Written by Marcus Rinehart
Story by “Man of Action”
Directed by Gino Nichele
Rating: Alright
After two middling episodes and three bad ones, we finally have the first episode that’s beyond merely OK. Elements of the show start coming together and feeling natural for the first time. It begins with a rogue lawnmowing robot where Aki learns from Dr. Light about the quirks in individuals, then Aki stops Sgt. Night from turning the sheeple in Silicon City to his side, and that in turn inspires Ice Man to freeze humans and robots together in blocks of ice. It makes more sense in context.
Good Points
– There’s a lot going on in this episode and it’s all cohesive. The progression of this episode’s chain of events doesn’t feel forced at all, though that shouldn’t even be a compliment in any normal show.
– Ice Man is handled well overall. The way he thinks of himself as a hero isn’t any stranger than his personality in Mega Man Powered Up and it’s actually decently conveyed, not stated as if the audience is brain dead, that he’s a slightly defective robot, hence his personality and exploitable attack patterns.
Stupid Points
– Jacques the Toaster being unharmed after being run over by a lawnmowing robot with enough power to rip up street asphalt.
– If you’ve seen sci-fi comedies like Red Dwarf and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you can’t help but wonder about the implications of a fully sentient lawnmower. Does he ever wonder if there’s more to life than just cutting grass?
– Aki countering Sgt. Night’s stupid speech with his own asinine speech. You can tell that if Sgt. Night ever manages to turn the human populace against robots, it’ll be because the citizens are idiots that aren’t worth saving.
– This may be the only time Sgt. Night reacts to a robot attack to further his agenda, but he’s still way too easy to see through because it’s pretty obvious there were no attacks before he started opening his mouth. This episode doesn’t treat him seriously either.
– Admittedly, it is pretty awkward how Silicon City is a peaceful utopia of dangerous, fully-weaponized robots like Ice Man and the lawnmower, but for whatever reason, it seems to have worked so far. See that? This is me shrugging and accepting a fundamentally insane idea, like evil energy in Mega Man 8. You can get your audience to do that if you just put in the bare minimum effort!
– “Why does a robot dog need a walk?” I dunno, why does a robot boy need to go to school? You think you’re being cute, show, but you’re actually being dumb.
