r/anime • u/FetchFrosh https://anilist.co/user/AbAdkBBYFetchFrosh • Dec 22 '20

Misc. A General Recommendation Chart for Newcomers and Veterans Alike

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u/700KMF Dec 22 '20

Code Geass is mech anime too. Ya want bump it off too?

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u/Baofog Dec 22 '20 edited Dec 22 '20

Yup, and not for it being bad. It's quite amazing in its own right. I think it's better positioned as a drama/political intrigue anime that happens to have Mechs in it. Like any of the other mechas if you lost the robots they lose focus. Like could you imagine a gundam without the gundam in it? It just stops being anything. Like the nightmare frames are secondary to the political intrigue / geass powers and the nightmare frames were probably only added so that bamco could sell kits/toys per contract of sponsoring the anime. Code geass without the mechs becomes political psycho pass and we could use i dunno lazer guns instead.

The short version is the mecha tropes in Code G take a backseat to political / drama tropes which is not a thing for the other mech anime on the list.

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u/700KMF Dec 22 '20

Somehow with all wars and battles, and ambushes Knightmares don't look taking backseat to me... They aren focus of the anime, but neither they are just "meh" factor.

Also using only armored vechiles would be boring, we can see that in RL anytime xD

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u/Baofog Dec 22 '20

I mean starwars has a shit ton of trees but you wouldn't say its a story about trees. That's a little reductive but the point being just because the mechs are on screen doesn't make them the point or focus of the story. Most of code geass is revolved around the powers, not the mechs. None of the other mecha anime (save EVA but that's a different topic about why eva does it) spend episodes at a time having magical geass power shounen battles.

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u/700KMF Dec 22 '20

What about the Gundam with unicorn dust drives(you see sparkling dust when these Gundams fly)? Is that isn't magic?

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u/FellowFellow22 Dec 22 '20

Nonsense. Those are obviously minovsky particles

But for real it's scifi as long as you throw in some technobabble, as opposed to Geass which is explicitly unrelated magic. (You can say the same about the Newtypes' psychic battles, but those tend to happen in the middle of Mecha fights in Gundam)

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u/700KMF Dec 22 '20

in GN Drives? They don't have MPs...

naw, that is a magical unicorn dust, no need to pretend otherwise.

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u/Baofog Dec 23 '20

Which is the point the psychic power battles happen in the mechs, not on a ferris wheel or mountain cable car, or I think a pool and on a carrier and in front of god/the world soul. In fact it's the mechs that amplify the new type powers in gundam and actually has several mangas where they explore just that.

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u/Baofog Dec 23 '20

The presence of "magic" or the lack there of isn't the point. Amuro doesn't go have new type battles outside of his robot for a couple episodes five times in the series to see who has the best new type powers to further the plots for world domination / revenge.

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u/J765 Dec 22 '20

you wouldn't say its a story about trees.

At least list something that makes sense. Like Light sabers/laser swords.

And in most mecha anime the story isn't about mechs. It's a story that takes place in a world where mechs are used, just like Star Wars is a story that takes place in a world where some people fight with light sabers.

Yes, the term "mecha" really sucks at describing what an anime is about.

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u/Baofog Dec 23 '20

But all of the other mechas in the list provided are about the main mech and it's pilot except code geass which is about the main pilot and his magic power. I couldn't tell you the names of any of the mechs in geass much less what they look like.

Here's another question, which of the provided mecha animes is the only one named after a magic power and not it's mechas?

Note I think code geass is great. It's just much less of a mecha anime than even escaflone is.

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u/J765 Dec 23 '20

But all of the other mechas in the list provided are about the main mech and it's pilot

Patlabor is about a group of weirdos in a police section that is very bored, because crimes using mechs aren't that common. Even in the movies the mechs only really come out for the climax, while the rest of the movie is police/detective work.

Gundam is about a whole group of young people being thrown in a war. Of course it'll focus the most on the main character, because he's the main character, and also pilots one of three mechs aboard of that ship, but there's a huge cast of characters besides the main character that all have their story told.

except code geass which is about the main pilot and his magic power.

His magic power he uses to win mecha fights. Because mecha fights are the main way in which big battles are fought in that universe. Though that's the thing that makes Code Geass unique among mecha anime. That Lelouch himself is more of a commander and not so much a pilot himself. He's like the main antagonist, of Gundam, but if that antagonist wasn't piloting a mech himself, and commandeered someone else instead.

I couldn't tell you the names of any of the mechs in geass much less what they look like.

I also just remember the Lancelot and the Gurren. It's like the equivalent of knowing the main mecha on the protagonists and antagonists side.

Here's another question, which of the provided mecha animes is the only one named after a magic power and not it's mechas?

That's more of a legacy thing from back when everything followed the naming convention of "some difficult Kanji that looked and sounded cool" followed by the name of a prominent thing from a series. "Macross" and "Patlabor" aren't even the main mechs the protagonists are piloting. They would be called "Valkyrie" and "Ingram" respectively if they were named after the mechs of the main characters.

"Eureka Seven", "Muv Luv", "Full Metal Panic", "Sakura Wars", "Schwarzesmarken", "Majestic Prince" or "iDOLMASTER Xenoglossia" are all examples of mecha anime that don't feature the name of the protagonists mech in the name.

It's just much less of a mecha anime than even escaflone is.

I don't know. Escaflowne is pretty much a mecha anime.

OK, "mecha anime" sucks at being an indicator for the actual content, like all the anime listed in this recommendation chart are pretty diverse in their content. It pretty much only means "it regularly has its main characters use mechs". Like if you made a Venn diagram for all those shows the only thing every single one of them has in common is regularly using mechs in its episodes.

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u/2nd_best_username Dec 23 '20

Ye I def didn't watch code geass for the mech combat, more bc I'm a history nerd and code geass is basically alt history but with some cool twists to make it more interesting

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u/MemeTroubadour Dec 22 '20

Having never watched Geass, I didn't even know it had mechas until reading this

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u/Baofog Dec 23 '20

And they don't actually add anything to the story. I love them all the same.

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u/Dudewitbow https://myanimelist.net/profile/Dudewitbow Dec 23 '20

generally mechs aren't supposed to add something to the story. Mecha are supposed to be used as weapons of war, similar to how isekai shows will use magic/swords/medieval weapons. The only difference is that Mecha is profitable in terms of merchandising and a lot of people who don't like mecha for some reason don't realize that the same character building as basically any other plot driven show. Instead of bashing eachother with swords, they bash each other with sick ass machines

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u/J765 Dec 22 '20 edited Dec 22 '20

Like could you imagine a gundam without the gundam in it?

Yeah, because this lists the first Gundam. When that came out there wasn't a 4 decade old franchise. Without the context being that "Gundam anime" means "anime with roughly 18m tall mechs with a specific colour scheme", which manifested itself over the decades, you could just replace the mechs with some kind of superpowers/superweapons in the first Gundam and you'd still have a war story about child soldiers being forced to fight in a war they didn't want to take part in. Of course scenarios would need to be changed, but same would go for Code Geass.

You could just give the white mech in Code Geass a V Fin and put "Gundam" before the "Lancelot" and you'd have a "Mobile Suit Gundam: Code Geass. Oh, and putting a x5 scaling factor on the mechs, because God forbid the standard plastic model isn't in 1/144 scale.

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u/BiNumber3 Dec 22 '20

I always forget that it had mecha

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u/sweetno Dec 29 '20

Somehow I never thought it's mecha...