Mecha Talk

I was on a website that was talking about episode 3 of Gun X Sword, and it's use of a battle between an old school super robot, and a mecha that was an crossbreed of an EVA and an angel. One of the commentators suggested that the whole fight (which the super robot won) was hidden commentary about how old school mecha would always outshine newer stuff.

This is interesting to consider. Can any of you really see some of the curent mecha stuff (EVA and along its lines, and others) being remembered like the old school shows? Thirty years from now will people looks back on Evangelion, it's thousands of "homages", Goddanar, and others like we remember Mazinger Z and Getter Robo? Like MS Gundam 0079? Like Macross?

I really can't say. I'm pretty sure Evangelion will be remembered, considering the impact it's had, though i'm sure that many of the series that ape EVA will be forgotten. I can't really say anything about many of the others.

Sure, let's go with that. On topic, I've always been a fan of the classics. Ideon FTW!

*Tox is confused and sleepy, so pay him no mind*

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Back in the old days, all you needed to do to have a memorable giant robot, is a giant robot and good plot. Nowadays, kiddies want gimmicks and tricks and flashy animation over good plots - and most good giant robot ideas have already been used before, so you need to put tons of gimmicks in your giant robot to make it memorable.

It's like comparing a model T ford to a Ford Escort. Everyone nowadays knows the Model T, it is far more widely known than the Escort, even though that one's still in reasonably wide-spread use. Why is the Model T more memorable ? Because it was a trend-setter, not a trend-follower.

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as much as I hate fords, you make an excellent point.

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Mechwarrior Living Legends: A Crysis Wars total conversion mod. Now with Masakari Clan Assualt mech, Solitaire Clan Light mech, Chimera Inner sphere medium mech, and Ares clan medium tank.

You can now play without having to purchase Crysis Wars, see here for more details.

Old school= Good plot, unrealistic mech designs, Expect a giant sword at the end of the show.
New School= Cool mechs, bogus storytelling, tons of she-male pilots.

About that eva thing, the series is quite old. Eva proved that it has the staying power to become one of the classics like mazinger, MS Gundam, etc...

Except EVAs aren't mechs but godzilla beings encased in armor parts, that's why they were unique...
Old school mechs are practically the trend setters and original in many ways while new school mechs mostly took references or adapted from some existing mecha animes. Just like those SEED mechs where Okawara sort of reuse or recycle from his old designs or some recently remake super robots like Dancougar Nova and Shin Jeeg.
So far very few new school mechs do make impacts, for example, the recent Gundam designs are getting weaker and tasteless as the designs are not up-to-date and do not get along well with today's trend. What more, characters are getting closer to those sissy bishounens trend and the essence of sweat and blood is slowly disappearing. Story tellings are moving from realism towards teen fantasy-drama, which are less realistic and more focused on teen-romance and outburst. Yeah, like those crappy korean dramas...
Therefore, old schools still have their place even in today's ever-changing anime as their positions are sealed in the hearts of old schoolers.

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u took the words out of my mouth

the only thing id add

Old School=In order to attack, the name of the attack must be yelled out. Usually the monster of the day/week episode, mechs move more like real people than like robots, most mechs in it are owned by a small team of teenagers instead of by a military, no grunt/cannon fodder/ball/GM suits

New School=more emphasis is put on the mechs rather than the characters so that models of the mechs sell well, attack must be yelled out in order for it to work (in the case of SRW "T-LINK KNUCKLE!" "HYPER TRONIUM BUSTER CANNON!"), mechs are more militaristic rather than just one unit powered by team of teenagers, mechs make u believe that they could be built in real life in a few decades

I love the gundam Style stuff, the EVA style is ok but the gundam stuff looks more realistic

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Aside from the modernizations of their appearance and the less goofier attacks, the real difference between old school and new school likely has more to do with the market than anything else. Robots were cool and nostalgic back then, thus they were seen as classics and trend setters, even though there were a kajillion super robots with funky moves back in the day. Only a few were truly trend setters, with Tetsujin being the first, and Mazinger Z being the one that really popularized the genre, while MS Gundam and SDF Macross were the pioneers of what we now call the 'real robot' genre. Fact is, in the old school, it seems robots were all over the place, thus it wasn't so hard to find any giant robot shows. Then you have the ones just keep going and going, like Five Star Stories.

Now... you can't really find giant robot shows quite as numerous as it was back then (or at least not as many good ones). You can't say that there aren't any original mecha shows, considering you've got shows like Eureka 7, The Big O, and Zone of the Enders. Heck, Super Robot Wars also comes to mind in its more blatant attempt to combine the super robot genre with the real robot genre. You sure cannot toss a whole blanket on the new school and say that their plot is better than the old school (MS Gundam may have started the craze, but I dare say that some of the newer series have shown better plot and characters than MS Gundam has, such as the Patlabor series and Zone of the Enders). What I can certainly say for certain is that it'll take alot more effort on the new school to actually be able to reach the kind of memorable status that a number of the old schools have, and thus down the road, people will still be able to remember a certain grill faced robot with a little motorcycle for a cockpit as opposed to something as modern as... oh... RahXephon.

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Evengelion is too strange to be either new or old school. It's more of a physicology story in a guise of the old school mech. But the Evas are not really mecha.

There was and old school robot that was made not too long ago. It comes with cheesy opening tsong, and over dramatic closing song. And hyper feminine pilots and command central operators. (Use your imingination. Hint: the uniform are sexer than EA's cadat's uniform.) Along with a macho and cluless main pilot.

Anyone remember Godannar?

So those who watch Mazinger are now adults. And Godannar is a bit 'adult'?

I think they have a frontal lobotomy for that

Eva will be remember because it had/has a large fanbase that can be catered to but a lot of other shows will not..

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