I guess for “Getter Robo Arc” a short primer is in order (though if you do end up picking up this Blu-ray you will get one as an extra feature.). So once upon a time, mecha anime wasn’t such a huge deal in the world of anime, and on top of that combining robots weren’t a thing. Into this came Ken Ishigawa and Go Nagai (though primarily Ken) and his Getter Robo series of manga/anime.

Nagai would originally work with Ishigawa on Mazinger Z, and concocted the idea of combining “Cars”, which Ishigawa turned into jets. The idea then became 3 of these with 3 pilots combining to become one mecha entity. The series would come back in both manga and anime form spearheaded by Ishigawa until his death in 2003, during which time he was writing the final volume of “Getter Robo Arc”.

Now we have Getter Robo Arc, which I believe is the first Getter Robo TV series (not OVA) since the early 1990’s, and adapts this final incomplete final chapter of Ishigawa’s work. It takes place 10 years after the last series “Getter Robot Go”, and follows Takuma Nagare, the son of the one of the original team members, who is out for revenge for what has been done to his Mother. However, he cannot be left with just revenge on the brain as a new evil has taken hold, so he must team up with his childhood best friend and the Saotome Institute in order to fight back.

So I’m a pretty big fan of the Mazinger franchise, but I never really dipped my proverbial toes into Getter Robot. I started watching this a few weeks ago, and kinda felt lost, though to be fair the show does take place with new characters a decade after the last one so I did try to just make assumptions about connections. I did go back and do some primers on the earlier series before going on (which is fine, I love 70’s, 80’s and 90’s anime). After that I felt like I had a better grasp on the series plot-wise, and some of the background, but I still feel it didn’t fully connect. It still was a fun watch. The animation was really solid for what’s here, and I enjoyed the style present. The score also fit the tone of the series. I’d like to say this show is probably made for more long time fans, but then again the last entries were made quite a bit back, so I’m not sure. If you’re a “Getter Robo” fan, you might want to “get” on this (though you probably already have).

Sentai presents the series in a very nice 16×9 1080p transfer that represents the content accurately. Detail is nice, colors pop, no major issues. English and Japanese audio tracks come through crisp and clear. Extras include a clean opening and closing, a deep dive, a talk show, an interview, and more.