Japanese Anime comes in all shapes and size, it covers a huge number of subjects and genres. From fantasy, sci-fi , comedy, romance to cooking and almost anything else you can imagine.
One of the genres that captured my imagination the most was the “Giant Robot” or “Mecha” anime.
The idea of huge robotic battle suits always seemed incredibly cool to me. I grew up watching transformers in the 80′s so I guess its always been part of my “things that are awesome” genetic makeup.
Let me give you a brief overview of some mecha anime series and movies that I think are worth checking out.
Patlabor The Movie- Released in 1989 the film is set in a near future Tokyo, were the city is undergoing a huge redevelopment project using “labours” robots that are either controlled by pilots or automatic. As you and probably guess it all goes a bit wrong and the labours go on the rampage. Its a classic that you should check out for sure.
Neon Genesis Evangelion – What starts off as a fairly simply boy in giant robot fights evil giant aliens before they can destroy futuristic Tokyo. The series becomes quite complicated and in depth and at times very weird. Fear not however there is still plenty of giant robots shooting each other for those who don’t care so much about the plot
The Vision of Escaflowne – One of the few things I enjoy more than giant robots, is giant robots with swords and Escaflowne is perfect for that. The story is centred around a girl call Hitomi Kanzaki who is transported to a strange planet on which she can see the earth and its moon in the sky. Being on this planet unleashes her latent psychic powers as she is drawn into a war brought about by an empire searching for the power of Atlantis….You’ve got to love the insane drama of these stories.
Transformers – Special mention must go to what is my all time favourite cartoon. Perhaps not strictly speaking anime, though its roots do lie in Japan. Everything about the original Transformers series is amazing to me. I used to run around with my friends pretending to transform while making the ccheeeechooocchhaaachaaaa noise. If you have only ever seen the hideous Michael Bay movies please watch the originals and see what transformers is supposed to be.
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