Mechs. Love em or Hate em?

Red_Tuesday said:


^^ This is how it's done.

Hand_of_the_King said:


Eww..........Those look like what would happen if the ED-209 banged GLADOS and had a Mecha-Baby

F0XFIRE said:


The first one does. The second one looks overdone. The third ones look pretty awesome.

I think I prefer these kind of suit designs to Gundams though. They're futuristic yet have this sort of grounded realism. I like Gundam but I feel the Mobile Suits look more like toys at times rather than futuristic weapons.

Red_Tuesday said:
Eh, it's the worst official Tau piece, but at least it's not as bad as the Forge World Crisis suits.

Like this piece of shit:

Primeval said:
I love mechas but there hasn't been many good mecha animes recetly :/

Don't say Aldnoah Zero.

Ckan said:
While a lack of realism as war machines is certainly a valid criticism of mecha- and this line of thought brings up many issues - to the point that arguments can be had on essentially every military mecha anime ever made - I think it does seem interesting when some people take up that line of argument as if it were some irredeemable fault in these works of fiction.

Firstly, all tools of war are rarely portrayed accurately in anime, and on films and television as well for that matter. On the direct level - tanks, planes, and such hardware will be presented as performing acts far below - or completely contrary to their proper real-life usage. Similarly, weapons, armour, ammunition, and explosives are also given properties and depictions contrary to real life.
Of course, these awkward facts will get their share of criticsm as well, but it seems relevant to point out that there are clearly different standards being held here: things that "exist" are allowed to do the unreal, but incredible and fictitious items are target of greater criticism.
There does seem reason enough there, but it might be worth noting that there is this in-built 'hollywood reality' that most of us have come to accept. On the other-hand, many of us are accepting of super-powers, the supernatural, and magical elements in various (anime) action stories. Why is it that such completely fanciful things are free from criticism? To take an outrageously clear example, does anyone seriously criticise Dragon Ball Z for its use of ki - allowing for individuals to launch destructive projectiles, fly, boost their muscles, and so forth? One might then argue that DBZ clearly takes a wholly fantastic route and bears no pretense of being 'realistic', but then, this too equally applies to a large cohort of 'super robot' mecha which have no intention of being realistic machines at all. So it seems obvious that we can't address mecha as a whole in terms of its realism unless one universally holds all their action hostage to a preference of real-to-life depiction; free of the fanciful and unbelievable. What we can address on the grounds of realism as mechanical devices are those that perhaps depict themselves in a certain manner: those with maintenance and logistical issues, military settings, detailed mechanics, believeable armaments, and such. The 'real robots', so to speak, as they are often known.

So the reason we accept hollywood action is that it seems 'real enough' to us as viewers. It's expedient, because it looks 'real enough' to us, and it's cool. Perhaps that's important as well: it looks good, it's cool, and it's what we like. So this preference for x sorts of action that many of us have is a very fake thing if we want to measure all the reels of fiction with a fair and equal eye.
Now, taking a leap of faith in our ability to suspend judgement; I think that a similar sort of acceptability can be applied to piloted (giant) robots - if we approach it without a disdainful 'oh this is unrealistic, how stupid. I can't like this show now because robots shouldn't be like that.' - I think that would be missing much of the point of many mecha shows, especially when so often these robots are only the device of action through which combat is had and the story is told.

To add to this, there is a variety of mecha - 'supers' and 'reals' being one fuzzy but obvious distinction. And there really is quite a range of 'realism' within the mecha of anime - there are magical world breaking robots, campy combining power-ranger sort robots, small robots, huge robots, planet-sized robots, clunky robots, invincible robots, tin-can exploding robots, believably realistic robots, and so ever on.
And yet, this doesn't even touch on perhaps the more important element: the story. 'Mecha' doesn't constitute some single format of storyline - though it is true that there are many similar series, one would be foolish to assume that a small handful is truly representative of one of anime's few truly unique genres. There is a lot of mecha, and there are a lot of different mecha shows with different focuses, different atmospheres, different styles: different from the robots to the stories - there are adventures, wars, politics, romance, supernatural, slice of life, comedic, parody, exaggerated, gloomy, heartfelt, serious, dark, violent, gory, flashy, new, old, and the descriptors just won't end.
Those who find themselves unable to watch a show for its mecha element are surely cutting themselves off from a true fountain of entertainment.
There is good reason why mecha has for so long been an iconic part of anime, and to honestly believe in superficial judgements like 'all mecha (shows) being the same' just seems rather banal and untrue except at the most worthlessly generalised levels. Yes, all mecha shows have mecha in them. No, it's not only about the mecha. But sometimes it seems as if people really, truly cannot even slightly remove themselves from their closed-minded perspectives - and that's a very sad thing.

Primeval said:
I love mechas but there hasn't been many good mecha animes recetly :/

Don't say Aldnoah Zero.

peacefulkorean said:


Same here. Still waiting for my next Code Geass or Gundam 00

MaskTai87 said:


08th MS Team wasn't that great apart from that one Gouf battle.

Primeval said:
I love mechas but there hasn't been many good mecha animes recetly :/

Don't say Aldnoah Zero.

black1blade said:
Code geass, gurren laggan and eva are the only mecha anime I have seen.

Red_Tuesday said:


The first one is fan art, dunno why I included it except for the different colour scheme. It's disproportionate (same suit as in the bottom pic, but the bottom one is official art)

The realism/ practicality thing is my gist as well. And it doesn't really help mecha anime's case that they always have mechs floundering around in space where they'd be at a severe disadvantage to fighter craft both in terms of power plant (due to frame constrictions) and axial asymmetry.

I half-liked the Suisei no Gargantia mechs though.