Good mecha anime recommendations

Warlord53104 said:
I wanted to get into mecha, so please recommend me a few good ones.

I have already seen Code Geass, 86 and NGE.

NewestPersonHere said:


Any specific type of mecha anime? Mecha genre is very vague~
Do you prefer war-drama, romance, mind-games or mecha designs? (Or mecha anime that has hilarious bad plot and characters? *coughs in Valrave The Liberator*)

Sorry, I need more details to recommend because mecha is my favourite genre and I have too many of them, so I need more details on your taste to recommend you. There are probably a lot of people recommending Gundam. My advice is do not start with Wing, SEED, 00. I need more details on your taste to recommend a good Gundam entry anime for you.

Warlord53104 said:


I think war drama would suit me the best. I liked 86 a lot.
Please recommend a few of romance and mind-games too.
At any rate any mecha anime with good plot and characters would do.

NewestPersonHere said:


I will list down all the mecha anime with good plot and characters.

War Drama:

Gundam is the largest mecha anime and its first fans are old women because of war drama.
For war drama, universal century is the best place to start. I think someone else has mentioned that Thr Origins is the first one to start to go into Gundam.
For Gundam, a Gundam Youtuber had written an essay on how to get into Gundam. Here is the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gundam/wiki/wackymodder84s_guide_to_gundam
He last updated in 2013. The new Gundam anime from that time are:

Gundam: Reconguista In G. This Gundam anime focuses more on Earth's depleting resources. It is a decent war drama.

Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. This Gundam anime focuses on orphans who are child soldiers starting of trying to find a home that they belong to. It has a decent S1 but S2 is a mess. A lot of anime fans claimed that this is the darkest Gundam anime. This is not true, the darkest is Gundam Victory.

Gundam Thunderbolt. I have only watched the first few episodes. It is a really good war drama, soldiers becoming physically disabled from the war.

Gundam NT. I have not watched it but I heard it is very good. NOTE: This is a direct sequel to Unicorn.

Gundam Hathaway Flash. Only the first movie is out, there are 2 more movies that have not been aired. This is a direct sequel to NT.

For Gundam, you can also consider to start from After War Gundam X if you prefer to start with a romantic ones. Well, there is also a decent war-drama as humanity is recovering from a disastrous war.

Other than Gundam, there are a few more decent war dramas:
Break Blade. Someone else has mentioned it above.
Code Geass: Akito The Exiled. Not sure if you have watched it. But I enjoyed it more than Lelouch Of The Rebellion.

Romance Mecha anime:
Macross and its sequels. Macross is the second largest mecha anime series after Gundam.
It is a mixture of mecha, aliens, romance and J-Pop. If you like 86, you will enjoy Macross. The romance in Macross is much better than 86. The mecha designs are better too.
Remember to watch Macross Plus before Macross Frontier, there are a lot of references.
And STAY AWAY FROM MACROSS DELTA. IT IS CRINGE 100.

Full Metal Panic. It starts off as a typical romance comedy. But things get better as the plot progresses. However, the Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory ends at the LN Vol 9. You need to pick up the LN at Vol 10 to finish the plot. The plot of Full Metal Panic is really good with the combination of war-drama, romance, mind-games, and great characters.

Buddy Complex. The plot is straightforward. But the characters are alright. I mainly watched it for the mecha designs. The romance is straightforward.

For mind-games:

Heavy Object. The plot and characters are alright. Many people dislikes it because of the sphere designs. The protagonist use engineering skills need to destroy mecha.

Soukyuu No Fafnir. This is more similar to Evangelion. The characters are more likeable than Evangelion. For Soukyuu No Fafnir, humanity is being wiped out by mysterious golden monsters. And the only weapons that work against them are the mechas known as fafnirs, which are deadly if humans use it for long period of time. The mysterious monsters can also read human's mind and psychologically damage humans.

Most of the mecha anime I know do not have decent plot and characters:
Knight's And Magic. Plot is straightforward, characters are likeable. And has decent mecha designs such as giant shields.
Aldonah Zero. Protagonist is a Gary-Stu. Next.
Guilty Crown. The plot and characters are dumb. But the soundtrack are really good.
Kyoukai Senki. I have not watched it but from the mecha discord server I am in. They mentioned that it is meh but has great mecha designs.
Majestic Prince. This is more of a comedy, does not suit your type of mecha.
Rinne No Lagrange. It is very girlish. But great mecha designs.
Valrave The Liberator. Most of the mecha fans I know call it "Valrape The Penetrator", so you can probably infer how dumb the plot and characters are,
Cross Ange. I dropped it in episode 1 and I heard many people ranting on it. Well, it is directed by Mitsuo Fukuda who ruined Gundam reputation in the 2000s with Gundam SEED Destiny.

Some other mecha anime I have not watched but I heard many people praising it:
Eureka Seven. I have only watched the first 2 episodes. Great characters but I don't have the time to watch 50 episodes due to work. :(
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Have been in my plat list for a long time, unable to find time to watch it.

This list took me an hour to write. Hope this helps~