Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
Robotic;Notes is a good show, but classifying it as "mecha" is quite the stretch. If a show doesn't include a major protagonist donning a mechanized battle suit within the first five episodes or so, then that doesn't really make me think "mecha".
|
As below, mecha anime are a little broader than they used to be. Even if a show is not a traditional mecha show, it can still have many identifiable elements associated with the genre.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
VRO is more of a magical girl show (with a sci-fi feel) than a mecha show. What giant robot is being piloted in VRO? By a protagonist?
|
Vividred is an old school mecha show that eschews the mecha for the protagonists. However, it's absolutely saturated with super robot elements and there are even mecha in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
No, it's not. Again, where's the recent equivalent to Code Geass? Or TTGL? Or NGE? A mecha Renaissance should involve at least something comparable to one of those three.
|
Why? I'm referring to the number of shows made, not their quality. Besides, I never thought that highly of Code Geass or Gurren Lagann in the first place, so how is this a criterion? As for Evangelion, I'm pretty sure that they're making more as we speak.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
We don't even have a long-running weekly Gundam show right now.
|
You're aware that there is usually a gap of 1-2 years between Gundam TV shows, right? Given that, it's odd to use it as an example when AGE wrapped up a whole two months ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bri
My guess is it was mostly driven by the toy industry and their sponsoring of children's anime in the 70s and 80s. The consolidations and mergers left far fewer toy sponsors post 90s. The OVA market transformed in to the late night market model and just found different sponsors in publishers and game developers.
|
That's true of the mecha shows, but science fiction shows don't typically have that much merchandising.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bri
That is too narrow a definition. Vehicles/robots have been used in plenty of different genres as a means to build plots around. It's different from the empowerment fantasy that drives shonen, sentai or superhero content.
|
True enough - as a genre matures, it can broaden it's salient points and adopt all sorts of new story elements. However, the very same thing applies to superhero comics as well.
At their cores though, these genres are designed to satisfy the empowerment urge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bri
It's not only visible in US fiction but all across the West. The postwar optimism that (scientific and social) progress will make each generation better off in comparison to the previous one seems to be lost. It's not unlike the pessimism that permeated Japan during the lost decade of the 90s.
|
I can see a palpable decline in the U.S. (most significantly felt in the lack of science fiction TV), but is it also true of other countries? The last I heard, German and French print science fiction was still going strong. Even the British seem more enthusiastic about science fiction TV shows than the Americans are. From the cultural point of view, I don't think that "the West" in this context has much bearing on the trends in Japan.