12 days of Anime #1 – Giant Robots!
Smile Precure mixed with badass mecha designs is awesome!
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Well you made it through all our epic twelve days of anime on Metanorn and I hope you have enjoyed each of our choices for these special posts, for the very last post I am hitting up the various mecha of 2012 because while I love crazy comedy anime I can’t simply forget my love of giant robots! So prepare yourself for some fun. |
Chilling with the winter robots
Who is your favorite Aquarion EVOL character? Zessica is mine!
Winter season brought us some amazing mechs! Like AKB0048? Sure you might not consider it to be a giant robot themed anime series. However, during most of the live concert scenes you had several robots appear that tried their best to shoot the idols. That and they had a blue haired girl with a rocket that shot from her arm. Winter also gave us a surprise with Ano Natsu, which had a robot like machine/van near the end with the crazy reveal of Remon Yamano working as an undercover MIB agent? Now for the actual mech anime of that season Aquarion EVOL and the start of the yuri powered giant robots in Rinne no Lagrange. Out of those two shows I had the most fun with EVOL because it was off the wall insane after the first three episodes thanks to characters like Zen Fudou, Andy W. Hole and fan-service aka Zessica? Rinne no Lagrange on the other hand was filled with lots of yuri themes even though none of the characters officially dated, but that series gave us the hyper-happy-go-luck character named Madoka, who made me laugh every week. Before I forget there was one random episode of Smile Precure this year that gave us a giant Cure Happy Mecha! That episode was fantastic because it showed that Yayoi was really into robots, which honestly surprised me a little.
Jumping with spring robots
Eureka Seven Ao service shot.jpeg
Spring was kind of a weak season for mecha, but there were plenty of other types of robots out there like the videogame characters of Accel World? While some of the real world counterparts suffer from strange designs choices the game world was a totally different story showing off lots of robot designs. We also got another robot themed character in Queens Blade Rebellion named Vante… Yeah…I don’t really know why there was a robot in that series? That said you really should really avoid that series because it will rot your brain! So yeah those two shows were the weakest; however, spring brought us the always exciting Eureka Seven Ao, which continued after the original Eureka Seven! Even though the official ending left most of us scratching our heads it was still an enjoyable series.
Summer robots on the beach
Madoka and friends catch some run away eels with their bodies…
Ah Summer, the special time of the year when we go outside and hang out at the beach! So what kind of robots did that season give us? For starters we had the return of Horizon in the middle of nowhere with season two which sports a mech with giant boobs…yes…there is an actual robot with giant boobs, also there were plenty of robot inspired characters running around in that unusual universe. Along with that there was Humanity has declined which had roughly five robots. Starting off with the insane suicidal bread robot, adorable cat-girl, odd cat-boy, an evil dog robot and an old assistant robot named Ryobo 230! Those were also my favorite episodes of Humanity. Besides that we also had Rinne no Lagrange season two and the not so popular MuvLuv which failed to keep me interested; however, I did enjoy their mecha designs for their alien killing machines.
Fall for giant robots
Seaside fun with Junna, Frau and Aki!
Fall was another weak season for mechs because we were limited on choices like the transformer themed show called Gyrozetter, which I think easily qualifies as precure for boys. I have only seen one episode, but it was interesting and had some great voice work from Yuka Iguchi, Marina Inoue and Jouji Nakata? Besides that series we also had lots of different kinds of robots in the crime filled world of Psycho-pass. Like the robot that holds all their advanced guns and tiny little robots that collected evidence, but how can we forget the time when Akane and Kougami ran from that killer robot and recent episodes with the cyborg and his team of mechanical hunting dogs? Now that I think about it Psycho-pass has several episodes around robots. Currently, my favorite mecha series would be Robotic;Notes, which takes a very realistic approach to building a giant robot, but overall it discusses lots of topics on the field of robotics like all the talk of EXOSKELETON, a fictional company that builds suits to help disabled people walk like Mizuka who wears a prosthetic on her body, those themes hit close to home for me because I rely on machines to help me get around my house.
Zessica is really sad to see you go~
Thanks for reading about the best robots, cyborgs and mecha of 2012 and Merry Christmas! I hope you look forward to us doing this again in 2013. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
About Foshizzel
Is huge anime fan from Florida! who loves to watch anime and also enjoys drawing and collecting pictures, my favorite genre of anime has to be Mecha, there is just something awesome about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Other than that type of show, I love a good comedy or action series :D
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nice way to end the “12 days of anime” lists. I say my top favorite mecha anime out of the ones mentioned here is Rinne no Lagrange. It’s awesome, upbeat and had a lot of yuri undertones to keep it interesting. Second goes to Robotics;Notes for the robot designs and characters like Aki and Frau and Eureka Seven AO for third for the action and characters despite an almost overwhelmingly confusing story where time and space manipulation is involved.
Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse is a good anime. It just depends if it suits your liking. Can’t get enough of Yui,Cryska, Inia, Tarisa (Chobi) and Stella. But the BETA are some ugly bastards.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thanks! I wasn’t sure what to talk about for the last topic because it was either giant robots or a post dedicated to Smile Precure…ahahah
Rinne was a surprise hit for me this year! I was not sure if I was going to enjoy it because of the yuri vibes, but lately I don’t even worry about such things anymore xD
FK YA Robotic;Notes! That is my favorite right now and like you I enjoy Aki and Frau <3 as for Eureka Seven Ao I still love that series even though it seemed to me like the script went straight for "time travel" which messed everything up for me, but I love the E7 universe <3
Ooooh Muv Luv...what happened to you? Those are all good reasons to watch I mean the characters are entertaining to watch I just got sick and tired of Yui complaining or being generally mean ALL THE TIME...yeah the BETA are right up with with the noise from Syphogear for worst designs ever.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’d have to say my favorite giant robot series is also Rinne no Lagrange, and a lot of that is because of what seemed to me to be the relative unimportance of the giant robots in the show. They were there, they were plot drivers, but the story was really about the main characters and what they were doing. So many of the mecha series I’ve seen only care enough about the characters to get them in the right spot at the right time with the robot.
I finished Muv-Luv Total Eclipse, and I guess it’s on the low range of ‘good’. The story was such a mess, it felt like it couldn’t figure out what it wanted to do, and eventually just felt like it tacked whatever ending on to the series that it could come up with. Not exactly unsatisfying, but not really anything to make you think at all.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Abt MLA TE… originally its used to sell model kits but it got popular enough to get expanded into a series. Also the sorce material (LN) actually ends in a cliffhanger to leave room for the upcoming VN so be glad tht the anime gave it a slightly modified conclusion/ending ^.^;
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Right that is probably why just about anyone could get into the world of Rinne no Lagrange because it never pushed the mechs in your face, if you want more shows like that you should check out Eureka Seven Ao, Full Metal Panic and Code Geass! Sure there are robots but they generally focus on the characters.
Muv Luv started out interesting but damn! They seemed to have little to no focus on story and agreed highway I found myself not caring if any of the main cast died in the 2nd half…
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
BIG TE SPOILER HERE. DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO REMAIN UNSPOILED FOR THE VN.
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Wish granted.
Also read the Muv Luv VN. Ppl telling me tht original trilogies is way epic/better than TE. And then there the possibility/rumour of the original trilogy might get animated…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, I have to say that:
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I cared if they lived or died, it just seemed awfully convenient that the terrorists were always a step ahead of the good guys, *and* that they still lost due to the overwhelming awesomeness of the good guys.
And the mood whiplash in the second half of the series was pretty huge. We go from the Kamchatka arc where they almost get wiped out by the toilet seats (Seriously, who came up with that symbol for the BETA for the tactical map?) to Infinite Stratos: Total Eclipse with Yuuya going on a date with Cryska, Cui declaring herself his wife, and Yui hiding behind a tree spying on them all? And then we go from that to terrorist attack and kill the bartender lady and most of the other people on the base? And then they have to save Alaska from the toilet seats again…
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
For winter, can’t forget about the modern classic, one that earned its own 12 days post, Guilty Crown. Those designs were actually quite nice, and they were reminiscent of the Knightmares from a much better show by the same director. I think Redjuice might have been involved with them, so I’m excited to see how Vividred will end up next season.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Ah yeah can’t forget Guilty Crown! I guess I didn’t mention it because I already had a post dedicated to it, but yeah their machines do look a lot like knightmare frames! Yeah Redjuice does have some mechanical design work on his deviantart page xD
Ah yeah I suppose you can say Vividred might be a mecha series huh or advanced tech~