Please don’t hate me.
This is my first journey through the “100 Days of Anime” Challenge, an ambitious project that I’ll be taking. For the full list of prompts, click here.
“Favorite Mech Anime?”
Funny story, just this week I had someone tell me “I’m not an authority on anime unless I watch Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Evangelion,” insisting that I must watch AND like them before I bother blogging. My reply to them is still the same as ever.
I’m not an authority on ANYTHING, and I don’t like mechas.
Honestly, I can think of a grand total of three mechas I’ve watched in the 5-6 years of anime watching. Neon Evangelion, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-blooded Orphans, and Aldnoah Zero. Out of the three, Aldnoah Zero is the only one that I actually finished (it being somewhat shorter). I watched Neon Evangelion the Movie when I went to a friend’s place, and episode 3 of Iron-blooded Orphans during its simulcast on Crunchyroll.
So I’ll have to throw my lot in with Aldnoah.
Don’t get me wrong, I disliked the show for the same reasons many others did, terrible pacing, an emotionless if-sometimes badass protagonist, and a convoluted mess of character motivations that made me question just who I should be cheering for (in a bad way). Still, there were many things I liked about the show. Cinematic camerawork with an absolutely beautiful soundtrack, stunning artwork and gorgeous animations that made me feel like I was in the fight.
I want to stress that the reason I don’t watch mechas isn’t because they’re “bad” by any means. I stopped at episode 3 of Iron-blooded Orphans not because the show was bad (I actually enjoyed the gritty themes it had going on), but because it doesn’t capture my taste and style the way fantasy adventures or even slice of lifes do. Funny enough, my favorite scenes from Aldnoah feature them out of the mech, whether it was in the safety of their homebase, or in epic space battles on alien ships.
Everyone has different tastes, and though I don’t enjoy the aesthetics of fighting in “over-sized hunks of metal,” I can still recognize shows with good pacing, character development, and a plot that keeps me at the edge of my seat.
My knowledge on mechas is almost nil. That being said, if I’m wrong about anything, feel free to correct me in the comments.
Ani-Dotes 
I liked this show…. Interesting piece. I’ll have to go through your backlog and catch up on these when I have some free time.
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Take all the time you need, my site’s not going anywhere. Thanks for dropping by!
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Sounds good. Happy to drop by 🙂 Thanks for stopping by my site earlier too!
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Considering the list I don’t blame you at all. Those are terrible shows. I suggest Martian Successor Nadesico, Full Metal Panic and Fumoffu! (its comedy sequel), RahXephon (Neon Genesis Evangelion done right), (full title is Superdimension Fortress) Macross (which is better than Gundam), Macross Plus (movie, excellent), and the much more recent Knight’s and Magic, which is a show about a Gundam fan getting SI’ed into a mecha world with his engineering degree intact, so he starts making them better. Its a show about engineering stuff, and its a surprise hit. If you try these you’ll have a much better impression of the genre. While SOME Gundam is important to see, you have to understand that a series is about 21 eps of wanting to punch characters in the face, and 4-5 eps of awesome battle emo, the actual payoff. All the Gundam shows are like that, btw. The old ones, the new ones. That’s their formula. Because they’re a formula they get mocked. They are still successful with diehard fans, but there’s a lot more to Mecha anime than Gundam. If you have to limit to only one show from the above I’d say watch RahXephon. Its beautiful and one of the best english voice dubs ever made, and its a beautiful but grim story with a lot of deaths, but its mostly what Evangelion was about. If you only have a little time, watch Macross Plus (movie) which is excellent and has the crucial plot points of Macross repeated in 2 hours, with a great soundtrack. If you want your emo mixed with comedy, that’s either Nadesico or Full Metal Panic. Both are funny, have mecha, and parody a lot of other mecha anime. You might not get all the jokes, but you’ll get most of them having seen some Gundam. That’s my advice. I think you might like the genre more this way.
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Thank you so much for your input. Judging by your blog, you seem quite knowledgeable when it comes to exploring different genres. It’s something that I need to work on; stepping out of my comfort zone and fully embracing the multitude of beautiful shows out there.
Alas, I’ll continue to stick to my love for swords and cute things, but who knows!
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Louie the Rune soldier. Swords and cute things.
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Hear-hear! I’m not a fan of mechas either! The whole idea kind of bores me 🙂
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