Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms is a series that went under the radar and deserves attention. In an industry that can often play it safe, here is an anime that first began as a Kickstarter project before being turned into a full-fledged TV series. 

In Mecha-Ude, mysterious otherworldly sentient beings resembling mechanical arms arrived on Earth, and were found to be able to fuse with humans and grant them new and powerful abilities. In the present, these Mecha-Ude are still something of a secret, but they’re integrated into a number of organizations each with their own aim. But when average middle schooler Amatsuga Hikaru discovers an amnesiac Mecha-Ude named Alma who is on the run from the wealthiest corporation around, Hikaru’s decision to save Alma brings him into this world he never knew about.

Mecha-Ude is not amazingly innovative in terms of story or setting, but it just does a lot very solidly. The simple gimmick of the Mecha-Ude makes for fights and action scenes that aren’t overly bloated like what one might see in a shounen battle anime. Hikaru and the main cast of characters are endearing because they’re a bunch of silly dumb-dumbs who nevertheless have to deal with serious problems that range from the personal to the Earth-shattering. In this sense, it actually manages to portray its middle schoolers in a way that’s both wish fulfillment for younger viewers and an accurate portrayal of the way youth can be both empowering and limiting.

(Also, there’s a ninja character who shares a voice actor with Volfogg from Gaogaigar).

The result is a series that successfully mixes the dramatic, the silly, and the heartfelt into a short-yet-sweet work of SF action. 

The people behind Mecha-Ude are Studio TriF, and this is actually the group’s first anime. It’s about as good a start as I think a fledgling studio can possibly have, so I really hope they have a bright future ahead of them.