Metallic Rouge Episode 5 Recap/Review: “Carnival Dances with Lost Memories” (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Director: Takanori Yano
Writer: Noboru Takagi
Storyboard Artists: Motonobu Hori, Yasushi Muraki, Masayuki Ôtsuki
Remember how Metallic Rouge episode 2, “Wander in the Labyrinth,” arrange so many mysteries with so little payoff? Well, they lastly repay with this week’s episode, “Carnival Dances with Lost Memories.”
Why the homicide of Roy Junghardt is critical? What mission are Rouge and Naomi chasing? The random man who confirmed up in the direction of the top of the sooner episode? All these questions get solutions on this episode whereas additionally asking greater questions.
Journey to the middle of your thoughts
If the ultimate shot of the earlier episode gave you hope, the opening scene of episode five could be circus robots combating police, then put together for disappointment. This week’s episode as an alternative opens with Rouge having a dream of her previous. Her “older brother” Gene performs Claude Debussy‘s “Clair de Lune” on a piano as Rouge, sporting a child doll costume, watches, and listens. A hen just like the one Naomi makes use of crashes into the piano. We additionally glimpse three figures on this flashback/dream sequence: a fast flash of a younger lady who appears to be like just like Rouge, an odd robotic, and an older gentleman. The opening of “Carnival Dances with Lost Memories” alerts viewers are in uncharted territory.
The shift to conveying the interior is a drastic change in tone and visible fashion for the sequence. Instead of cyberpunk-styled noir cityscapes and kinetic mecha battles, we get a number of Rouges, weird figures, and regularly altering reminiscences. However, with the present starting to focus extra on free will and Rouge’s autonomy, the extra surreal touches on this episode work. While this doesn’t flip right into a David Lynch film, it gets satisfyingly weird.
The older gentleman is Dr. Roy Junghardt, whom Gene and Rouge name “father.” Junghardt’s homicide is a operating subplot all through the primary five episodes. The flashback hints that Junghardt is likely to be the human creator of the Neans. It could also be why Ochrona’s Investigator Ash and his associate are so thinking about Rouge because the suspected assassin. They trace at a possible Alethia cover-up.
Junghardt’s homicide can be why Rouge is looking the Immortal Nine, and together with there being a possible cover-up, this appears vital. We see Gene give her the order to hunt the Immortal Nine as a result of he says they killed Roy. However, we additionally see that her reminiscences might have been tampered with. She factors out that later, the Immortal Nine members she’s confronted thus far don’t appear thinking about interacting with humanity. While Hell Gallion has proven he can seem like Rouge in her armored kind, it’s completely potential she murdered Roy Junghardt and has no reminiscence of it.
Oh, we additionally lastly acquired a time period for that armored kind Rouge makes use of: Gladiator. The time period Red Gladiator was used to confer with Rouge in episode one however held no that means then. Now, it has context.
Another character refers back to the means of her turning into her Gladiator mode as deforming, which raises an attention-grabbing chance. In her dream sequence, we see a corridor of Gladiators that Gene says is their father’s legacy. We know the Neans had been created to cease the Usurpers within the Great War, however we have no idea how they stopped them. Can all Neans deform, however the Asimov Code prevents them from doing so?
“Go. Do as you will.”
Speaking of the Usurpers, the weird robotic Rouge encounters in her dream is The Puppetmaster, a personality seen within the fourth episode who runs Circus of the Robot. They had been those who put Rouge into this dream state, hoping to seek out one thing or somebody referred to as Code Eve. While in her dream, The Puppetmaster provides to set her free, saying she generally is a puppet or be herself. They regularly use the phrase “Go. Do as you will.” It’s one thing that Rouge will contemplate going ahead.
Of all of the characters launched within the sequence thus far, they’re probably essentially the most mysterious in a non-cliché means. Character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto had enjoyable designing the imposing character. They make each different character really feel small once they’re within the body. Potentially, that is the primary Visitor or Usurper seen on display. Evidence leans in the direction of Usurper since they’ve a bunch of Cylinder Heads of their house blimp that Rouge fights on the finish of the episode.
That units up one other thrilling chance for the sequence’ backstory. We see The Puppetmaster in Rogue’s dream state, each guiding her to seek out Code Eve but additionally when she watches the piano enjoying. It could also be one other tampered reminiscence, however what if it’s not? What if people created the Neans with the assistance of Usurper to win the Great War? Many questions get posed right here, however all of them drive the sequence ahead.
This episode is the primary time Rouge actually confronts herself as a personality. Rouge’s American and Japanese voice actors Monica Flatley and Yume Miyamoto inject much more character into the character on this episode. Although she’s the present’s star, Rouge has been a passive character up thus far. Here, she’s pressured into an energetic function. The voice actors present a number of sides of her, from the extra childlike model of her previous to the ruthless killer of enemy Neans; Naomi’s criticism of her as a device two episodes in the past now not appears so harsh. Rouge has no concept who she is however might now know what she needs for herself—in addition to chocolate. (Editor’s Note: LOL.)
Metallic Rouge episode five’s least attention-grabbing thriller
There’s one final thriller launched within the episode, and it’s, actually, the least attention-grabbing. Eden Varock, a personality who randomly confirmed up on the finish of episode two, seems once more. He gets Naomi onto The Puppetmaster’s house blimp. Identifying as an antiquities seller, they’re additionally a Nean with a Gladiator kind. Since Naomi doesn’t acknowledge him, it’s potential he’s not within the Immortal Nine and is working for another person (in fact, it stays a thriller).
Still, thus far, Varock is that character in an anime sequence who is aware of the whole plot. Except they will’t inform the opposite characters the plot for plot causes. So far, Varock’s questions aren’t practically as attention-grabbing as these tied to identification and free will. It’s a thriller for the sake of getting a thriller.
VERDICT: “Carnival Dances with Lost Memories” is actually the most effective episode of Metallic Rouge thus far. It’s an episode that feels indebted to the work of Philip Ok. Dick, each thematically and worldbuilding-wise. The fundamental character now looks as if an energetic participant in her story. Questions get answered, however others are posed that really feel significant to each the characters and the sequence. This episode lastly sees the present kicking into gear after earlier episodes laid the groundwork.
Metallic Rouge is presently streaming on Crunchyroll. New episodes drop each Thursday.
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