Movies and Anime akin to Pacific Rim

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Gurren Lagann is the go-to giant robot anime for me. It's absolutely phenomenal. I've also seen Evangelion, and while it was an influential series, it wasn't super great. You could call Code Geass a giant robot series, too, but it's... not, really. While there are giant robots, they're not that giant.

Oh, also, Megas XLR. It's not exactly anime, as it's an American production, but there're giant robots, and chicks dig 'em.

I would recommend something else, like Gundam or something, but admittedly, I'm not well versed in giant robots or kaiju...

Also, I tried watching Attack on Titan, which is kind of maybe kaiju, but I just couldn't get into it... The humans' weaponry used is probably the stupidest thing I have ever seen; if people have the technology and craftsmanship to build efficient enough hip-mounted grappling hook launchers to have their soldiers Spider-Man their way around cities and forests in order to cut up giants with swords, then why can't they invent a big-ass cannon to blast said giants from a distance? It'd be safer and more efficient... Besides, those grappling hook thingies are just soooooo dumb-looking...

 

[xmbts]

Why has nobody said Big O yet?

BIG O!!!! SHOWTIME!!!!!

(Why didn't I mention this anime in the first place? Besides, in less than two weeks, it will be shown on TV again during adult swim's Toonami block...)

I watched Pacific Rim and actually found it to be a closer match to Big O, what with the way the pilots control their bots and the slowish giant boxing matches that looked like they has the several thousand tons of weight behind them.

 

[FPLOON]

Why has nobody said Big O yet?

BIG O!!!! SHOWTIME!!!!!

(Why didn't I mention this anime in the first place? Besides, in less than two weeks, it will be shown on TV again during adult swim's Toonami block...)

I watched Pacific Rim and actually found it to be a closer match to Big O, what with the way the pilots control their bots and the slowish giant boxing matches that looked like they has the several thousand tons of weight behind them.

I fully agree to that... to the point that when I saw the 10pm special showing, I was literally saying "Big O! Showtime!" to my best friend whenever a Jeager was launched out into combat...

 

[Tautology]

No one mentioned Gunbuster yet? No one? Watch Gunbuster. I saw Pacific Rim and couldn't shake the feeling Del Toro took half the plot from Gunbuster.

A bit off topic, but remember in the opening of Pacific Rim with the upward shot of Gypsy Danger from the fishing boat? Did anyone else immediately think to themselves "Oh my god, it's the Iron Giant?"

 

[Lonewolfm16]

Hey, 4Chan /m/ called, and they resent the comparison between EVA and Pacific Rim, and personally so do I.

Evangelion is a brutal deconstruction of the Japanese Super Robot genre, where Pacific Rim is a glorious mashup of Super Robot and classic Kaiju movies.

If the monsters are your cup of tea, try watching some of the old Godzilla movies, or Mothra, or any of the crazy 60s Kaiju movies. If the dated effects turn you off, watch Godzilla: Final Wars for the most modern iteration.

If the robots are your thing, there is a plethora of shows to choose from. For called attacks-hot blooded-physics defying action, start with Shin Mazinger Z. If super-realistic depictions of fighting mecha interests you, try some of the Gundam giga-series, with 08th MS Team as a starting point.

Just a few ideas from the land of glorious Nippon, representing the opinion of the majority of the internet.

Deconstruction or not it was still a part of the genre and it still has many tropes that it either took from other series, or other series took from it so it would clearly be somewhat similar to other things inspired by the genre. And there are alot of parallels. Giant alien creatures invade Earth causing immense amounts of devastation. In order to combat them, many nations come together and create powerful mechs to fight the creatures, however these mechs work by mental connection and can be difficult to control. Pilots must work through their issues in order to effectively fight the threat. And the action scenes reminded me of EVA a bit. Granted, its nowhere near as dark, but still.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Since everyone and their mother is going to say NGE, I'm going to Recommend RahXephon.
Because it's a giant Evangelion rip-off. Still worth watching; it's Evangelion without the crazy.

So it is nothing then?

Nah, it's pretty good. It's just a bit less on the mind-fucky side. Otherwise, they're really close. I think series preference for most people come down to whether or not they want the Eva crazy.

MOST of you never mentioned Mazinger Z and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Sorry, but I don't really give a fuck about Giant Robot series'.

Eva and Code Geass are the only ones I really liked and, hell, I only liked Geass for the two main characters.

Otherwise, outside of my childhood of awesome G Gundam, I have little interest.

 

[Weresquirrel]

Surprised no-one's mentioned Giant Robo yet. I got a massive Giant Robo vibe from the designs of the Jaegers. I actually feel like re-watching it myself, now...

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, if you take NGE out of the equation, I really can't think of an anime where giant robots fight giant monsters. Apart from Gunbuster, which is made by the same guy behind NGE. I'm sure there's something really hokey and obscure out there somewhere, but probably not met with similar production values.

...

Oh shit, I can't believe I forgot about Eureka 7. Sorta similar to NGE, but with more of a "too cool for school" vibe. The first 10 or so episodes are kinda meh, but afterward it really takes off.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I dunno why people keep saying Eva, they really have little to nothing in common. anyway, for something completely different and about as related as any Eva suggestions...

Dual: Parallel Trouble Adventure

 

[GabeZhul]

Since there are a ton of anime and movie recommendations already I thought I would try to give a game one, but I really can't remember a single game that is actually similar in style.

Of course we have stuff like the MechWarrior series, but you cannot really call that similar since it's more of a micromanagement/real robot game.

Then we have the Armored Core games, but I cannot really recommend them since I haven't actually tried those yet. From what I hear they are pretty good, though again, not super robot games.

The next series I remembered was Zone of the Enders, but that is more like a typical Japanese mecha style game with smaller mechs and more focus on high-speed combat instead of monstrously huge super robots.

The only two games I could recall as having actual super-robots and robots fighting huge monsters are Super Robot Wars (duh), which is a huge crossover series and pretty much an exercise in frustration if you don't know the 50+ different anime characters in it, and Xenogears, which has half its battle system focused on mechs, though they are ultimately not the actual focus of the story in any way.

So yeah, sorry but I really cannot recall a single game with extremely large mechs fighting each other or monsters on the ground in particular...

 

[njrk97]

Defiantly would have to recommend zoids. Start with zoids choatic century and go from their.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I'll be the first one to mention Blue Gender apparently. Giant monsters, mechs piloted by specially gifted pilots...some would say *unnaturally* gifted.

dun dun duuuun!