When a UFO from the Vega Alliance arrives on Earth, humanity faces its biggest threat in an oncoming Alien invasion. But their hope arrives in another Alien, Duke Fleed, a refugee to the planet Fleed who finds his home in Japan. Duke pilots the mighty Grendizer, a weaponized Mech to fight off the Vega forces. Along with his best friend and partner Koji Kabuto, they fight to free Earth from the terror of the Vega forces.

Grendizer U: The Inception has a story by Gō Nagai and art by 8KEY. English translation is done by Motoko Tamamuro and Jonathan Clemants and lettering by Jezael Manahan. Published by Titan (April 28, 2026).

Erica Friedman
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Duke Fleed is a young man with an intimate best friend, Gau Su Uls. Duke and Gau Su do everything together. Unbeknownst to Duke, his friend harbors a dark secret one that will cause Gau Su to betray their friendship. Duke will be forced to take control of the guardian Grendizer and flee for his life. Duke arrives on Earth with no memory of his life or his friend. His life is saved by Sayaka, a woman who works for the mysterious Kabuto organization, and Koji, a man who also carries a secret as large as Grendizer.

As a modern retelling of a classic anime, this works pretty well. It feels, if not fresh, then sincere, a little vulnerable and ready to take on the world on its own terms. Duke and Gau Su have a very intimate, slightly homoromantic relationship that gives genuine vibes. The instant manly friendship that springs up between Duke and Koji reminds me of the various Kamen Rider enthusiasts of Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider. These men are going to be battle pals, there's no doubt.

As a long-time fan of Gō Nagai's work, I was amazed at how much time the story spent on setting itself up to make sense. There is a lot of exposition of what is a messy political situation, so we know exactly where everyone stands, until we get to Earth, where it all gets messy again.

The art is very modern with nods and homages to the original work, keeping original mecha designs. Happily, 8KEY doesn't attempt to recreate Nagai's style, but just gives the whole story its own flair. This is not Nagai's only re-telling of a story with another artist picking up the pen, but it might be my favorite since Nagai and Shimpei Ito collaborated on Cutey Honey-A-GoGo!.

Kennedy
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I'm a simple person: I see a giant robot, I see Gō Nagai's name, and you got my attention. And it's probably to this manga's benefit that it was able to get at least some attention, since I expect this release to put a lot of question marks over a lot of heads. You see, this is a prequel to an anime (Grendizer U) that never got officially licensed in English, and was made with assistance by Manga Productions, which is owned by the MiSK Foundation, which was established by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (and yes, that's the same MiSK Foundation that currently owns 96.18% of SNK, and 6% of CAPCOM).

So, suffice to say, no, I haven't seen Grendizer U. I came into this manga with context about what Grendizer is, yes, but not Grendizer U specifically—which I don't doubt will be pretty common amongst this manga's English-language readership. And bearing that in mind, as a read, it's pretty meh. It's very obviously mostly about setting up, and if you know what it's setting up toward, it probably helps, but without that context, it just doesn't feel like it has a substantial hook—doubly so if you're unfamiliar with the characters and the world of Grendizer in general. Speaking of which, admittedly, it was cool seeing familiar faces like those of Duke Fleed and Koji Kabuto, so that's nice, at least.

A better translation might've given this volume some much-needed spice, but it's incredibly stiff—painfully so, even—and feels desperately lacking any editorial oversight whatsoever. Dialogue often feels overly rigid, to the point that it doesn't always sound terribly natural in English—much less these characters, in particular. Meanwhile, in its best moments, it feels little better than bland. A shame in general, but all the more so given the super-robot-y-ness of it all, which would've benefited greatly from more personality in the translation.