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

[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!

Actually thats not what happened, the FASA guys went to the Japanese studio and asked permission to use some of their models (something which doesnt get IP protection in japan and its something which is actually common practice) and everyone agreed. It was several years later the American subsidiary of Harmony Gold that launched the law suit.

EDIT: Doing some more reading its actually the joint sale of the artwork that caused the dispute, someone created the designs and sold them to be used in both Battletech and Macross. Something agreed to by the Japanese end of Harmony Gold but eventually the American end a few years later started the suit.

The details of how the legal disagreement came about are not contradictory, nor relevant, to the central point that FASA's mech designs originally came from Macross, and eventually were forced by legal action to be derived from.

The fact that hey had permission to use the photocopier to begin with merely proves they used the photocopier to begin with. Which was the entire central point. That they aren't 'american'.



However, for the record, mechanized battle armor is, as far as I can tell, an American sci-fi invention. 1959, Starship Troopers had the smaller personal-sized versions of it... and I'm not convinced it originated with Heinlein.

 

[Da Orky Man]

European. Why do I say this, I hear you ask? This is why:

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/warhammer-titan-art.thumbnail.jpg

No flimsy Japanese mecha is EVER going to get past that.

 

[hellflame]

one cannot deny that the japanese mechs are cooler, by far.
But also highly inpractical. whereas westren styled mechs always have that hint of " if only we could find someone daft enough to finance the research for this". but if i had to pick i'd efo go for japanese. just can't beat a good ol' fashion gundam imho

 

[kingcom]

The details of how the legal disagreement came about are not contradictory, nor relevant, to the central point that FASA's mech designs originally came from Macross, and eventually were forced by legal action to be derived from.

The fact that hey had permission to use the photocopier to begin with merely proves they used the photocopier to begin with. Which was the entire central point. That they aren't 'american'.

Except that the vast majority of the "photocopier" as you put designs were by american artists sold to the various companies. The only ones I could confirm as the japanese mechs are the LAMS (thats the transforming into air unit mechs) .

 

[tobi the good boy]

Was that the leader of Orca in AC: 4 Answer?

Yes! what was his name and his Next called

 

[cainx10a]

Was that the leader of Orca in AC: 4 Answer?

Yes! what was his name and his Next called

Was too lazy to pop in my AC:4A disc, so I cheated. Maximillian Thermidor, Unsung.

I should also note the last mission in the 'secret' path when you side with Old King might have been the hardest mission I played in any game even on normal.

 

[DracoSuave]

The details of how the legal disagreement came about are not contradictory, nor relevant, to the central point that FASA's mech designs originally came from Macross, and eventually were forced by legal action to be derived from.

The fact that hey had permission to use the photocopier to begin with merely proves they used the photocopier to begin with. Which was the entire central point. That they aren't 'american'.

Except that the vast majority of the "photocopier" as you put designs were by american artists sold to the various companies. The only ones I could confirm as the japanese mechs are the LAMS (thats the transforming into air unit mechs) .

Here's a thurough list if the 'unseen' mechs and the designs they originated from.

One of the things we liked to do was make custom Battletech versions of mech designs they hadn't used from anime we liked, cause I mean... come on. We knew the Marauder was an Zendraedi officer's battle pod, the fricken Robotech came out years before we played Battletech!

Ah, I remember my vehicle creation... the mosquito well...

'So what is it?' 'it's a vehicle that consists of a machine gun, and an internal combustion engine, for 100th of the cost as it takes to arm your assault mech.' 'That thing is going to explode the second it hits something! It goes so fast it is GOING TO HIT SOMETHING!' 'That's the tactical strategy behind them, yes.' 'You've created manned missiles!' 'That's one way of putting it. Another way is my Clan only believes in promoting the lucky.' 'What a magnificent waste of human life!' 'That's the Clan Motto!'

 

[tobi the good boy]

Was that the leader of Orca in AC: 4 Answer?

Yes! what was his name and his Next called

Was too lazy to pop in my AC:4A disc, so I cheated. Maximillian Thermidor, Unsung.

I should also note the last mission in the 'secret' path when you side with Old King might have been the hardest mission I played in any game even on normal.

Cookie time

And yes that was very hard.

 

[kingcom]

The details of how the legal disagreement came about are not contradictory, nor relevant, to the central point that FASA's mech designs originally came from Macross, and eventually were forced by legal action to be derived from.

The fact that hey had permission to use the photocopier to begin with merely proves they used the photocopier to begin with. Which was the entire central point. That they aren't 'american'.

Except that the vast majority of the "photocopier" as you put designs were by american artists sold to the various companies. The only ones I could confirm as the japanese mechs are the LAMS (thats the transforming into air unit mechs) .

Here's a thurough list if the 'unseen' mechs and the designs they originated from.

One of the things we liked to do was make custom Battletech versions of mech designs they hadn't used from anime we liked, cause I mean... come on. We knew the Marauder was an Zendraedi officer's battle pod, the fricken Robotech came out years before we played Battletech!

Ah, I remember my vehicle creation... the mosquito well...

'So what is it?' 'it's a vehicle that consists of a machine gun, and an internal combustion engine, for 100th of the cost as it takes to arm your assault mech.' 'That thing is going to explode the second it hits something! It goes so fast it is GOING TO HIT SOMETHING!' 'That's the tactical strategy behind them, yes.' 'You've created manned missiles!' 'That's one way of putting it. Another way is my Clan only believes in promoting the lucky.' 'What a magnificent waste of human life!' 'That's the Clan Motto!'

Thats what massed savannah master are for. Kneecapping specials.

 

[Wintermoot]

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 about Noriko/Kazumi?

 

[Cipher1]

Was that the leader of Orca in AC: 4 Answer?

Yes! what was his name and his Next called

Was too lazy to pop in my AC:4A disc, so I cheated. Maximillian Thermidor, Unsung.

I should also note the last mission in the 'secret' path when you side with Old King might have been the hardest mission I played in any game even on normal.

Harder than Marche Au Supplice on hard mode from AC4? because that mission kicked my arse for several weeks.

 

[Cipher1]

*Double post* curse you escapist forums

 

[Plazmatic]

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

That's ironic, since Europe has never actually came up with their own style of mecha, America came up with European styled mechas... and American styled mechas.

 

[burymagnets]

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

....

wait, Evas count as robots? Weren't they giant biohumans?

I prefer... Uhhh, I really don't know. aren't Giant, bipedal robots all the same? Sure they look different, but all serve the same purpose of being completely impractical and extremely cool.

They sure are biomechanical:

Western mechs lack the human elements of many japanese designs; they can't pull off nightmare fuel like this

 

[GundamSentinel]

Japanese, easily.

Spoiler: Why?

I like my mechs fast, sleek, powerful and badass.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Mmm this poll remind me of Phantom Crash (the branded mechs to buy were either from America, Japan or Italy aka part of Europe).
OT- I would go for the Japanese.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well as far as craziness goes you really can't beat Japan, their mechs are just out there, at no point in time will there be consideration for any laws of physics, and that's why I love them.

But as an engineer I also love the more constrained European/American designs where there is more a consideration for actual working mechanics, almost makes me dust off those old Legos and make some of my own

 

[EvilPicnic]

They sure are biomechanical

Yup.

Evas are special cases because they're not actually robots at all, although their armour and restraints are designed to make them appear robotic to the characters and the viewer.

NGE is definitely a Super Robot anime (and imo the best one), but I wouldn't class the Evas themselves as mecha...

[EDIT]

And to fix your awesome pic:

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

I'm actually pretty fond of just about all forms of mecha. Whether they're done as an exercise in fantasy wish fulfilment (anything in anime), extreme end engineering or over the top style tanks on legs. I honestly have no bias, preferences perhaps, but not bias.

My favourite, without a doubt are the following two:

Evangelion Unit 1. This was the first solid 'mecha' show I'd ever seen and its impact on my enjoyment of the genre, for good or for ill, resounds to this day. I'm also rather fond of Shinji, in an odd way.

The Power Loader. From the most fantasical extreme (Eva) to the almost possible today extreme, the Power Loader is first used as a clever bit of foreshadowing in the initial scenes on the Sulaco, and then less a tool and more an instrument of Ripley's will in her battle with the Alien Queen.

 

[EvilPicnic]

That image of Eva01 gives me goosebumps, and makes this pop into my head: