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Glossary Entry : Mecha
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I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason behind the existence of the Giant Robot genre. There's certainly no doubt it exists with lots of material having been made and the term even being recognised amongst fandom. It may well be some sort of symbol of technology, it may be because it translates from `guy in suit' live action stuff, or it may just have seemed like a good idea at the time. In any case it has been recognized that giant robot anime, whether transforming or not, allows for epic Tokyo crushing combats and hugely destructive weapons. It also enables a relatively small cast to acquire a special status and wield an impressive amount of power, whether they want to or not. Of course the cynical will point at that it also enables very lucrative toys toy be made and sold, but there are some good animes within this genre. Unlike other genres it should be fairly easy to spot a member of this genre. If you see a robot many times the size of a man stomping around then there's a pretty good chance you've got your hands on a Mecha video. The archetypal series for giant robots is probably the endless Gundam series (or Robotech if you're a western fan).
Written: Mon Feb 19 16:16:06 EST 2001Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:50 WST 2009