See, puns are okay when I do it. Anyway, this is one of the shows I’ve been looking forward to.

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The overwrought human drama

Our story begins with Akira losing his parents in an accident when he was just seven or so. With no extended family to take him in — estrangement, apparently — he had to go and live with his childhood friend Towa and her father. It all works out for him, though. Fast forward ten years and our boy seems to be as happy as a clam. In fact, he’s deeply in love with Towa, so he cooks up a plan to confess to her. But before we get to their young love, let’s talk about Towa for a bit and what she’s known for. She’s actually quite famous — or rather, infamous — in this world.

Y’see, Akira’s adoptive big sis is a genius who has apparently ushered in an actual AI revolution all by herself. AI is a blanket term for a whole bunch of things. The scripted behavior in our video games all the way back to Pong can be referred to as AI. We think that robots will one day develop the ability to think and reason just like us, i.e. artificial intelligence. Lately, we refer to the use of language learning models when anyone mentions AI. So what kind of AI is Towa responsible for? The fantastical one, i.e. the human-like kind of AI. Of course, I jest when I say “fantastical.” We might get there, we might not. Who can say?

Luckily for Akira, the feeling’s mutual. After gifting her an ugly AI companion, he even blurts out a marriage proposal (even though they’re still just teenagers), but she doesn’t hesitate to accept. Naturally, they’ll have to date first and all that, but they act as if becoming husband and wife is an inevitability. I wonder if it would’ve been more interesting if Towa wasn’t quite so enthusiastic about having a relationship with him. After all, they were kinda raised as siblings. Or maybe she’s a little slower in accepting his love, because she’s so focused on her research. But we soon find out why this relationship is moving so quickly: it won’t last long.

At a huge conference on AI and where it’s headed, a religious fanatic tries to assassinate Towa. Unsurprisingly, her future husband heroically leaps in the way and takes three of the four bullets meant for her. I find this scene a bit… difficult to swallow. First, how did the guy get into the building with a gun? Now, you might argue that shootings aren’t a big concern in other countries like in my gun-crazy US of A, and that’s a valid point, but Towa is a controversial figure. A lot of people are already deeply unhappy with her. When Akira leaves the house, he sees paparazzi snooping outside. Early on in the episode, we find out that her father “has already put in a request with security services” because things have gotten so dicey. So why didn’t they have better security at the conference?

Second, the guy is able to run up to the stage, climb onto the stage, rant about “blasphemous androids” for like four or five seconds as he brandishes his gun and takes aim, and fire a shot that initially hits Towa in her hips. Security is nowhere to be found. Talk about negligence. Even when the crazed assassin is finally tackled to the ground, they do not disarm him quickly enough, which is how Akira ends up eating three bullets. Huh? Is this the most useless security detail ever? But again, we now know why Towa is so receptive to Akira’s confession. We now know why he is so quick to mention marriage. All of this serves to amp up the tragedy of their short-lived relationship. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this kind of storytelling. It feels a bit cheap.

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The AI problem

Like I said above, Towa is a genius who apparently ushered in the AI revolution. Her company is on the verge of developing androids, and a lot of people do not like this one bit. We already know they dislike her enough to try and kill her. Even the pope has come on TV to speak out against the advent of androids. Towa must have a good response to all of this, right? After all, this is her life’s work. I might not be convinced by her arguments, but a genius like her must have a solid foundation for doing what she’s doing. Well, her basic argument is that android can bring joy to people’s lives. That’s, um… true, but it’s also a bit singleminded.

The reason why I want to watch this show is because it is pretty damn relevant to us in the real world. We might not have actual AI or androids to speak of, but LLMs are arguably the stepping stones to those greater, ground-breaking technologies. But even without actual AI looming as a threat, people are already losing their jobs. Generative AI is not only putting people out of work, the amount of energy it consumes is dangerous. Despite warnings from scientists for decades, we’re actually speeding towards an environmental disaster. To put it simply, AI isn’t just a boogeyman. It poses serious problems to worry about regardless of whether or not we’re referring to a glorified chatbot.

As such, I have a bone to pick with a certain scene in this episode. Towa’s dad does a bit of sleuthing and finds out that rival companies are supporting the opposition. Towa’s competitors don’t want to fall further behind, so they’re adding fuel to the fire. Sure, that’s possible. I can see that happening. But we can’t just wave off actual concerns by essentially claiming “they hate us, ‘cuz they ain’t us!” Scientists like Towa may feel as though societal concerns aren’t their problem. Their job is only to push technology forward. Things like joblessness, homelessness, and social instability are for society’s leaders to worry about! She’s just a quirky robot-loving chick! But isn’t that sort of thinking kind of irresponsible? What if our civic leaders aren’t ready for the moment? What if they can’t solve those major problems (as we can plainly see in the real world, they absolutely cannot)? Should our brilliant scientists push forward anyway even if the results are potentially catastrophic?

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What happens next?

Naturally, Akira falls unconscious from injury. When he finally wakes up, he finds himself naked in a broken pod of sorts. At first, I thought there was a chance he might have died, and perhaps Towa had turned him into an android. But we can see three dots on his back that would correspond to those three bullet wounds, so this is probably the actual Akira. He simply went into cryogenic sleep, which is apparently something Towa is also responsible for. Gee, is there anything she can’t do? Well, solve social problems, I guess. Well, moving along, when Akira ventures outside, he discovers a world that has been overtaken by nature. Or from a more anthropic perspective, the city is in ruins. Is it due to AI? Well, we don’t know yet, but that seems to be where the story is headed. Maybe AI rose up and rebelled a la Skynet. Or maybe countries went to war over the coveted technology. And what happened to Towa? She’s probably dead, right? Or maybe she’s an android herself? We’ll soon find out… hopefully.

But why episode zero? Usually, a prologue sets the stage, so to speak, but it isn’t wholly necessary. You could technically skip the prologue and still understand the main story. From what I’ve seen, this episode zero feels pretty damn necessary to me. But again, we’ll see.