Mechanical Marie

Episode 6

What is it with Arthur's school and the sheer number of weirdos who attend it? In this episode, we meet the members of not just one club of teenage freaks, but two. First, the hilariously-titled female-only “Society for Wanting Arthur to Look at You Like You're Trash.” They feign an offer of friendship with Marie to get closer to Arthur, not because they see themselves as potential romantic interests for him, but merely because they want to savor his withering looks of disdain. I'm not one to yuck their yum, but, um… That doesn't sound like a healthy obsession, ladies. Once they realize Marie loves him in a pure, “normal” way, i.e., she isn't weirdly turned on by him rejecting her, she is instead rejected by them. Not until after their ringleader's nosebleed splurts all over Marie's face, though.

The second club, and somewhat more threatening than the first, is the Robotics Club, full of mech-addled male nerds who abduct Marie so they can dismantle her. The only thing that thwarts them is that, predictably, none of them has ever undressed a girl before. Maybe if they gave the real-life girls in their year more Arthur-like withering stares, they might get more luck with that. What's funny about the whole Marie abduction thing is that she's been “pretending” not to be a robot at school, but the nerds have “worked out” her “true” robotic nature, making them doubly wrong about everything.

I found the whole abduction scene a bit creepy in a show that normally feels a lot more harmless. The nerds even manage to (very slightly) damage Marie's clothing so that, shock and horror, when Arthur rescues her, there's the tiniest chance he might glimpse her underwear! To give props to the show, even when Marie frequently high kicks the reams of disposable adversaries who infiltrate the mansion with alarming regularity, we only ever see her underskirt frills. There are no unnecessarily prurient panty-shots in Mechanical Marie! Marie's panicked reaction to the sheer possibility Arthur could have wandering eyes is utterly bizarre – for some reason, she pretends to have lost her memory, much to poor, long-suffering Roy's confusion.

This leads to another quite odd skit where Arthur tries to jog her memory by lying to her about the “seven precepts of flirting” that he supposedly has her follow on a daily basis. Now these are mostly completely innocuous (but weird if he truly believes she's an android) things like morning hugs, hand-holding, saying “ah” while feeding him lunch, staring into one another's eyes, lap pillows, and head pats. Taken individually, they already do most of these things naturally anyway, but Arthur's final suggested precept is a daily goodnight kiss… which is perhaps him crossing boundaries Marie isn't ready to have crossed yet. She rightfully berates him for lying to her, something he normally despises about other humans. I wasn't sure how to feel about this short section. I suppose it justifies Marie later on for revealing her lie about being a robot.

Overall, this was a weaker-than-average episode that I felt didn't quite hang together, with some uncomfortable moments I disliked. The first few minutes are the strongest overall, with Arthur explaining why he hates birthdays. It's completely understandable, considering his birthdays have always been used as excuses for his enemies to attempt to poison, maim, or murder him. I feel for the poor guy that he can't ever accept presents without suspicion. At least he has Marie now, even if her attempt to bake him a cake is predictably cursed. I'm glad she can be the one person whom he can trust, even if their relationship, for now, is based on a lie.

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Mechanical Marie is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.