Borrowing from classical literature is nothing new in anime, and neither are themes of the armoured body, as evidenced by the numerous mecha titles available. Volume 1 of Argentosoma is unapologetic about its origins in that respect. Sure, if you’re looking for it, you’re going to find bits of Neon Genesis Evangelion or Robotech in there (“Hey those ships remind me of the Invid series” says my brother with a mixture of wistful approval and dismay), but the old take on My Robot My Self goes a little deeper than most, in what looks to be a truly interesting way.
Don’t pay too much attention to the more blatant (and occasionally painful) references to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; they’re there and there’s no hard work required to find them, but what’s interesting about Argentosoma is the more subtle themes it has borrowed. Adversarial relations, self-alienation, creation, responsibility and beauty; for all its mecha action, this is a series flirting with the psychologically dark, just like its source.
Argentosoma’s main character, Takuto Kaneshiro, is not really a likeable guy. In the beginning, as a genius metallurgy student, he’s immature, selfish and bad tempered (I’d argue with the official website’s assertions that he’s ‘well adjusted’, but then it could be argued he’s just a fairly normal teenager…). And after the stuff hits the fan in his girlfriend’s secret lab and changes his life forever, he’s might not be what you call terribly stable either.
However, more interestingly he is also a somewhat self-destructive extension of the idea of the armoured body. Whereas characters like Shinji Ikari pilot their mecha in order to compensate for the strength, confidence and/or self-acceptance they lack (or believe they lack), Takuto Kaneshiro is already strong, and he has already accepted himself and his desire for vengeance. He’s smart, capable and disciplined, and like Shinji Ikari he has been transformed by the mecha/alien he has encountered, both psychologically and physically. But his relationship with it is far more adversarial than Shinji’s with the Eva, and the mecha/alien in question in this series quite clearly exhibits the sorts of ‘human’ traits that Kaneshiro himself seems to have lost.
If in this way this alien is Kaneshiro’s opposite or reflection, irrevocably connected to him through death and rebirth (or rebirth and death, to borrow from the series), then his quest for vengeance is a quest for self-dissolution. Understandable, given the circumstances. And even if this does imply a predictable conclusion to the show – one where Kaneshiro (possibly?) regains his humanity through the process of attempting to destroy it – it doesn’t make it any less interesting and, I’m willing to argue, unique amongst its peers.
Certainly there are the less-than-unique mecha anime plot devices present — the mysterious organisation vs the morally questionable military, the alien invasion and the conspiratorial secrets, not to mention the occasional plot hole (at what point did the cities fall to ruin?) — but Argentosoma’s strengths are up to the task of balancing out its weaknesses. Yes it asks something in the way of a little patience and forgiveness (possibly too much for some anime fans?), but at least ‘vacuous’ isn’t a word that appears in its job description. Sure, it’s easy enough to enjoy if you want to read it straight up, but with all those wonderfully and genuinely gothic elements who would want to?