Poll: Mecha, Japanese, European, or North American?

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I wouldn't think it fair to include 40K Titans as Mecha alongside American 'future tanks' and Japanese 'giant samurai'. It's like saying that the New Orleans Saints can beat Jimmy's weekend two hand touch football game and the after school Lacrosse team. Titans aren't just a whole other league, the other league that you measure Titans against is a whole league beyond the one you'd measure Gundams and Battletechs against.

What about the Guren Lagann Mecha? They fight with universes as projectiles.

And then there's Ideon, which if I'm remembering correctly, is quite literally God in robot form -- as in, if you do too much damage to it (which is next to impossible to do; we're talking planets sized and larger energy blasts not even scratching the paint), it destroys the universe and starts over. Mecha from the Real Robot subgenre (like Gundam and Macross) may be weak compared to the stuff from 40K, but Super Robots tend to be at least as far ahead of 40K's robots as the 40K ones are from Gundam or Mechwarrior. I mean, Titans fight other titans. Ideon could probably go toe to toe with 40K's chaos gods themselves and win -- and if it lost, it would take the entire universe with it.

OT: I have to give it to Real Robot genre Japanese mecha. Battletech style walking tanks may make for a fun tabletop game and an awesome simulator, but for cool points, you can't beat UC era Gundam[footnote]which was a lot more grounded in reality than the various spinoff series; Yoshiyuki Tomino knows how to do a good mix of hard and soft sci-fi[/footnote], or pretty much anything from Macross.

Also, am I the only one in this thread who didn't know that Games Workshop was a European company? I thought pretty much all of the major tabletop companies were based in the US, and had been since the 70's.

Edit: Besides, none of designs are actually very practical. Even the American style walking tanks would wind up with clogged joints really quickly in any type of long term deployment. The most realistic take on giant robots that I've ever seen was the novelization/re-imagining of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Mobile suits were never actually used on a planetary body; the closest thing was combat inside of an orbital colony, which was still zero G at the center, and were fairly low gravity even on the edges. In that novel, mobile suits basically serve as space fighters with arms that can be used to hold a variety of weapons, and legs that are mostly used to take advantage of Newtonian physics and change orientation without wasting thruster fuel (the arms can also be used for this.) It solves a lot of the logical problems you get when you have a giant robot walking around on land.

 

[ArianaUO321]

I've got to go with the Japanese... most versatile and agile. Capable of high ground speed and mobility, spaceflight, atmospheric flight, ect. Functional on all terrains, rather than flat ground. Also they are relatively ewok proof.

A lot more stable, they aren't extremely narrow and tall with weak, fragile, and easy to trip legs that leaves them vulnerable to things such as snowspeeders... or ewoks with logs.

 

[A random person]

I tend to prefer Japanese designs, though that's largely because they're the vast majority of what I know.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

When I clicked on this thread I was thinking, "Well lets see how dumb THIS is." But I've found this really pretty interesting. I think the idea points to a difference in Japanese vs American vs European mecha is once of philosophy.

Japanese = style, grace, technique;
European = brute force;
North American = practicality

But I'd say these so called European and North American mecha certainly blur those two concepts. Maybe I should just go with Euro/American = brute force and practicality.

But what do I prefer? There's something undeniably satisfying in my deep psyche about the more stompy mechs of the west...

You can find variations across all of them. Symbionic Titan is part Russian (Thanks to Genndy Tartakovsky), giving Europe an anime styled mecha, while North America has Megas XLR, which is definitely not realistic styled mechs.

Most of the Knightmare Frames from Code Geass are on the Realistic scale of the robot genre as an inverse.

 

[Grogman]

Gotta go with Japanese. Love the fluidity and grace. Asuka's got my back on this one

No way, Rei 4 life

But I agree, while WH40K is absolutely amazing, and Megas XLR was just brilliant, Japanese style mechas are my favourite, if not just for the fact that NGE is my favourite thing ever.

EDIT:

I think we've achieved my original goal by working together! ^^ The power of friendship!

^5!

 

[twistedmic]

Gotta go with Japanese. Love the fluidity and grace. Asuka's got my back on this one:

While I share your views on mech designs, I have to throw my support behind Shinji on this one.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

While the Japanese are more sleek and nimble, I do prefer the Euro styled ones since they are more gritty and based more around killing humans/infantry/each other vs the Japanese which just fly around and blast EVERYTHING!

Also...AMERICA HAS MECHA? I thought they just ripped their Mecha ideas off Japan and popular foreign toy markets. XD

 

[impeccable]

THAT IS AWESOME!!! I havnt played war hammer since the mid 90's, I guess allot has changed.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

While the Japanese are more sleek and nimble, I do prefer the Euro styled ones since they are more gritty and based more around killing humans/infantry/each other vs the Japanese which just fly around and blast EVERYTHING!

Also...AMERICA HAS MECHA? I thought they just ripped their Mecha ideas off Japan and popular foreign toy markets. XD

Dude, America has had Mecha since The Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

THAT IS AWESOME!!! I havnt played war hammer since the mid 90's, I guess allot has changed.

Technically its a Forgeworld model, not usable in a regular game, but in Apocalypse yes. And it will put you back about six hundred dollars for the Warhound.

 

[Princess Rose]

No way, Rei 4 life
But I agree, while WH40K is absolutely amazing, and Megas XLR was just brilliant, Japanese style mechas are my favourite, if not just for the fact that NGE is my favourite thing ever.

While I share your views on mech designs, I have to throw my support behind Shinji on this one.

^^ Asuka's Unit 02 is my favorite, but I love all the mech designs from Eva.

I tried to find a good group shot, but the only one I found on Google Image was kind of stiff, and I wanted to accentuate the fluidity of the Evas.

You both actually picked great shots of your respective favorites, so I think we've achieved my original goal by working together! ^^ The power of friendship!

 

[DracoSuave]

Japanese mecha is pretty easy to imagine, but what is the difference between european and North American?!?

Compare stuff like Warjack or 40K titans and they are very different from Mechwarrior of BattleTech designs, which are American.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

oh... you're serious....

FASA got sued early on for taking the mecha designs directly from Macross, which american license was owned by Harmony Gold. FASA was forced to reboot the line, leading to the Clan vs Inner Sphere conflict, because they needed radically different designs that still evoked the old ones out of continuity.

The more you know!

 

[impeccable]

THAT IS AWESOME!!! I havnt played war hammer since the mid 90's, I guess allot has changed.

Technically its a Forgeworld model, not usable in a regular game, but in Apocalypse yes. And it will put you back about six hundred dollars for the Warhound.

Thanks for replying, I hit "rely" opposed to "quote" on accident.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

While the Japanese are more sleek and nimble, I do prefer the Euro styled ones since they are more gritty and based more around killing humans/infantry/each other vs the Japanese which just fly around and blast EVERYTHING!

Also...AMERICA HAS MECHA? I thought they just ripped their Mecha ideas off Japan and popular foreign toy markets. XD

Dude, America has had Mecha since The Empire Strikes Back.

I was refering more to the Transformers (Rip off) and stuff like Power Rangers (Another rip off...that actually is INCREDIBLY hard to watch, now that I'm not a kid and I can actually see how quasi-terrible they are XD)

Star Wars was also less Mecha, and more like massive poorly designed Tanks with legs. XD

 

[impeccable]

Gotta go with Japanese. Love the fluidity and grace. Asuka's got my back on this one:

While I share your views on mech designs, I have to throw my support behind Shinji on this one.

What is that purple mech from? I bought a model of it at hastings because of its distinguishable badassness.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Japanese mecha is pretty easy to imagine, but what is the difference between european and North American?!?

Compare stuff like Warjack or 40K titans and they are very different from Mechwarrior of BattleTech designs, which are American.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

oh... you're serious....

FASA got sued early on for taking the mecha designs directly from Macross, which american license was owned by Harmony Gold. FASA was forced to reboot the line, leading to the Clan vs Inner Sphere conflict, because they needed radically different designs that still evoked the old ones out of continuity.

The more you know!

I wasn't comparing to Macross, I was comparing a Warjack or a Titan to something like the Madcat.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Japanese mecha is pretty easy to imagine, but what is the difference between european and North American?!?

Compare stuff like Warjack or 40K titans and they are very different from Mechwarrior of BattleTech designs, which are American.

For example, a BattleTech Madcat versus an Ork Stompa

Spoiler

So you would see American mechs as more militarily realistic, blunt and practical. Whereas European mechs would have more flair and sci-fi elements? Also isn't it a bit of a weird designation since the only European mechs in existance are from 40K.

I'd have to go for European, as I'm not a fan of the Japanese Anime style, and the American sheer military style is nice, but if you're gonna have a multi-storey walking behemoth with guns then you've gotta give it a bit of character.

 

[impeccable]

While the Japanese are more sleek and nimble, I do prefer the Euro styled ones since they are more gritty and based more around killing humans/infantry/each other vs the Japanese which just fly around and blast EVERYTHING!

Also...AMERICA HAS MECHA? I thought they just ripped their Mecha ideas off Japan and popular foreign toy markets. XD

Dude, America has had Mecha since The Empire Strikes Back.

I was refering more to the Transformers (Rip off) and stuff like Power Rangers (Another rip off...that actually is INCREDIBLY hard to watch, now that I'm not a kid and I can actually see how quasi-terrible they are XD)

Star Wars was also less Mecha, and more like massive poorly designed Tanks with legs. XD

I could be wrong. But I believe "mech warrior' is american. And that style of mechs is both unique and impressive. also feels a little more modern, and less futuristic.

 

[DracoSuave]

Japanese mecha is pretty easy to imagine, but what is the difference between european and North American?!?

Compare stuff like Warjack or 40K titans and they are very different from Mechwarrior of BattleTech designs, which are American.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA

oh... you're serious....

FASA got sued early on for taking the mecha designs directly from Macross, which american license was owned by Harmony Gold. FASA was forced to reboot the line, leading to the Clan vs Inner Sphere conflict, because they needed radically different designs that still evoked the old ones out of continuity.

The more you know!

I wasn't comparing to Macross, I was comparing a Warjack or a Titan to something like the Madcat.

The Mad Cat was a design derived from the Marauder [http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Marauder] which in turn, is a Zentraedi command battlepod [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b3/Zentradi_Mecha.jpg]

When a company gets sued, and loses, for ripping off designs [http://www.alex.kaempen.org/harmony_gold_v._fasa.html], it's a fair comment to say they ripped off their designs.

It shows too, the art quality took a nosedive once they were ordered to turn off their photocopier. Took them years to get half decent again.

 

[BristolBerserker]

I've got to say I prefer Japanese. Also, why do you say European when Warhammer 40k is British.