#eden vallock

[seekers-who-are-lovers]

Lost Memories: Bang Bravern & Metallic Rouge, Ep 10

“Not all memories are good, you know?” —Ash Stahl

I was watching the 10th episode of Metallic Rouge where one of the Immortals, Eden/Noir, an android, lost his ID (a transparent sphere that contains all their personality, memories, etc. that is part of the immortals’ makeup) and everything became hazy. His memories began to fade away. He knew he had a lover (Jill/Flash Silvia) and a family, his Nean family. He even knew the beginning notes of Debussy’s “Clair de lune” but totally forgot the entirety of the piano piece. Naomi thought it was so unfortunate that she felt sad for the Nean. According to Jaron, once all his memories were gone, he’d die. Eden/Noir’s life connects himself to his memories.

On the other hand, compared to the future defeated Bravern whose memory was still intact, his remembrance of a particular encounter with the Japanese crew in Hawaii discovering the tonkatsu curry left a mark on his mind. It was a small thing, probably insignificant to some, yet for Lewis/Bravern a big deal that aided Lulu to decide once and for all to rectify the past. The moment she heard Bravern, busloads of reminiscences from both Lewis Smith and Bravern flowed in her mind.

“Japanese curry was really good.”

As for the viewers who watched that scene, it was a painful one. The dying Bravern/Lewis’ last words. The sound of his internal machine whirring in the background, not functioning. The show runners’ attempt to blend humour with death was fascinating. In the end, there was only the impending gloom and hopelessness and a defeated Bravern and Isami’s corpse.

Good news, the whole thing can be reversed.

[ecargmura]

Metallic Rouge Episode 13 Review + Final Thoughts - Their Free World

Well, that was disappointing. What do you mean the anime ends like that? I finally managed to understand what the heck is going on now and it ends. It kind of sucks when one of the animes you were anticipating to watch soon becomes a train wreck.

To no one’s surprise, Roy Yunghart was the Puppetmaster, but the twist goes even deeper as the Roy in front of them isn’t the real one; the real one died and the one in front of them is a Nean copy. It turns out that he likes to body jump and Cyan is his third body essentially as he jumps to her body once Sylvia stabs him. The fact that he was the one who ordained everything feels like bullcrap. I know it fits with the freedom and will themes but at this point, I don’t care anymore.

The final battle between possessed Cyan and Rouge was pretty cool, though. Naomi deciding to sacrifice her vessel and permanently be fused into Rouge’s body was something I didn’t expect. The fusion form between them was cool; it sort of looks like a Digimon with the pupils and wings. Maybe it’s just me, but it reminds me of a robotic/mecha Digimon.

The surprise twist that Opera was a Usurper and is still out and about feels like a cop out. I feel like this anime was intentionally made to be two cours, but given that it’s an original anime project and those normally don’t get two cours means that everything has to be bunched up and thrown in as much as possible. The fact that the ending of Metallic Rouge ends with Rouge facing off against Opera shows this.

I’m glad the Neans became free, but the ending doesn’t show what happens to them or what happens to the other characters. What happened with Jean? Ash? Noir? Aes/Alice? Is Giallon even alive? What happened with everyone else? 

Final Thoughts

Metallic Rouge’s concept and premise was cool. Watching the trailer legit got me inserting this show into my already long watch list for Winter 2024 but as weeks went by, it started dropping in terms of story quality. I feel like Bones had high ambitions for this project, but couldn’t really execute them properly due to time constraints. It’s unfortunate that an anniversary project ends up becoming mediocre since I do like BONES’s works—The Case Study of Vanitas is my favorite anime and they animated that beautifully—but this one was a miss.

I enjoyed the first five episodes but then after episode 6, the episode quality starts dropping. So many unexpected and unnecessary reveals; so many characters were introduced; a sudden liberation plot came into play. It’s really hard to keep up with the story when too many elements spoil the soup.

It also makes it hard to enjoy some of the characters. I did enjoy the characters, but it’s kind of hard to get attached to anyone not named Rouge or Naomi; though, I did like Ash and Noid—I kind of wished they were built up a bit more. For example, Grauphon was an Immortal 9 member but I knew nothing about him to care. The best character and the most underutilized was the drifter granny from Episode 2. She needed to be in the show more.

Though, the writing choices did make it hard to enjoy some characters. Like, why did Naomi have to betray Rouge and then reveal that she’s a Nean created by the Visitors. Like, why is everyone not named Ash a Nean? Jean is half-Nean and we’re not even sure how Neans can reproduce if they’re mass-produced like smart phones.

I did enjoy the animation and music. The dramatic music reminded me of sci-fantasy RPGs like Xenoblade and I feel like some songs here could fit in Xenoblade or Star Ocean given the similar settings. The animation was fluid, especially with the mecha fights. The fights were what made the show shine. I really liked the opening song, though. It felt like listening to 90’s anime openings.

The anime got a great cast of voice actors, but not having a great story or plot sort of ruins it. I liked Tomoyo Kurosawa as Naomi and Yui Ogura and Jill/Sylvia but why did they have to be in this rather mediocre show? They all rocked in terms of performances, but this anime is one of the cases where the voice acting, animation and music are great, but everything else isn’t.

I feel like I’m ranting, which I deserve to after enduring 13 weeks of this show. I heard that there will be a manga adaptation for this show, so I hope that it expands the lore more because the anime fumbled hard with consistency. Would I recommend this show to anyone? Nope. There are better sci-fi/mecha shows out there and with better story, so don’t waste your time with this one.

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Metallic Rouge [2024]

[pwdr00]

Eden Vallock (Noir) (Ep 12)

[ecargmura]

Metallic Rouge Episode 11 Review - Confrontation In Venus

This episode flew by so fast. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, but I know that it can certainly be a bad thing as I found some inconsistency with the writing as well as making some theories about a certain character.

First off, Sylvia says that the Immortal Nine are fighting for freedom, in order for Neans to live with humans…yet she’s also mass producing Neans in a plant and hopes that they’d fight for them. This makes absolutely no sense with her goals. It only makes her a hypocrite. What kind of liberation is this? And it turns out that Sylvia was the one who killed Roy, despite Giallon saying that it was him back in episode 6. Why did they suddenly shift the killer’s identity around? Who’s next? Aes is the actual killer?

Second, Cyan says that she’d fight against the voice calling out to her. Welp. She fails. She gets controlled and lured to the Puppetmaster. Is she going to fight Rouge in their one last showdown? Will she break out of this control in the next episode?

Third, there’s the reveal that Jean is Eden and Eva’s son. If you look at Eden and then look at Eva, you’re wondering HOW THE F*** his ‘genes’ work (no pun intended). Both Eden and Eva have dark hair while Jean’s hair is white. Eva and Eden have red and brown eyes while Jean has blue eyes. What sort of crazy genes are these? Also, Neans can reproduce? And the fact that Eva created the Immortal Nine means that they’re her children…and that means Jean is a product of inbreeding. Great. I didn’t need to know that. Speaking of which, there was a scene where Sylvia and Grauphon kissed…I get that Neans’ don’t follow the same rule as humans, but given that they all see each other as family…well…

My theory for the Puppetmaster’s identity is that he’s Roy Yunghart despite him telling Jean that he worked with him. We didn’t see his dead body and in the anime world, if your dead body isn’t shown, you are not officially dead. I mean, who else can cause a reaction in Ash? I’m gonna flip if it’s that random pompous dude from the bus back in Episode 2. Please don’t let it be anyone random. The story has come too far for it to be some random dude.

Anyways, I don’t remember if there were 12 or 13 episodes for this show, but I do wonder what will transpire in the final showdown. I know that Rouge won’t be fooled by Giallon’s tricks. Who will be the ultimate final boss?

[ecargmura]

Metallic Rouge Episode 10 Review - Family Bonding

I like how both sides of the groups have a different type of family dynamic. With Jean and the other members of the Immortal Nine, they act like family and technically are, but there’s a sense of distance between them. They talk about the past in a nostalgic way, but there’s clearly a rift in their dynamic. It’s also hard to see them as a family as they’ve been so keen on destroying each other and two members of the Immortal Nine were already killed off-screen before the story started. It feels like it’s just implemented for the sake of the group needing a dynamic. Though, there are some deeper details like Noir and Sylvia hinting being a thing. They also all like chocolate for some reason.

On Rouge’s side, there’s a rather sudden found family development. Cyan is implemented into the story with an 180 degree change in personality. She is very child-like and considers Rouge to be her older sister as she was created from her data. Naomi said that instead of sister, she’s more of an alter-ego or a clone. The rowdy dynamic between Rouge, Naomi and Cyan was hilarious to watch as Naomi and Cyan cannot stand each other while Rouge is in the middle. From the moment Cyan showed up in the box and revealed to have thrown away the antiphaser to her calling Naomi the mean old neighbor lady was honestly a nice change of pace from the constant action scenes.

Though, there is a part of me that can’t help but to worry about Cyan. It’s nice that she’s rather innocent in her actions and behavior, but I do wonder if it’s all a farce. Like, will Cyan turn her backs on the group when the Puppetmaster speaks to her again? Like, the sudden change in personality really does reek suspicious.

It’s also cute to see Ash being their dad friend of sorts as he baited Cyan to taking a bath by talking about ice cream. I do like the subtle change in Ash’s personality as he realized that Noid was indeed important to him and he regretted not getting to know him outside of work; he was a bit distant from him because he was worried that he might see Noid as a replacement of his son. It’s nice that he’s tagging along with the group for Noid’s sake too. Given that he’s the only human in the group of Neans, I’m sure his prejudice towards them already changed.

I do worry about Eden as his memories are slowly fading away the longer he is without his id. Will he die? Will he be repaired? The risk of leaving him like this is very worrisome. However, Eden does remember that he does have someone he considers important. There was a flashback with him and Sylvia earlier, but he also is seen with a picture of Jean and Eva Kristella. Is his precious person Eva? That would be a very interesting dynamic given that Eva and Roy were just colleagues and weren’t actually married.

Now, I have this weird theory about the Puppetmaster. What if he’s Roy or Eva? I had a theory he was Roy when he first showed up in Episode 5 but I think that he could also be Eva too. We haven’t seen their dead bodies, so we’re not even sure if they’re actually dead. Remember, if they haven’t died on-screen, they’re still alive—that’s the prime anime rule.

I apologize for getting this review out so late. Given that Metallic Rouge is a rather difficult show to watch, I have to watch an episode several times for me to grasp things. I also was focused on other things, so I had to delay watching and reviewing this show.

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Metallic Rouge [2024]

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Metallic Rouge [2024]

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Metallic Rouge [2024]

[pwdr00]

Graufon Berg (Ep 12)

[pwdr00]

Eden Vallock (Noir) (Eps 08 y 09)

[ecargmura]

Metallic Rouge Episode 5 Review - Fever Dream

Like usual, I have no idea what’s going on. It’s practically about Rouge having a fever dream or something. I think the worst thing about Metallic Rouge is the fact that the plot tends to jump off-screen. Like Rouge gets kidnapped by the circus people, but it was never shown in the last episode or even this one. She’s just there all of a sudden without prior explanation. 

It seems that Rouge is a special type of Nean—one without an Asmiov’s Law implemented into her. That is why she’s able to kill Neans without hesitation, but it does seem to affect her mentally. She was created by the Yunghart family to destroy the Immortal Nine, who were also Yunghart’s creation. The Immortal Nine killed their creator, so I feel like Rouge’s existence is to be their antithesis; she has a color like the other nine, but she’s not like the other Neans. Because of her uniqueness, she was raised as Jean (or Gene)’s sister. Other than this important fact, I do wonder why the masked man wants Rouge to remember her past. Maybe the masked man is Roy Yunghart in disguise?

Naomi takes on the task of rescuing her partner as she is the queen of stealth. She gets into the airship with the help of the curly-haired man back in episode 2, who’s name is Eden Vallock who also happens to be a member of the Immortal Nine as he is a Black Gladiator. I do like how weak Naomi is compared to the other characters of this show. Unlike the Neans, she’s just an ordinary human, so even if she can fight, it won’t do much because she’s just a fragile human. That’s why she uses different methods to fight like guns and her intelligence. I like that! Even though she was losing against Opera, it makes sense because she’s just a person.

I do like the dream sequence because it brings the question of whether or not it’s real. Are these her actual memories or are they fabrications made by Mr. Puppetmaster. Why is the Puppetmaster so intent on freeing Neans? It brings a lot of questions into the fray, but I do wonder why it’s being brought up five episodes in and not earlier?

Anyways, I’m going to end my review here because it was rather straightforward. I feel like the traveling carnival are the main antagonists of the show in a way. They were pretty freaky. I also loved the creepy music in the beginning too! What are your thoughts about this episode?