Metallic Rouge – 03
As much as I try to muster interest in Metallic Rouge, it seems to be a losing battle. I’m reminded of the experience of watching most modern P.A. Works anime, which seem designed more to deliver what most viewers expect a PAW anime to be like than telling a story for its own sake. Bones’ track record is far from spotless, but this show would rank in their top tier for seemingly having very little to say or reason to exist apart from marketing.
There was a stretch there while the narrative was inside the Nean reservation when things got sort of interesting. Several new cast members with star seiyuu were introduced in short order. A human doctor seemingly specializing in Neans voiced by Tsuda Kenjirou, his assistant (who Rouge saves from being “processed” by military baddies)voiced by Murase Ayumu. There’s also a young Nean who’s apparently the leader of a sort of non-violent resistance movement, one engineered as a surrogate child for childless humans who never grows up. That had some potential intrigue to it given his checkered backstory, but the writer nipped that in the bud by killing him off with haste.
In the end, though, it’s all recycled sci-fi tropes we’ve seen done better many times elsewhere. I certainly recognize that this is a Bones mecha series and it has a following for understandable reasons, and I’m trying very hard to give it a shot. But at this point Metallic Rouge is solidly in the boring camp for me, and that’s a hole it’s very rare to see a series dig itself out of.
Majo to Yajuu – 03
Much the same boat here, albeit for different reasons. I feel a curious detach when watching Majo to Yajuu. I’m vaguely interested in the mechanics of what’s going on, but I don’t actually care about it in the slightest. There’s something at the same time both quite mannered and quite soulless about the presentation here, almost as if the series itself has no more than a passing interest in these events. That sounds odd I know but I can’t find a better way to describe it, and I have no idea whether the manga or the way it’s being adapted is the source of it.
The denouement of this mystery is a perfect example. On paper the “witch” turning out to be Kiera’s adopted sons should have had some emotional traction. But it came off in very stilted fashion, and it was over almost as soon as the big reveal. I almost had the feeling that a connecting scene had been cut out in the third act, so awkward did it seem. And Kiera hardly seemed all that broken up about it under the circumstances. If she couldn’t be bothered, well- why should I?
I would place this one ahead of Metallic Rouge, for the simple reason that the premise has more pop and inventiveness to it and the trade-off in production values works in its favor – no matter how pretty a show is, when it’s as recycled as Metallic Rouge it’s an empty vessel. But unless either one of them shows me more next week, I’m pretty much at the cut bait stage here. And considering the modestly high expectations I had for Majo to Yajuu, that’s the bigger disappointment of the two.
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