Review of Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms

Mecha-Ude - Is anime going back to its roots, any good at all? I'd argue that if you don't see it from a modern lens, it'll do wonders. Out of all the different sources when it comes to anime production, nothing beats originals because of its blank slate that gives the works fair criticism just by experiencing something that's done before, but to different concoctions based on the vision of its staff involved in the matter. And that can be quite the tricky measure to weigh each and every factor that gives the shows a run for their money, because it is the sole keyword ofinvestment that determines its success. And one work in particular has that reputation of evolving from what was a pilot sneak peek into a full-fledged series: Mecha-Ude, a once-$60k Kickstarter project back in October 2016 that met its goal just the month thereafter to produce a 25-minute ONA released in May 2019, to then be commissioned as a TV anime project just 3 years later that, come this Fall, is finally a series realized in the making. So, just like time (which is also a finite investment), is the anime worth it after 8 years of blood, sweat, tears, time, and financial planning from its visionary director of Sae Okamoto and the newly commissioned TriF Studio?

For starters, if you've watched the ONA way back in its heyday, it was a loving swan song to the mega-popular mecha series of all time, from the likes of Gainax's legendary mecha Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to the evolution towards Trigger's Darling in the FranXX and the Gridman series (though Kill la Kill was in a way a deep inspiration, and Little Witch Academia being very similar in its Kickstarter origins), so much so that back then, there was potential to expand the series based on its pilot into something bigger. And though the anime itself feels pretty much like your typical standard Shonen-focused premise that involves genres and tropes that would usually go hand-in-hand, I think that Sae Okamoto choosing to stick towards conventional terms is a good strategy to bring out the old-school feel of the early 2010s, something that in this day and age of the AniManga industry is sadly few and far between...and is ever so slightly diminishing away from what used to be the staple slate that, next to the Isekai/fantasy genre, matches its numbers (in terms of less quantity and more quality) from the decade earlier.

Just think about it: a dystopian sci-fi future in the very likeness of the Transformers franchise, where mechanical beings descend into Earth after losing their homeland in space and live amongst humans with the intention to fuse (or the correct term: to derize) to them as their means of survival. These mechanized limbs and appendages, called Mecha-Ude, have their usages, though pretty much like the good vs. evil factions of the Autobots vs. Decepticons, while most of them are relatively harmless, some would be used for evil purposes (the whole "take over the world" shmuck), and that's where organizations like ARMS vs. the Kagami Group come in with each their objectives and goals to free and suppress these Mecha-Ude to their own likings. The Sam Witwicky character here is the average boy of Hikaru Amatsuga, who ends up finding one such rare Mecha-Ude that unfortunately is in a state of amnesia, not knowing who or what it is, and all he knows is that this Bumblebee-ish robot called "Alma" is so precious towards both factions because of its reputation as the "Trigger Arm," one of the most powerful Mecha-Udes that could significantly change the tide to whoever finds it and harnesses its unparalleled power.

I'm telling you, this show may have its influences taken from Transformers, but still wholly makes its own story that is palpable to understanding, though its pacing for the standard 12 episodes could afford to have one extra episode just to slow things down from its rather ridiculous speed-running phase (that making this a 2-cour series, is next to impossible for the straightforward and simple story).

If there is one fault that the series just does not do justice, it's the character cast, and there's a bit too many of them to ever just be useful plot narratives in an already overcrowded scenario such as this. Every Mecha-Ude has a human attached to them, and in Hikaru's case, Alma is permanently stuck to his hoodie, seemingly with a mind of its own at times. Being the clear outsider involved in a rather competitive nature, the dull boy makes do with what he can, though ineligible at first since Mecha-Ude relies on its source of power from its user to survive: Arbitrium. And it's in this nature that both Hikaru and Alma would meet people from both ARMS and the Kagami Group fighting in endless retaliation to pursue Alma, and being on the good side of things, rests his laurels on the one who would be his protector ever since: Aki Murasame with her twin-wielding Mecha-Ude of Sinis and Dex. And though the rowdiness of the matter would come to haunt the both of them through the Kagami Group's young master, Jun Kagami, wielding the experiment that is the worm-type Mecha-Ude of Ouroboros, plus the shenanigans of the childhood friend trope with Meru Shirayama just being the romantic gossip girl, Hikaru's life is never the same with Alma completely stuck to him, trying to both wield his way to safety while unlocking the memories and figuring out the truth behind the Mecha-Udes invading Earth and their primary purposes to begin with. If there's one thing to expect from this, it's wild, running insanity of the mix of in-your-face comedy and the serious nature that will have you invest your time into them if you consider the right characters at differing points of the spectrum.

With TriF Studio delivering both then the ONA and now the anime series, it's clear that the studio has been taken onboard alongside director Sae Okamoto from the very outset. And despite the rather small staff team that Okamoto has alongside her, they still find a way to make the show work its flex despite being a total rookie towards TV production-based anime. Yes, it's not Trigger level'esque and it does have its inconsistencies, but the overall product is actually better than I remember from the ONA, most particularly on its action scenes which have some Sakuga moments from time to time, which is impressive for a studio helming its very first full-fledged anime production, and especially from a female animator-cum-director no less who understands and executes the job much better than most subpar 3rd-rate directors.

Of course, you need a OST to beat the heart of the Sakuga, and who better than the famed composer trio of Hiroyuki Sawano, Kohta Yamamoto, and AWSM's Daiki to helm the music and give the series the oomph that it deserves in the sound department. And as is with every Hiroyuki Sawano project, the show featuring Kuhaku Gokko's Setsuko for both the OP and ED is quite the sound bomb offering the bombastic start and a calm finish. You can't go wrong when the famed maestro leans his talents to help a show excel in musicality.

Going back to the question at the start of the review, I'd feel that AniManga nowadays is quickly losing touch when it bucks the current trend and fails to acknowledge the trends that came before it, to which this show's purpose is to bring us back into our roots of the teenage years and watching classic mecha shows that would live up to the hype. Well, while Mecha-Ude won't win any awards whatsoever, the sole recognition of it being a criminally underappreciated show due to its relentless pacing that would throw just about anyone off, I'd argue that it actually pays off in the long run, for a vision that was once a piece of the puzzle, now magnified in its full reality.

Props to Sae Okamoto and her staff team at TriF Studio for a vision finally fulfilled that's 8 long years in the making and do what you will about a product that may be inherently incomplete, but having the finality of completion, all at the same time.