Metallic Rouge is the latest anime from Studio Bones and serves as a celebration of its 25th anniversary. Set in the future on Mars at a time when humans and androids called Neans are meant to coexist, the series follows Rouge Redstar and Naomi Orthmann, two government agents assigned to hunt down the Immortal Nine, a group of powerful Neans striking a violent fight against the oppression of their kind.
Only a few episodes of Metallic Rouge have been released so far, but it’s already shaping up to be an anime more than worthy of celebrating Studio Bones’ legacy. In addition to boasting amazing visuals and overall direction, Metallic Rouge’s story is one that effortlessly balances comedy and poignant drama,
Relying on minimal exposition, the series fully trusts that its audience will understand what’s going on and put together the story. This allows the episodes to focus on the action and the characters, making each one better than the last. There’s no telling how Metallic Rouge will progress, but if it maintains this level of quality, then it’s sure to be a great watch from start to finish.
Crunchyroll Unveils Winter 2024 Anime Release Calendar
The winter 2024 season of anime has arrived, and here’s the finalized Crunchyroll lineup, promising another great season of anime entertainment.
Metallic Rouge Is One Of Studio Bones’ Best Directed Anime In Years
Original anime produced by Studio Bones
The first thing that stands out about Metallic Rouge, of course, is its stellar direction. In addition to having incredible animation and fight choreography from director Motonobu Hori, the anime’s great shot composition, combined with an incredible score from Taisei Iwasaki, Yuma Yamaguchi, and Towa Tei, adds incredible life to every scene and always perfectly captures the mood, whether it’s an action scene or a moment of intense drama.
Because of that, every episode of Metallic Rouge excels in terms of direction, and in terms of pure visual spectacle, it’s easily one of the best anime of 2024, so far. Metallic Rouge also shows all the merits of Bones’ best productions, rivaling masterpieces of the studio such as My Hero Academia, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Mob Psycho 100. Overall, Metallic Rouge will surely be remembered as one of the best anime from Studio Bones.
Metallic Rouge Proves You Don’t Need Exposition To Tell A Good Story
The area where Metallic Rouge truly shines, however, is with its writing, and its lack of exposition plays a big part in that. Instead of explaining things as quickly as possible, Metallic Rouge has very little exposition, especially in episode #1, and it’s mainly up to the audience to figure out everything. That might be offputting to some, but the fact that writer Yutaka Izubuchi structures things like that shows that he has confidence in both his storytelling and the intelligence of the audience, and that’s done a lot to make the show work as well as it does.
10 Best Science Fiction Anime of All Time, Ranked
The best science fiction anime feature towering mechs, frighteningly human androids, space exploration, and more.
Metallic Rouge’s Story Is A Perfect Blend Of Character & Conflict
The biggest selling point of Metallic Rouge, of course, is its protagonist, Rouge Redstar. While Rouge is usually just a goofy protagonist whose odd way of thinking adds a great deal of levity to the series, Metallic Rouge isn’t afraid to make Rouge something of a cold and callous person who doesn’t sympathize with her enemies and is only concerned with completing the task at hand. That sort of gray morality has made Rouge a very engaging protagonist, and seeing how the anime balances those two extremes has always been one of the best parts of Metallic Rouge to behold.
What especially makes Rouge’s character work is how quick the series is to deconstruct it. As Rouge starts wanting to be her own person, she’s routinely challenged on what freedom means and is criticized for not caring about her fellow Neans. Episode #4, in particular, does a great job of forcing Rouge to confront her lack of sympathy for the Immortal Nine. That character writing, when combined with the overall stellar script and direction, helps make Metallic Rouge one of the best anime of 2024 so far, and with any luck, it’ll keep to that until the very end.
A screener copy of episode #4 was provided by Crunchyroll.
Metallic Rouge releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Crunchyroll.
Watch On Crunchyroll
