It’s March, and that means I’m once again going to take a dive into the Mecha genre. Now, I’ve looked at Mecha shows before, both in and out of March, but the Mecha shows I reviewed last time have something in common: they’re all more “Super Robot” shows.
For those who may be unaware, the Mecha
genre often makes a distinction between different shows. “Super
Robot” shows are ones where the Mecha (scientific explanation or
not) is more of a fantastic element. They’re big, powerful,
sometimes questionably machines, and defy or ignore what we think we
know about physics. Little time or effort is taken to make the
mechas “realistic” or believable; instead, it’s more about what’s
cool. Not every Super Robot show is bright Shonen (after all,
Evangelion and all its tortured, psychological offspring are still
Super Robot) but many are.
In contrast, a “Real Robot” show
presents mechas more as real (if futuristic) war machines. They
often still get a couple technical hand-waves to explain how and why
humanoid robots are the tanks or battleships of their setting, but
they still try to build their robots out of nuts and bolts and make
you believe that you’re dealing with a machine that humans could
build and that the viewer could understand. As such the shows
themselves tend to be about (relatively) realistic warefare, rather
than punching out giant monsters.
This isn’t to say that Super Robot
shows can’t have engineering or treat their mechas as machines, or
Real Robot shows can’t have supernatural elements; it’s a spectrum,
not a sharp divide. But, by in large, those are the poles.
When it comes to Mecha, Super Robot shows are more my wheelhouse, but I wanted to look at at least one Real Robot show for Mecha March this year, and thus I’m leading off with the most down-to-Earth Mecha show this side of Robotics;Notes, Full Metal Panic.
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