Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 13
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: 19 years ago, a disaster destroyed cities and infrastructure all over the world. Now people struggle to afford food and essentials as the planet is continually attacked by invaders. Hayato Jin, pilot from the original Getter team, has spent the past several years attempting to develop a new robot (and a pilot) who can manage a win against these deadly enemies, but has thus far been unsuccessful. His most recent creation, Getter Robo Arc, requires three pilots to bring out its full power, and thus far he’s only been able to find one whose body can endure the strain piloting it causes.
It’s seemingly by chance (though it’s possibly by premonition) that Takuma Nagare and his companion Baku Yamagishi encounter one of the failed Getter prototypes once its pilot has been defeated. Piloting Getters runs in Takuma’s blood; his father Ryouma was the leader of the original Getter team. Takuma is also incredibly sturdy, which turns out to be a boon once he faces off against a member of the alien forces. But he can’t defeat it alone. It takes Shou Kamui, a half-dinosaur hybrid whose body can withstand the punishment of piloting Getter Robo Arc, to come to Takuma’s aid when the situation becomes grim. Could these two pilots working together possibly be the answer that Jin has been seeking?
Impressions: Ever walk into a party late and feel the burning stares of the other attendees as your awkward entrance disrupts the event’s equilibrium? Or is that just me? Getter Robo Arc seems like the perfect example of a party already in progress. The Getter Robo franchise is very long-lived, with anime incarnations dating back to the mid-1970’s. It’s the sort of classic series I’ve wanted to know more about, as the anime licensor Discotek has recently (and finally) convinced me of the historical importance of these old shows (though I didn’t take that much convincing, it’s just that greater access makes it easier to approach older fandoms) and I want to supplement my modern anime knowledge with series that are lesser-known in Western anime fandom. Yet, my prior experience with Getter Robo, New Getter Robo which came out in the mid 2000’s, put me off the series with its infusion of testosterone and somewhat cartoonish tone (which was perhaps a consequence of the circumstances during which I was watching it and the people I was with, now that I think about it).
This wouldn’t be such a huge issue if this series didn’t seem to hearken back so often to characters and story beats that were important in previous incarnations. I wouldn’t have really grasped the importance of the different character relations if I hadn’t done extra research into the basic plot beats beforehand and I wouldn’t have realized how interesting it is that a character is literally a dinosaur/human hybrid if I hadn’t poked around to find that the original story dealt with an invasion of sentient, evolved dinosaurs. I think this anime’s more modern look and simulcast streaming might lead one to believe that it’s for newcomers, but the issue is that there’s still a pretty high bar for entry and I suspect that some prior knowledge is really required to get the most out of this.
Still, watching this episode and being confused by it lead me down an internet rabbit hole that got me sort of interested in reading the original manga. It’s a historically important piece – just think how far the concept of combining robots have come, and they all started with this franchise. There would have been no SSSS.Dynazenon without Getter Robo. So whether this episode is completely comprehensible to the uninitiated or not is possibly beside the point. At the very least, there might be more folks like me who will feel inspired to try to fill a very major gap in their anime knowledge because of that, and that is only a good thing – even if I’m trying to join a party already in progress, better late than never!
Pros: This episode feels very earnest, and I can appreciate that. I’m always in the mood for a good genre deconstruction, or a series re-make that uses its source material to travel in a unique direction. Yet I think it’s also a bold move to play things completely straight, building on the appeal of an earlier incarnation in a way that shows an appreciation for it. If there’s one thing that I remember from my limited experience with Getter Robo prior to this, it’s that it was over-the-top and bombastic and slightly silly, and this episode gives off similar vibes.
Cons: Unfortunately this episode just doesn’t look very good. The 2D character animation is clunky and off-model a lot of the time, and I found it distracting. I think there’s a certain charm in having characters start to look a little offbeat when the action picks up; it’s a great way to show intensity, if it’s intentional. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with the lack of consistency here. The CG robot animation is fine but the movement of the robots doesn’t feel very… expected (I was tempted to write “natural” but I’m not sure that applies when it comes to mecha logic). It’s too smooth and doesn’t properly give a good sense of size or scale.
And again, there’s a barrier to entry here. This isn’t really a knock on the episode so much as just a note for folks who might try to pick this up – you’ll be looking in some interesting places if you want to watch some of the earlier Getter Robo animated material to catch yourself up (though RetroCrush is currently streaming New Getter Robo, so that’s a start).
Content Warnings: Violence (fist-fighting, blunt weaponry). Minor character death. Bleak, post-apocalyptic class issues.
Would I Watch More? – I think I’d rather look for the earlier stuff and see it again with new eyes, because I don’t think watching this in isolation is going to do it for me.