This review contains spoilers

For something that was supposed to be Studio Bones’ 25th anniversary project, it’s contemptible for just how underwhelming it was. Has an interesting premise with a cool cyberpunk aesthetic, but the story turned out to be a rushed and poorly written mess that doesn’t properly elaborate on its plot points and throws plot twist after plot twist instead of properly utilizing them, with themes that have already been done better in other similar shows that explore them and characters that were super forgettable.

The character designs look pretty cool at least, Rouge and Naomi especially. Rouge herself was a somewhat decent character compared to the rest of the cast. The fights and animation look pretty good too. But that’s about all the positives I can give it. I liked Rouge and Naomi’s dynamic in the first few episodes, but even that aspect gets less and less interesting over time. You would think that a reveal as surprisingly out of left field as Naomi turning out to be a Nean who was made by the Visitors would actually affect the characters in some way, but it’s just treated like “Yeah that’s a thing” and then they move on without doing anything substantial with it. That’s how most of the plot progression in this show is, things just happen and there’s hardly any time to process the event in question cause we have already moved onto the next thing.

The last episode was especially bad with how it presents the biggest twist of the main antagonist being Rouge’s dad who was supposed to be dead but was actually alive the whole time. He’s an Aizen ass “I planned everything” guy who was manipulating everyone the whole time, that what the immortal nine thought were their own sentient thoughts and motivations were actually just programmed by him from the start to make them think that it’s what they want for themselves. While it’s arguable that there was some foreshadowing present with Cyan insisting on being Rouge’s sister while being presented as the puppetmaster’s daughter, that doesn’t really make it any better because just about everything that doesn't tie the puppetmaster to being Rouge's dad was completely out of left field. It makes the entire narrative look stupid in retrospect. The story doesn’t stop its bullshit even in the last 3 minutes of the show, where it deadass pulls an “Oh no! Anyway” by revealing that Code Eve’s activation infects every Nean with a virus created by Opera that forces them to turn against humans, and then immediately showing that an antivirus had already been prepared in advance. Like what?

It did end with the world having Neans free from Asimov’s code and Rouge/Naomi going after Opera, so the main goal was achieved I guess. Not that it matters when the path leading up to it was plain bad.