What are Your Thoughts On Mecha?

[C.A.]

Originally Posted by Guernsey

Why does it seem that Super Robot shows have a lot more of depressing tone than their real robot counterparts?

This is not true, there are about as much depression in both Real and Supers, actually I think the entire mecha genre has more depression than most other genres.

Originally Posted by roriconfan

You guys are missing the thing that seperates the various mecha categories. Anthropomorphic personafication! Straight from Prachet's books of Diskworld.

Mecha are seperated into how identified they are with their pilots or ideals.

I guess you missed my large posts on page 5.

Originally Posted by C.A.

Mecha anime always talks about philosophy and the mecha itself is an extension of the human spirit and ideals, to help the character achieve a goal.

The important point of mecha in story perspective is not the war itself, but usually the struggle of the character and how he develops. The war is the stage, the story is the characters. Mecha is about the human will and spirit, its because its a human in the robot, it is called a mecha and not just a robot.

[DawnEmperor]

I used to find mecha anime kind of...unrelatable. When a series revolves around a certain concept(fighting, card games, whatever), there seems to be less emphasis on character development, and more on "oh, what's the next fight going to be like". And conflicts are rarely resolved in any other way.

However, mecha anime is a genre I slowly warmed up to. Full Metal Panic! had a more realistic feel, and while the AS fights are important, they're not THE central part. Gurren Lagann had that idealistic motivation behind the characters. Fighting with giant robots is just a vessel for characters to vent their powerful emotions, it seems.