WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS
Metallic Rouge Episode 6 Recap/Review: “Nameless Guest” (⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
Director: Daisuke Chiba
Writer: Kimiko Ueno
If there’s a character in Metallic Rouge who has probably not endeared themselves to the audience, it’s Hell Gallion. They’re the only member of the Immortal Nine to take up significant screen time. Unfortunately, they’ve only been a stock anime kooky villain in that time. The creators want Gallion a scary and chaotic villain but really they’re just annoying. So brace yourself because they take center stage in “Nameless Guest.”
Murder on the Orbital Express!
Before all of the action happens, though, we’re introduced to Alethia’s boss, Chief Chau. They drop in on Gene Junghardt to talk about Ochrona. There’s a mole in Alethia’s ranks, and they’re leaking information. This seems like another mystery the series will draw out, but it resolves this episode. Metallic Rouge doesn’t need any more drawn-out mysteries.
Rouge and Naomi finally get out of both Wellstown, where they’ve spent the last few episodes, and Mars to head back to Earth. The episode is set on a luxury space liner. Lounging in a pool, Rouge ponders the questions posed by Puppetmaster in the last episode. Unfortunately, neither she nor Naomi don’t get to relax because suddenly, dead bodies are showing up left and right.
The best development here is to get to Ochrona agent Investigator Ash and his partner Noid in action. The show’s creators have mostly let Ash and Noid be a bumbling Greek chorus or the comic relief. They show up, comment on the action, and then get left out in the cold. The two keep running into roadblocks in their investigation into Roy Junghardt’s murder. In this episode, though, Ash and Noid get to do something, and that’s trying to solve the murders.
Hell Gallion, the Worst
You would be right if you guessed the killer is Hell Gallion. Give yourself a cookie. As with past episodes, Gallion’s motivations make no sense. Here, they make even less sense. He’s a killer who uses his shapeshifting abilities so far to cause chaos and commit crime. So much crime. Gallion clearly wants to get back to Earth. However, if you’re trying to sneak back to Earth after the chaos caused on Mars, maybe murdering multiple people in an enclosed space is a bad idea.
The show’s creators want Gallion to be an agent of chaos, The Joker to Rouge’s Batman. The audience, though, lacks any context for their actions. The Joker is terrifying because he’s the chaotic opposite of Batman’s order. Gallion stands for nothing at this point. Without a clear motivation like, say, stoking tensions between humans and Neans or that they’re carrying out a mission for the Immortal Nine, Gallion is just annoying. You want Rouge to kill him when they fight finally.
That said, Gallion’s shape-shifting does provide some excellent comic moments in a show. Ash, who met Naomi in the last episode, thinks she’s the killer, so she spends most of the episode in handcuffs. Rouge punches a lineup of suspects to find the killer. This leads to her kicking a dog. It’s okay because it’s Hell Gallion in disguise. You can’t make this stuff up. Comedy has been lacking in this series, so a slightly lighter episode would be great after the thematic heaviness of previous episodes.
Lots of reveals in Metallic Rouge episode 6!
This episode decides to drop two bombs at the end of the episode. The biggest running subplot in the show is the murder of Roy Junghardt. For episode 5, I theorized that there were two possibilities for the killer. The first was Rouge, who then had her memory wiped. The other was a disguised Hell Gallion. Well, Hell Gallion admits to the crime and Rouge sends him crashing to Earth. Hopefully, this is the last we see of Gallion (probably not).
The revelation doesn’t make sense. Gallion, to the audience’s knowledge, hadn’t met Rouge before the first episode. Throughout this episode, Gallion takes someone’s shape after he sees them. He did show up in Sarah Fitzgerald’s room disguised as Gladiator Rouge way back in episode 1, but he could have seen the Gladiator armor on the news. There’s a possibility he’s lying, and Rouge did kill Junghardt. It’s also possible Gallion knows more about Rouge’s past. At the moment, though, it’s an unsatisfying end to a mystery that took up these early episodes.
Then there’s the bigger bomb. Naomi shows up to arrest Rouge at the end of the episode. Why? She’s the mole from Ochorona. The series is better for not dragging out yet another mystery for multiple episodes. It’s been obvious that Naomi had her own agenda. Being an undercover agent from a rival agency the whole time? That offers more dramatic possibilities. One of the great strengths of the show so far is the sibling-like relationship between Namoi and Rouge. The possibilities this reveal will bring to that relationship is exciting.
One last thing: this episode introduces a pair of identical twins named Alice and Aes. Aes loves paper books, while Alice seems to dislike everyone. They’re both too distinctly designed to be background characters or one-time characters. Is it possible we’re about to meet twin members of the Immortal Nine?
VERDICT: The focus on Hell Gallion makes “Nameless Guest” a letdown from the highs of the last episode. This episode has two reveals, with one being more satisfying than the other. However, there are enough style changes (a murder mystery! comedy!) to make this a fun diversion. Hopefully, the show won’t stay trapped on a spaceship for three episodes.
Metallic Rouge is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. New episodes drop every Thursday.
Keep up the excellent work!
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