Favorite Anime "Mecha" franchise?
- Thread starter Heeroyuy
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Mecha is my least favourite anime genre. Close to hate...
But I like FLCL, Ghost In The Shell, Kiddy Grade, Bubblegum Crisis, Samurai 7...
Is Shingu mecha? Is Xam'd?
Quite liked Evangelion. Then everyone started copying it.
Define mecha. Because if it boils down to teenagers piloting giant robots, then include me out.
But I like FLCL, Ghost In The Shell, Kiddy Grade, Bubblegum Crisis, Samurai 7...
Is Shingu mecha? Is Xam'd?
Quite liked Evangelion. Then everyone started copying it.
Define mecha. Because if it boils down to teenagers piloting giant robots, then include me out.
I find the genre hit and miss. Loved Macross, loved Evangelion, and Patlabor wasn't bad, but then you have a plethora of crap that tries to steal the thunder of these shows.
I find the genre hit and miss. Loved Macross, loved Evangelion, and Patlabor wasn't bad, but then you have a plethora of crap that tries to steal the thunder of these shows.
Yeah, I know, I'm being an oxymoron
But Eva is the exception that proves the rule for me. It did something great and re-invented the genre. I like it for the character focus, the teen angst, and the fucked up characters. But then everything wanted to be Eva, and it quickly killed the genre.
Then again, Linebarrels of Iron came out last year and twisted it back again. It looked as if it would be more teen angst, but turned out to be a riotous piece of lightweight fun. I almost enjoyed most of it. Which I wasn't expecting.
It's all about Patlabor. You know that a giant robot police force would be underfunded and staff by incompetents... just like a real police force.
God I HATE Mecha shows!
Except Macross.
Except Macross.
Evangelion
it was like a nuclear bomb going off in the genre: a stark, darkly satirical deconstruction of the genre adding a painfully realistic twist with dark psychological overtones.
Some people stress that "it's existentialist!" which is simply ignoring what the series actually was like...just how painfully realistic it was: i.e. untrained pilots actually fall face-down the first time they try to move, the *world* they live in is very realistic and functional, even though they're fighting godlike aliens.
A scathing social commentary as well, Mecha never really recovered from this, not in 13 years. Everything has been either ripping it off or in reaction to it.
We are all living in the shadow of Evangelion.
it was like a nuclear bomb going off in the genre: a stark, darkly satirical deconstruction of the genre adding a painfully realistic twist with dark psychological overtones.
Some people stress that "it's existentialist!" which is simply ignoring what the series actually was like...just how painfully realistic it was: i.e. untrained pilots actually fall face-down the first time they try to move, the *world* they live in is very realistic and functional, even though they're fighting godlike aliens.
A scathing social commentary as well, Mecha never really recovered from this, not in 13 years. Everything has been either ripping it off or in reaction to it.
We are all living in the shadow of Evangelion.
Mobile Suit Gundam single-handedly created a new subgenre of mecha the "real robot" genre, since then mechs can be part of a military, become damaged, run out of ammo, and require maintenance. Gundam also features a more realistic appraoch to war, and moral ambiguity on both sides of the conflict.
As for my thoughts on Evangelion all it is, is a super robot show with some real robot elements, and some random religion and mysticism thrown in, being weird or dark isn't a new approach, especially since the shows creators admit that they lifted a lot of Ideas from Space Runaway Ideon. It's hardly as revolutionary as people make it out to be. Eva did not create a new subgenre of mecha anime you can't even classify it "dark show with a weird ending with unlikable characters and some robots every once and a while" is not a genre.
As for my thoughts on Evangelion all it is, is a super robot show with some real robot elements, and some random religion and mysticism thrown in, being weird or dark isn't a new approach, especially since the shows creators admit that they lifted a lot of Ideas from Space Runaway Ideon. It's hardly as revolutionary as people make it out to be. Eva did not create a new subgenre of mecha anime you can't even classify it "dark show with a weird ending with unlikable characters and some robots every once and a while" is not a genre.
I prefer Super Robot shows, you know that have hot blooded "non-emo" heroes like in the 70's, well many Arabs who grew up in the 80's and 90's are into that since the title that created the anime craze in that part of the world was a super robot title called UFO Robo Grendizer also known as Goldrake in Central Europe created by the pioneer of the mecha genre Go Nagai who also created the marionette series X-Bomber aka Star Fleet.
Gurren Lagann was a pretty badass anime too.
But doesn't mean I don't like Real Robot titles, I'm a fan of Gundam especially the original 80's titles by Tomino himself, I also love Macross (one of the best soundtracks found in anime), Patlabor (I love the idea of the mecha taking a backseat to the characters themselves) and Votoms (Chirico is a badass)
To be honest, I couldn't really get into Evangelion, in fact I enjoyed some of the titled it inspired such as Rahxephone and Fafner more than Eva itself.
Gurren Lagann was a pretty badass anime too.
But doesn't mean I don't like Real Robot titles, I'm a fan of Gundam especially the original 80's titles by Tomino himself, I also love Macross (one of the best soundtracks found in anime), Patlabor (I love the idea of the mecha taking a backseat to the characters themselves) and Votoms (Chirico is a badass)
To be honest, I couldn't really get into Evangelion, in fact I enjoyed some of the titled it inspired such as Rahxephone and Fafner more than Eva itself.
Mospeda (Robotech 3rd Gen)
I won't debate it's influence on anime, but I watched six episodes of Evangelion (based on the recommendations of someone like you) and found it incredibly boring. Terrible pacing, unlikeable characters, boring action. I'd never watch it again and have no interest in watching the remaining episodes. Don't mean to come off as harsh, I can't think of a way to be less blunt about it.
Oh, gosh, I've been watching Gurann Lagann lately on Sci-Fi. It's neat, and I've seen Gundam. And I adore PatLabor. It's a cop show/ dramedy/ mecha show. I think it's so sweet how Noa loves her Alphonse. ^^
Mobile Suit Gundam for sure...the Universal Century series that is.
Tomino's tale was more about the characters than the mechs. For once we got to know the people inside the suits...the people dying and the people doing what they could to survive. It dealt with human evolution and the prejudices that came with it. Definitely untouchable in my opinion. The sequel series were pretty amazing (ZZ can be argued about), and it still holds to me as the greatest use of mecha, as it wasn't the focus. Tomino even went as far as to make the Gundam intentionally ugly in Turn A Gundam just so people would focus on the characters instead.
Then came the mid-90's and the other "Gundam" shows, where the Gundams were more part of the story than anything else...oy.
Tomino's tale was more about the characters than the mechs. For once we got to know the people inside the suits...the people dying and the people doing what they could to survive. It dealt with human evolution and the prejudices that came with it. Definitely untouchable in my opinion. The sequel series were pretty amazing (ZZ can be argued about), and it still holds to me as the greatest use of mecha, as it wasn't the focus. Tomino even went as far as to make the Gundam intentionally ugly in Turn A Gundam just so people would focus on the characters instead.
Then came the mid-90's and the other "Gundam" shows, where the Gundams were more part of the story than anything else...oy.
As much as I bash it, (the new stuff) my favorite is GUNDAM.
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