It’s time for the second question! Yay! I’m at last excited, even if I am giving only a sort answer. Also, this was supposed to be question 3 so I guess I switched some things around. Sorry if you were planning on being involved.
Question 2: Has any recent mecha series (past three years or so) spoke to you more then you’ve realized?
Unfortunately, not as much simply because I haven’t watched too many mecha anime in the recent past. I did watch Listeners last year which was a lot of fun for me. It sparked my creative juices with it’s premise, but long term impact was minimal.
All the seasonal mecha that have shown up as of late I’ve seen which aren’t attached to a bigger series and that I’ve stuck with for more than one episode (Back Arrow, Egao no Daika, RobiHachi, Gridman and Planet With just made it by being slightly under 3 years) have spoken to me because they’re generally quite self-contained, but they still bring a quality story to the table without compromising too much else (I would classify all these series as “hot-blooded”, aside from maybe Egao no Daika). Although Egao no Daika was a bit lacklustre in how its ending was rushed, the perspectives from both sides of the conflict made it interesting. Likewise, RobiHachi has the distinction of being connected to Boueibu, so although I haven’t finished it, I want to finish it someday.
If I had to pick one anime though, I’d say Back Arrow, which is goofy enough to be “hot-blooded”, but takes itself seriously enough to take care in developing its various locales and characters.
From Me
Two series have captured my imagination recently, though one is kind of mediocre compared to the other. The first one is Planet With and it’s an incredible show. It is a show that shouldn’t work at all considering that it’s one cour and it goes through so much material at the speed of light. Yet, it is so emotionally engaging, thoughtfully written, and covers so many things that are core things that I like that I can’t help but love it to death. I really wish it had a physical release, because I would buy it in a second without even thinking about it. Oh well.
The second one is the mediocre or average one and its The Price of Smiles. I think this show had too much it was trying to do and one cour was not enough for it to completely tell it’s tale. Still, this show did some of the most unique things that I’ve seen and that is completely spending an entire episode on one side of the conflict instead of giving us the duel point of view. No other mecha show has done this before and it adds so much harrowing and frightening material to the story that it left a huge impression on me. If this didn’t happen, Price of Smiles wouldn’t be as memorable to me.
If you want to join in for question, please respond to the following question by March 19, 2021 at 5 PM PST. Otherwise, I will just be answering my own question and that is ok. Question 3:
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
To answer you question for prompt three:
I think it does and it doesn’t at the same time. I haven’t watch Deca-Dence or Akudama Drive so I had to look up their designs and it seems like all three are doing the more piece-work designs. Which at least in Listeners sort of made sense since the mecha generated is based off the player. I highly doubt most players have an eye for mecha designs on top of it. And the premise that most of the world of Listener’s is kinda dystopian, use what you have and nothing more, work ethic. I’m sure there was passion for the designs in making them unique and fit the world’s aesthetic, but I’m not sure I would sign off on all the designs that were used.
As for the others I can’t really say, so I’ll reserve my judgement on that one.
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