the action and half for the talking and preparations for the next episode. If only the other episodes were paced like these and did not waste time with too many trivial interactions. Nevertheless, we finally see the true form of the alien Visitors we have been hearing about.

Continuing from the battle of last week’s episode, we get a great highlight from Eden Varock. His chest projectile is pretty slow but packs quite a punch. And, of course, in the middle of a battle between powerful proto-Neans, a regular human chest has to butt in and become a hostage. So, from the exposition, Gene hasn’t been helping in any way. So, instead of staying away from a distance, he charged in with a simple assault rifle, which did nothing against Grauphon (I doubt it would do anything against the others as well). Thanks to that, Rouge could break out from her confusion and focus on the fight.

Our little Cyan Bluestar has to steal some highlights for this episode, or else she won’t have anything to do. They rarely lean on the twin sister route, where Rouge and Cyan attacks are basically identical. The same versus the same battle is very well done. I like the visuals where they resonate. Although the way Rouge defeats Zion is pretty typical, I think it makes sense. It’s also funny when Naomi brought out the anti-phaser but didn’t do anything notable with it. Edin continued to be the best guy when he seemed to be worried about Gene.

Then we finally go to the exposition part, where we discover Naomi is actually a Nean – and the first one nonetheless. I like bones animating the parts where Naomi takes off her astronaut suit. The facial expression is pretty funny, but the gesture is very fluid, much more than any other frames before, to emphasise that she is indeed not human. And there are more non-human things in this episode.

We finally get to see the true form of the visitors – aka X Noah – the aliens that helped humans build the Neans to combat the Usurpers. They remind me of the Preserver or high-templar Protoss from StarCraft. Some unique elements include putting mouth attachment on their face to speak human language. As absurd as their appearance, the back story is even more crazy. And they find a way to make the bad guys come from Jupiter. Seriously, it’s always Jupiter. The whole thing about the Earth trading Venus for the technology to win the war is quite ridiculous. It is almost on par with Frank’s sudden alien Hoo Ha, but honestly, I have stopped caring for any sense in the show.

Naomi is still the best girl in the series. She seemingly has no flaw at all and is perfect at playing multiple roles: the reliable operator, the sassy friend, the logical subordinate, and a little bit of a rebellious employee. The first Nean, being a female model, fits the whole code even, so it’s pretty surprising that Naomi is not the code holder. Professor Roy and Eve made the code way after Naomi was born, but it would seem pretty poetic if they went that route. Nevertheless, it is obvious that Naomi is 100% behind Rouge, and she will support her in any situation. I also chuckled when Eden rocked up to Inspector Ash’s house and knocked.

Anything with Eden in it is automatically cool, such as the spacecraft they will take to Venus, where the final battle will occur. Although I can see that the Nean will be getting their freedom, the immortal 9 will most likely die; they even show a foreshadowing of Aes. And, of course, the final enemy will be the Usurpers. However, seeing that they are a faceless army, they will probably go down just as easily as Franxx Vimm. Now I’m just worried that they will kill off characters just for the sake of it, but hopefully, metallic roots will come through with a strong finish.

Aaron
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