Short Mecha Shows That Aired Recently

Scott

Dec 1

Compared to 2022, there has been so much more mecha activity this year. I can count the number of mecha that came out barely on two hands. It's not a lot, but it's better than almost nothing. Especially when these two smaller lengthened shows came out and just ended recently. Are these two things attached to other franchises? I don't think that the shorter Amaim series requires that much knowledge about the main series to get to it because it's not about that. Gundam Build Metaverse does though because a lot of the themes and characters from all four build series appear in the series. Somehow, I think it could be watched on its own as an introduction to the build series.

So with that, I should probably talk about them.

Gundam Build Metaverse

As an advancement from the Gundam Build Network in Gundam Build Divers and Gundam Build Divers Rerise, there is now the Metaverse that is essentially the same thing with a different name. I'm sure there are more features on that somewhere. Anyway, young Rio Hojo is a bright eyed protagonist entering the gunpla and meta world. He gets trained by the beautiful Seria in building gunpla irl and trained to fight by the mysterious masked lady online. Of course, there is the obvious reveal in terrible circumstances of the two being the same person and Seria being crushed by her sister Maria for daring to play with gunpla again.

So naturally, Rio wishes to become stronger with gunpla building and battle to face Maria in Seria's name. That requires Rio getting more and more experience by going into combat. Then on the other side, Rio runs into so many characters from the build series that help him along his way. First episode, Rio ends up in combat with a lot of members of the Build Divers. Then the second episode is more training with him helping out Hiroto from Re:Rise and then Sekai from Try showing up in the end and testing Rio's metal. In the end, Rio does face off against Maria and gets her to see the love and passion behind Gunpla she didn't seem to have beforehand.

This entire thing was a good celebration of the build series with a good examination of its themes and ideas. This is the reason why I watch it because Gunpla is freedom and always will be so much fun. It's really charming because Rio is a good boy who has a lot of potential of being more than what the three episodes allows him to grow into. I also really loved seeing every single important character from the Build series throughout the decade. Everyone was given a premium treatment with excellent animation for each scene and excellent character work. It's stuffed, but well realized onto it here too. I can dig all of that and I am glad it exists.

AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline UltraSteel Ogre-Gear

I'm going to be honest here. Amaim itself is so mediocre that I almost just skipped this short ONA series. But it's mentioned that Masami Obari, one of the most famous mecha animators ever, was directing it and I couldn't just ignore it. If you didn't know, Masami Obari is not only one of the best mecha designers ever which you can see in an incalculable amount of works, whenever he shows up to animated something it's suddenly it's literally the pinnacle of mecha animation. So when he is behind a project, I'm always curious to see what he will do next.

This show's arc is a really simple one because it only has a limited amount of time to tell it. That time being six episodes with each episode being around 10 minutes in length. It is such an isolated story on an isolated island that was created at the end of the original series to become a hope for the Japanese people. Especially with an alliance between the resistance and Oceania forces. Then the NOrth American forces show up to conquer it which is where the beginning drama of our resistance group being overwhelmed and one stranger by the name of Misawa saving the day with his mech. The new pilot from the mainland, Chinen, couldn't do anything.

This show's arc was simply the transference of skill between Misawa and Chinen who are at opposite ends. Chinen is still a rookie pilot and gains a lot of experience over the North America attacks which keep occurring. Misawa is the master who quickly teaches Chinen the horrors of war about gaining strength and how to deal with it. It's very simple, but works very well. The art and animation are very realistic compared to the original series that couldn't achieve the same sort of feeling to it. I do wish the series could have been longer or could have been a more original thing, but it works here. I think only some Amaim watchers will check it out, but I think older mecha fans would enjoy it for the older style stand alone ova story it is. Like Orguss 2.