Im a big fan of the mecha genre Ive seen most of Getter save for the original Ive read through the Ishikawas manga to help prepare me for this series knowing it would be good. Early on Id jokingly call it my anime of the season but its definitely not. Getter Arc is in a weird spot because its the first actual adaptation of Ishikawas work on Getter Robo previous series took concepts from it but never the full thing. So in this sense were seeing Ishikawas vision come to life for the first and last time here. What follows is an absolutely crazy run of mecha action. Is it as crazy as past entries? Not at all. Arc does something that no other Getter animation has done it raises the question of What exactly is Getter? Is it good? evil? and there is no real answer to this question. Getter is Getter it is sentient hell its even capable of evolution but is it truly evil? I dont think that can be said for certain. What can be said for certain is that there is more going on than we see. The Dinosaur Empire are still around and are still definitely a threat even if theyre playing nice with humanity. Possibly the best part of this adaptation however is the banger of an opening from JAM Projecthttps://www..com/watch?v=f2xDk6WA8SM who have returned to bring us another great opening song. But thats not all we get 3 ending songs that are updated versions of past Getter songs. Dragon 2021https://www..com/watch?v=SFLw6vj5AIs Storm 2021https://www..com/watch?v=bnXwnhf90gU and Heats 2021.com/watch?v=hb4hbIhTXhgpresented with their original opening animations these are some of my favorite JAM Project songs so I am beyond happy that this series at least does the bare minimum and gets JAM Project back to do new music. These are some of the brightest bright spots for the series and its not hard to see why. Getter Arc is a flawed series its one of the worst animated in the Getter franchise due to having to use badhttps://vstorage.bnarts.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2021/08/GRA06c247h3.jpg 3Dhttps://otakuusamagazine.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/getterroboarc.jpg modelshttps://vstorage.bnarts.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2021/08/GRA06c177h1.jpg for the mecha combined with adding filler content to the series thanks to a lack of source material Arcs adaptation just falls flat. Arc was only 3 volumes long before Ishikawa died which leaves us with actually very little content. We finally learn what Getter Emperor is but we dont see that get resolved in any way because the manga ends so abruptly. Unfortunately this is it for Arc it ends on a cliffhanger essentially we will never know what else was meant to happen because Ken Ishikawa is no longer with us and that is a massive tragedy. Arc however does use a few bits of Ishikawas notes such as the design for Dragon in the final scene.https://ur.com/a/KB7p89b The thing that puzzles me the most about this adaptation is how the art actually looks worsehttps://twitter.com/Pluto796/status/1441424819237449733/photo/1 than Ishikawashttps://twitter.com/Pluto796/status/1441424819237449733/photo/2 art his designs had detailhttps://ur.com/a/ozWZLcT behind them while these 3DCGhttps://otakukart.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot20210823170158.jpg designs look like garbagehttps://twitter.com/bnartsen/status/1442134420719276036/photo/1. Ultimately this is the problem with mecha today because there is no one left in anime who knows how to design a mecha without the use of 3DCG save for Sunrise who still teach their animators how to design 2D mecha. The series itself though begins to fall apart when you begin realizing that theyre actually cutting out content to make room for new original content that has no bearing on anything. Did Go need to be in this series? Absolutely not there was no point in including this random subplot about Black Shin Getter only for it to have ZERO bearing on the rest of the series. I guess they plan on resolving this in SRW DD because why not? I will admit that going into this I figured theres no way they end this on a cliffhanger like they did the manga and to its credit they dont they give us an original episode to wrap it up but IT STILL ENDS WITHOUT ANY PLOT POINTS RESOLVED They give us an original ending that still fails to commit to anything. How does the fight between Bug and Arc get resolved? How does any of this relate to Emperor? We dont know and never will. This is a project that on one hand feels like a passion project but on the other hand feels like an advertisement for SRW DD where theyll ultimately resolve plot points like the Black Shin Getter. I ultimately cant recommend Arc because its just not good its a failed adaptation made on a budget of 5 a ham sandwich and whatever paperclips they had lying around. This is not at all the fault of the staff this is the higher ups who greenlit an Arc adaptation knowing it wouldnt make money knowing that it has no ending. Watch Arc if youve read the manga otherwise skip it because Getter is dead and should stay buried. There hasnt been a good Getter manga since Ishikawa died and its clear nobody knows what made Getter so good in the first place. Arc is just a disappointment and that makes me sad.https://i.redd.it/yq4tpuh8uup71.jpg Read the entire saga of Getter Robo its worth your time.