Mecha-ude (TV)

Long ago, alien lifeforms came to Earth, fusing with people on the planet. Due to their appearance, they were dubbed "Mecha-ude," as when fused, they bore a striking resemblance to mechanized limbs.

Through an involuntary partnership, average middle schooler Hikaru Amatsuga works alongside the Mecha-ude Arma, who is an extremely rare and special existence. To protect Arma, the resistance group ARMS assigns the dual Mecha-ude user Aki Murasame to follow him wherever he goes. However, she is also looking for a mysterious Snake-Type Mecha-ude wielder, who has put many of her comrades in a critical state.

Behind the scenes, an organization known as the Kagami Group is searching for the mythical "Trigger Arm," a Mecha-ude said to grant unlimited power. When Aki's life is threatened by this group, Hikaru must team up with Arma to find the courage to fight back and, along the way, learn that his life will never be ordinary again.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Murasame, Aki Main

Shimamura, Yuu Japanese

Amatsuga, Hikaru Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Alma Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Kagami, Jun Supporting

Park, Romi Japanese

Fist Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Twos Supporting

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Tani Supporting

Nishiyama, Koutarou Japanese

Toudou Supporting

Amatsuki Japanese

Kayano Supporting

Tono, Hikaru Japanese

Quen Supporting

Uenishi, Teppei Japanese

Kinoshita, Tetsuya Producer

Okamoto Director, Original Creator

Takadera, Takeshi Sound Director

Sawano, Hiroyuki Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Composition, Music

Reviews

Nov 9, 2024

ThatGuyYeah

Recommended

Preliminary (6/12 eps)

I don’t get how the reviews for Mecha-ude are all mixed. Six episodes in, and it’s sitting at a 7.12? Really? It’s ranked #29 by score and #31 by members this season, yet it feels like one of the most exciting shows out right now. Mecha-ude is easily my top pick this season. And that’s saying something, considering I’ve been reading Dandadan for years (one of my all-time favorite manga). Also, I’m not the biggest fan of full CGI, though that’s a rant for another review.

Mecha-ude just has this undeniable charm. It feels like TRIGGER-lite, and that’s a massive compliment. It’s got this gritty, DIY ... vibe and a lot of heart. Maybe it’s the soundtrack, which was done by the same guy who scored Kill la Kill, and yeah, both OSTs are fantastic. Or maybe it’s the humor, which often hits perfectly through the animation. Sure, the animation itself isn’t always the smoothest, and some of those high-speed action scenes are a little chaotic to follow. But even then, they’re super fun to watch. The world-building may not follow a simple copy-paste logic, but neither did Kill la Kill or Gurren Lagann, and both of those are absolute classics.

Now, I’ll be real, this isn’t TRIGGER. It’s got some rough edges: the animation is occasionally spotty, and the art style isn’t exactly mind-blowing. But the overall art is more than reasonable for what it’s aiming to do, and those fight scenes? They’re still hype and exciting. It might not have the budget of a blockbuster, but that honestly doesn’t matter here. This isn’t a show that relies on groundbreaking visuals. The story itself may not be revolutionary, but it doesn’t need to be. This is a character-driven narrative, and Mecha-ude nails that part. The characters feel authentic, and it’s easy to get invested in their journeys.

The rest of the staff deserves some real credit here too. They’ve brought together a solid team that knows what they’re doing. The voice actors deliver top-tier performances that elevate the show’s tone, adding depth to the characters even when the visuals aren’t going all out. It feels like a show created with genuine care and it’s refreshing. The vibes are electric yet grounded, which is rare to find these days. And the entire production just works in a way that feels worth every minute spent watching.

Honestly, Mecha-ude is criminally underrated. If you’re into character-driven narratives, you need to check it out. And if you’re a fan of Kill la Kill or Gurren Lagann, it’s an absolute must-watch. This series is just oozing with potential, and it’s more than earned a spot on my watchlist. I even dusted off my account after years just to post this because it’s that worth watching.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 22, 2024

OP_Rider

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (5/12 eps)

This one gave me old-school anime vibes, and by old-school I don't mean the art, animation or the timeline- "the old-school" here means the anime story is very simple and straight. The opening song of the anime is great I highly recommend listening to that.

It's a straight line simple story of those old animes (like -beyblade, pokemon) that we used to watch , almost as if the story is very predictable. But that does not necessarily mean it's not good. As far I am enjoying it, feeling really nostalgic to see similar story layout. [Short summary not a spoiler, skip this part and read the ... next passage if you want to] MC finds a companion calling him from afar, in this case a mechanical talking arm, now people are behind him to utilize his power. As he and the mecha arm both are unaware of what they are capable of they are just going with the flow; saving anyone they see in danger and being friendly with everyone.

This anime is neither overpowered nor strategic. There is no ulterior motive to learn here by watching this anime, only if you feel like getting back into old-plain anime stories can give it a watch or just leave it - you can decide that by watching the 2018 version of the anime. In 2018 the anime released a 25 minute duration advertisement episode, the same story they showed in episode 3 in this 2024 TV release; or you can use the anime's first 3 episode rule. After watching first 3 episodes you decide whether you want to watch it or not.

Overall
Story - mid
Action - good
Art - decent
Animation - good

I can not rate it precisely, since the anime is still ongoing and I did not watch it very far. After finishing the anime my rating may or may not change.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 7, 2024

YanniktheYordle

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (4/12 eps)

Currently we sit on episode 4 and damn, the phrase: 'Wasted potential' rarely fits as well as it does here. I know it's a bold statement for only 4 ep out of 12. Quick rundown:
You have the name giving robot kinda living beings called Mecha Ude with their own mind which can "fuse"(more like attache) with a humans body. This will increase the humans physical strengh and the Mecha Ude can activate it's true form like an extra robot arm, a tail, variety of guns, whatever and makes both of them dependant on each other. The Mecha Ude needs something called Albitrium which every human ... has inside his body. If they get seperated by force the human will die after a few days since the Albitrium in his body will leak(imagine it in a form of gas) and the anime states that Albitrium is like the soul(don't quote me on that).

Now to my points:
The anime jumps from event to event. I don't mean it's fast paced(which it sometimes is but not hasty) but I miss the connections between the scenes from time to time. Sometimes you watch a scene with almost no connection to the last scene, no transitions or explanation why character XY is at place XY.
Another thing is the bad/weird storytelling and how the creators connect things, make character decisions, how to write them to give them personality traits and make events happen. There are so many examples in only 4 episodes I don't know which ones I should take.
For example(Minimal Spoilers now, jump too *** to skip):
1. You're one of the good guys. Imagine your job is to retrieve an really important Mecha Ude(their unactivated form is like a rubic cube). You then find out it has fused with a random civilian teenager(MC, who ditched school that day since he had to follow a voice in his head which led him into a cordoned off area by the police he simply ignored because the voice in his head asked for help- how to become the MC clichee).
Now you have two options how you can convince him that you don't want to kill him and that you need him to follow:
Option 1: Gain his trust by like introducing yourself and explaining him the situation.
Option 2: Tell him that if he moves he's dead, which would make him scared and increases the chance he would try to escape.
Guess which option the character(main side character girl) in this series chose.

2. In this example you're the boss of the good guys. You now have the MC which actually isn't suited to have this Mecha Ude since his amount of Albitrium is far under average(means he's weak) and for his safety, since he(more his Mecha Ude) is very important, you decide he should have a bodyguard. Again you have two options:
Option 1: Choose someone you trust and can handle this task.
Option 2: Choose someone you trust, is the main side character, but due to her past and recent events could maybe slightly be bit impulsive and do some actions which could endanger the person she should protect.
Again, guess what the decision here was.

3. It had to happen as described above. Side girl decides to immediatly run somewhere(Port storage depot or something like that) to investigate something and drags the MC with her. They notice enemies being in that area. If you would take your task as a bodyguard serios you would probably avoid facing them. But guess what our big brain girl did. Because of her emotions she approaches them directly and since it's obvious a fight will break out she tells the MC to stay close and not leave her side. Seems logic, except the first move she does is an aoe attack around herself which pushes the MC away and then she says this: "I told you to stay close!". You might think it was supposed to be funny for the viewer but I see no details and hints that it was meant to be a joke. It could end here but na.
In her brawl with the other guys stones, baseball bats and even a shipping container flies around and almost crushes the MC so he takes cover and finds a child sitting between other shipping containers.
He wants to protect the child from the ongoing fight(which side girl can't see since she's some meters away), gets kidnapped, gets saved by main side girl and then one of her Mecha Ude claims the MC tried to use the chaos to escape and main side girl has the audacity to say that because of the MC's recklessness the bad guys almost got his Mecha Ude. Just imagine this stupid writting.
Thankfully the MC then points out that only because of her they ended up in this situation and that she was the one which created their seperation in the first place and that he wants to leave without her. And now imagine this. She ignores her task of bodyguarding, let's him go and argues this with the reason that the MC should cool down, but may have forgotten that she dragged him into the danger- like no reflection at all. Even the MC's Mecha Ude asks him to apologize since she's their bodygaurd and I'm just sitting in front of my screen and ask myself what I'm watching right now. In his shoes I would ask myself too who's the bigger danger here. But hey, they had to create a situation where they are seperated for another event to happen...

*** I ofc want character development and know more about the cast, but pls figure out more reasonable and logic reasons which make such events happen and god pls, don't make this kind of stupid characters with the dumbest decision making just to make the story go on. This is just bad storytelling since I can't imagine who would act that way. Yes, it's anime and yes, it's fiction but cmon.

The action is rly good (8/10), but for me it feels like there are sometimes 1-2 frames missing since some connections in the animation feel bit off but maybe that's just me. I also like how they try to do some cool camera angles but sometimes it's bit too much and I lost focus. Voice acting is top but for now nothing extraordinary yet.
Characterwise there's not much to say. Designs are cool- mostly the bad guys stand out and at all I saw more personality of them compared to the good guys which is also bit questionable but nothing which the next eps can't fix.
I know I bashed a lot here. Itself the anime isn't bad and at least rly entertaining, but lacks so much in my eyes so I can't rly say it's good either. That's why I'm currently sitting on a 5/10. Opening is nice too.

Update: I watched ep6 right now and in some points it got even worse, story still doesn't rly exist, the characters of both sides have no screentime and personality(except MC and side girl) and that makes me so sad. You have cool character designs, a cool setting and somewhere there is a kinda origin story to be told, but the way everything gets portayed and shown is so BASIC, boring, in some ways beyond any logic and not fleshed out in the slightest which makes everything you see just slide by in your brain and the only entertaining aspect are the fight scenes(still 8/10, maybe even 9/10).
At all I don't see in which point except the fight animation this anime wants to shine. You can see the anime wants to be more, but isn't succesful since it seems they(director/studio) don't know how.
I honestly hope the fans get what they want/expect. Usually an anime should inspire the viewer to get his hands on the manga to deep dive even more in it's world, but here I would get the manga only for the reason to see if it's actually good, which it must be since in 2016 they crowdfunded the 2018 OVA ep. Yet again, knowing this fact, it makes it even more sad for me.
This anime could have been a small shining star...

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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