My Life In Fandom: Duke Fleed Returns! The Return of GRENDIZER!

Fellow mecha fans, there's good news to be had. First, and far more thrilling, is that we're getting a new Grendizer project.

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – August 25, 2022: Manga Productions announced the launch of a new project for Grendizer under the name of PROJECT G, with several Japanese global partners, including Dynamic Planning, which owns the rights to Grendizer. The popular character “Grendizer” was showcased on Riyadh Boulevard screens during the gamers’ season and attracted the audience’s and visitors’ amazement.

That's right, this is a Japanese-Saudi co-production and Go Nagai is going to be supervising it. There's also a promotional contest.

This did go out on Twitter.

Grendizer and Duke Fleed are coming back to save the world!
Stay tuned! #ProjectG #Grendizer #Goldrake#Goldorak #ForceFive pic.twitter.com/8kmdeUwAkE

— ProjectG (@NextGrendizer) August 28, 2022

I knew this was going to happen as soon as Mazinger Z: Infinity was announced. The tie-in model kits included a Infinitism redesign of Grendizer, and that was the tip-off that this was on the table. It was just a matter of getting the money together to put forth a commercially-viable production, and you would not believe how popular Super Robots are in parts of the Middle East. Even if this is some junior prince's hobby project, that's enough to get it done.

No, I don't think we'll see this used to make the Saudis look good like Death Cultists have used Hollywood (including its British extentions). The Saudis don't need it and that's not how it works anyway.

As this is just announced, I would not expect it any sooner than late next year; more likely will be early to mid 2024. However, it also means that we're likely to get the manga re-released for global readers, meaning an official English translation (and done in-house, likely due to the Saudis' influence oddly enough), a re-release of the original series (Discotek, looking at you), and of course plenty of merch (re-)releases.

All of which will likely culminate in the glorious return of Grendizer returning to Super Robot Wars. (It's lack in 30 was noticed.)