Relevant media (recommend me mecha movies)

[jonbro]

Hey Folks, I would like to get some relevant media to watch while I build my mecha, and I am not really sure where to start. I think part of the issue is that anime tends towards the sprawling storylines, but if someone could give me their top 10 list of what to watch, that would be greatly appreciated.

[Forged]

Appleseed - Just the first one, not the sequel. It's a movie so it won't take forever to watch.

I can't think of any other real stand out ones off the top of my head.

[potsticker]

Macross Frontier
08th MS Team

are suggestions for Real Robot style shows to watch

Zone of the Enders 2
Armored Core
Virtual On
R.A.D.
Super Robot Wars OG

are good mecha video games

Top wo Nerae 2: Diebuster
Godannar
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
GaoGaiGar
Dancouga

are good Super Robot shows

[Dukayn]

Appleseed - Just the first one, not the sequel. It's a movie so it won't take forever to watch.

I second this suggestion.

[ferrelferret]

Macross Frontier
08th MS Team

are suggestions for Real Robot style shows to watch

I second these. SDF Macross is good too. And, 08th is my favorite Gundam.

~ferret~

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[potsticker]

I'm not a fan of most Gundam shows, but I'll recommend 08th MS Team every time.

[OrangeKNight]

Potsticker, I think you got the groupings mixed up! ;p

AS far as Gundam Goes, I found THIS on Tumblr recently, a good guide to 'all' the series. For me, I still hold Gundam Wing as the best Series, partially because it's really what got me into Mecha, and it doesn't really deal with the traditional BS some of the other series do (LOVE TRIANGLES FFFFFFFF-)

08th MS Team is also very cool, it does a great job of really showing the scale of Mobile Suits.

AS far as some other series, You can try Code Geass, the Mechas are pretty close to MFZ scale, and the first season is pretty good, but the story doesn't tie itself up well....or at all, and the second season......just gets worse the longer it goes on IMO. Basically in the first season, everything scales up nicely, like you'd expect, but in the second season just scales up exponentially without much sense or reason.

I totally second GaoGaiGar thought, it's totally awesome, the first 20-ish Episodes are so-so, but during these they do the required build up in tools/allies to make the rest totally awesome. Worth EVERY MINUTE, and don't forget the OVA, GaoGaiGar FINAL. Also, I'm not ashamed to say, but I teared up at several parts during the series. Big ass MANLY TEARS!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is awesome as well.

Also, while not techinally Mecha, Ghost in the Shell is required watching for anyone who likes Sci-fi, GitS has 2 seasons() called 1st and 2nd Gig, but also 3 Movies as well.

Mike

[Soren]

My first reaction to Gundam Wing is usually DROP A COLONY ON IT, but man, I love me some Leos. So, maybe drop a colony on most of it. Start with things that are short, though, regardless of taste. 50 episodes is not short.

Stuff I really, really like:
- Classic UC Gundam (First/0079, War In the Pocket/0080, Stardust Memory/0083, Zeta, F91, Unicorn)
- Gunbuster (short, sweet, unexpectedly touching.)
- Giant Robo (So fun! So pulpy! So far over the top it's an underground hit.)

Stuff that I think is a good entry point and thematically relevant to MFZ, along with whys:
- Macross: Do You Remember Love? (Movie version of the TV series. Beautiful animation, cuts out all the stupid parts without sacrificing any of the good bits. If/when we have good transformation rules, they'll probably play a lot like the combat sequences here. You can watch it in an evening.)
-OR-
- Macross Plus (Gorgeous animation. Tells a pretty good story containing some fairly messed-up &^%$. 4 episode, works out to, again, a pretty satisfying evening.)

- Gundam F91 (For the opening battle in the colony if nothing else - disjointed because it's only a movie trying to cover a lot of territory, but very, very pretty. Contains a pretty good capsule sampling of most of my favorite Gundam tropes. Also, short enough to watch in an evening.)
-OR-
- Gundam Unicorn (Aesthetically unimpeachable. Juggles a lot of competing plot and aesthetic demands pretty seamlessly. Filled with truly breathtaking, intense combat. Requires some background in the universe to keep your footing all the way through, though. 6 episodes, not finished yet.)

- Patlabor Movie 1 (For the realest of Real Robots. Wonderful, offbeat characterization. Just exceptionally well-made. Another satisfying evening.)
-OR-
- Armored Trooper VOTOMS (Because you'll understand large portions of the aesthetic we were inspired by, the art is terrible in a kind of brilliant way, and it's actually incredibly well-written in a way that sneaks up on you. Great battles - brutal and grimy. 52 episodes, polish it off with a buddy over a month and a half like J did - but it's a commitment, with a slow payoff, so don't make it your first thing.)

[Alejandro]

Patlabor 1 and 2 are two very good movies. No some many mechas but great storyline.

[potsticker]

Potsticker, I think you got the groupings mixed up! ;p

Haha, well it made sense to me while I was typing it up. XD

SDF Macross, Macross Plus, and Gunbuster are all good as well-- and some might find it heretical, but I enjoyed Robotech over the two non-Macross shows that were incorporated into it. The Robotech Battlecry videogame was pretty fun as well.

[Talusmouse]

My personal favorite mech series now is Broken Blade. Their making the anime into movies rather then episodes which is nice a lot more bang for the buck, and less cutting out of the manga.

[Malcolm_Craig]

Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Pailsen Files is total tosh story-wise, but the action scenes are great. And, appropriately, it's basically about an MFZ company. The animation is a very nice combination of traditional drawn stuff and CGI.

Cheers,
Malcolm

[Mantisking]

I know it's a Trade Paperback, not a movie, but I think Hellcyon fits.

[Ryujin]

While on the subject of TPB's, you might as well pick up the manga of Appleseed, even though Shirow stopped doing it after 4 volumes & some databooks.

For some of the older, short-but-sweet stuff where you'll mostly be turning off your ability for rational thought & paying more attention to the smallish-sized mecha than the story:

Metalskin Panic MADOX-01
Venus Wars (granted, no bipeds, but Makoto Kobayashi-designed supertanks vs monocycles with railguns)
Dragon's Heaven (Makoto Kobayashi, 'nuff said)
Gall Force
M.D. Geist (this has a...reputation for all the wrong reasons, btw) CAN'T STOP! HE'S JUST A SOLDIER. Also, M.D. stands for MOST DANGEROUS
Megazone 23 parts 1-3

[Ced23Ric]

Neo Genesis Evangelion (target audience: adolescents) & Fafnir in the Azure (NGE knockoff for 13 year olds).

[potsticker]

Venus Wars (granted, no bipeds, but Makoto Kobayashi-designed supertanks vs monocycles with railguns)

Good call. I remember that being a pretty great movie, if even only for the designs of everything. Now I really want to field a frame as a squad of microscale monobikes.

[The Trilobite]

I dug what seemed to me to be a low-end internal security exoskeleton in "District 9". That's just an interesting and enjoyable movie anyway.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

It's a damn fine movie by a truly excellent director who really understands science fiction. I have some rather embarrassingly fawning posts about him on my blog.

Check out his shorts, starting with the one that became District 9.
This one is the first thing of his that I saw and, in fact, relates to a future MFØ component.

[Edit: Oh, man. I forgot about this heartbreaker.]

[Mantisking]

I know it's a Trade Paperback, not a movie, but I think Hellcyon fits.

I did a review on my blog.

[XGundam05]

Hope I'm not in the realm of necro'ing a thread, but I noticed that no one mentioned Full Metal Panic (FMP, FMP Fumoffu, FMP The Second Raid). Great mech designs imho. And let's face it, it'd be hilarious to see a team of Fumoffu exo-suits fielded >.>

Another one, at least for the opening exo-suits if nothing else, is Vexille. CG Anime like Appleseed, and just as well done.