Welcome to the end of a fun session of Mecha March. At least I hope it was. I like focusing on a lot of older shows because there are a lot of classic mecha series out there then the big names. You know, the gundams or macrosses or mazingers and other things like that. I want people to know that there are always more shows out there because mecha is a wider genre than people think it is. A lot of creators did and still create mecha series into original projects and I think that is something people need to know about. Older shows did it and a lot of newer shows are still creative mech projects that do not get as much attention as they should. Mainly because the way anime is consumed is so different now.
So, let’s discuss some of them because there were a lot of mecha shows. Not just television series, but movies. If there was a year that showed how varied mecha shows can be, it’s 2021. Even the most famous works that people expected didn’t do what people expected them to do. Evangelion 3.0+1.0 was and wasn’t what people expected it to be and so was Gundam Hathaway. You know, even if it did normal gundam things in ways a person expected it. How it was presented was much more grounded then how Universal Century Gundam has gotten through ovas and films recently and that makes it special. Especially since I want more of it.
Still haven’t gotten into the television shows, so it’s finally time to do that. A quick recap of some of the best mecha shows that came in 2021 according to me. All because there were a lot of them and not all of them are good. But the fact that I can say that they aren’t good and yet say that I haven’t watched all of them or even enjoyed all of them and yet can write a post like this is pretty huge. Especially since 2020 wasn’t as mecha heavy and I don’t think 2022 is going to be mecha heavy either even if Amaim’s second season is going to appear and another season of Gundam will appear too. Maybe not all of them have been announced yet, but it’s still important.
So anyway, mecha from 2021:
Favorites:
Godzilla Singular Point
I don’t know if it completely counts as a mecha show, but Jet Jaguar is there so that’s good enough. If you have read my post about it, I love this show. I love that it plays with a lot of godzilla continuity while creating its very cool story. Great characters and it speaks a technical language that I can’t help but love throughout its story. I feel like this anime was made for people like me? Though, it is easier to watch this show through its very well put together dub which helps with a lot of the technical language. Not everyone loves it, but that’s ok because I think it’s just so good.
SSSS.Dynazenon
This was such a break away from the Gridman. Still made by Trigger, this is not only an ensemble piece but a pretty low key slice of life anime series about broken people. A great story of seeing these characters being stuck in their lives and eventually getting through it by working together. There were also some excellent mecha transformations and call backs to the first season. I loved this show and I knew it would be one of my favorites the second the first episode appeared. I can’t wait for the film.
Back Arrow
Welcome to a series that should have come out in the late 2000’s. I mean, the director of Code Geass Goro Taniguchi was behind that seat again with Kazuki Nakashi, the guy behind TTGL, in that writing seat. It is and yet isn’t everything that you would expect it to be. Loud people yelling into the skies, breaking the system down, and such a well fleshed out word of dorks and losers that work together to kill got with their own self spirits. It’s incredible. I want more of this team in the future please. Thanks.
Getter Robo Armageddon
Yay! This is the show that I looked forward to ever since it was announced. As a person who is newly obsessed with Getter Robo, this is what got me to check out more of its material and Ova series. I loved watching this. Maybe the visuals weren’t up to par at all, but it was a pretty heavy passion project by a lot of people who produced it because they could be. The final arc of Getter Robo, this was the story of a newer generation taking on the fight and hoping to solve it in great super robot combat.
Still Good
Rumble Garanndoll
Another great variation of the mecha shows, this is one of the most underrated shows of 2021. Taking the expression of people who live their passions enough to fight for them in robots fighting against a Japan that didn’t want them to have those things. Take the show featuring and exploring three different girls that actually were treated well even in a harem like environment and powering the robots with their passions. A great message in such a good show with some of the most unique mecha designs that have appeared in a while.
86
I didn’t love this show until the season that is just finishing now due to production delays, season two, but this show is really good. Very well executed story about racism, how people are affected by being forced into war, and people trying to find themselves into being human beings anyway. Season one felt a little too bloated and took too long and yet the second season did the same things but carried them very well thematically. A great story for so many things in those works and placements. I love it all there. So incredible for so many things.
Amaim: Warrior at the Borderline Part 1
There are a lot of problems with this show. I mean clearly there is some obvious imperialism and political ramifications of right wing Japanese political ideas that are just awful in general. Yet, the show handles those in such cartoonish ways that it just feels false or at least harmless. Once that hurdle is clear which is a big one, AMAIM is pretty good. Some good character stories and ideas that create such a wonderful tale of so many things here as well. Also, there are so many great mecha fights that happen on top of it that I can’t help but dig on so many levels here as well. So there are problems, but it is good or at least worth checking out
Bleh:
Sakugan
Yeah, I don’t want to write a lot about this again. Just know that it started off great and then had so many ideas thrown at it that it didn’t really conclude and that could be a little frustrating and annoying. Not the worst show ever, but it is a failure of a writing team not knowing what it wants to do.
Conclusion
So yeah, those are the mecha shows that I watched throughout the year and that isn’t even all of them. I know that more came out but some were not legally streaming so I didn’t want to check them out there either. But I feel like you should try looking into those as well. I mean even if Sakugan was a bit of a mess, I think it’s worth looking at because I didn’t hate that. Maybe it was better as a weekly series than watching all at once, but it still had some interesting ideas that I wish it stayed with a view of more of them. Mecha Anime is still alive and it comes and goes in shifts compared to some genres that keep making more and more and more anime
Mechanical Anime Reviews 
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