Seasonal First Impressions is a column where I detail my thoughts, however brief or long, about a currently-airing anime’s first episode or so.
2024 might well be remembered as a quietly strong year for mecha anime. It’s not like the genre’s ever really gone away, despite constant lamentations of its death (mostly from non-fans) dating back decades, and there have been big hits as recently as Witch From Mercury. Still, so far this year—a year that’s just over halfway done—we’ve had three rock solid genre pieces; Brave Bang Bravern!, Rozé of the Recapture, and now Grendizer U.
Of these, Grendizer U is easily the least essential. It’s also the hardest to get ahold of, as its current official English language distribution is presently limited to a single streaming service called Shahid that mostly hosts Arabic-language content. But, it’s definitely part of this discussion. Even if “rock solid” might be the wrong term, given that “hot mess” is right there.
What we have here is a very straightforward incarnation of a long-dormant Go Nagai series. To give you an idea of how far back we’re reaching here, the first Grendizer anime (based directly on Go’s manga), UFO Robo Grendizer, aired in 1975. Grendizer U, despite looking broadly contemporary (I’m sure some diehard Go fans will be annoyed about the “modernization” of the character designs, which I do understand), could pass for being directly from ’75 if you were just looking at the writing. The broad strokes are; Duke Fleed [Irino Miyu], an alien, has crash-landed on Earth after fleeing some great tragedy that he himself seems to have brought about on his homeworld. He is pursued by villainous invaders, the Vega, who proceed to wreck the city he’s staying in (which appears to be Riyadh) and defeat local mecha hero Mazinger Z, also an iconic Nagai creation.
All of this is paced terribly, to an almost comical extent. It’s not clear how much time passes between Fleed arriving on Earth and the invaders showing up, but it seems like quite a lot of ground to be covering in one episode. Still, it doesn’t actually hurt the premiere very much. The details matter less than the overall vibe: extreme, pure, unfiltered cheese. Do you want to watch a robot use a rocket punch in 2024? This might be your only option. Do you want to watch Fleed have a weird nightmare where the silhouette of his fiancé starts bleeding and grimly intones that “you killed me!”? Grendizer U has you covered. Do you want to watch Mazinger itself get destroyed, only for Fleed to summon the titular Grendizer robot and blast the Vega invaders away with something called “Space Thunder”? Look no further. It is worth noting that the show’s entire visual angle is part of what settles it in for a comfortable bronze, as it lacks the standout moments of Bravern or Rozé. “Low stakes” is the operative term, here.
Accordingly, this is less of a first impressions article than a PSA. It won’t win over anyone who already thinks super robot stuff isn’t worth their time, and it also won’t win any favors from the diehards who think this stuff shouldn’t ever be touched by a modern production team. If you’re between those two extremes, Grendizer U is worth a look. Otherwise, you can safely pass it by.
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