[DreamSword]

Episode 8: Nowhere House

This overall structure of this episode was a smart move after the previous one.

It's mostly talking, with Rouge, the Detective Duo, and Gene all investigating more into Rouge's' origins and what exactly Rouge's' father might've been hiding that'd make the Immortal Nine want him dead.

The overall atmosphere does alot to carry this one, which is exactly what you should be gunning for in a dialogue focused episode.

And of course with that comes some rather significant plot reveals. Mainly in that Code EVE, the master code that would overwrite the Asimov Code for all Neans, is actually split into pieces between all members of the Immortal Nine. And Rouge herself is one of them.

There's also the debate between freedom and order that the episode brings up, and I was happy to see a middle ground being presented to the entire debate, as many anime would be quick to swing one way or the other. Civil Rights situations, as easy as it can be to paint them as black and white, do come with alot of hitches, big and small, that many aren't ever willing to talk about.

And while Gene is the one representing Order in this situation, I feel as though there's more to this than what he's letting on, given a very brief shot we got in a previous episode of him putting together the Ids of the I9. This of course though also brings into question: Should the Nine have to die in order to release Code Eve onto the world? Or are their lives too precious to give up for Neans as a whole? Noid's' situation even brings up that while the Asimov Code can certainly be abused, there are humans who won't treat Neans that way.

Lastly, the smartest thing I felt this episode did was show that the Immortals are not as unified a group as previously thought. Sure, there are alliances, but at the end of the day each Proto-Neans has their own thoughts and views. Viola just wanted to live a quiet life away from strife. Noir is willing to side with Rouge in the fight for equality between all beings. Sylvia is the main one pushing for the War on Humans.

Oh, and there's also the reveal of Cyan, who is very much the Hakaider of this show. But we'll talk more about her another time I'm sure.

Overall, a very interesting episode to sit through. I dug it.