The first thing you need to know about Getter Robo Arc anime, it's not for people who have never seen Getter Robo, You will need to read the manga in this order to understand the anime.
Getter Robo (1974)
Getter Robo G (1975)
Getter Robo Go (1991)
Shin Getter Robo (1996)
Getter Robo Arc (2002)
If you're looking to start with Getter Robo, Read the mangas or watch rather of the previous OVA such as Getter Robo: Armageddon, New Getter Robo, and Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo which don't require you to know much about the franchise.
You see, much like Kentaro Muira, Ken Ishikawa could not finish the original story and it was left in a Cliffhanger, the anime does offer a satisfactory ending, but more on that later on in this review.
Now let's talk about the Pros and Cons of this show starting with its faithful adaptation to the manga and brand new additions. The animation style was purposely made in Ken Ishikawa's style, some people may be thrown off by this, but overall it's well done and captures perfectly a lot of the manga moments. The staff did a fantastic job adding to the story without hurting its main narrative, the voice acting in both Dub and original Japanese were phenomenal. The dub was well done and added some spice into the dialog as well. The overall care and respect for the source material can be felt throughout this show. The musical arrangements of classic songs add, even more, injecting you with more serotonin and nostalgia at the same time, as to be expected from Jam Project. Character development was improved over the manga, for certain characters like Hayato, Takuma, Kamui, and not so much for others.
But like everything else nothing is perfect, the show does suffer from some animation inconsistencies and poorly done storyboards in the first 3 episodes afterward it becomes more consistent and where I thought that the CGI/3D mech would feel out of place, they did a great job with the tone, shading, and lightning effects of the CGI animation so it doesn't look out of place. Another con was the use of video game-like sound effects, clearly taken from Super Robot Wars, it just didn't felt good and some scenes felt flat because of this.
**** SPOILERS ****
It gives us the same conclusion as the manga, Getter Dragon shows up in its evolved form, The Saint Dragon, after the ending credits we get a bonus scene where we travel to Mars, here we see Takuma, Baku freeing Kamui from jail, giving us an indication that with the help of Saint Dragon, they defeated Bug and Kamui. Now on Mars, they need Kamui's help and together they will now carve a brand new future, the scene ends with Getter Robo Arc Fighting, a new form that Shin getter has taken, which will eventually lead to Getter Emperor.
As a long-time fan of Getter Robo, the anime did what it was set out to do. Give us a conclusion to the Getter Robo saga, and the form that it did was an open ending where Takuma, Kamui, and Baku will carve a new future. Will there be a sequel? Who knows but as a fan I am content and pleased with the ending.
Final Rating : 8 out of 10
