Or THunderBolt
Huh? But gundam is more like the former than the latter! Did you see the 8th MS TEAM at least?
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Why is Mecha such a stigmatized genre in the West?
- Thread starter saladdays
- Start date
Or THunderBolt
Huh? But gundam is more like the former than the latter! Did you see the 8th MS TEAM at least?
The best years of mecha are behind it. It was fun while it lasted.
More generally perception wise in the west, I feel like Power Rangers may have tainted the mass public's perception of it a bit, which was mostly negative. Transformers popularity comes and goes but that is a pretty different thing.
More generally perception wise in the west, I feel like Power Rangers may have tainted the mass public's perception of it a bit, which was mostly negative. Transformers popularity comes and goes but that is a pretty different thing.
I like mechas, but i don't like a lots of them though
most are trash with bad stories and always the same beats
most are trash with bad stories and always the same beats
The MC in that was like 14 right? I never really watched it. I remember some controversy about a random nude scene with one of the underage girls too.
Edit: Kira is 15 at the start of the series apparently.
Been eons since i watched it, but i can't remember anyone over 14 being part of the cast. Tangentially related the Gundam Seed and Eureka 7 have fun ps2 games
what's interesting about the OG Gundam is that I'm pretty sure that Tomino WANTED the protag to be older, but that was probably to satisfy the toy company that sponsored the original series. The original design for Gundam itself was actually black without much striking color, but that didn't look good for a toy. Amuro in the novelization of the original series, which was written by the show creator himself, is actually an adult that is enlisted in the military.
I don't really watch a lot of mecha anime but I did enjoy Gundam Unicorn and Narrative. And Aldnoah.Zero but only because of the action and music.
My guess why they aren't popular in the west is because they try to appeal to a shounen audience. The main protagonists are all teenagers. Also that the mechas are way over the top, in terms of design and how they are animated. Transformations, secondary forms and all that. Some prefer if it was more realistic and believable.
People that watch shounen anime in the west aren't interested in war dramas and those into war dramas get turned off by the shounen elements.
I am looking forward to the Gundam Hathaway movies myself though.
My guess why they aren't popular in the west is because they try to appeal to a shounen audience. The main protagonists are all teenagers. Also that the mechas are way over the top, in terms of design and how they are animated. Transformations, secondary forms and all that. Some prefer if it was more realistic and believable.
People that watch shounen anime in the west aren't interested in war dramas and those into war dramas get turned off by the shounen elements.
I am looking forward to the Gundam Hathaway movies myself though.
I wonder if that's more down to a hard vs soft sci-fi approach. I can imagine that some people might prefer that they take a more grounded approach that tries to find the right balance between fantastical and plausible (as in hard sci-fi), whereas others would prefer they not let that attempt at compromise take up time that could be spent on more interesting aspects (as in soft sci-fi).
Tanks with legs are somewhat unrealistic in either case, but it could be down to whether one chooses to stick as close as possible to "what would tanks with legs reasonable look like" approach or think "None of this is realistic, so let's just go all the way".
It think a large part of it. is trying to mindlessly escalate on first gundam's success. It was a big deal and a major plot point in the anime that everyone was in training or new on White Base and that added to the tension on wether or not they'd survive. Even Amuro was being carried by the the Gundam's power in the early series.
But the Characters grew and things changed to suit. In the endgame Amuro was actually running with an outdated suit and staying in the game due to skill
But a lot of that was lost in seed with stuff like seed mode and magically being able to disable suits with precise shots to not kill anyone.
It's too bad about the protagonist, but they seem to have been absolutely right about the gundam design. I'm not part of the gunpla scene, but I figured those guys just want cool looking gundam, and probably don't give a shit about the pilots or their ages. Am I wrong?
nah, Char is probably top 5 in the most popular anime antagonists/protagonists in Japan.
they did end up using the black design in Zeta Gundam though. it's pretty sick. first Gunpla kit I ever built.
I'll say that it depends on the tone for me. If you're going for a serious war drama tone, I want the hard sci-fi as much as possible, like the Earth side of Aldnoah, Patlabor, or Pacific Rim. If it's light-hearted comedy, than go nuts with super robo like Gurren Lagann.
i don't fancy myself an expert, but everything I've read or seen on the matter suggest to me that interstellar space combat will involve absolutely ugly heaps of junk shooting each other from mind-boggling distances.
A very clinical affair.
No fancy dogfights, no fancy star-fighters.
Just...boring.
Because space is stupidly huge. Even an asteroid field, which is commonly depicted as something you have to weave through actually has every asteroid spaced out by... what was it again, hundreds of thousands of kilometers? Maybe millions? Don't remember.
Space battles in popular fiction involve naval ships in space deploying airplanes in space but with pew pew lasers and well, in space. That most certainly won't be it.
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Not true at all, the mechs themselves are often tied into the personality of the pilots, and Gundam in general tends to be character-focused. The attachment to the characters is exactly why Gunpla succeeds
I've tried to get into so much mecha anime and the only ones that grabbed me were the shorter ones. The longer ones are so fucking boring with the shitty melodrama and middle school level knowledge of politics. I love me some big metal boys slapping each other around but most mecha anime in my experience is not worth the commitment to get to that.
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Thunderbolt definitely falls into "middle school level politics", moreso than any other Gundam series. Like, by far.
But it doesn't even try to actually get into the politics? Always felt it was about the rivalry between Darryl and Io, like intensely personal. Unless you meant the cult stuff from the second season. But that's why I'm asking these questions in the first place.
Gundam literally pioneered the real robot mecha sub genre though lol which is the former
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It doesn't go hard into the politics of the situation but the moral statement of the show is still that war is bad and that all sides of the conflict are the same etc etc etc. Most Gundam shows have some level of hope for the future, etc, but Thunderbolt devolves into full on South Park-level centrism and grimdark ridiculousness
Serious military dramas are probably my favorite genre in anime, especially mecha/space ones, but most people don't seem interested in either at all.
I would kill so badly for a mecha equivalent of LotGH. Just a crazy long, character filled space opera that took its setting and everything as serious as possible. Basically Anime Battletech.
Gundam and Macross are great and a huge part of my childhood, but even they were fully wrapped up in magical/mystical pilots and more often than not veering closer to Giant Robo stuff than being realistically grounded.
I would kill so badly for a mecha equivalent of LotGH. Just a crazy long, character filled space opera that took its setting and everything as serious as possible. Basically Anime Battletech.
Gundam and Macross are great and a huge part of my childhood, but even they were fully wrapped up in magical/mystical pilots and more often than not veering closer to Giant Robo stuff than being realistically grounded.
It takes place during a war, I don't know what you'd like them to say other than "war sucks man."
If anything, Thunderbolt doesn't even try to portray any kind of centrist message, and both movies are entirely squared on "soldiers doing their jobs in shitty circumstances."
I love LoGH but it was not an action show and I think involving a mecha component to that type of show would require more emphasis on action to the detriment of other aspects of the show. Mecha shows need more focus on pilots, where LoGH's space battles worked because they focused largely on commanders
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"War sucks man" is the statement of basically all Gundam shows, the problem is that Thunderbolt is inarticulate and incredibly extreme in how it does it's messaging. Compare it to 0080 or even 0079 and it's like comparing a puddle to an ocean.
"FEDERATION AND ZEON ARE JUST AS BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD"
This shit gets tiring in Gundam.
One side murdered entire space colonies just to drop them on fucking Australia.
Like, fuck they committed atrocity to commit another atrocity.
Yeah plate armor is slick, most people don't realize paratrooper gear in world war 2 was twice as heavy
There are a couple problems with this.
The most important being that objects in space move. Like a cluster of gears. Which may not be a problem in empty space, but, if you have a target fixed on the moon of a planet or on a planetoid, the further away you are situated from the target, the more complex your calculations need to be if you want to land your hit (accurately). Missing is bad, because you may just accidentally hit something else you never intended to hit.
The second problem being the necessity of land units and manpower. If every conflict could be resolved by nuking the opposition into the ground, sending slugs their way from several light years away might do the trick. The likeliest goal would probably be to destroy hostile units and manufacturing plants, and then to deploy onto the planet in order to occupy it. Spaceships are necessary in order to transport large quantities of manpower and land units so that occupation can follow.
When I talk about jet-sized spacecraft, I don't mean a spacecraft filling the role of fighters. What I mean is a smaller target carrying some analogue to nukes or heavy weaponry, similar to modern day drones. Far more accurate, far less prone to accidental genocide.
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I just recently got into watching more mecha stuff. Largely started with Gundam and, I've watched 79, Zeta, ZZ, CCA, and War in the Pocket, and the dips in quality across the 5 of those was kinda jarring. Loved Zeta and War in the Pocket, and I thought 79 was alright, but was extremely mixed on CCA and ZZ.
Fun genre, but I think in the case of Gundam I feel like a big thing these shows suffer from is pacing.
Fun genre, but I think in the case of Gundam I feel like a big thing these shows suffer from is pacing.
I agree and disagree. Overall setup would need to be a bit different for sure, but at the same time I wouldn't mind seeing a more "realistic" application of mechs similar to that of fleet battles. While the focus on individual pilots and the remarkable prowess of individuals is a big draw of mech series, it would still be cool to see them utilized in more big picture strategic ways, the same way you see LotGH use fighter pilots or capital ships.
Basically throw in a bunch more Schenkopp type characters that we get to see in action every so often. And who don't always make it out alive.
Super Robot Wars is the gateway drug to mecha shows. You're bound to walk away thinking at least one of the shows looks worth watching, but who knows if the end result will appeal. It got my interest in Yamato and shiver Cross Ange at least.
Yeah, that perspective was several decades behind what the genre has predominantly been for a while now. You still get super robot series and a couple in particular have been big lately, but real robots have dominated.
I'm so tired of dumb kids in giant robots, and most (not all) mecha anime is about dumb kids. Simple as that.
Zero interest in watching any more shit about annoying kids and teenagers screaming all their lines.
And people wonder why I gave up on anime.
Zero interest in watching any more shit about annoying kids and teenagers screaming all their lines.
me: let's see what's going on in mecha these da-
And people wonder why I gave up on anime.
To me, I think most gundam/mech animes typically have poor balance. There are exceptions like gurren laggan but with Gundam, the politics or slow moving sections outside of the mechas were either too serious and not entertaining.
It's kind of jarring when you see cool stylized samurai looking robots cut to boring politics. This can be done well and I'd love to see more serious, realistic takes but if thats the direction, go all out and have that transfer to the robot sections as well. Focus on the realistic details like not having a flashy cartoon war machine. Maybe focus on just how Massive and heavy these things are instead of like a guy in armor. The physics of space fighting or the real time trauma of the pilot.
It's kind of jarring when you see cool stylized samurai looking robots cut to boring politics. This can be done well and I'd love to see more serious, realistic takes but if thats the direction, go all out and have that transfer to the robot sections as well. Focus on the realistic details like not having a flashy cartoon war machine. Maybe focus on just how Massive and heavy these things are instead of like a guy in armor. The physics of space fighting or the real time trauma of the pilot.
I love a good mecha anime. Macross and Gundam have some of the best female characters, plus there's Evangelion, Escaflowne and Rahxephon, which has my favorite anime romance in it.
The original Seed series was tolerable, but man Destiny just ruined the whole thing.
There are some diamonds in the rough in the genre, even in Gundam such as 08th MS Team, 0080 and 0083. Also even in Seed Astray and Stargazer are quite good, but unfortunately shackled to the Seed universe. Though not as good as the likes of Evangelion, Escaflowne and Rahxephon, Fafner in the Azure is a good mecha series.
I just wanted to see what the hype was about when this came out. Girlfriend walked in on this part and I had to explain that it wasn't what it looked like, but it really was. Series was immediately dropped.me: let's see what's going on in mecha these da-
I mean Darling in the Franxx is a bad anime, and it's hardly representative of modern anime as a whole
The piloting concept of the show was pretty bad. Most of these modern mecha shows usually do not have a bad 1st half, but the 2nd half's are just such a train wreck. It is like the writers do not know how to stick the landing.