Active Raid: A Near-Future Police Mecha with Exosuits

A mecha anime with no giant robots sounds like a contradiction until you meet Active Raid. We’re talking near-future police sci-fi where “Active” tech powers sleek Willware exosuits, and Japan’s Unit 8 gets thrown into high-stakes crimes while the public side-eyes every cracked street and broken wall they leave behind. If you like action that doesn’t take itself too seriously, this one has a surprising amount of charm.

We walk through the core setup: extreme crimes tied to Logos, a new assistant inspector watching Unit 8 like a hawk, and a squad that’s half by-the-book and half wildcard energy. From the fallout after the Logos incident to the strange-but-memorable beats like Mythos’s defeat and what happens next, we focus on what actually makes the show entertaining and where it clearly holds back. We also call out the fan service moment that drifts into a real-world 3D printing business idea, because sometimes anime throws you a plot point that’s oddly practical.

Then we zoom out and tackle the big genre question for anime fans: what counts as “mecha” when the hardware is an exosuit instead of a skyscraper-sized robot? We connect Active Raid to the power suit subgenre, touch on the show’s CGI and character art, and explain why the episodic structure makes it feel like Power Rangers with hints of other sci-fi action anime. We close with our 7.5/10 verdict and who we think should actually queue this up.

If you enjoyed the review, subscribe, share it with a mecha-loving friend, and leave a quick rating or review. What’s your personal definition of mecha anime?

Transcript

echa Monday Kickoff

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What up, gang? It's another Mecha Monday on the Zone podcast. So today I feel like talking about active raid. Active raid takes place in the near future with advanced technology, particularly a system known as Active, which is short for Armored Combine Tactical Intelligence Vanguard Elements. Due to the abundance of serious crime around the world, police forces began to use active technology along with powerful armored mobile suits known as Willwares. The series focused on one such police unit in Japan known as Unit Eight. Map. It starts off with extreme crimes being related to a criminal group called Logos, while the new girl, Assistant Inspector Asani Kasari, assigned to observe and write a report on her impression of Unit 8. While she and Lieutenant Soichiro Senna are all the only by the books type, everyone else is more laid back off the field and wildcards next. The battles are fairly entertaining, but it does get weird to an extent. Now, after the logos incident in episodes 9 and 10, things shook up with Unit 8 almost being disbanded. Did I forget to mention that there's a lot of people that didn't approve of the Santai Iron Man Squad in this show because Unit 8 was being hated on sent jump, mainly because the collateral damage caused during the fight. Once Mythos was defeated in episode 12, Lieutenant Takiro Kuroki decides to adopt him as his younger brother, Jira Kuroki. I think it's ironic in a slightly funny way that Asam ends up leaving her own unit just to end up with a worse reputation than Unit 8. Meanwhile, Senna left to start a garbage collecting company, and Madoka, the quiet poker queen, left to start her own detective agency. I dare say that the foul-mouthed pink-haired black chick, Abigail, is my favorite character in this series. Best girl, definitely best girl by design. And episode 19, the fan service episode. It mentioned the usage of 3D printers being used to make models of celebrities or amateur models for money. And as gotta be 3D printing, I would just update to say that, but also, hmm. Interesting. That sounds like something I would have done, where it's like get a 3D scanner, and people can come to me if they want like a 3D printed model of uh their image made for them. Then yeah, I can do that for you. No problem. There can be money in that if um people are interested, but you know, depends on who's interested. Now, I will say this the wheelwares in this series aren't giant man robots like in your typical mecha anime, but rather impressive looking exosuits. There are mechs involved, so yes, active rate is a mecha anime. The character artwork looks great, and the animation is satisfactory, even with the usage of CGI. In fact, power suits are a subgenre of mecha anime, so it's not always about random-sized robots. So that means anime such like Infinite Stratos, 100, uh, hybrid heart, even say Daydalot technically is a mecha anime. So they have like mecha anime like elements in most of the series, but it's not like giant robots per se. It's not always giant robots fighting with each other, you know. So chances are there might be a lot more in mecha anime that people watch, but like say for instance Guilty Crown, where there's obviously giant robots in that one, but the focus isn't on the giant robots, but it's technically a mecha anime, just you know. The main focus is just on that, and I'll explain that when I get around to it. But not gonna lie, this series feels like Power Rangers with the vibes that oddly reminds me of animes such as Psychopaths, Tiger and Bunny, and Ghost in the Shell. Expect me to review those by the way. And I think it's a fairly entertaining anime, but I also understand why it didn't get much hype to it because there's no real character development happening. Most of the episodes feel like one-off shenanigans with uh plots sprinkled in between, and it doesn't really compel me to recommend to someone new to makeup anime, but maybe it's something kind of good to watch if you just so happen to be moved for a particular type of anime. Or if you're like, eh, you know, I pretty much watch all the new shit, all the uh popular shit, like what else is there out there? Well, you know, it might be kind of a threat, it might be kind of a reason, you know. Like depending on how I'm feeling it, but I'm like, hey, what if you just looking for something to watch and check out at the rate? Which by the way, I would give a 7.5 out of 10. It was good, like I thought it was good, but you know, it wasn't all that spectacular. If anything, it was just more funny than anything to me. Even though there was a bit of action series in this, it was more so funny to me. So, with that being said, I'm gonna go ahead and close out this review. Go ahead and have yourself a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. But ultimately, do take it easy and stay nerdy, my friends, because great things are coming. I'm gonna go ahead and zone about a year.