The Military Mecha Isn’t Just A Fantasy
Posted by Aorii in Anime, Crossvision, tags: Arm Slave, Code Geass, Full Metal Panic, Gundam, Macross, MechaMecha has been an inseparable part of anime culture ever since Mobile Suit Gundam inspired the first generation of Otaku. But while I’ve met a lot of mecha fans over the years, most of them are under the impression that there is no practical reason to have mecha — that it’s purely a matter of looking cool, and mecha changing the future of warfare was merely a fandom dream. I blame this as amongst the reasons why mecha design in many recent series has been straying more and more from maintaining a degree of semi-realism (just compare Gundam00’s against the original’s). The Rule of Cool goes a long way, but it’s always nice when you don’t have to shut off half the brain to love the cool factor.
But is there a reason to have mecha? Even the fingered hands and human proportions of Japanese mecha? It might still be a science fiction fantasy due to the current imperfection of gyrostabilizers, but mechas do make actual sense. And with the right technologies, they really could change the future of war. Read the rest of this entry »





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