Grendizer U Ep #4 Review: Different Times, Same Tragedy

After the ending of episode 3, the audience probably wanted to know if the fate of the short-lived Naida would be changed in Grendizer U, and episode 4 gave us the answer, sadly: no. Not only keeping Naida’s ending the same, episode 4 also tries to pay tribute to episode 25 of UFO Robot Grendizer by trying to recreate almost 1:1 the classic frames of that episode. However, the 2024 version still has a few changes and shortcomings that make it far different from the 1975 version.

After watching both versions of the Naida episode, my overall opinion is that the tone of the Grendizer U version is intentionally toned down compared to the 1975 version. Episode 25 of UFO Robot Grendizer lets Naida traumatize Duke by revealing shocking secrets, accusing him of treason and hitting him on the head multiple times, and using strong imagery to express tension throughout the episode. Meanwhile, episode 4 of Grendizer U reduces this tension – Duke is not traumatized, and he himself helps undo Naida’s brainwashing, and uses more light-hearted elements such as flashbacks of Naida and Duke in Planet Fleed, Naida’s insert song, etc.

Even so, I feel this episode is a major downgrade compared to the original one. The first reason is that all the impressive visuals in the original episode went poof in episode 4. If you watch the original episode, you will definitely be impressed by the images that convey many emotions, such as when Naida accused Duke or the visions that Duke suffered in his agitated state. The impressive images and visual storytelling disappear almost completely in the modern version, where Naida in this version has to spell out every word, “Why don’t I have the courage to kill him?” instead of dropping the knife into the lake and crying tears of both happiness and pain to express the two opposing emotions inside her.

The second reason is simply that the writing of this episode is far behind the original episode. Episode 25 of UFO Robot Grendizer has an excellent script, in which Duke and Naida’s entire romp scene, ending with Naida dropping the dagger and shouting Duke Fleed’s name at the lake, is truly peak writing. Compared to this script, the script for episode 4 of Grendizer U is like a typical weaboo drama – it feels generic, cliché and quite superficial. While Naida’s love, hatred, and suffering were sharply expressed in the original episode, Grendizer U‘s episode turns Naida into a typical psychopathic anime girl. The scene where Naida hugs Duke after stabbing him and talks in a sexy voice is really cringey and honestly disrespectful to the character.
The final reason is that Kouji didn’t smoke some Vega foot soldiers with an AK on a saucer in this ep, like in the original episode.

The only things I found okay in episode 4 were Naida’s insert song, the way the scene transitioned from Naida’s pain to a flashback of her beautiful memories of Duke on planet Fleed, and all of that flashback. Oh, and Hikaru’s huge forehead. Other than that, I also respect the idea of Duke undoing Naida’s brainwashing instead of her having surgery to remove the chip from her brain, but its execution is quite poor and leaves less emotion than what happened in the original episode, so I can’t say I like how episode 4 handled the climax. And no, I’m not impressed by the fact that episode 4 tried to recreate exactly the same frames from the original episode. I think anyone could do that. The recreating even backfires sometimes, such as the frame below. You can see all the tension from the original manga and anime versions is lost in the Grendizer U version.

Episode 4 of Grendizer U is so horrible that I don’t even want to make excuses, especially after watching the episode it tried so hard to pay tribute to. I blame Tatsuto Higuchi, who wrote the script for this episode, because the previous 3 episodes written by Okouchi had very good scripts. Hopefully, Ichiro Okouchi will be back in charge of script in future episodes.

//Getter Andy//

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