With most of early January 2024’s slate focused on fantasy, Metallic Rouge is a fairly decent cyberpunk refresher. With fantastic, mostly 2D animation, studio Bones’ 25th Anniversary project has spectacular mecha match-ups between government android Rouge Redstar versus various members of the excellently designed Immortal Nine, as well as humorous, expository banter from Rouge’s human partner Naomi Orthmann. But it’s the mystery that drives interest in the show, as Nean androids and humans share a world, but not the same status, and the origins of the artificial intelligence bots seem to link with a previous alien invasion that pushed humanity into further space exploration. It’s an interesting premise, and the structure is definitely unusual, but with Bones’ track record, we’re expecting that it’ll all come together by the end of Metallic Rouge.

Metallic Rouge isn’t an adaptation of another work, nor is the world familiar, so its immediate show-not-tell approach can feel confusing at first. But, it feels like it’s part of the mystery, since there’s definitely something off with the show's world and the mission Rouge was assigned.