Kurogane Communication

Kurogane Communication 鉄（くろがね）コミュニケイション, also known as Iron Communication) is an anime series by APPP that ran in

Japan from 5th of October 1998 to 29th of April 1999. The story was written by Hideo Kato and Hosei Takuma. The

series was directed by Kenji Kikuchi. Ikuto Yamashita, more known for his work in the Neon Genesis Evangelion, was responsible for the mecha designing.

Synopsis

Haruka is a ordinary teenager girl, but her life is most extraordinary since as far as she knows, she is the sole human

survivor of a global nuclear war. Surviving the war in cold sleep, she is awakened by five robots about 30 years

later. Things are fine, but she is constantly haunted by sudden flashbacks and dreams about her parents. There is

also a constant danger of roving war machines and threats like water depletion, yet despite all this, life is still in quite

good shape. The robots are her family and friends, and do everything they can to help the human girl. However, deep inside

Haruka is yearning to meet other surviving humans.

Characters

Haruka (Yui Horie is the human survivor the series mostly tells about. Her thinking is very positive and she is a hardworking person, albeit all she can do is mostly washing her own clothes. She likes all the robots and wishes to get to know Angela better. When not alone, she is usually with Spike. Is haunted by flashbacks about her parents and desperately wishes to know what happened to them.

Spike (Hiromi Ishikawa) is a domestic robot constructed to look like a humanoid. He looks a little younger than Haruka and his voice resembles a young teenager boy, which is why the role of a worried younger brother is natural for him. Spike's job is mostly to keep to with Haruka and repair some mechanical equipment. He is Haruka's favourite robot - her best friend.

Angela (Rica Fukami) is a duelling robot, resembling a human female in her twenties. She masks her face and doesn't really like Haruka although she doesn't hate her either. She also has a habit to spend her days sitting in her dark room, pondering on some personal matter. However, she does get better relations with Haruka soon after the beginning of the series. Her job is to protect Haruka and the others from the uninteligent killing machines, as well as other armed danger.

Reeves (Norio Horiuchi) is a mean-looking humanoid robot that shares many similarities in outlooks with The Terminator. The similiraties however end as soon as the interior is in question - Reeves is a maintenance robot with high skill levels in matters like cooking. Reeves acts sometimes as Haruka's father figure although the two are not very close.

Cleric (Houchu Ohtsuka) is the group's source of information. Cleric is meant to gather and process data, and thus he is irreparable when faced a situation where computer maintaining is a must - indeed, he often uses computers that humans cannot even use without special equipment.

Trigger (Junko Shimakata) is a ball-shaped combat robot (or at least that is what is assumed; it is never explained). Her(?) personality is very human-like resulting in funny scenarios which is also why she is often used as a comical relief.

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Kanato (Yuka Imai) is the second human survivor on Earth. He is of about Haruka's age but his personality is vastly different. He has a deep hatred towards machine and acts in a very aggressive way. He lives in the jungle ruins and treasures his mother-robot with both disgust and respect. He develops a romantic relationship with Haruka.

Honi is the main antagonist of the series albeit he comes to the series rather late. He is Kanato's current guardian but due to a programming glitch and the fact that he originally wasn't meant for domestic work, his actions have started to lead into evil. His purpose seems to be to kill all humans but Kanato.

Mirai & Alice (Yui Horie and Naomi Nagasawa) are Kanato's robot-servants, constructed to look like teenager girls with jewels in their foreheads. They are obsessed with their master and even show signs of human love.

Robot philosophy

All inteligent robots of the series follow the robotic laws although Angela's duelling programming makes her aggressive towards humans as well. They are portrayed as kind although deep inside emotionless, sentinent beings. This is sort of controversial with the fact that sometimes the robots do act like humans, and then in the next scene they could be explaining how they are uncabable of human emotion.