Active Raid

Episode 6

Active Raid's largely episodic structure can be both a blessing and a curse. On the negative side, the fact that most of these episodes are only vaguely gesturing at some larger plot can make them feel somewhat inconsequential. The actions of Logos are almost irrelevant, so it's up to each episodic story to be its own reward, and Active Raid has been very inconsistent in making these stories exciting. When the story's fundamentals aren't strongly apparent in each individual episode, they really have to stand on their own.

On the plus side, when the episodes do stand on their own, they can tell entirely self-contained stories that are enjoyable even if the main plot is nonsense. And this week's episode definitely fell into the latter case, as it told a deliberately campy story of super robot love and justice that worked both on its own and as one more reflection of Active Raid's larger themes.

The focus character this time was Funasaka, who opened the episode by telling Asami about his love for giant robots. In a world of Willwears, giant robots are actually nostalgic antiques - though Japan was once at the forefront of robotics, the fact that giant robots were unwieldy and lacked fuel efficiency meant they were destined to be abandoned. And so now middle-aged men take pictures of former heroic giants in museum exhibitions, a generation of adults abandoned by the industry that inspired their dreams.

The framing of giant robots within this world both makes sense in worldbuilding terms and also has some great inherent emotional resonance. In a show that's largely about the awkward navigation of simplistic ideas of justice and the complexity of the working world, the idea that a generation of kids would be inspired by childhood heroism on television, find careers in robotics, and then be abandoned by commerce makes a tragic kind of sense. Dr. Kasumigaseki, the father of Funasaka's idols who once inspired Funasaka's own dreams, now lives in a nursing home, while his former colleagues have switched to other careers. “We never thought we'd see a whole field disappear,” one former roboticist laments. “Now I wonder what our dreams even were…”

The whole first half of this episode is dedicated to articulating the tragedy of this lost industry, but it doesn't take much time for things to shift to the episodic Logos plot. The “episode villain” here makes perfect sense - while Funasaka dreamed of piloting the robot Drew, Shimura Makoto was intended to be the official pilot of Morgan. His future was stolen by the death of giant robots, but unlike Funasaka, he was not able to adapt to the changing world. His relationship to Funasaka directly echoes the link between Madoka and last week's villain, where the compromises of the modern world are lamented in spite of the show's actual protagonists having come to terms with them.

In the end, Makoto's commandeering of Morgan gives Funasaka a chance to retake the past, and inspire Dr. Kasumigaseki to find himself and repair Drew one last time. The showdown between Funasaka and Makoto is a gleefully archetypal giant robot duel, with Funasaka proudly shouting lines like “I will not let anyone use robots for evil! Drew Drill Punch!” But just as Funasaka seems to be on the verge of defeat, his victory is claimed through the reality of time's passage. Makoto, who could never come to terms with the end of his era, forgets about the fuel inefficiency that led to its ruin. And Funasaka claims a melancholy win.

This week's episode was a thematically bulletproof ode to giant robots that also fit perfectly within the world and concerns of Active Raid. It was a predictable but funny and smartly told meditation on dreams and reality, and pretty much a perfect articulation of this show at its best. I'm guessing things will soon be steering towards Active Raid's final plot, but I'm glad we got at least one more great vignette before then.

Overall: A-

Active Raid is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.