Mecha

:For the Chicano Student organization, see MEChA.

The mecha genre of anime

In anime, 'mecha' is a genre that features the vehicles and their pilots as the central characters. Here, the average mecha are usually twenty feet tall at the smallest, outfitted with a wide variety of weapons, and quite frequently have tie-ins with toy manufacturers. The Gundam franchise is an excellent example: Gundam toys and model kits (produced by the Japanese toymaker Bandai) are ubiquitous in Japan. In this genre teenage pilots are more common than would be feasible in real life. Go Nagai is credited with starting this whole mecha thing in 1972 with Mazinger Z, which featured young hotshot, teenage grandson Kouji Kabuto against the evil forces of Dr. Hell.

Related Topics:
Anime - Gundam - Bandai - Japan - 1972 - Mazinger Z

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Mecha anime and manga differ vastly in storytelling and animation quality from title to title, and content ranges all the way from children's shows to ones intended for an older teen or adult audience.

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Some mecha are capable of transformation (Macross to name but one) or combining to form even bigger ones (see Voltron). Go Nagai is also often credited with inventing this in 1974 with the television series Getter Robo.

Related Topics:
Macross - Voltron - Go Nagai - 1974 - Getter Robo

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History

The genre started with Miseteru Yokoyama's 1956 manga Tetsujin 28-go (which was later animated in 1963 and also released abroad as Gigantor). Its inclusion is debatable however, as the robot was controlled by remote instead of a cockpit in the machine. Not long after that the genre was largely defined by author Go Nagai, into something considerably more fantastical. Mazinger Z, his most famous creation, was not only the first successful Super Robot anime series, but also the pioneer of the genre staples like weapons that were activated by the hero calling out their names ("Rocket Punch!"). It was also a pioneer in die-cast metal toys such as the Chogokin series in Japan and the Shogun Warriors in the U.S., that were (and still are) very popular with children and collectors. Getter Robo, for its part, was the first combining robot, something that became a frequent design theme and was aggressively imitated in similar mecha shows.

Related Topics:
Manga - Tetsujin 28-go - 1963 - Gigantor - Go Nagai - Mazinger Z - Super Robot - Die-cast - Chogokin - Shogun Warriors - Getter Robo

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The appearance of Gundam in 1979 is considered to have broken the mecha genre into two subsets: the super robot show, which focused on ultratech mecha that often had elements of mysticism and tend to use a "monster of the week" format; and the real robot show, in which the mecha are shown as tools rather than semi-mystical creations, and the focus is less on the machines and more on the pilots. The introduction of Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979 introduced a sort of paradox: a war show about giant war machines that was in fact anti-war at heart.

Related Topics:
Gundam - 1979 - Super robot - Monster of the week - Real robot - Mobile Suit Gundam

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Other notable series include but are by no means limited to Macross, which in its modified Robotech form led to the breakthrough of anime in the USA, Hideaki Anno's Gunbuster, which along with Macross is considered the pinnacles of anime in the 1980s, the police-focused Patlabor, and as examples of older shows, Go Lion and Giant Robo.

Related Topics:
Macross - Robotech - USA - Hideaki Anno - Gunbuster - 1980 - Patlabor - Go Lion - Giant Robo

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One anime series that drew from the tradition of both super robot and real robot genres while being completely unique was Hideaki Anno's highly successful (and quite controversial) Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Related Topics:
Super robot - Real robot - Hideaki Anno - Neon Genesis Evangelion

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The mecha genre in anime is still alive and well as the new millennium came, with revival OVAs like Getter Robo: the Last Day and Mazinkaiser from the Super Robot tradition, the new Gundam Seed series from the Real Robot side, and Rahxephon, a successful sci-fi anime series in the vein of Evangelion.

Related Topics:
Mazinkaiser - Super Robot - Gundam Seed - Real Robot - Rahxephon - Evangelion

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