Anime Lovers

Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms is so much more than a simple passion project for creator and director Sae Okamoto, it’s a life’s work that has bloomed into one of the best stories in the anime industry right now.

From an original thought more than 10 years ago, a pilot episode back in 2018, then becoming one of the best TV anime productions of the year thanks to crowdfunding, how Mecha-Ude came to be is one hell of a story.

When Mecha-Ude began airing in September, there was never a thought about watching it outside of some animation praise on social media. I saw it was a sci-fi series, which is a rarity nowadays in anime, and thought, “Hell, why not? I’ll give it a shot.”

Little did I know that I would be diving down into a rabbit hole of excellence that was in production for six years…

“We’ve envisioned this story as a series since creating the pilot in 2018, and now, I’m so thrilled that the time has finally come to share it with audiences around the world,” said Sae Okomoto, creator and director of Mecha-Ude.

Okamoto began her adventure at an early age, gaining inspiration from many sources just as any director in the anime industry has, or anyone in any walks of life. We all aspire to be, or surpass, someone we look up to in a field we have a passion for—that’s just being human.

We hear all the time about mangaka being inspired by mangaka from a previous generation, or directors being inspired by other directors as well. Okamoto is no different, stating that her biggest inspiration as a director comes from Frogman (Ryo Ono), the director of the 2010 anime Eagle Talon: Golden Spellwhich was made with Adobe Flash.

“(Frogman) handles everything from animation to voice acting all by himself. While I don’t do the voice acting, his work showed me that it’s possible to bring a project to life with a small production team,” said Okomoto.

Frogman has been popular since the mid-200s, as he was known for spearheading projects and finishing them within a week’s worth of time. His most recent work, Yoshida Katsuko no Yabai wa! SDGs: Araburu! Trouble! Sustainable!was released in 2021.

Drawing inspiration from someone who handles the majority of the work himself is a daunting trail, but not an impossible one to traverse. The difference is whether or not someone has the gull and patience to achieve their dreams step by step.

And with Mecha-UdeOkamoto has clearly proven she’s more than capable.

The sci-fi action is much more than simply another anime TV series that will come and go as dust in the wind. It’s becoming a symbol that, under the right guidance and support, those kinds of dreams can be something achievable even in a volatile industry.

“I started creating Mecha-Ude as a story I personally wanted to see,” said Okomoto. “Since childhood, I often felt that many of my favorite series (mainly shonen manga) would end prematurely before the story fully unfolded. I wanted to experience a story I loved that could reach a satisfying conclusion.”

The will to create a story that simply felt like nobody else has created yet isn’t a rare occurrence, especially in media. Legendary director Mitsuo Iso once said that the reason he created The Orbital Children was simply because “nobody was making a space anime, so I wanted to create one.”

When taking a look at Mecha-Udethe series strikes at the heart of ‘original anime’. It’s been well-known that creating an original anime series is no small task and is very challenging because every idea that comes up has to pop from the creative minds in the production department.

There’s no manga, no light novel, no game—it’s all from scratch. So for Mecha-Ude to deliver an action-packed anime backed by humorous characters, emotional moments, and wonderful story development, definitely gives it a little bit more of that “special” feeling.

This is touched upon in many interviews where the difficulties of creating an original anime are discussed in comparison to one that’s adapting the source material, and Mecha-Ude is no exception according to Okamoto.

But it was more than just creating an original anime—it was about developing an entire studio to come to this moment and learning a lot of lessons along the way.

“Throughout the production process, nearly everything was a first-time experience,” said Okomoto. “We faced various challenges at every stage. However, building the studio itself almost from scratch was particularly difficult. Personally, I learned the importance of delegating tasks to others rather than trying to create everything on my own, like in a self-produced project.”

TriF Studio originated in 2012, when it was simply known as a small group that went by the title of “TriF”, according to Okamoto.

This group originally focused on CG and visual effects for small films then later became involved in commercials and music videos when it expanded into what Okamoto called a “freelance creator team”, some of these projects can be viewed on their official website.

Around this time, TriF started to grow into an official animation studio—and that’s when Mecha-Ude came into play. But Okamoto wasn’t always with TriF from its inception. In fact, she started out as a student coloring animation after TriF became a studio.

So, how did this small-time animation studio come to grab names such as Hiroyuki Sawano and Kohta Yamamoto to work on the soundtrack for what was originally such a small project?

Well, the answer, this time is indeed one thing—money.

While it’s cool to see a major production like Solo Leveling backed by a prestigious studio (A-1 Pictures) and a major production company (AniPlex), it hits home in a much better way when we see a small, newer studio receive the same level of treatment and care, especially from a soundtrack perspective.

And it’s all because producer Tetsuya Kinoshita took a chance on the anime.

While many fans love to talk about animators, directors, and storyboard artists, producers have the responsibility of really making an anime series great and obtaining the resources that it needs in order to give fans something they love. It’s no small task and their job is as crucial to a project as is a director’s.

However, Mecha-Ude‘s production story hits different. In fact, studio CEO Shuichi Aso is even the animation producer for the series. Despite Mecha-Ude facing the possibility of a dual-production with another anime studio to cut down on production time, the series eventually remained TriF Studio’s own project.

“After the release of the pilot in 2018, Pony Canyon reached out to us, and it took about two years until the series was officially greenlit,” said Okamoto.

Okamoto went on to talk about how the crowdfunding for the project was really a big reason why they were able to bring on such iconic music composers in Sawano and Yamamoto alongside DAIKI, whose first work as a composer was the original pilot episode.

While this could be a feel-good story, and a good look, for a big production company like Pony Canyon producing the series and giving a small studio incredible resources, it goes without saying that this is a project, when you get down to the root of it all, produced by the fans themselves. And Okamoto couldn’t be more grateful.

“Despite Mecha-Ude being TriF Studio’s first project, we were able to secure such a talented cast thanks to the attention and support of anime fans around the world through crowdfunding,” said Okamoto.

But it’s not simply two well-known music composers who joined the project. Famous musical artist Eve is even a voice actor for the original pilot and the current series is loaded with talent.

The cast consists of big-name seiyuu such as Romi Park (Edward Elric- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood), Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki Sakata – Gintama), Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Yuuri Katsuki – Yuri on Ice!!!), Yuu Shimamura (Annie – Attack on Titan), Kaito Ishikawa (Tobio Kageyama – Haikyuu!!), and many others.

Okamoto emphasized that this series is one that is rooted strongly in its characters. She had a desire to make the main character, Hikaru, receive just a little more personal touch than the rest of the cast in order to prepare for this series.

After all, if you’re going to make your own anime, you want someone to be part of the project you have in mind specifically, right?

“I think (my favorite character) will be Hikaru,” said Okamoto. “Unlike other characters, he’s the only ‘ordinary middle school student’ in this story, and capturing ‘normalcy’ in fiction is quite challenging. Many of our staff faced difficulties in depicting him. I often found myself involved in the animation process to ensure that his final expressions conveyed the right nuances.”

Okamato admitted that she specifically offered Toshiyuki Toyonaga the role because she “felt he was the only one who could truly capture Hikaru’s delicate inner world.”

An anime without a relatable main character, especially one that’s easy to root for, can completely deter any interest in a series. It takes a truly likeable protagonist to draw fans into the story no matter what it is or what the production is like.

But it’s a cherry on top when the creator handpicks the voice actors themselves for the MC.

Luckily, Mecha-Ude has both wonderful characters and high-quality production. So much so that Okamoto even argues that if you’re on the fence about whether to watch the series or not, if you love anime with a great cast of characters, this is the anime to watch—I’d go beyond that.

Mecha-Ude should be an anime to watch if you love high-quality animation, a good original story that’s just “different” from what’s out there today, or a series with lovable characters.

But it’s not always as easy as bringing your own creativity to life and Okamoto was aware of that. Despite giving fans a project that looked like someone who knew about everything she was doing, Okamoto admitted that she continued to face many difficulties.

But it was all so worth it when she finally came to see how it turned out thanks to a wonderful team.

Okamoto is all class. Despite being the creator of Mecha-Udethe director, and storyboarding both the opening and ending, along with a handful of the episodes as well, she constantly gave credit to everyone else from the staff for the incredible work that’s being produced.

It’s rare for a great original anime nowadays, but it’s even more surprising when such will continue on for a second season like the recent series High Card. But there’s hope as long as Okamoto is still in the driver’s seat, Mecha-Ude fans.

“I definitely have the desire to create a sequel, but actually there were many small slice-of-life episodes we had to cut to focus on the main storyline. While I don’t have any concrete plans just yet, I do want to share those episodes with everyone as well!”

Hopefully, for anyone lucky enough right now to be enjoying this anime, we have some good news in the near future of the possibility of its return. Mecha-Ude is the poster child anime right now for those who are daring enough to never give up on seeing their creation reach its highest level.

To dedicate a quarter of your life to a project is something many people don’t have the wherewithal to even think of, let alone commit to. But Okamoto has proven with Mecha-Ude that she has the capability to be one of the industry’s top young directors.

Mecha-Ude is currently airing with new episodes being released every Thursday on Crunchyroll.

Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©TriF/Mecha-Ude Production Committee