#Real Robot

[zazagundam]

ZETA GUNDAM // RG

[world-of-lang]

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Just noticed this reply to an old post, and why are people still posting this "Eastern Mecha vs Western Mecha" bullshit?

The very foundation of the concept is simply racist (Eastern = fantastical & irrational, Western = realistic & practical) which should be reason enough to never use it.

In addition, when you look at the definitions of these terms, it becomes clear that they are being used as synonyms for the Super Robot/Real Robot categorization widely used to discuss mecha media without an inherently racist framing.

And finally, the discourse around these terms is so asinine that it should insult the intelligence of any self-respecting mecha fan. Peruse any discussion of these terms, and you'll find Japanese anime like Macross and Dougram being cited, in complete sincerity, as paragons of "Western Mecha".

[grayrazor]

It makes sense because of when they came out and the chain of inspiration--Macross and VOTOMS took from Gundam and Battletech took from Macross--but it's still kind of funny that Gundam has much more "Super Robot" design sensibilities than Macross, VOTOMS, and Battletech despite being much harder sci-fi.

Gundam has mecha that look like high fantasy warriors and attack each other with melee weapons, spaceship designss that look straight out of Space Battleship Yamato, but it has no FTL, no artificial gravity, even travelling from the Earth to the Moon can take days, and travelling to the outer planets will take years.

There's often a percieved dissonance between aesthetics and levels of realism in visual media sci-fi. Like, Star Wars looks more “grounded” than Star Trek, but commonplace tech in Wars is the domain of lost ancient civilizations in Trek.

In its own way, Gundam is more realistic than The Expanse. There’s nothing in the Universal Century anywhere close to the raw power of the Epstein Drive.

[szkin-art]

Gokaido's Volcano design is a nightmarish support unit that uses a variety of thermal weapons to suppress armor and deny infantry. Using weaponry from USSR nations, it provides a cheap supplement to any force - with the caveat that fielding it inevitably proves controversial.

Another mech design commission for the Metallurgent TTRPG.

[mars-gallavanger]

ft. voice acting by deacon

[wanderersrest]

G Gundam Prelude: The Real Robot vs Super Robot Debate

So before I begin talking about Mobile Fighter G Gundam, I'd like to take a minute to preface that conversation with a companion piece of sorts. This involves the nature of how the mecha "genre" of anime is divided into two subgenres, and how this subdivision (*synth and bass solo play at the same time*) is often used as a sort of dick-measuring contest by fans to argue that their preferred genre is better than the other.

Tetsujin 28-go, Mazinger Z, and the "Super Robot"

To understand the two sub-genres, we first need to understand the general history of the mecha. Technically speaking, our story really starts with Osamu Tezuka's Mighty Atom (Astro Boy in the west), but the giant robot style of mecha would not appear in earnest until Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go (Gigantor in the west) and Go Nagai's Mazinger Z. Tetsujin and Mazinger would go on to codify a lot of the tropes common to a lot of these early robot series alone. If it wasn't either of those two, chances are likely Ken Ishikawa's Getter Robo will have you covered.

These so-called "Super Robots" were known for their superhero-like power sets. They were usually powered by either nuclear power or a fictional power source such as Photon Energy or Getter Rays. Almost every single robot in these stories were made with some sort of Super Alloy (or Chogokin), and each super robot had a whole arsenal of weapons, including but not limited to swords, axes, drills, lasers, and, of course, the rocket punch. These super robot series would dominate a lot of Japanese television for most of the 70's. But behind the scenes, one man would be forging his own path. And at the end of the decade, he would release a show that would turn the canon of mecha stories on its head.

Gundam, VOTOMs, and the "Real Robot"

In 1979, the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam would air on Japanese television for the first time. This is one of the many mecha series directed by anime legend Yoshiyuki Tomino, and follows a direct lineage from his other works such as Brave Raideen, Zambot 3, and Daitarn 3. Gundam, however, would herald a new style of mecha stories thanks in part to it ditching a lot of the more fantastical elements of its "super robot" forebears in favor of a more grounded war story. These would be the so-called "real robot" style of mecha stories, and would further be codified by Ryousuke Takahashi's first two series, Fang of the Sun Dougram and Armored Trooper VOTOMs.

The "real robots" were a hard departure from their super robot brethren in that they were grounded in reality. Gone were the super alloys and the fantastical weapons, which were now replaced with weapons similar to that of a modern military. More importantly, the stories were now about wars, not with aliens as the antagonist, but other people. Humans. These stories would dominate a lot of the 80's, though the more traditional robots of the 70's would still be around as well.

There's just one problem with the term "Real Robot." The realism doesn't come from the machines themselves.

The Realism of Really Real Robots (It's Not What You Think It Is)

(Wanderer Not Mention Patlabor Speed Run [IMPOSSIBLE])

One of the issues with the term "real robots" is the fact that the realism in most "real robot" shows does not necessarily come from the robots themselves. Take blog favorite Patlabor, for example. Part of what makes the Labors as realistic as they are is not necessarily due to the imagined mechanics behind these machines. It's how the existence of these giant machines changes the lives of the characters. It's little things like how having a special police division that's devoted to Labor crimes is a bit of a money pit, or how SV2 has constant insurance problems due to the fact that Division 2, even in their best moments, are just as destructive as the people they're supposed to stop.

Or take the original "real robot" series, Mobile Suit Gundam. The realism does not lie in the design of the RX-78-2 Gundam. The realism comes from the One Year War and how it affects all of the characters. We can see this in how badly it affects the Gundam's pilot, Amuro Ray, as the poor sod of a teenager basically develops PTSD throughout the original show's run. And it's not just Amuro that's under a lot of stress. The infamous Bright Slap happens not only because Amuro refuses to get back into the Gundam, but because White Base captain Bright Noa (who's 19, by the way) is also at his wit's end. Never mind the fact that the slap makes everything worse.

So What Does This Have To Do With G Gundam?

Everything. There's this idea that being a "real robot" series is what gives Gundam its bite and that G Gundam spits in the face of Gundam's original vision by being a hot-blooded "super robot" anime. There's just a couple of problems with that line of thinking. First, it's insulting to the series to say that it has nothing worthwhile to say. Y'know, G Gundam. The series that opens with the Gundam Fight (the Future Century replacement for traditional war) making its way to a ruined Rome, where the poor people who could not afford to leave for the space colonies are panicking as the Gundams literally crash onto their homes. The series where some of the last dialogue of the series is how, even after defeating the imminent threat that was the Devil Gundam, there is still work to be done when it comes to fixing the world, namely by finding a more sustainable replacement to the Gundam Fight. This doesn't even touch on the fact that all of the nations of the world join forces to face an threat that could wipe out all of mankind.

Second, and the part that I think is more insidious, is the idea that G Gundam is a lesser series because it went for more of a classic robot anime vibe as opposed to the serious war story that Gundam is known for. I say this is insidious because it not only ignores the fact that Gundam had just come off of the heels of the extremely depressing Victory Gundam and needed a bit of a palette cleanser, but it also implies that only so-called real robot stories can have serious storylines. God forbid something like Space Runaway Ideon exist, which is probably one of the most serious classic, pre-Dougram robot series out there, or Combat Mecha Xabungle, which is a really goofy but technically a "real robot" series.

This is also related to the idea that G Gundam is just "dumb fun." This line of thinking I can understand, because let's not kid ourselves here. While I wouldn't call this series dumb, G Gundam is kind of known for being insane (but in a good way). What makes this take just as grating is when a similar series can get away with a similar style of story just because it's not related to an existing franchise like Gundam. A series like, oh I don't know, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. And that's a series that's often treated as somehow being different from most other mecha shows because "it's about the characters." Gurren Lagann is one of those shows, and people often treat it like it's a literary masterpiece while G Gundam, which I'd argue is one of the former's progenitor series alongside Getter Robo and GaoGaiGar, is treated as B-movie schlock. It's not, and I hope you'll join me when I dive into the insane masterpiece that is Mobile Fighter G Gundam.

[randomnumbers751650]

So, I finished watching Ideon a few days ago and one thing that I thought to be really unique is how Ideon is a theodicy or has elements of a theodicy. Just to let you know, a theodicy is a question on the problem of evil: if God can and wants to prevent evil, and if God is good, then why does evil exist? It should be noted that a theodicy doesn’t necessarily require that God exists or not (I know actual economists and political scientists who unironically call their disciplines theodicies), because questions on the origin of evil are things that are with humanity since immemorial times. Also spoilers for a 40 year old show.

In Ideon, as they learn more and more about the power of the Ide, the Giant reveals itself more and more of a god. In fact, it is called a god in mid-season episodes, but they stop that after a while, probably the writers thinking it might be too much on the nose. But still, the characters are constantly debating why Ide allows that, if Ide is testing them, if Ide is good or evil, since it is orchestrating the meteor falls. A curious thing is that we have Ide’s perspective just once, with Bes’s dream – it wants to survive – and the rest of the discussions is what humans believe to Ide’s will to be, like as if they were some sort of amateur theologians.

In the end, they conclude Ide is trying to kill them because it deemed them unworthy of salvation due to their inability of stopping the cycle of war, but, again, this is their interpretation. And, in the end, Ideon is finally destroyed…but it was already established it had infinite energy, so it is kinda certain that it just allowed itself to be defeated.

Ideon is a story of how war is hell, using a super robot in a real robot story. It portrays conflict escalation, hypocrisy of ideals of honor in an environment that gives power to petty people, capable of selling their comrades for a promotion, or committing war crimes without any tactical advantage – it’s kinda obvious the Buff Clan is based on Imperial Japan, while humans seem to be inspired from Star Trek’s idea of federation – and, above all, the process of dehumanization: it starts with a sense of technological pride, impulse by miscommunication, which constantly evolves into incapacity of recognizing the other as anything but insects, and overall mutual hatred. It ended with parents disowning their child, a father trying to kill his daughter for a frivolous reason such as “blood purity” and what essentially was an attempt to make a human sacrifice to Ide (with Sheryl). No wonder, Ide decides that enough is enough, its patience wouldn’t last forever. The series goes out of its way to show that humans and buffs brought that to themselves.

Personally, I don’t think Ide is evil. I feel it genuinely wanted for humans and buffs to live in peace. The way it cares for children isn’t just because it’s an amalgamation of children from the previous civilizations, but because it genuinely likes them and see them as symbols of hope (or else it wouldn’t protect and support the adults as well) or innocence (when it protected the giant worm children). I could tell when Sheryl attempted to sacrifice Lou to make Ide work, it was beyond pissed off, to the point of destroying their homeworlds and colonies. This is why I don’t buy Ide was setting up a trap to kill both species, it could’ve done any time. It still preserved the ones in space, using the last of hope that they could solve their differences, but its hope drained with every advance, so if it wanted to destroy them, it wanted to make clear that if it was destroying them, it wanted to make them understand why before doing it.

In spite of that, Ide still loved life, including the lives of humans and buffs until the end. When all of them die in the final moments of the movie, they all reunite and, upon seeing the greatness of the universe, they can see how petty and a waste of time their squabbles and wars were. So, Ide had Messiah to guide them to a new planet, to restart the cycle again, hoping this time they would learn the lesson. In spite of Tomino showing a bleak pessimism throughout the series, I feel the end is optimistic.

[pencilbrony]

Narrow walker

[technician-the]

3d render of my model of the scopedog from Armored Trooper Votoms

This is based on the appearance in season one of the anime, during action shots.

in the TV anime the level (and style) of shading varied significantly. the more the AT was moving the simpler the shading became.

Often the AT is shown with a totally flat shading, (even in closeups) but that's a bit dull. so I have added some very slight shading, in a style simaler to the static shots of the first episode.

In the ending and some promo art the AT is shown with a number of painted markings, (little yellow labels) and fine mechanical details, but I couldn't find an episode of the original TV run where they actually appear.

The line art uses a mix of blenders grease pencil and texturing. grease pencil is great, but it can be slow and glitchy, so it seemed wise to keep it as simple as possible.

[streetqueenofmars]

Question for all you weebs and nerds (affectionate).

My brother is 16, I'm 28, we recently discovered a mutual appreciation of 'Real Robot' mech anime

But we're absolute newbs.

We're currently watching 'Fang of the Sun: Dougram' and we're also familiar with the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise and l am familiar with Armor Hunter Bottoms, specifically I've seen all of 'Armor Hunter Mellowlink' and I want to show him at some point.

My question is this, what 'Real Robot' mech anime do you all recommend? We're wide open to suggestions within the genre and we know there's a lot of stuff we probably haven't even heard. Bonus of you have a way to watch it but if not even just the title is fine.

If you share so this gets a lot of eyeballs on it, that would also be helpful. 💜

[zazagundam]

Thought I'd try another method of weathering on one of my fav suits, the Gouf Custom, while working on my current comm :3333

[applescats]

me and my boyfriend just finished Victory Gundam and wow, it really is just the best UC Gundam series (Spoilers Below!!!)

I liked a lot about victory gundam but I want to start with one aspect: the characterization of the enemy is at its peak here. gundam has always been said to have a sympathetic view of the other side of the conflict, but i don't think it's ever as apparent as it is in this show. the enemies our main characters face are portrayed more human than any prior gundam series, they have goals, dreams, and relationships. they love, hate, and are passionate about each other. it's even one of the points of resolution in the show's story, with the psychickers praying to see their families and friends, who've been caught in the war, again.

another thing i like is the shows commitment to slowing down and showing some quieter moments of the character's lives, whether that is grieving at a funeral, common banter, or playing some game. speaking on the funeral aspect specifically, finally a gundam series that devotes time to grieving. there are many funeral scenes in this show and they are all fantastic. it really drives in the weight and impact of the deaths that previous gundam series simply do not have.

final note: this show is also a lot more symbolic. previous shows were far too straightforward having maybe little bits of symbolism here and there, but this show is great at it. the story in this one isn't as straightforward, it's a lot more abstract, but that lends itself well to the show's themes

i'm sad i slept on this show for so long, it truly is one of, if not the best gundam series

[metalchocobo21]

Grikkaman Uprising

A large mecha enemy appears in front of Rikka asking of if she knows about Grikkaman. Unknowing that she herself is Grikkaman as it sees her enlarge herself, making the mecha look nothing but a toy to her.

I was in the Gridman mood and thought of this when I saw some size pics of Rikka and found the outfit in the pic.

Bonus pic of Rikka in her normal clothes while beeg.

[grayrazor]

Hilarious that Zeon went to the trouble of making like a dozen different kinds of amphibious mobile suits in the One Year War, only for Axis in ZZ to just use Zakus underwater.

[ogiuemaniax]

The Roles of “Characters” in Mecha Anime

Sometimes, you’ll see a wild claim about mecha anime, like “Gurren-Lagann was the first giant robot series to be about characters instead of the robots,” and it inevitably results in a backlash—in this case, the counterargument that all giant robot shows are about characters. Whether the initial statement is made in jest or as a genuinely ignorant take by someone with only surface-level knowledge…