The mecha fan's plight

[Nsensei]

If you've been a fan of a less-successful mecha anime, you might relate: No new seasons or movies, no news on if they'll continue the series and a general void left in your heart longing for a continuation of one of your favourite stories.

With the revival of patlabor after 10 years through "Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor: EZY" and votoms after 15 years of silence through "Soukou Kihei Votoms: Haiiro no Hexe", I have been made to remember different series that I would want to see a revival of.

An anime duly deserving of a "reboot" is one of my favourite mechas; super dimension fortress macross. It has been 10 years as of 2026 since the last macross series and that being macross Δ, while the IP has been kept alive through concerts it really is high time to make a new macross anime. While I personally haven't watched macross Δ (don't blame me it's macross but with idols) and have only watched up to macross frontier, so I can't say anything about the quality of delta, but as a fan of the original sdf macross it feels wrong for the last macross anime to be about idols in variable fighters. I would kill for the chance of a return to origins anime maybe even in a new timeline/universe to allow for artistic freedom, where the thought of idols flying in fighters and singing at the same time would be laughed at. Even though I liked macross frontier, it was a good "remake" of the original sdf macross at best, it missed the mark with the enemies because it focused too much on the scare factor of them. I might be asking for way too much, but I'd love to see a new macross that takes itself seriously and actually forces you to think about the enemy as more than just "the enemy".

If you've read this far . I feel like my rambling is incoherent and I'm getting flashbacks to my mother tongue matriculation exam with the lenght of the text, but it's nice to vent some frustration at the genre you love. As a final engagement boost; what mecha would you want to see a "revival" of?

[RadioHades]

Just cherish what you already got, really, or you'll get another Darling in the Franxx. What did you think about Invisible Victory, though?

One question to the mecha-master: am I a mecha fan if I only like it when it's an element of an already good anime? Which means to hell with the low budget stuff made to sell toys or shonen elements like "screaming louder in the robot makes me stronger!".

Loved: Patlabor (mostly the 3 movies), Eva, FMP!, The Big O.
Appreciated: Gunbuster/Diebuster, Escaflowne, TTGL.
Disliked: Gun x Sword (review), Votoms, Gundam, Macross except a few grounded OAVs I found decent (08th MS Team, Last Red Shoulder, Do You Remember Love?), so mostly the older shows; no experience with Giant Robo.

Still have to watch Kidou Senkan Nadesico and Blue Gender.

[Nsensei]

Just cherish what you already got, really, or you'll get another Darling in the Franxx. What did you think about Invisible Victory, though?

Don't come at me for this, but I haven't watched fmp! It's on my to-watch list, but recently I haven't been watching many mecha/scifi animes after I watched gundam up to hathaway's flash. Writing this thread and seeing your reply has made me start to watch more mecha from my to-watch list and for that

One question to the mecha-master: am I a mecha fan if I only like it when it's an element of an already good anime? Which means to hell with the low budget stuff made to sell toys or shonen elements like "screaming louder in the robot makes me stronger!".

I don't think I'm worthy of the title of "mecha-master" yet, it's 10 years too early for that but you've made me think harder about the genre as a whole. Mecha can really be described as a sub-genre of scifi where for some reason humanoid pilotable robots were seen as a net positive to develop. If you liked every mecha under the sun, would you still be yourself? Having an opinion and sometimes a contradictory opinion to the popular opinion is exactly what makes you, you and it's always better to think for yourself rather than parrot the opinions of others. Mecha as a genre at the end of the day is a pretty wide genre, as in there are vastly different types of mecha.

In the same vein an isekai fan is still an isekai fan even if they don't like fantasy. For example Muv-luv Alternative and Unlimited are both isekai stories.

It's hard to draw a line of what makes someone a mecha fan, if there was a fantasy anime with mechs operated entirely by magic and the mechs had an integral part in the story, it would still be mecha and a fan of that would be a type of mecha fan and I'd have a hard time saying otherwise. But for example something like aot isn't a mecha in my eyes, though that brings into question evangelion. Short answer; if you like badass robots piloted by badass pilots (or wimpy in case of Shinji) you're a mecha fan.

I suggest you watch appleseed, based on you liking patlabor.