Metallic Rouge

After emerging victorious against an alien species known as Usurpers using combat androids called Neans, mankind colonized Mars and enjoyed post-war peace. Having fulfilled their purpose as soldiers, Neans became subservient workers and second-class citizens to humans. Requiring a daily dose of Nectar to sustain themselves, the androids depend on their masters for its supply of the drug.

However, among this societal hierarchy lie Proto-Neans, independent specialized androids that can summon metallic exoskeletons with superhuman capabilities. Rouge Redstar is one such Proto-Nean working undercover for Aletheia, the government organization overseeing the regulation of Neans, alongside her human partner, Naomi Orthmann.

Rouge and Naomi's mission is to eliminate the Immortal Nine—Proto-Neans who threaten humanity for cryptic reasons. At the same time, an investigator is making his way to Mars to follow a series of murders where Rouge is considered the prime suspect. As the pair delve deeper into their search for the Immortal Nine, they uncover groundbreaking information about the rogue androids and the organization they work for.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Redstar, Rouge Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Orthmann, Naomi Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Opera Supporting

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Machias, Alice Supporting

Tsuda, Minami Japanese

Machias, Aes Supporting

Tsuda, Minami Japanese

Noid-262 Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Bluestar, Cyan Supporting

Shiraishi, Haruka Japanese

Sturgeon, Jill Supporting

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Vallock, Eden Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Fox, Bianca Supporting

Minami, Masahiko Producer, Planning

Shouji, Naoto Producer

Enomoto, Kana Assistant Producer

Fukuda, Eishou Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 30, 2024

Crowelicious

Recommended

Well-written

Not sure why so much negative reviews, but the show isn't bad, sure, it is no masterpiece, and that might be the point, people that comes to the show expecting a refined plot may be disappointed.

It is a simple premise, a young girl arriving on mars on a secret mission, from there, the viewer will learn more about the world the girl live, her mission and her. While it starts off pretty mysterious, about half way the anime most of the missing plot can be de deducted, which is not enterily bad, nor it is good :) . It aimed at an adult audience, but ... delivered a more easily digested and not so harsh storyline, even though the world that houses our cast seems to be very hostile.

Visually it is quite good, most of the time the frames are consistent and the battles are nice, I like the whole armor theme too, for some reason I kept thinking about Lies of P throught the show :P

OST is good, nothing noteworthy here, except that piano track that plays all the time lol, some might find it annoying

The show could have been better? Definitely, but that is true for almost all TV shows.

But, is it worth watching? It is. It isn't a long show, it is very easy to follow the story and even though is not that deep of a plot, it does bring some good reflections now and then.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Crowelicious (8)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Mar 12, 2026

AshParth

Mixed Feelings

I kinda forgot that I had this saved in my Crunchyroll playlist. So, I decided to give this a watch because why not get it out of the way? I kinda wanted to like this since this was a mixed bag for everyone here. I do see why that's the case yet I do understand what they all man after going through with this series.
The story takes place in the far future, following a war with aliens known as Usurpers. Humanity has colonized the inner Solar System and coexisted with androids known as Neans, who were created by using technology from ... another alien race known as Visitors. However, both humanity and Neans don't cooperate with one another since Neans are forced to live as second-class citizens under Asimov's Laws that are programmed into them to be felt subservient. We meet up with our main character, Rouge Redstar, voiced by Yume Miyamoto, a Proto-Nean who is not bound by Asimov's Laws. She is accompanied by Naomi Orthmann, voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa, who was sent on a secret mission to assassinate nine other Proto-Neans known as the Immortal Nine, who some of them are hostile towards humanity. The more both Rouge and Noami progresses with their mission, they are met with a handful of characters as well as exploring the world building planet-by-planet, and some plot twists surfaced into their path through conflict. The story is kind of a mess. I'd give it credit that it wants to break the barriers of oppression and finding equal ground between humanity and Nean like how you'd see it from other science fiction when it centers around humans and synthetic beings. Reminding me that it's a mix of Mass Effect meets Cyberpunk. Just that it doesn't land well with how it was being directed towards besides exploration of the world and the action between Rouge and the Immortal Nine.
I will say, though, the world building itself is pretty cool as well as the aesthetic of the series. Which was inspired by various cyberpunk and science fiction works such as Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner. Not to mention, the designs of what Rouge and the Immortal Nine give off that style of tokusatsu and Power Ranger vibes when you have robots changing into their Gladiator form. The designs of the characters are unique, making this show just unique for being an original IP. The animation boosts the world building up as the action is decent at times. There are times when the animation does become a little hyper in some scenes while the rest feels normal for how the narrative goes. I don't know if there was something going on with the studio who was animating this or not. Bones, the studio involved with the show, did okay for what they were bringing as well with the show's creator, Yutaka Izubuchi. What I also like about this show is the music. It does have a nice vibe to it as it fits well with the aesthetic of the show. This would've been a hidden gem if the story itself was stable, unfortunately. Not to mention, what else holds this show back is that the show lacked character development. It doesn't help when the plot goes all over the place when something like unexpected moments pop up every episode or two.
But what about the characters, you ask? Despite how there was a lack of character development, they're okay. I enjoy Rouge and Noami for how they work on their chemistry. There was also Jean Yunghart, voiced by Shunsuke Takeuchi, who tasked Rouge and Noami with the mission to hunt the Immortal Nine. Then you have Eva Cristella, voiced by Yoko Hikasa, who was involved with Rouge's creation but disappeared suddenly. The Immortal Nine are unique on their own for their given role as well as having their own personality and weaponry. Some wanted peace such as Eden Vallock, voiced by Kazuyuki Okitsu, who was introduced as an archaeologist studying Usuper ruins until there was something more about him much later. He is probably one of my favorites. Then you have this character named Ace/Alice Machias, voiced by Minami Tsuda, who shares the same body who has their own separate personality. Some of the Immortal Nine, however, are part of this terrorist organization called Alter such as Jaron Fate, voiced by Hiroyuki Yoshino, who is a manipulative trickster who loves to screw with Rouge at times. I will go ahead and say that he got on my nerves more than once. Thought there are other characters such as Ash Stahl, voiced by Atsushi Miyauchi, and his colleague, Noid 262, voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi, who are investigators who are always around the corner wherever Rouge and Noami go. Oh, and there is also this character named Puppet Master, voiced by Hiroshi Yanaka, who is a mysterious leader of this organization called Carnival who seeks to free the Neans from Asimov's Laws until a plot twist happens down the road of his true intentions.
Unfortunately, I don't have anything else to say about Metallic Rouge. I wanted to like this show yet I unfortunately felt lost most of the time when something new pops up every time we jump into a different destination with our favorite duo, Rouge and Noami. I really love the aesthetic and design of this world building. However, the lack of character development and the lack of direction muddles up the story. This anime is an example of why less is more is what could make this show more engaging. Someone has pointed out that you'd have to pay attention to the concept. You'd probably need to have precise, laser focus to pay attention. This had potential, yet it didn't really hit the mark for me. I'm gonna give this anime four Rouge noming on some chocolate out of ten. 4/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by AshParth (153)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 12, 2025

AeroGunz

Not Recommended

“Metallic Rouge” is what happens when you have “Blade Runner” at home.

This is one of those shows that wants to be deeper and smarter than the writers' skills allow it. That said it’s not a total failure on those fronts, it does come close though. It does touch on some pretty nice, serious and depressing subject in a heavy handed, naive and inorganic exposition heavy sort of way. The plot is a mess that is needlessly convoluted and the scraps of story that there are here are not worth the struggle of going through it.

Before we start I would like to explain something. I will ... be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes internally as a result”.

I wanted to like this show. I really did. Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors and this anime is clearly inspired heavily by his works and Ridley Scott’s movie “Blade Runner”. Silvia seems like a Roy Batty ripoff, and a terrible one at that. Too bad the writers didn’t understand why Dick’s books are iconic and their, also often convoluted and midfucking plots (looking at you “Ubik”) worked. I was surprised. I checked who was responsible for the scripts to this anime and the people working on it have some really solid work under their belt. Why did they drop the ball this time? My theory is that this time they didn’t have source material to work with. Unfortunately people who are able to work on an adaptation don’t always have the skills necessary to create an original piece of work. “Metallic Rouge” is a show that screams baby’s first script (ok… maybe after max 2 revisions but not more). It’s pacing is all over the place, it doesn’t explain a lot of things and demands the viewers to just roll with the nonsense and use heavy, and I do mean HEAVY, handed references to history (the WWII German kind). The fight choreography is just barely above some basic fantasy shit and the characters are annoying and make little to no sense logically.

One of the biggest problems with world building are the Neans (aka Replicants from Wish) themselves. For starters Dick used his artificial humans as a way to explore themes like empathy and what it means to be a human. “Metallic Rouge” (I’m gonna call it MR from now) uses its artificial life forms as token characters. In the beginning I was hoping that the show would go the way Dick’s book goes and show us that the more advanced models will be more human than humans with a will of their own. No such luck. The last 2 episodes destroy completely the characters of the “immortal nine” (I’ll get to them… oh will get to those fucks) members. It's a really weird choice. The show sets up something really good and decides to trash it at the end in a very lazy and anticlimactic way.

In the beginning we aren’t given a solid reason for Neans creation. We see them working normal jobs, having normal conversation, even feeling pain. Apart from being artificial and depended on Nectar — another thing poorly explained apart from that it’s the thing keeping them “alive” — there don’t seem to be many differences between them and humans. Only Rouge and the members of “Idiot nine”… I mean “Immortal Nine” have any sort of superhuman abilities. Later we find out that Neans were soldiers in a badly explained war against aliens and are used as labor force to colonize Venus. And here we have some really big problems with them.
1. If the Neans were soldiers, why don’t they have enhanced physical abilities like speed, perception or strength? During wartime those would be more than useful. Especially against a foe with more advanced technology? There are a lot of veterans of that war around but apart from maybe a little bit higher endurance (that comes from not exactly having organs to be destroyed by conventional fire arms) they don’t seem different than human soldiers would be. The same goes for workers on Venus. They work in an extremely hostile environment and yet their expected lifespan there is about 3 years (a nod to the 4 year lifespan of a replicant maybe?). Creating neans with the ability to deal with this environment would make the work go smoother and faster. Yet we don’t see any evidence they do anything of the sort. We just see that they are mass produced. That’s it. Seems like a waste of resources to me.
2. In episode 3 we see a settlement design to keep neans in one place at bay. Why? I mean I know why, the heavy handed German thing to make an allegory… soooo original. But if You think about it logically there is no need for it. Neans aren’t welcome in the city. They are treated like second class citizens. So why keep them at all? They are dependent on a substance to live. If You want to get rid of them why not just take it away and watch them die? If there is a law problem with that solution You can always just arrange some accidents with the transports or production once every few months or years and get rid of them slowly. Let’s be honest, this is a badly written pseudo dystopia so a bribe would probably do the job to take the law enforcers off your back. Plus, the ones that keep everything in this classicist way are the law enforcers.
3. As a supplement to #2. If Neans are made as labor force why keep them in that camp… I mean settlement. Totally a settlement and not something alluring to specific things that happened 1939 and 1945. I’m sorry, I know I’m heavy handed here but that's how much this pissed me off. I’ll try to control myself. They are literally made for work. Use them to expand the city, make them take care of jobs that most people would believe are beneath them, or jobs that have a high mortality rate. You have a whole ca… settlement of people who need jobs and were made to take care of things humans don’t want to or can’t. At least that was the point of replicants in Dick’s universe. What’s the point of neans again?

Neans are a very cliché idea with even more cliché and bad execution. Nectar is an artaficial weakness that makes no sense. Why would soldiers be dependent on a substance that has to be taken regulary? A soldier has to sometimes take part in prolonged combat encounters or missions. You can make an argument that it’s the same as food for people. It’s a bad argument but you can make it if You want to be wrong. A human can refrain from eating if needed and be totally fine. Neans die on the spot if they miss a dose. Having one soldier like that in a squad would be risky let alone a whole company. It doesn’t make much sense from a design point of view. And you can’t tell me that the nectar thing is a post war addition. We see a veteran of the war that has a nectar intake unit installed. It would be a pain in the ass and a logistical nightmare to install those after the war. Not to mention additional costs. So they had to have that artificial flaw from the start. I get it. A superficial life should be controlled but in this case it seems redundant. They program neans with the Asimov code (Three Laws of Robotics anyone?) to make them obedient and harmless to humans. Replicants had a 4 year life span because they were stronger, faster and more intelligent than humans. They were used in wars against more than their own kind so making them obey the laws of robotics would be redundant. Making their life short minimized the threat of a rebellion or any sort of long term danger. Neans don’t need the nectar as a backup system since they have the asimov code. Every nean except Rouge and Immortal Nine follow the “be nice to humans” rule. Not only that, not acting on those rules kills them instantly as we see in episode 7. Nectar doesn’t even play much of a role in the plot other than two scenes in episode 1, one scene in episode 3 and one scene in episode 5. Other than that it’s forgotten and not even mentioned despite the immortal nine and Rouge herself being depended on it.

Ok. I avoided the subject long enough. Let’s talk about the “Immortal Nine”. Whoever was responsible for naming them has a weird sense of humor or just followed the rule of cool. I don’t remember anyone stating why they are called that and they are far from immortal. In combat they are actually inferior physically to Rouge (something stated by her father later down the line). Her fight in the first episode can’t even be called a proper fight. Rouge wiped the floor with her opponent. On top of that we don’t really see anything that would make them a real threat. Yes, they have some feats of power but they don’t scale. We have no idea how Rouge would handle the same tasks. If one of them would destroy with one hit an opponent that Rouge couldn’t defeat or at least took a massive beating doing so, that would put everything into perspective. As it stands they don’t seem like a threat since Rouge got rid of 2 before the show even starts. She doesn’t even have visible or permanent wounds. That’s not how you create an intimidating organization.

Knowing what we know about the world is clear that Rouge and the Immortal Nine were built illegally. How do we know that? Well… they were built after the war so the asimov code was already in place and Nine didn't abide by it. They have no problem killing anyone that gets in their way. I have a problem believing that if that was an official build someone would approve not installing a leash on them. Especially that it seems they are the only neans capable of transforming into a battle mode. Ina certain way they are the only neans that have anything resembling free will. Or at least that’s how it seems until the last episode takes a steaming shit on that notion and actually makes the whole show redundant. I don't want to reveal that part because someone might actually want to watch this show and this is a Spoiler with capital “S” but trust me, the amount of bullshit and ass pulling in the last episode is off the charts. I don’t think even “Classroom of the elite” did something so stupid and that show is idiocy incarnate.

Classifying every member of the Immortal Nine as one unit would be pretty inaccurate. Not all of them even want to do anything but live their lives. Violet — Rouge’s victim in the first episode — doesn’t seem to want to do anything but sing. She also had nothing to do with the death of Rouge’s father. So why kill her? Why even have everyone in that group killed? Rouge didn’t even ask Violet any questions, she just killed her not really knowing if she was involved. So much for free will in Rouge’s case. Of course there is a hidden reason for that but even that is destroyed in episode 10. It makes the whole mission of killing them just a whim of Rouge’s brother and not something that is truly needed. This is the problem when someone with not enough skill wants to write a convoluted plot and doesn’t keep notes on what has already happened and why. The plot cannibalizes itself.

Some members of the Nine spout out nonsense about fighting for nean freedom. Well that is also proven to be bullshit in the last episodes (seriously the last 3 episodes must have been written by someone who didn’t give a flying fuck about the previous 10). But even before that Silvia (the leader) has no problems sacrificing neans to achieve her goal. She didn’t have to. There was no reason for what happened in episode 7 apart from that she’s a bitch with a murder boner. At least pretend to care about your own cause for effs sake.

Apart from Rouge and the moron nine there a lot of characters that are set up underutilized. Especially Neomi (Rouge’s partner) and Ash (a detective type). Naomi gets to have her 5 minutes of glory in the last episode but Ash is just there because… I have no effing idea. He does jack shit during combat and doesn’t contribute to anything. He’s a good idea on paper – a noir style detective working on a murder case – but she’s absolutely butchered by doing nothing of value. He’s not the POV character (that would make for a far better show), he doesn’t info dump, he’s just there. I effing love noir films. I want Ash as a POV character, I don’t even care if You make him a deuteragonist, just give me him as an MC because Rouge is a shitty one.

Rouge herself is kind of an obedient idiot. I’m not sure if her obedience is because of some programming or the fact that she didn’t put any points into Intelligence on her S.P.E.C.I.A.L card. She makes bad jokes, follows orders… until she doesn’t and kills her targets with little regret or thought. She is annoying as fuck. I really didn’t want to watch her. Naomi is also annoying but at least she has a personality. Rouge is just an NPC with scripting problems… wait… shitty world building, bad scripting, power armor… did Bethesda write this show? Rouge’s whole shtick is that she has more luck than brains and eats chocolate. By the way, how does that work? I don’t think neans have a digestive system so what happens to all that chocolate? There were moments when I thought that she was inspired by Vash the Stampede from “Trigun” but that died pretty fast. Vash was an awesome and deep character. Rouge is deep as a puddle in summer. Despite having some good and deep thoughts she doesn’t act on them to the very end. There are a lot of things that could have been avoided if she did. But I guess strong and stupid is the name of her game.

Now listen I don’t want You to think this show is a travesty. Yes, the writing kinda sucks and the OST is generic but the art style is clean. Nothing ground breaking or amazing like Jodorowsky’s “Dune” concepts mind you. It’s still a pretty serviceable art style for a generic Sci-Fi show. If you are in the market for a sci-fi to watch and have enough of things like Disney’s Star Wars or Kurtzman’s Star Trek you can give this a go.
I just want you to know what you’re getting into.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by AeroGunz (163)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Itano Circus Part 2

by GreatTeacherKen

50 Entries · 3 Restacks

+Ultra (Programming Block)

by MyAnimeList

26 Entries · 116 Restacks

poker face girls

by gakuendo

49 Entries · 149 Restacks

'Metallic Rouge' Announces Additional Cast

The official website of the Metallic Rouge television anime revealed the additional cast members on Sunday. The anime is scheduled to premiere on January 11 at 12:5...read more

Jan 7, 2024 9:07 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (3 comments)

Winter 2024 Simulcast List [Update 2/3]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Winter 2024 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Jan 2, 2024 2:51 PM by Snow | Discuss (40 comments)

	Poll: Metallic Rouge Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 13, 2024	39 replies	by Astachanna »» Dec 20, 2025 10:20 AM
	Poll: Metallic Rouge Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 6, 2024	57 replies	by Astachanna »» Dec 19, 2025 6:16 PM
	Poll: Metallic Rouge Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 14, 2024	80 replies	by Astachanna »» Dec 19, 2025 5:23 PM
	Poll: Metallic Rouge Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - Jan 10, 2024	241 replies	by Astachanna »» Dec 19, 2025 5:04 PM
	I am now certain... people do actually DISLIKE show don't tell... ( 1 2 3 ) APolygons2 - Jan 15, 2024	132 replies	by APolygons2 »» Oct 8, 2025 2:50 AM