Metallic Rouge – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

Nowhere House

Episode 8 of Metallic Rouge starts with Jean discovering an underground passage in his family’s residence. Before he travels through it, Rouge, Ash, and Noid arrive. Rouge greets Jean and informs him about what happened to her. Jean confirms to Ash that he’s responsible for intervention in Ash’s affairs regarding Roy’s case. 

Ash questions Jean about what that passageway leads to. Jean isn’t sure, but he feels it may enlighten him about things. He persuades Rouge to accompany him through this mysterious underground area. Once there, Jean grabs one of the books from its shelves and places it on a podium.  

Several visions of Roy’s past appear on a small screen. Jean refers to this place as a memory library and states how this environment holds Roy’s memories. Jean asks Ash and Noid if they’d like to continue accompanying him on this expedition. Ash doesn’t mind and Rouge says she’d like to continue exploring this area because she wants to learn the truth about herself. 

While exploring, Jean and Rouge peer into their father’s research concerning Rouge and her developments. While Rouge’s emotional growth was lackluster, Roy states her strength exceeded that of a mere human, giving her an advantage over other Proto-Neans. Rouge is upset over her father’s words toward her. She feels he only viewed her as a research subject instead of a true daughter. 

Jean and the others peer into another memory and Rouge recognizes the female researcher in this one. She informs Jean she saw her in one of the dreams she had while she was being held captive in the Puppetmaster’s moving carnival ship. In this memory, the female researcher shares her grievances with the Asimov Code with Roy. 

She hopes that with “Code Eve” she can free the Neans from the Asimov Code’s binding, giving them a taste of true freedom. Noid believes this female researcher is Eva, a genius bio-physics scientist who passed away many years ago. Noid says she helped create Neans with Roy. Jean confirms Noid’s statements and says Eva was his mother. 

The four leave the library and Jean confirms Code Eve has the power to liberate all Neans from the Asimov Code. Additionally, he says rumors went around that Eva refused to give Code Eve’s data to the commission and destroyed it. However, Jeans knows Eva hid it inside the Immortal Nine’s ID, which leads to Roy’s interest in finding the Immortal Nine. 

Afterward Jean informs Rouge that Eva wasn’t only his mother but Rouge’s mother, too. Rouge’s taken aback by this news briefly. Then, she brings up Code Eve and her Immortal Nine elimination task. She questions if she’s doing the wrong thing by hunting them down. Jean says she’s not and explains what would happen if she halted her pursuit of the Immortal Nine and if the Neans claimed freedom. 

While he understands some Neans seek to live mundane lives like humans, he wants to prevent matters from getting chaotic. While their group continues chatting, Naomi’s forces gander at them from a distance. One of the soldiers asks Naomi if they should confront Rouge and the others, but Naomi tells them to stand by for now. 

Suddenly, a girl with light blue hair arrives and transforms into a purple Gladiator. She attacks Rouge and orders her to transform into the red Gladiator. Rouge refuses and the woman reverts to her former state. She introduces herself as Cyan and tells Rouge she’s her little sister and wants to kill her. 

Realizing Rouge isn’t in the fighting mood, Cyan leaves but tells Rouge she’d like to fight her in the future. Suddenly, another force led by Jill and Graufon attacks the Ministry of Truth’s headquarters to Naomi’s dismay. Gregory, one of Jean’s subordinates, informs Jean about it. Jean asks Gregory to send in an evacuation unit. 

Jill and Graufon transform and start attacking the Ministry of Truth’s soldiers. In the evacuation ship, Rouge tells Jean that Jill must be attacking the Ministry of Truth because she wants to recover several of the Immortal Nine’s IDs. They enter the ID storage room and recover their four allies’ IDs. Rouge arrives and confronts Jill and Graufon. 

Realizing Rouge is standing against them, Jill prepares for battle, declaring her group’s war against humanity. Additionally, she wants to obtain Rouge’s ID because she feels it’s the final key she needs to decipher Code Eve. While Rouge and Jill battle, Jean crashes the ship somewhere inside the Ministry of Truth HQ.

Noid spots some people up ahead and calls out to them. Unfortunately, these men shoot at Noid and Ash rushes to Noid’s aid. The two men who shot Noid ask if he was human. Ash tells the men that Noid is a Nean. The two men are relieved and ask Ash to follow him. Ash tells them to take a hike and tries his hardest to replenish Noid. 

Unfortunately, Noid perishes. Meanwhile, Jill and Graufon overwhelm Rouge. Suddenly, Noir arrives and confronts Jill. Noir shoots at Jill’s subordinates, signaling to her that he’s not willing to side with her. While Noir battles Jill, Rouge confronts Graufon. During this confrontation, Aes intervenes in Rouge and Graufon’s battle. 

The episode closes with Cyan observing the battlefield from afar. 

The Episode Review

While the second half of this chapter could’ve slowed things down a tad, viewers will find episode 8’s beginning portions intriguing. Not only do we receive a proper look into Rouge’s history, but the story is starting to answer several questions fans have had since the series began. At the same time, Cyan introduces new questions for fans to ponder regarding Metallic Rouge’s Immortal Nine and its universe.

Hopefully, Cyan’s history will be addressed in a future chapter once this battle with Jill, Graufon, and Aes wraps up. At the same time, many viewers may want to see a chapter that fleshes out Naomi’s character briefly. She and Rouge still haven’t properly made up regarding the whole imprisonment ordeal, too. 

Along with a proper deep dive into Naomi’s history, we’re hopeful Studio Bones will take the time to explore that aspect of this tale. Story aside, the action scenes were compelling. While these battles didn’t look as grandiose as earlier fights, some viewers will find them astonishing. Overall, this was a fine showcase from Metallic Rouge.

While its strange story structure has ruined some fans’ interest in the work, those who’ve stuck with it are finding tidbits about this one to enjoy. We’re optimistic things will conclude on a satisfying note with this anime.