Is american /m/echa dead?
>>77369622
Something has to be alive before it can die.
Unless is Transformers and maybe the Power Rangers, shows with giant robots tend to not be very popular with western audiences.
I dont know why, it just happens.
>>77369674
>shows with giant robots tend to not be very popular with western audiences
But everyone digs giant robots!
Sometimes a show will have an episode that parodies the mecha genre, but that's about it aside from Power Rangers
Americans can't mecha. It will always be equated, unfavorable mind you, to Transformers or Power Rangers. They also have this whole thing about realism and will immediately destroy their suspension of disbelief by picking apart how impractical and silly they are.
Well Transformers is still going.
There hasn't been much in the way of American mecha that isn't a rebranding of something Japanese. Americans like giant robots, but mostly as final bosses, not as tools of the heroes.
Transformers are lifeforms so they don't count.
Just as well. Japanese mecha is plagued with super special snowflake prototype machines that only the main characters have, and there's little reason to assume Yank mecha shows wouldn't do the same thing.
>>77370018
>Giant robots are stupid, but winged flight in space is fine
Shit like this is what drives me to become a fucking weeb.
>>77371072
>winged flight in space
What specifically are you referring to? Is this about that shitty Wing Commander movie that only like ten people saw?
>>77369705
I know that chicks dig giant robots.
>>77371260
among other things
>>77371072
Come to the /m/ side anon, it's fun.
>>77371580
Star Wars is already completely retarded, so that's hardly fair.
>>77369622
too expensive.
>>77373180
>implying
>>77369622
What was the name of that one comic with the giant robots in America invading Canada?
I keep trying to find it with proxy searches like giant robots in comics, but I keep finding some shitty comic store instead
>>77371580
Something about the way the lasers fire on those things has always bothered me.
Like, they don't line up with the emitters.
>>77369622
Mecha doesn't go well with television comedy, it goes well for action.
Cartoon action is fucking dead in the water.
>>77370987
>Japanese mecha is plagued with super special snowflake prototype machines that only the main characters have
In all fairness, they gotta sell toys. It's easier to sell a model of James Bond's custom Aston Martin with all the gadgets and stuff, than just a model of an Aston Martin, even if that model was functionally on par with the Bond one.
It's the same with superheroes. Guy in long overcoat and a fedora? Guy's just getting his Humphrey Bogart on.
Add a mask? Suddenly he's Rorschach or the Green Hornet.
You'd rather have Clark Kent in his Superman costume than Clark Kent in generic clothes, right? Even with his Nu52 "blue collar bruiser" outfit, he at least has the Superman crest and a cape alongside his t-shirt, jeans and work boots ensemble.
>>77369648
This.
All we ever had that was truly popular was Transformers, which is barely /m/, and Pacific Rim. Also the Power Loader in Aliens and the exo suits in Avatar, I guess?
Everything else we've ever had has been cult at best.
>>77374428
We Stand on Guard?
>>77369622
Pacific Rim wasn't a spectacular success, so yes, it's dead Jim.
Cannon Busters is coming out, but Thomas Romain is french so I don't know if that counts.
>>77376392
>In all fairness, they gotta sell toys.
These days, only Gundam and Macross do that, and Gundam's grunts are often sold well and Macross's Valks are mostly the same frame.
Mecha merchandising for real robot shows stopped being a cash cow in the 80s. These days it's about blu-ray sales or advertising a game or product, then if the series is popular, figures will follow.
>>77376865
How many real robot anime do we have these days? As of late it's all been gundam. The last two anime I saw with mecha that qualified as "real robots" were vulvarape and cross ange
>>77376954
We've had a few in recent years. Argevollen, Majestic Prince, Heavy Object (not humanoid), Fafner S2, M3, Comet Lucifer (real vs super), Aldnoah Zero (real vs super), Cross Ange, Gargantia, Danball Senki, and so on.
It depends on your definitions of real robot, but generally we get something like 4-6 mecha shows on average a year, but some years have more or less than others. There's been a bit of a mecha upswing since 2010.
>>77371650
BYE BYE, DOTTY!
I really wish North America would've had the same reception for mecha anime in the '70s and '80s as Central and South American countries did. The most we ever got was the Force Five block and the Shogun Warriors toys.
>>77369622
>tfw Pacific Rim has the money and script ready-to-go for PR2
>tfw Del Toro let us know this almost a month ago
>tfw still waiting on that confirmation
Anyone remember the Battletech animated series?
>>77377375
>I really wish North America would've had the same reception for mecha anime in the '70s and '80s as Central and South American countries did.
Kinda did? On top of the force five you had Mazinger Z whose name got changed into Tranzor Z,, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs (though the Ramrod was only ever used at the end of the episode all the time), Voltron, Macron 1, Mighty Orbots, and a buncha other ones.
![dcfeea7904-Camo%20Axman%20Full[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/L0NIo5x.png "dcfeea7904-Camo%20Axman%20Full[1].png")
Barely, only because of the cgi, and I had this toy.
>>77377708
meant for >>77377505
>Pacific Rim lost out to Grown Ups 2
My fellow Yanks, you have failed your country. For shame.
Ya'know, I'm kind of surprise we haven't got more a/m/erica going on. Murrica loves it's speculative scifi. Look at some of the stuff in the "ten minutes into the future" games (and we all know vidya is going mainstream. Hell, we got Titanfall.
>>77370987
>>77376392
With this in mind, why hasn't there been a GI JOE style america mecha cartoon? Have some specialist army group in their desert camo, prototype walking tank, bringing capitalism and freedom to third world places? Take Bayformers and strip all pretense that it isn't about product placement. Have episodes where the characters flat-out fight, colosseum style, against domestic mechs to secure funding and raise morale.
Corporations and producers would be all over that shit.
Sort of, yeah. Kids are playing video games instead of buying toys, so there's less of a market for action cartoons, I think.
>>77380030
Making diverse robot designs while having them feel whole is hard.
>>77378219
>despite this a sequel was greenlit but has now been put on the backburner and will probably be silently cancelled and never see the light of day
>>77380208
Being del Toro is suffering.
>>77380208
Having two pilots suck
>>77380186
Many animus get away with wildly different designs between their mechas.
If homogeneity is necessary, the mechas can all be based upon similar frames and varied by loadout, secondary equipment, or modifications.
>>77380208
Del Toro confirmed that Crimson Peak was enough of a success that 2's money and script are at the ready.
Legendary/Universal/ whoever is getting shaky on it because it domestically bombed
At least we're getting a comic out the deal
>>77376865
They need something like Gundam build fighters. Gunpla pulls in ungodly amounts of cash each year.
American action/boys cartoons are dead. Killed by SJWs the feminization of the American male
>>77383492
Seriously what is it with Americans and their bitchfits about robots?
>>77376815
I was in a storytime where people just hated it, but I thought it was actually pretty funny/interesting. Also the American mechs in that were pretty cool.
>>77377708
Oh shit I had the original Axeman
I tore the axe handle off and would pretend the head and stub was a sort of Millenium Falcon variant for my Star Wars dogfights and stories I'd make up for my other characters
>>77383639
I wouldn't say I hated it but I really didn't find it interesting or compelling enough to love it.
Though...I will say that torture/interrogation scene was 15/10. I can't help but wonder if they stole it from something because Goddamn if that was not nice.
>>77369622
Still mad at CN cancel Mega
>>77383530
That's what Danball Senki was.
Incidentally Westerners murdered that show's dub.
>>77383587
>Muh tanks
>Muh Realism
That's what. They just can't enjoy fiction. And I say this as an American. Hell I was arguing with someone in another /co/ thread about how the show is already pretty much fantasy and the show could use more variety in terms of mechs considering it already has them.
But he kept on saying muh tanks, muh tanks.
>>77384628
this
I seriously had a 2 hour long discussion in my econ class today basically about "What's so wrong with giant robots?"
my classmates thought they were stupid
becuase japan hasn't come up with anything worth stealing
and our story lines are like Oliver Stones JFK with mechs.
>>77369622
Because they will lways be xompared to the Japs and their mechas
>HURR DURR AMERIFATS ARE SO UNORIGINAL THAT THEY ARE EVEN COPYING GUNDAMS NOW XDDD
>>77384702
>Hasn't come up with anything worth stealing
>Posts Destroid knockoffs
My sides.
>>77384628
>>77384647
I think it has something to do with American tastes trending towards real robots while most of the mecha media we get is super robot to some extent. I'd wager something like VOTOMs, where the Scopedog is basically an IFV, would be better received.
>>77384702
>Not anything worth stealing
>Battletech
Man, half of Battletech's mechs are straight up ripoffs of nip designs made worse with added panel lines.
>>77384940
They're already more skewed towards powered exoskeletons, though.
>>77384979
Powered armor is far more popular in the USA, yes.
>>77385018
Yeah, so anything larger than say, a spartan or Iron-Man is going to be portrayed as slower or clumsier.
>>77385045
Yeah, part of that is how you have to shoot things to make it seem to have the right physics. Look at Pacific Rim, the Jaegers move slow and plodding when filmed up close but faster when shot from a distance. If they weren't shot that way they'd look weird. Slower or clumsier isn't even a bad thing if you're going with the walking tank variety of mecha.
I think it's that the west tends to have a very split view of machines. Asimov talked a lot in his Robot anthologies about how robots in fiction tend to be split into "Robots as Menace" (machines being faustian bargains that fuck us over eventually either through AI turning on us or just negatively changing society) or "Robots as Pathos" (robots being victims or vehicles to express a specific view, like how Data on Star Trek explored emotions and so forth) stories. Of course, Asimov himself tried to avoid those extremes in his own stories.
The thing is, those two both rely on some sort of machine intelligence. In the west, if a machine isn't intelligent, it's just a tool, and relying on machines to win is a long-standing negative in fiction. Tools are made to be used, they get trashed, they get discarded. A fancy tool is just going to break easier. The mecha isn't alive, it's not a character, it's an object. Transformers, for example, is popular because the giant robots are living alien metal beings rather than machines.
Japan, though, has all that Shinto animism about spirits and souls dwelling in every part of the world from the animate to inanimate. In that sort of stimulation of creativity, a mecha that has no AI is still a living thing, a loyal companion and friend who fights with you. That's why in a hell of a lot of mecha anime or even Japanese fiction with fancy weapons or vehicles they go to a lot of lengths to portray them in symbolic or empathetic light.
It's a difference of empathy, and that defines the conversation. If we empathize with a living robot who's charming and sweet, then we can handwave why he's got legs and fingers- those things make him expressive and human and more easy to relate to. If he's just a hunk of metal, why not just get a tank instead?
>>77384973
>>77384813
You guys do know Mechwarroior/battletech
is a rip-off of robotech?
like literally I thinkthe creators admitted to it.
>>77385620
>"What do you think I was talking abo...
>Robotech
Hook line and sinker.
>>77385620
Damn, this is a great multi-layered troll.
>>77385327
>The thing is, those two both rely on some sort of machine intelligence. In the west, if a machine isn't intelligent, it's just a tool, and relying on machines to win is a long-standing negative in fiction. Tools are made to be used, they get trashed, they get discarded. A fancy tool is just going to break easier. The mecha isn't alive, it's not a character, it's an object. Transformers, for example, is popular because the giant robots are living alien metal beings rather than machines.
>Japan, though, has all that Shinto animism about spirits and souls dwelling in every part of the world from the animate to inanimate. In that sort of stimulation of creativity, a mecha that has no AI is still a living thing, a loyal companion and friend who fights with you. That's why in a hell of a lot of mecha anime or even Japanese fiction with fancy weapons or vehicles they go to a lot of lengths to portray them in symbolic or empathetic light.
I think it also helps that they occupy a different war-headspace. To simplify, to Americans, mecha are tanks - slow, plodding workhorse machines (note that this conception of tanks as slow and clunky is also retarded, but such is the public consciousness). To the Japanese "real robot" genre, by and large mecha are much more like fighter airplanes than tanks.
Pilots share a bond with their plane often, in fiction. And real life pilots were extremely touchy about their planes and often anthropomorphized the shit out of them. But the idea of anthropomorphizing a tank seems ridiculous, even though it's not really any more so than a plane or a battleship, which often got such.
>>77385702
That's also true. Japanese mecha are often graceful figures that fly in the skies rather than being down in the dirt. Even the grunts are often loaded with jets and thrusters to let them skim across the land rather than clank about.
>>77369622
I know saying this on /co/ is pretty rich but giant robots are passé. They've had their time in the sun and they aren't futuristic anymore.
>>77385327
And thinking about it I do think western mecha are kind of mediocre and soulless. Like, if you asked me what mechanical design from the west I liked, I'd say the ships and vehicles from Star Wars, or Transformers, or AI robots from Blomkamp films. The only mecha I'd be partial to are the robots from Robot Jox, or the Power Loader, or Syd Mead's designs (ironically made for an anime).
When I look at western attempts at mecha (Tau Battlesuits, Starcraft, etc) I just get this vibe that the designer didn't approach it from a "what would a bipedal war machine of the future look like, and why would it be designed like it is?" perspective. Instead it feels like they said "okay how do I make this mecha look like a mecha". It's like they designed it not as a machine but as a cliche to begin with. I dunno if that's true but it's how I feel when I look at their designs.
Amusingly when I look at real war machines, say WW2 tanks used by the US Army, then I totally get the same vibe I get from a Zaku or Gouf. They have soul, a personality, a glimpse of the person who designed them and what they thought was important. They feel like characters, like they have a story to tell.
Basically the M5A1 is cute as hell.
Alright, so the US ain't that fond of mecha.
What can we do about it?
>>77388166
Put heroic mecha in Star Wars, clearly.
>>77371580
The X-wing's wings never struck me as meant to create any lift since they're squared off in the front and generally aerodynamically retarded. Pretty sure they're just meant to be platforms for the guns to sit on so there's no point in lumping it in with that other dumb shit.
>>77380030
>With this in mind, why hasn't there been a GI JOE style america mecha cartoon?
Because that would be nice. We are not allowed to have nice things.
>>77380186
Bullshit.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27485308
Mecha in general isn't doing too well.
This is what passes for "good" on /m/ now.
Stuff made by the same guy who wrote Gundam Seed and Destiny
Does anybody remember this?
Where's this from? Canada?
>>77390612
Never seen seed or destiny so how bad is it
small robots are cooler than big robots
>>77391741
Nobody in their right mind would recommend either Seed or Destiny to anyone.
>>77393023
>>77391741
I watched them both and they both boil down to "Our main character is literally perfect and right about everything so everyone else is irrelevant."
I'm not even trying to exaggerate here, I honestly couldn't believe anything could be that poorly written, yet there it was.
You know how everyone in Korra threads likes to bring up how the villains were actually right or had a legitimate point that got ignored, well this is even worse since it was just a matter of the main character saying they weren't right that did them in.
That was it.
