Poll: Japanese or Western Mecha?

[Vern]

I've never been terribly interested in Mech's. However, from what I've seen, I like the plodding Western mechs with tactical nuclear missiles armed on their shoulders, and 120 mm vulcan cannons on their arms. The Japanese super samurai mech is rather boring. Yeah they can jump, and for some reason have light-sabers, but that versus nuclear annihilation seems like a losing battle. But honestly, the only mech games I've played are Mechwarriors and Armored Core. And those things were awesome. They seem like what Mechs would be, giant bipedal armored battle stations with ass-tons of armaments. I guess I don't get off on the idea of a super samurai robot, as it's completely implausible.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Seriously, this will end something like "Warhammer 40k pwns your stupid anime mechs," I just know it with our community.

You say that like it isn't totally true. Warhammer 40K is pure concentrated awesome.

Spoiler: Who's a sexy Reaver Titan?

You are!

Plus they have this:

Yes, the Imperator titan is so large that it actually has a bloody castle on its back, complete with its own array of cannons and a landing pad for fighter craft.

And because everything thing he draws is awesome, here are pictures of a Thousand Sons marine and dreadnought by Clint Langley.

Deny the awesome at your own peril!

 

[Yokai]

Spoiler: Western Mecha

Western Mecha wins.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

Mecha's are like cars and when it comes to cars you want to buy German.
Sure the asian models are cheaper and more fuel efficient but when the fireworks start you want something reliable ad strong.

 

[rs2000]

Western.

Candygram!

This scene always made me laugh in Blazing Saddles, if you haven't scene this film watch it now! it was a Parody before there were parodies

 

[rs2000]

Western.

Candygram!

This scene always made me laugh in Blazing Saddles, if you haven't scene this film watch it now! it was a Parody before there were parodies

Oh & no it hasn't got the giant robot in it just the candygram sketch!!!

 

[Anggul]

Japanese personally. Seeing as they pretty much inspired it. Also, Knightmare frames mostly /are/ bulky like the western mech fans approve of, it's only the specialised ones which are more thin, and even then, a lot of them are still quite bulky in comparison to most anime mechs.

Also, Macross Frontier has a giant space battleship... which turns into a giant mech with a gun which can destroy a whole enemy ship in one shot.

As for those talking about 40k, sure, I love the 40k mechs, Wraithlords being my favourite, but they're not the coolest.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

For watching, Japanese.
[a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0ep5egAsVA"]Overpowered god cannon, GO![/a]

For using in a game, Western.
It's like a zergling rush, but with FREAKING WALKING TANKS!

If I could actually use one (assuming that it worked perfectly no matter what obvious flaws appear in the source material).... I'm not sure.
The Japanese one is the obvious choice for beating countries up, but you could have some semblance of stealth from a 10-15 foot tall Western model.

Also having a classic car as the head of a mech is an automatic chick magnet and can't be ignored...

 

[Ollie Barder]

What's funny about this is that, technically, there is no such thing as purely Western mecha design; as it's entirely derivative in regards to its host inspiration - that of the original Japanese mecha designs.

Battletech, Mechwarrior, Heavy Gear and a slew of other games rely heavily on the Japanese mecha mythos for the base rulesets the games are based off (which includes the aesthetic obvsiously, as form often follows function with mecha).

In animation, Transformers was originally a Japanese toy-line (called Diaclone, which in turn was a spin off from Micoman).

So, "Western mecha design" isn't something that actually exists in any real sense. However, western industrial design - by the likes of Ron Cobb and Syd Mead et al - is remarkably influential and progressive. Though it's worth clarifying that this is not the same artistic discipline as mecha design, though I would argue that they are closely related.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_192/5831-Bushido-and-Beamsabers

 

[Rancid0ffspring]

It's all about western. I've always preferred some degree of realism to mechs. Squat & angular to deflect incomming fire with believable weapons just seems achievable. 50ft tall & decorated like some crazy samurai, lightining fast & weighing 100 tonnes with a laser sword that fires homing lasers... it's not something I can see happening in my life time... if ever!

Excuse the irony of mentioning realism when talking about walking tanks

 

[Zac_Dai]

I prefer Battletech/Heavy Gear mecha to the standard Anime mecha, except for Robotech (ah youth) - chiefly because they try to make the sci-fi tech believable, rather than Anime throwing some huge Samurai thing with an equally improbable weapon, and then asking me to not question how it's powered, why it doesn't run out of ammo/fuel, and how a fucking tween can pilot it.

Anyone who can sit through Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Gundam Wing and its ilk without suffering total brain death - I salute you!


One of the best intros of its day (1997).

God I love Mechwarrior! Fuck everything else!

 

[Simriel]

Western, mainly because Japanese Mechs tend to be silly powerful, wielding totally out of proportion power, and have no basis in reality. In western mechs, they tend to have the power of a walking artillery platform. Still powerful, but kill-able with a few missiles.

 

[Jared]

Gotta be Japanese Mechs for me. I know its slightly contrived, however, Gundam.

Love me my Gundams.

 

[Arawn.Chernobog]

Megas XLR is Western, therefore this contest is over...

 

[Simriel]

Variable Fighters, Gundams, Arm Slaves, Orbital Frames, Armored Cores, Metal Gears, Big O, Gurren Lagann, Ideon. They're all so much cooler (and powerful) than anything the west has to throw at them.

C'mon, Megas? Transformers? Warhammer?! Seriously...

Battletech. Also in Warhammer, there are Mechs that stand twice as tall as the empire state building, and they are the mid sized ones of their class.

 

[dvhh]

Got a slight preference for japanese mecha because of their weaknesses they make fight a little bit more interesting.
Sure they would hardly hold against a good LRM20 volley, but hey most battletech stuff was ripped of Macross/Robotech for what I know ( this is less true now after the lawsuit they got up their asses).
However I grew as a fan of mecha, beginning seeing the AT-AT/AT-ST from star wars movies, then going on playing mechwarrior 2/3 and watching japanese mecha/robots on television most of the time (I also played steel battalion, but mechwarrior 2 still keep my heart, oh and I pretty much like the virtual on series ).
Sure japanese mecha design are cool, but that's mostly design, I would say it would be very impractical for storage/maintenance (plus hours of paint job to keep the cool aspect ), on the other hand most of western mecha fill their goal in giving a somewhat more realistic approach as seeming easier to maintain, can use extra part from other design, and still remain somewhat cool enough regardless the paint job, and give them the realistic firepower they could handle (where most of the japanese mecha rely on hidden trap, teleported gun to give them more firepower).
But again in fight japanese mecha tend to be more interesting (lousy aming/gunpower, more close combat ) , whereas most western mecha would snipe themselves to death.

PS : Love the mechwarrior 2's intro, including "the clans","ghost bear legacy" & "mercenaries"
PS2 : As we also consider power armor in the "mecha definition", my first power armor for me was the Iron man

 

[CheeseSandwichCake]

I hate anime, so obviously I'd go for western mechs.

Not only that but western mechs are usually more practical.

 

[razerdoh]

Japanese because of Gundam and Macross

 

[RufusMcLaser]

Walking tanks all the way. They're slightly saner from a tactical standpoint, and giant robots fighting with swords looks a little too ridiculous.