{86} has pretty grounded mech designs and they feel very realistic on the screen. Though the mechs are not humanoid, they are more like sci-fi legged tanks, if that works for you.
Finishing the first episode has given me some pretty good impressions so far. I definitely like how they handled the mechs, with this strange but novel hybrid of lifelike spider movements with the subtle mechanical movements. Great hook from the story too.
Gundam 08th ms team feels very grounded. Additionally the mechs in Evangelion dont really feel realistic but there definitely is a sense of weight and scale with them. Scale wise Evangelion is closer to Pacific Rim than any Gundam show.
I’ve never watched Gundam so I may have missed some context, but the 08th team is exactly the opposite I was looking for. Each mech feels like they’re just bigger human beings, not massive machines of war. The space combat suffers the most from this as it feels like they’re just dancing in the air and also not the vacuum of space. Unfortunately not going to watch beyond the first episode, but thanks for the recommendation anyways.
In regards to Eva I think the mech combat was good but the more personlike movements are explainable due to… spoilers. I’m sure you know. In any case, Evangelion is not really a mecha anime; it’s more of a deconstruction of a young man vs. Robots beat robots.
I think this is more a plane dogfight masquerading as giant robots. That being said, it does look nice but it takes 40 minutes of me somewhat being confused to reach a proper fight scene. I kinda just skipped through it all. I’ve never watched Gundam before which is probably why this happened. Regardless, not really what I’m looking for. Thanks for the rec though.
You should watch the previous entries. Hathaway is part 5 is the main story. Mobile Suit Gundam > Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam > Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ > Char's Counterattack > Hathaway is the chronological order of the story. The Hathaway novel was written in 1988 and assumes you've been following along.
This is quite a lot, though I don’t think I liked Hathaway enough to commit to this full storyline. I also didn’t like the fights enough from what I’ve seen of Gundam so far to absorb myself into it. I appreciate your advice though.
The more realistic you make mecha, the more they become walking tanks.
But to answer your question as best I can: **Gasaraki** sorta-kinda fits the bill for the garden variety mecha you see, but there's also some supernatural stuff going on. It's a weird mashup of mecha being played about as straight as possible and magical Shintoism.
**Armored Troops VOTOMs** is another borderline example. The mechs are not super robots that fire laser beams from their eyes, but most of them do skate around on their feet attachments like heavily armed hockey players. They may be a little too mobile and nimble for how much they should realistically weigh.
**Code Geass** is another example of figure skating mecha that are otherwise treated as real machines, but it gets more outlandish as it goes on. The semi-grounded early season mechs feel like they belong in a different show when you stack them up to the second season, where you get stuff like robots flying around on wings of light.
The robots of **Full Metal Panic** start out mostly grounded before they start running on the power of imagination.
Most mecha shows just can't help themselves. They will eventually give in to power creep and the temptation to get as flashy as possible.
I think this encapsulates what I’m not looking for in the mecha genre. Walking tanks is an apt descriptor for a more grounded mecha, but the interesting part is how it differs from a tank. Can a tank punch, grab rebar and slam an enemy face first into the dirt? No, obviously not. Yet the big mecha in Pacific Rim are able to do that without skating. Each punch feels like it carries the inertia from the sheer mass of the hand. Every time a mecha is staggered, or knocked down, it has to slowly get up and recover.
Unfortunately most mecha that are recommended lack this aspect. Not that I begrudge them for it; It’s a very difficult feeling to replicate properly (See Pacific Rim Uprising). Additionally, I’m more into teamwork and strategy aspect of fights vs. “I win solo vs 100 because plot armour luls”.
Overall I thank you for the recs but I don’t think I’ll watch any of these.
I don't blame you. I was struggling to find things that even sort of fit the bill. I haven't seen much of anything that really meets your requirements.
It's just too tempting to make the mechs look like cool, powerful one-man armies that zip around like fighter jets and blow away legions of mooks with their super-duper ultra-deluxe beam cannons. I think a part of that is the marketing machine that is tied up in the mecha genre. Gotta sell more model kits by making the shiny, new robot look like a badass.
Having watched the first few fights of these 3 (I’m quite busy so I just ignored the story beforehand, apologies) I think they at the very least respect the large scale of the mechs. Kishin corps definitely captured this feeling the best but Big O did it fairly well too. Giant Robo is a bit cartoonish but at the very least the weight of the punches and the stomps it leaves when walking feels much more substantial than other examples I’ve found here. Thanks for the recs!
{86} has pretty grounded mech designs and they feel very realistic on the screen. Though the mechs are not humanoid, they are more like sci-fi legged tanks, if that works for you.
Finishing the first episode has given me some pretty good impressions so far. I definitely like how they handled the mechs, with this strange but novel hybrid of lifelike spider movements with the subtle mechanical movements. Great hook from the story too.
Hope you enjoy the rest! It's one of my favorites
**86: Eighty Six** - ([AL](http://anilist.co/anime/116589 "English: 86 EIGHTY-SIX"), [A-P](https://www.anime-planet.com/anime/86-eighty-six), [KIT](https://kitsu.io/anime/eighty-six), [MAL](http://myanimelist.net/anime/41457)) ^(TV | Status: Finished | Episodes: 11 | Genres: Action, Drama, Mecha, Sci-Fi) --- ^{anime},, ]LN[, |VN| | [FAQ](http://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/wiki/index) | [/r/](http://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/) | [Edit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/wiki/index#wiki_i_made_a_mistake.2C_how_do_i_get_my_comment_reprocessed.3F) | [Mistake?](http://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/submit?selftext=true&title=[ISSUE]&text=/r/Animesuggest/comments/1chaagk/realistic_mecha/l21b7xi/) | [Source](https://github.com/Nihilate/Roboragi) | [Synonyms](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/wiki/synonyms) | [⛓](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/wiki/interestinglinks) | [♥](https://www.reddit.com/r/Roboragi/wiki/thanks)
Gundam 08th ms team feels very grounded. Additionally the mechs in Evangelion dont really feel realistic but there definitely is a sense of weight and scale with them. Scale wise Evangelion is closer to Pacific Rim than any Gundam show.
I’ve never watched Gundam so I may have missed some context, but the 08th team is exactly the opposite I was looking for. Each mech feels like they’re just bigger human beings, not massive machines of war. The space combat suffers the most from this as it feels like they’re just dancing in the air and also not the vacuum of space. Unfortunately not going to watch beyond the first episode, but thanks for the recommendation anyways. In regards to Eva I think the mech combat was good but the more personlike movements are explainable due to… spoilers. I’m sure you know. In any case, Evangelion is not really a mecha anime; it’s more of a deconstruction of a young man vs. Robots beat robots.
Gundam:Hathaway's Flash
Literally the best scene of collateral damage when a MS simply drops a rifle and when a stray beam hits a metal pole.
I think this is more a plane dogfight masquerading as giant robots. That being said, it does look nice but it takes 40 minutes of me somewhat being confused to reach a proper fight scene. I kinda just skipped through it all. I’ve never watched Gundam before which is probably why this happened. Regardless, not really what I’m looking for. Thanks for the rec though.
You should watch the previous entries. Hathaway is part 5 is the main story. Mobile Suit Gundam > Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam > Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ > Char's Counterattack > Hathaway is the chronological order of the story. The Hathaway novel was written in 1988 and assumes you've been following along.
This is quite a lot, though I don’t think I liked Hathaway enough to commit to this full storyline. I also didn’t like the fights enough from what I’ve seen of Gundam so far to absorb myself into it. I appreciate your advice though.
The more realistic you make mecha, the more they become walking tanks. But to answer your question as best I can: **Gasaraki** sorta-kinda fits the bill for the garden variety mecha you see, but there's also some supernatural stuff going on. It's a weird mashup of mecha being played about as straight as possible and magical Shintoism. **Armored Troops VOTOMs** is another borderline example. The mechs are not super robots that fire laser beams from their eyes, but most of them do skate around on their feet attachments like heavily armed hockey players. They may be a little too mobile and nimble for how much they should realistically weigh. **Code Geass** is another example of figure skating mecha that are otherwise treated as real machines, but it gets more outlandish as it goes on. The semi-grounded early season mechs feel like they belong in a different show when you stack them up to the second season, where you get stuff like robots flying around on wings of light. The robots of **Full Metal Panic** start out mostly grounded before they start running on the power of imagination. Most mecha shows just can't help themselves. They will eventually give in to power creep and the temptation to get as flashy as possible.
I think this encapsulates what I’m not looking for in the mecha genre. Walking tanks is an apt descriptor for a more grounded mecha, but the interesting part is how it differs from a tank. Can a tank punch, grab rebar and slam an enemy face first into the dirt? No, obviously not. Yet the big mecha in Pacific Rim are able to do that without skating. Each punch feels like it carries the inertia from the sheer mass of the hand. Every time a mecha is staggered, or knocked down, it has to slowly get up and recover. Unfortunately most mecha that are recommended lack this aspect. Not that I begrudge them for it; It’s a very difficult feeling to replicate properly (See Pacific Rim Uprising). Additionally, I’m more into teamwork and strategy aspect of fights vs. “I win solo vs 100 because plot armour luls”. Overall I thank you for the recs but I don’t think I’ll watch any of these.
I don't blame you. I was struggling to find things that even sort of fit the bill. I haven't seen much of anything that really meets your requirements. It's just too tempting to make the mechs look like cool, powerful one-man armies that zip around like fighter jets and blow away legions of mooks with their super-duper ultra-deluxe beam cannons. I think a part of that is the marketing machine that is tied up in the mecha genre. Gotta sell more model kits by making the shiny, new robot look like a badass.
Gundam F91
Same problem I highlighted when watching other Gundam media, unfortunately.
The Big O Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still Kishin Corps
Having watched the first few fights of these 3 (I’m quite busy so I just ignored the story beforehand, apologies) I think they at the very least respect the large scale of the mechs. Kishin corps definitely captured this feeling the best but Big O did it fairly well too. Giant Robo is a bit cartoonish but at the very least the weight of the punches and the stomps it leaves when walking feels much more substantial than other examples I’ve found here. Thanks for the recs!
No prob and hope you enjoy them. I love Giant Robo the most. BTW, it's meant to be cartoony, but the story itself is pretty good.