This Week in Anime

Metallic Rouge and 25 Years of BONES

Nicky
BONES! We've covered several anime studios we considered foundational but Studio Bones might be one of my favorites. Having produced several distinctive and inspired anime series over 25 years, Studio Bones is a name every anime fan should know. I'd turn into a gelatinous mess without them.

Bones has done a lot of projects in their quarter-century life-span, a lot of anime fans may recognize their memorable name for their phenomenal adaptions of big manga like Full Metal Alchemist (and their 2nd more faithful to the manga version, Brotherhood) and the sakuga-filled and heartfelt Mob Psycho 100, but this new series, Metallic Rouge is a perfect fit to represent the history of Studio Bones, as they've always been intent on making anime with original concepts and story.

Whether you started your anime journey in the 00s as I did, or are a newcomer, BONES has maintained a strong presence in both the anime industry and fandom—achieving popularity with critics and fans alike. It's hard to find studios that are the "best of both worlds" but the story of BONES' success comes together if you examine their willingness to experiment. Back then, I was enraptured by the atmosphere crafted for originals such as Wolf's Rain and Eureka Seven, and now Bones has become a place where unique talents come together and put their signature on things.
One notable friend of the studio would be Cowboy Bebop's chief director Shinichiro Watanabe, who chose Bones as his home for the whacky collaborative creator showcase Space Dandy and later for the Netflix original musically-focused Carole and Tuesday, which Metallic Rouge's Director Motonobu Hori co-directed.

Bones' founders and early key staff were poached from Sunrise's Studio 2, after working on both Cowboy Bebop and The Vision of Escaflowne, producer Minami set off with a vision of producing anime original stories with a small group of trusted people. And who can blame them?! Those are pretty much some of the best anime in history, with lots of details dedicated to art design and setting. Even at the time, it was very rare to get anime with such dedication to immersion. Later, the Bones staff would come back to help with Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, which had a re-showing in North American Theater last month thanks to Anime Expo's "Cinema Nights" project.

I totally believe it. It's not easy setting up a small studio, but now Bone's is its own powerhouse. They make several anime projects a year via multiple branch studios marked alphabetically A through E. They have teams dedicated to the production of long-running series like My Hero Academia and Bungo Stray Dogs but others are willing to take on original work. Metallic Rouge is a product of Studio E, which is the youngest and was developed for the Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution movies. Though, as the studio has grown, they still maintain relationships with many industry veterans, known sakuga animator Yutaka Nakamura comes to mind but also a lot of designers that are harder to come by nowadays. Metallic Rouge's creator Yutaka Izubuchi is most well known for his design work for mecha and monsters—including many iterations of Gundam and Kamen Rider—which is how Metallic Rouge gained it's unmistakably tokusatsu-aesthetic (backed with a badass battle-theme to boot)

Izubuchi was also the original creator of RahXephon, as mentioned earlier—meaning he's been with the studio for a long time That's part of why I was so anticipating Rouge.

Having veterans is an important factor for making great anime because it's always welcome to have people with experience and knowledge when it comes to drawing and keeping on schedule. It's part of why we always look for names we recognize even if producing large scale projects like anime is a dangerous alchemy where nobody knows what shape the final product will look like! Even if I knew most of this information before it aired, I still had no idea what Metallic Rouge would be like until I watched it—and a couple of episodes in there's still a lot up-in-the-air about where the story will go. Let's talk a bit about our experience with this latest series vs our expectations given Bone's reputation.

From the get-go, Metallic Rouge has a lot of pastiche that would be familiar to anyone who loves sci-fi stories. There are a lot of story and visual cues from Blade Runner with its sleek night-time futuristic city vibes along with the primary class conflict between humans and the androids known as the "Neans". There's a lot of anime that explores cohabitation between machine lifeforms and humans nowadays, what with the prevalence of AI technology and whatnot, but I think this also makes it difficult to stand out among all the other cyber noir stories we've been getting. It's really hard not to compare some details of the story to a masterpiece like PLUTO or Trigger's neon-flashing Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. I can see why it might be easy to write off Metallic Rouge as another bundle of cyber-clichés, yet I'd argue it's the details and atmosphere that are really what matter in these types of stories.

With that said, with all of Metallic Rouge's gritty influences and themes, watching it feels surprisingly light—and I'd attribute that firstly to the interactions between Rouge and her handler Naomi.

Not to mention, Naomi, in particular, has a FANTASTIC character design. It's hard to find characters who can match her personality and style. It's choices like these that give the series a modern feel akin to its sister Carole and Tuesday—which is also, at its heart, just about two girls goofing around on an urbanized Mars with the whole subtle futuristic elements of that series.

The soundtrack supports that, both OP and EDs are bangers with plenty of funky retro-synths that give the show a lot of character.

If we were to compare to all the outstanding originals Bones has made it's pretty tough competition! Yet, when it comes to originals, I don't need all of them to be the best thing since sliced bread, I just enjoy rooting for them! Choosing to make something new over an established story is adventurous work. For both artists and audiences, doing something new always entails a huge amount of risk. It's much more effort to have to craft a fresh story that'll attract an audience vs relying on an existing story and fanbase, assuming that idea can even get funding.
Yet, not all anime with original stories are successful or good. Even BONES has had its share of flops. There are about a billion things that can go wrong when you're making a story.

Still dunno How Studio D made time for Sk8: The Infinity between seasons of Bungo Stray Dogs but I'm grateful they did. Watching Utsumi do her thing with Bucchigiri?! reminds me of the fondness I felt for that show. Which was also certainly a daring move given the technical difficulties of drawing skateboard tricks. Yet, another good example of a stunt that paid off. Part of my affection for that show comes from my memory of watching it not knowing what was going to happen and wondering if any of it would stick the landing.

Meanwhile, I'm over here holding a candle for Concrete Revolutio, talking about a show with a weird concept and a lot of ideas (mostly involving political events of the Showa Era).

The obtuse nature of that show likely pushed away most viewers but everyone I know who managed to stick with it agrees that it's very memorable. Last Song in particular showcases a lot of notable guest writers even if I wouldn't call the whole series perfectly executed. Goes to show that making an original appealing isn't just about doing everything flawlessly. If people can remember one or two things about your series years later, that's a form of success. I enjoy it when shows can treat ideas like cooked spaghetti and just toss things at the wall to see what sticks.

That's also why I'm willing to give Metallic Rouge some good ole benefit of the doubt, It's not as experimental or weird as some of BONES' other works but that's not to say it's got nothing going on, compared to most anime it's got plenty. I have a hunch it could be keeping some aspects of the story close to the chest but it's fun to see an anime with just a bit of style and good company, regardless of where it shakes out.

Besides, it's not like all the stigma towards originals is entirely on studios. One of the reasons adaptions and re-boots are believed to be so much "safer" is attributed to consumers' unwillingness to accept new things. Now, I think that's an overgeneralization of human behavior often given by cynical executives but it's the exact reason I try to promote an attitude of optimism and open-mindedness towards originals. The quality of a show doesn't matter if nobody watches it. The first step is to get over that fear of the unknown to be able to engage at all.
Today, we use BONES' history as an assurance of quality, but as we've examined, living studios are about as organic as all the people who compromise them. As a project, Metallic Rouge isn't just about celebrating the BONES we all know and love but also a statement about the future. One day, all the industry veterans will be gone and we'll have to put our faith in the newcomers to keep making art. Think about it, the people making Metallic Rouge today may end up making the great anime of tomorrow!