Mechanical Marie

Episodes 1-3

If you believe the current hype, at some point in the next few years, almost every job will be replaced by AI. Robot doctors. Automated lawyers. Computerized drivers. AI has already invaded the creative sphere, with the internet and social media clogged by algorithm-produced slop, a never-ending slurry of “good enough” generative AI “content” that can fool the unwary into believing it's real. We know that some streaming services use machine translation for their subtitles, because it's cheaper than (god forbid) actually paying someone properly qualified. Even the streamed animated content itself may have AI-generated aspects, such as backgrounds. But once cheap algorithms have replaced everyone, and even entertainment no longer requires human input, who will be left to pay for any of it, and to watch it, except bots themselves? Are we sleepwalking into a world where only AI algorithms can afford to produce and consume endless content while human beings are left with nothing but to become overworked, underpaid toilet cleaners for a rapidly decreasing population dying from terminal ennui and existential despair?

Sorry, that got a bit dark there for a moment, but that's an insight into my daily 4 am darkness-enveloped, cold sweat-drenched anxiety attacks. This is supposed to be a review of a funny anime. A funny anime starring a cute pink-haired maid, who definitely isn't a robot, not that her terminally dense employer will ever realize. Perhaps Mechanical Marie is offering us a way out of organic obsolescence – if only we can be like her, and pretend to be emotionless clankers, then maybe our new, heartless algorithmic overlords will permit us to survive. Or maybe it's just a funny anime produced to soothe our inefficient monkey brains during the last years of feeble, fleshy humanity's waning dominance on this planet.

Anyway, I already reviewed the first volume of Mechanical Marie's source manga last month, and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this animated adaptation. It's safe to say my preview guide colleagues' opinions on the first couple of episodes were mixed to say the least. I'm generally more on the positive side, though I have to admit to more than a little disappointment regarding the purely aesthetic aspects. Mechanical Marie's manga is a fairly simple romcom with a really daft premise; it was probably never going to receive an action-packed adaptation crammed full of amazing sakuga cuts, but I never expected something quite as staid as this.

Marie herself is a championship title-winning martial artist who struggles to show emotion. Her freakish strength and robotic demeanor led to her recruitment by rich industrialist heir Arthur Zetes's butler, Roy. As his father's favored heir, Arthur has become jaded by the constant threats on his life by jealous family members desperate to usurp his place in the family hierarchy. The first few moments of the first episode demonstrate this by cramming in a clock bomb, an under-desk bug, a potential sniper on a nearby rooftop, and a knife in a flower bouquet. Arthur brushes all of these things off as if they were daily occurrences, ensuring to instantly fire any employees he suspects of involvement. It's delightfully silly, as is his delighted response to Roy introducing him to the unbelievably stoical Marie.

"I only trust emotionless, inanimate objects," he announces, before imprinting like a baby chick on the faintly bemused Marie, who witnesses him confusingly vacillate between ruthless employer and smitten child. Marie, who only took on this role to service her parents' debt (I wonder what the backstory is there?), remains implacable externally, though the anime frequently uses little in-screen cutaways to show us reflections of her real emotional state. I like this conceit; it's frequently amusing and very cute.

What the anime is not adept at is demonstrating Marie's martial prowess. At all. Throughout all three of these episodes, anything remotely approaching an action sequence is accomplished mainly by the use of either moving singular frames or bizarre, overly stylized still images that I think are perhaps meant to be a homage to the great Osamu Dezaki, but they become tiresome quickly. Their art style is hyper-detailed and almost luminously colorful, and has led a vocal number of viewers to claim online that these are AI-generated. Personally, I doubt they are, but that their jarring nature invites such criticism speaks to their ill-considered appearance here.

I'd hoped that Marie, high-kicking intruders, would have been animated like something out of Gunslinger Girl's first season, with a quick cut of supremely smooth and effective violence. But no. Only a brief fight rooftop scene against the mysterious Noah in episode three attempts any kind of motion, and even then, it's full of cheap shortcuts. At least the manga's humor remains intact, with plenty of sight gags and even some inspired use of sound. I particularly love the scene where Arthur lays his head down on real, actual robotic replacement Marie 2's metal lap in episode 2, and she plays an 8-bit chiptune lullaby to soothe him. That's a level of inspired absurdity impossible to achieve on the printed page.

Marie 2's appearance is a highlight of the second episode; she reminds me a lot of the very similar character in the recent anime series A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof. She's a hilariously rudimentary, actually robotic copy of Marie, down to her pink hairstyle and maid costume, though she maintains locomotion with wheels rather than legs and is significantly more terrifying. Arthur doesn't seem quite so taken with Marie 2 as he is with the original, and of course, there's a climactic confrontation between the two maids where the chivalrous Arthur protects his true beloved. Not that he fires the metallic murdermaid, a quick reformat later, and she's kept on to assist with household duties, and we're thankfully reassured by the narrator that this isn't the beginning of a new love triangle.

Episode three's new character, Noah (an assassin in the employ of Arthur's incompetently murderous step-brother Maynard), is another matter entirely, however, announcing he loves Marie immediately before shoving her off a church roof, as one often does during Totally Normal Courtship. This follows a hilarious sequence where Arthur instructs Marie to engage “Girlfriend Mode,” something she's completely unequipped for, both as a mechanical maid and as a human being. Marie has no idea how to relate to other people, not even the one she's clearly in love with, so, aping all generative AIs, she copies what everyone else is doing. This leads to a painful sounding off-screen hug; we hear Arthur sustaining at least half a dozen rib fractures. Yet he still keeps going, what a trouper. I also like the running joke where Arthur believes Marie runs on AA batteries that she sticks in her mouth like lollipops. That's absolutely not how electricity works, my dude. I can't help wondering if perhaps Arthur realizes that Marie is a human, but for various reasons is scared to end the pretense? Nah. I think it's funnier if he remains utterly dense.

Arthur and Noah's later battle over Marie's ownership somehow devolves into a competition over who can round up the most runaway chickens. This is a completely bonkers non-sequitur of a sequence, that nonetheless is very entertaining, especially as it looks like not a single artist who worked on this show has ever laid eyes on a real chicken. Arthur forfeiting the battle by prioritizing Marie's safety is a very sweet touch. It's very clear how much these two dumbasses love each other.

These first three episodes are definitely of mixed quality, especially as it seems they're speed-running through the available material. Marie seems to have barely met Arthur before she's fallen head over heels for him, and although the same can be said for Arthur, we know that's because of the way his family has broken him. For Marie, it's mainly due to streamlined adaptation choices. Their relationship threatens to become dangerously co-dependent, as for Arthur, she is the first person/fake artificial sentient being he's ever been able to open up to, and for Marie, he is the first human being she has felt romantic attraction to. It's easy as a viewer to root for their happy future together, but they both have many issues to work through before either can see the other for the people they really are. While I doubt the production quality will improve much, I hope the rest of the season can maintain the same levels of amusing screwball comedy and adorable romantic developments. It's by no means the best anime of the season, but it's twenty-four minutes per week that leave me with a smile on my face.

Episode 1 Rating: 3.5

Episode 2 Rating: 3.5

Episode 3 Rating:

Mechanical Marie is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.