Favorite Anime "Mecha" franchise?
- Thread starter Heeroyuy
- Start date
(jaw drops the the floor in disbelief...then painful recognition)
By six episodes you mean the actual, first six episodes 1-6?
EVERYONE thinks those are boring.
The series only really hits its high point starting in episode 8. Episodes 8 and 9 are some of the most iconic stuff ever....dear god, have you even seen Asuka yet? She only shows for the first time in episode 8.
The *REALLY* good stuff starts happening around episode 16ish, culminating in *Eva-01 vs Eva-03* in episode 18 followed by episode 19's infamous knock-down-drag-ut "oh dear God, it's eating it..." uh...you'll have to see.
****it's not a standalone series where an individual episode is a self-contained story; you have to watch ALL of them. unfortunately, even the boring ones, because if you just skip to the fight episodes they don't make sense.
****Bleach can spend like THREE episodes just giving SETUP to an amazing fight that lasts a full episode with no dialogue. If you watch the setup alone, its boring. If you watch the fights alone, the series seemingly makes no sense.
robotech
Escaflowne....
I've still got them all on my computer. Now that I look back, I stopped watching at episode 10, the one where they find the angel in the volcano.
Why should I have to continue watching a TV show I find uninteresting when I could be spending my time watching something else? Why should I have to wait?
Look, I'm just not into heavy-handed, Christian allegories and philosophical concepts explored much more in depth within sci-fi literature 5 decades ago. I've watched dozens of anime movies and several TV series, I like some I don't like others. I'm simply of the mind that a show or movie shouldn't have to be viewed, and book shouldn't have the be read more than 50% of the way through to really interest me.
And I just don't realy care about an "amazing fight that lasts an entire episode". Why does Bleach require three episodes to set it up? Why does anime get away with this but when Hollywood does it it's just a "stupid 'sploshions" movie? Why does shonen get away with recycled, immature themes and overwrought flash when other forms of media are called crass for doing the same?
I personally really like the mecha genre.
Favorite Franchises:
Full Metal Panic
Gundam
Macross
Patlabor
Code Geass
I also enjoyed a host of other assorted series and films like:
Appleseed/Appleseed: Ex Machina
Aquarion/Aquarion: Wings of Betrayal
Armored Trooper Votoms
Baldr Force EXE Resolution
Betterman
Big O/Big O II
Blue Gender
Bubblegum Crisis/Bubblegum Crash/Tokyo 2040
Burst Angel
Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles
Dual: Parallel Trouble Adventures
Eureka 7
Fafner
Gasaraki
Godannar
Good Morning Althea
Gravion/Gravion Zwei
Gundress
Gurren Lagann
Kannazuki no Miko
Martian Successor Nadesico
Neon Genesis Evangellion/movies
RahXephon
Rideback
Sakura Wars TV
Samurai 7
Stellvia
Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry
Tekkaman Blade
The Third
Vandread/ Vandread: The Second Stage
Vexile
Vision of Escaflowne
Voices of a Distant Star
Xenosaga
Zone of the Enders
What I'd recomend most of all out of all of those:
Full Matal Panic- A mercenary is assigned to protect a girl who may to hold the key to some mysterious advanced technology from terrorists.
Gundam-The 08th MS Team- On his way to his new assignment the main character's suit is destroyed. He works togather with a female enemy pilot to survive in space. Later on, he's assigned the 08th Mobile Suit team and forced to fight against her battle.
Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory-A disillusioned war hero steals a Gundam equipped with nuclear warheads intent on revenge. A test green test pilot feels responsible for the theft and joins the crew of the Albion who are intent on hunting him down.
Blue Gender-Yugi contracts an incurable disease and agrees to be chryogenically frozen. He's rudely awakened by to a nightmarish Earth where humans are no longer the top of the food chain. Rescued by a millitary team, they must survive long enough to get him into space, where most of humanity now resides.
Rideback-In a future world where a terrorist organization has nearly taken over the world, Rin dreamed of being a ballet dancer like her mother, however, durring a performace she injured her leg badly and quit. Later in college she's drawn by the sound of engines and comes across the Rideback club, transformable motorcycle hybrids. She soon finds that her surperb sence of balance and agility make her a natural on the machines. Unfortunately, Rin soon finds herself in serious trouble with the government and involved in terrorism.
Vision of Escaflowne-Hitomi's normal life is shattered when a huge dragon suddenly appears in a column of light, and she witnesses a boy slay the creature with some help from her. Afterward she is mistakenly sent back with him to the fantasy-like world of Gaia. She learns the boy, Vahn, is the prince of the kingdom of Fanalia. However, just when is trying to make sense of things, Fanalia is attacked and burned to the ground by an overwhelming unseen enemy. Now stuck togather, Hitomi only wishes to find a way home, but is stuck on the run from the enemy with Vahn, and Fanalia's mecha, Escaflowne, which may be more than what it seems.
Favorite Franchises:
Full Metal Panic
Gundam
Macross
Patlabor
Code Geass
I also enjoyed a host of other assorted series and films like:
Appleseed/Appleseed: Ex Machina
Aquarion/Aquarion: Wings of Betrayal
Armored Trooper Votoms
Baldr Force EXE Resolution
Betterman
Big O/Big O II
Blue Gender
Bubblegum Crisis/Bubblegum Crash/Tokyo 2040
Burst Angel
Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles
Dual: Parallel Trouble Adventures
Eureka 7
Fafner
Gasaraki
Godannar
Good Morning Althea
Gravion/Gravion Zwei
Gundress
Gurren Lagann
Kannazuki no Miko
Martian Successor Nadesico
Neon Genesis Evangellion/movies
RahXephon
Rideback
Sakura Wars TV
Samurai 7
Stellvia
Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry
Tekkaman Blade
The Third
Vandread/ Vandread: The Second Stage
Vexile
Vision of Escaflowne
Voices of a Distant Star
Xenosaga
Zone of the Enders
What I'd recomend most of all out of all of those:
Full Matal Panic- A mercenary is assigned to protect a girl who may to hold the key to some mysterious advanced technology from terrorists.
Gundam-The 08th MS Team- On his way to his new assignment the main character's suit is destroyed. He works togather with a female enemy pilot to survive in space. Later on, he's assigned the 08th Mobile Suit team and forced to fight against her battle.
Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory-A disillusioned war hero steals a Gundam equipped with nuclear warheads intent on revenge. A test green test pilot feels responsible for the theft and joins the crew of the Albion who are intent on hunting him down.
Blue Gender-Yugi contracts an incurable disease and agrees to be chryogenically frozen. He's rudely awakened by to a nightmarish Earth where humans are no longer the top of the food chain. Rescued by a millitary team, they must survive long enough to get him into space, where most of humanity now resides.
Rideback-In a future world where a terrorist organization has nearly taken over the world, Rin dreamed of being a ballet dancer like her mother, however, durring a performace she injured her leg badly and quit. Later in college she's drawn by the sound of engines and comes across the Rideback club, transformable motorcycle hybrids. She soon finds that her surperb sence of balance and agility make her a natural on the machines. Unfortunately, Rin soon finds herself in serious trouble with the government and involved in terrorism.
Vision of Escaflowne-Hitomi's normal life is shattered when a huge dragon suddenly appears in a column of light, and she witnesses a boy slay the creature with some help from her. Afterward she is mistakenly sent back with him to the fantasy-like world of Gaia. She learns the boy, Vahn, is the prince of the kingdom of Fanalia. However, just when is trying to make sense of things, Fanalia is attacked and burned to the ground by an overwhelming unseen enemy. Now stuck togather, Hitomi only wishes to find a way home, but is stuck on the run from the enemy with Vahn, and Fanalia's mecha, Escaflowne, which may be more than what it seems.
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For me, it's Robotech without a doubt because I have three generations and several different types of transformable mecha (spaceship, fighter jets, tanks, and motorcycles) to gush over...
Other favs:
-Vandread
-Dual!
-Gundam 00
-Gundam 08th MS Team
-Geneshaft
Other favs:
-Vandread
-Dual!
-Gundam 00
-Gundam 08th MS Team
-Geneshaft
For me it would be
Martian Successor Nadesico
Robotech/Macross
Gundam
Evangelion
Martian Successor Nadesico
Robotech/Macross
Gundam
Evangelion
gundam wing and up.
Definitely Code Geass; it's the best anime I've seen, period.
^^^^^
Mine too.
Macross +1
Gundam 0079. Zeta's pretty good, too. No, you haven't watched it if it's dubbed.
Patlabor
Southern Cross (Robotech Masters came from this) is really good at first, then rushed, then good at the end. And they're French!
Mospeada is pretty good, but my wife never forgave Stig for abandoning Aisha. In my head, he realizes what a doofus he is and goes back.
Japanese trivia--which voice actress was a major character in all three of the shows which became Robotech?
Doi Mika. She was Misa Hayase (Lisa Hayes) in Macross, Lana Isavia (Nova Satori) in Southern Cross and Aisha (Marlene) in Mospeada.
Interestingly enough, the voice actress who played Lisa in Robotech *also* played Marlene!
Of the Super Robot Shows, I've got a weakness for Getter Robo and a strange fondness for Daimos.
Eva isn't a mech show. It's sort of an anti-mech show. And it was good through Tape 8 or so. After that, it just refused to answer any of the questions it raised. That's not deep. That's lazy.
Gundam 0079. Zeta's pretty good, too. No, you haven't watched it if it's dubbed.
Patlabor
Southern Cross (Robotech Masters came from this) is really good at first, then rushed, then good at the end. And they're French!
Mospeada is pretty good, but my wife never forgave Stig for abandoning Aisha. In my head, he realizes what a doofus he is and goes back.
Japanese trivia--which voice actress was a major character in all three of the shows which became Robotech?
Doi Mika. She was Misa Hayase (Lisa Hayes) in Macross, Lana Isavia (Nova Satori) in Southern Cross and Aisha (Marlene) in Mospeada.
Interestingly enough, the voice actress who played Lisa in Robotech *also* played Marlene!
Of the Super Robot Shows, I've got a weakness for Getter Robo and a strange fondness for Daimos.
Eva isn't a mech show. It's sort of an anti-mech show. And it was good through Tape 8 or so. After that, it just refused to answer any of the questions it raised. That's not deep. That's lazy.
I sort of enjoyed it for what it was, but I couldn't get over how the story was told. It was essentially Lelouch exposition every episode and it got tiring after a while. I'll say that at least the anti-hero approach was novel... although having watched The Watchmen before Code Geass, I found the ending to be a bit cheeky.
Macross
It doesn't get away with it. Shounen action shows get criticized and despised all the time by anime fans for all the pointless time filling and stalling tactics, and rightly so. It's really annoying. These kinds of shows are aimed at pre-teens and teens though, and may not be entertaining to adults as you offen just grow out of them. I mostly go for something aimed more at my age group called Seinen, which is anime for the college aged and adults, although I do follow the occasional shounen martial arts show like Bleach, and Naruto: Shippuden which aren't too bad compared to a lot of other ones in the same genre..
Oh and I've gotta' say that NGE is truthfully only interesting for characters and the psychological and philosophical aspects, the rest of the show is just a giant confusing mess of a trainwreck with a disappointing conclusion (a trait I've now come to expect from Gainax works). Interesting, and provides a great soundtrack for listening to later, but nothing life-changing.
Eh I might as well add my two cent's into this. My favorite mech anime is actually tied between two shows; Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta. Both shows had superb character development a (le gasp!!) plot. I felt sympathy for Shinji Ikari when his father abandoned him. But don't think Im praising them both there were parts that A) Didn't make Sense or B) I didn't like cerntain elements of the plot. Another thing probably mentioned by others is that these shows make you think and they make you like to think.
I do have some honorable mentions though:
1. Mobile Suit G Gundam: It's a fun show that does some thing different.
2. Tengen Toppa Gurran Laggan: This should be on top of the honerable mentions list. Great action, Ensamble Cast and Kamina, Simon, and King Kittan could blow Captain Robau out of the water in terms of Badassery they are that GAR! In other words this show is just effin' awesome.
3. Gundam 00 First Season: Great take on politics and events in another version of the 23rd century.
4. Gundam Wing: The only reason this show get an honerable mention is because its what hooked me into Sci fi in general. I wouldn't be a Trekkie if it wasn't for Gundam! The show also inspired my to draw anime mecha and non- mecha alike.
I do have some honorable mentions though:
1. Mobile Suit G Gundam: It's a fun show that does some thing different.
2. Tengen Toppa Gurran Laggan: This should be on top of the honerable mentions list. Great action, Ensamble Cast and Kamina, Simon, and King Kittan could blow Captain Robau out of the water in terms of Badassery they are that GAR! In other words this show is just effin' awesome.
3. Gundam 00 First Season: Great take on politics and events in another version of the 23rd century.
4. Gundam Wing: The only reason this show get an honerable mention is because its what hooked me into Sci fi in general. I wouldn't be a Trekkie if it wasn't for Gundam! The show also inspired my to draw anime mecha and non- mecha alike.
Yeah. I don't get that one at all. I know I've suggested before that I think it's pretty much #1 on my all-time most overrated anime list.
I remember this really hit the States about the same time as the Xenogears video game and the two were compared ad nauseam. I never really understood this.
Certainly they both were mecha based and revolved around heavy pseudo-religious stories, and Xenogears was presented anime style (and even contained about a half-hour to 45 minutes of anime scenes), but the content and presentation of the stories was so much different.
For starters, NGE's religious content was mostly relegated to the background where one really had to pay attention to pick-up on it, whereas Xenogears wore it on it's sleeve. (So much so that there was an outcry from various Christian organizations and it was even blacklisted from Wal-Mart for a short while.)
But the significant difference is in the substance. Yes, both are greatly mired in their own gobbledygook and nonsense and got extremely convoluted at times, but where NGE's ball of plot threads rolled out of control, Xenogears's at least had enough dangling threads to pull at to unravel it a bit. There was at least enough there to invoke some thought and emotion, all NGE manages to invoke are migraines.
But, despite all that, NGE's biggest problem is it's ending. It's a complete disaster. I laugh how all the apologists (fan-boys) continue to use the same old excuses over and over, yet are unwilling to acknowledge the most obvious: Anno and Sadamoto painted (Wrote?) themselves into a corner and didn't know what to do. So they just throw things out there left and right. Sometimes I almost think that they did this just confuse viewers and hope they wouldn't notice because I think that's what happened.
People, preach on and on about how deep and thought provoking it is, but really, I think they just say that because they don't understand it. It's like that science teacher everyone had in high school. You can BS your way through a paper, but as long as he doesn't understand it, he'll give you and "A."
Same difference.Also, I hate how the show is dour and dark just for the sake of being dour and dark. It bugs me to no end when writers do this and it seems to be more and more common. (nuBSG anyone?) It bugs me even more that people continue to fall for it because it's usually just cover-up for poor writing.
Speaking of Xenogears, it's too bad the Xenosaga anime was never done to completion. Had it been, it'd be my answer to the topic at hand.
It's a tough call between Macross and Evangelion. I'm not sure I can pick between those two.
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