Grendizer U

Guess I'm finally actually using this like my Letterboxd and Backloggd since I'm not waiting for anime to get added to the former. Anyways, show is loads of fun, but it really suffers from the unfortunate issue of being a mecha anime made when it's impossible to get even slice of life shit to hit 24 episodes. Grendizer U's biggest issues (besides some really wonky 2D art outside of battle scenes or still shots of the mechs) however is that its pacing is all over the pace. Characters and events seem to just happen and occur like they're teleporting around settings and locations. Again, a ... lot of this feels like it can be squarely blamed on episode count as Mitsuo Fukuda whose work I've become more familiar with after watching Gundam Seed earlier in the year across none of that series has characters just teleport around locations. Also as someone who hasn't watched or read OG Grendizer yet I do know some things about it and yeah this is just a speedran remake of the original story and what I'm truly excited for is the potential of the next season pulling an Evangelion 3.0 and being something with much more leeway to go batshit crazy and be wholly different.

Gotta reiterate that it's a genuinely fun as hell show, but definitely not something I'd go to someone and say HOLY HELL DAWG YOU GOTTA WATCH THIS SHIT!! Like I would with Shin Mazinger Z or Getter Robo Armageddon which are other anime of the big mecha grandfathers meant to be original and psychotic retellings or reinterpretations of the classics. That being said Grendizer U very similar to this years earlier release Bravern while not being perfect or this case particularly great still has highs that surpass almost everything else airing the same season despite their lows. Both series are a loud and defiant cry towards the current industry issues that despite it all Mecha will never die.

Now which country likes Getter Robo the most? We can get them to get us something like this for Getter by using the entire countries tax dollars.

I'm sorry to have to give this remake such a low rating, because I sincerely thought that re-adapting this Japanese anime myth was an excellent idea! Except that this adaptation is clearly shaky, and that's what forced me to give it this mark.

The characters are clearly less interesting and less well-written in this version (and it's not the surface depth they vainly try to create that's going to save it), some characters are clearly useless, the love plots that are brought to the fore are clearly not very thrilling, the subtlety of the story is non-existent and the episodes are frankly uneven (a problem of ... the original, by the way).

What's left to salvage in this season is a real willingness to reappropriate Goldorak, which I find quite courageous given the myth that it is once again, and here they went all out! Even though the ideas clearly didn't appeal to me, and I find them really poorly exploited, you can't take away from their desire to truly remake the anime and not just copy and paste a more contemporary version, as with many remakes, and that's great.

In the end, I was really disappointed by this season, which is shaky in a number of respects, but this desire to create something new makes me hope for a sequel that will be much more successful and where the staff will be able to exploit its ideas more effectively (and honor the characters, because things aren't going well at the moment, give us back our Maria).

In short, I'm not crazy, but I'm hopeful for a better future (by the way, the ending is brilliant).

I loved the original Grendizer anime back when it came to America in the early 80s. It was the best of all of the giant robot anime, with characters that developed (at least a little) and female characters who weren't just damsels in distress all the time, and a story line that actually had a beginning, middle and an end.

But it was still a product of its times, lacking the the strong character growth and character interactions that have become common in good anime that is of a more recent vintage.

Therefore I had high hopes that this remake would build on that.

Wow, was I disappointed. ... This anime is rushed, with character interactions being forced, (Duke Fleed starts thinking of the man who rescued him as 'dad' after living with him for 2 weeks? really?) to plot elements just showing up without any foreshadowing (Duke Fleed has telekinesis and can fly?)

Nothing makes any sense. The entire story is a dumpster fire that just gets worse and worse the further you go.