Mechanical Marie

Episode 5

I don't know if it's because I'm such a sucker for cute, pink-haired anime girls, but this adorable episode of Mechanical Marie pressed all the right buttons for me. Marie realizes that it's not only her eyes that go all goo-goo over her master Arthur now, it's her whole body. To her, he radiates such pure sun-like energy that she can hardly look at him without suffering corneal flash burns. Poor Marie now can't even countenance the thought of granting him a lap pillow like she used to, and the thought of admitting out loud to his face that she loves him is enough to crash her non-existent diodes.

Marie 2 has become such a hilarious and integral part of the cast, especially now that she's received some upgrades; she functions as Marie's indispensable wingrobot, downloading love tips for her via antiquated dial-up internet connection. The episode is full of delightful little throwaway gags like that. I like how the silly little windows that appear on screen to reveal Marie's true emotions are also used for Marie 2, except she remains as robotically expressionless as ever, only making funny little noises to clue us into her thought processes. I love how they've gone from potentially bitter rivals to fast friends, and that Marie 2's cottoned onto how dim Arthur is, lying to him with gay abandon about Marie's fake robot nature.

The “DJ Mode” skit is the kind of unhinged daftness that I live for, with Marie “malfunctioning” when Arthur removes her silly sunglasses, getting a little too close for comfort afterwards. The laughs continue into the second half, when Marie becomes jealous over Arthur's apparent preference for Marie 2 over her. Now I know he's clearly as dumb as a box of rocks, but even he doesn't seem to express any kind of attraction to the comically robotic Marie 2. Thankfully, it all turns out to be a case of crossed wires, as Arthur takes his chaotic neutral aunt Charlotte's advice to… um… “upgrade” Marie 2 with heat-seeking missiles. I hope he thinks Marie is powerful enough without rocket launchers; otherwise, I worry he may attempt to physically upgrade her hardware at some point.

Jealous Marie is adorable, and without anyone else to turn to, she ends up confiding in arch-enemy (and self-declared love rival for her affections) Noah, who gives some appropriately terrible advice. While Marie is no rival to Bocchi for comedy facial deformations, some of her more exaggerated expressions in this episode are very funny. The poor girl lives such a bizarre life, I really hope she and her man can eventually settle down together – he's certainly planning on getting the laws changed so he can marry a robot. He's probably not considering the wider societal changes that might result due to such a redefinition of the concept of marriage…

Although the animation remains extremely rudimentary, the director and his team do the best they can with obviously very limited resources. The show looks simple, but is always colorful and fun, with great comic timing that elevates the silly slapstick. Even better is that the last couple of episodes seem to have dispensed with those odd, possibly AI-generated screens that upset everyone at the beginning of the season. I certainly don't miss them. If Mechanical Marie can continue to entertain me with such a strong mix of goofy humor and adorably bonkers romance, then it could be one of my top shows of the season, iffy animation be damned.

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Mechanical Marie is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.