Specifically focusing on this thread t/215311

Of all the genres that exist Mecha seem to be the most abundantly hated and while Yaoi and Sports are both common there is a noticeable trend with Mecha anime. Basically looking at the MAL pages of those who claim to hate Mecha the few that they have seem often receive high scores notably Gurren Lagann and Code Geass.

The reason often stated is they enjoy them for reasons separate from the mechs but that just begs the question of what they believe the status quo of Mecha is? And with the case of Gurren Lagann it spends a great deal paying homage to older Super Robot Shows with characters resembling those from the Getter Robo franchise, Mech designs inspired from Muteki Choujin Zambot 3 as well as many nods to Top wo Nerae! and stuff as old as Mazinger Z. Other popular show such as Aldnoah Zero and Kakumeki Valvrave both are just poor quality Gundam rip-offs. Even Evangelion among the most influential series' to the current state of the anime landscape owes some credit to Densetsu Kyoujin Ideon and the more morbid Gundam entries.

This begs the question as to why is there such a stigma that stops people realizing their 'exceptions' to the mecha genre are just as typical as anything else a mecha fan would celebrate.

Entry into the world of mecha is intimidating. It's golden age passed in the 1980s and continues to get older every year often alienating new fans acclimatized to modern styles and often seeking the instant gratification of consuming 12 episode shows en masse leaving the commitment for Mechas big hitters exhausting.
Additionally Mecha is most rewarding viewed in large numbers witnessing the history and developments of trends much different to the modern approach of comsume and forget each series as an individual entity.

I've always been of the opinion that an anime isn't bad because of the genre it belongs to and it is particularly depressing seeing the clueless decrying hundreds of shows because of something they never were.

I used to dislike mecha anime. It seemed gimmicky or highly unrealistic, even by anime standards. I mean come on, incredible amounts of technology and the most ideal form of these war machines is in our image? Pretty impractical. That being said I've gotten over this qualm along with most of my genre dislikes.

So why do people dislike mecha? Because they're probably new to anime and have high standards and have yet to realize 90 percent of what's put out is trash and its just best to enjoy shows for themselves.

I thought you were dead.

I guess not.

OP's back

Mecha hate? hmmm, maybe it depends on what the person likes, maybe he/she likes pure school/romance ones and have no other interest on other genre. It's like me before, I only watch those school romance anime ones and when a friend recommended me a mecha one, I was like "naaa, I do not like it"

Holy shit son you're alive?!

The hating on mecha is completely a personal thing. It's not something you begin to hate just because you saw a mecha anime you dislike. Most of the time when I see a mecha anime I won't even think of watching it. I don't have any "real reason" to hate on it, I just dislike it because it is not of my taste. This may apply also to Mahou Shoujo, Yuri, Yaoi etc. for some.

Idiots using 'hate' as if it's a word they should be throwing around so easily...
Just because you dislike something doesn't mean you hate it and just because you don't like something doesn't mean you dislike it.
There is a line between like and dislike and that line is called indifference; when you're simply not interested in something.
They don't hate mecha anime nor do they dislike it, they are just indifferent to it.

To answer why they're indifferent to it is due to the advancement in anime and advancement to popular culture as a whole. The reason the mecha genre began was because during those times, many people believed in a near future in which there would be flying cars and many other futuristic mechanisms. Anime was a medium which made fantasies into reality. They wanted over the top action with big explosions and big weapons yet they wanted something at least resembling human to make it easier for people to accept rather than having something look foreign and alien; taking advantage of popular culture which fantasized about futuristic mechanisms, the mecha genre was born and rose anime in popularity. The late 80s though was the turning point for the mecha genre due to the introduction of manga/anime such as Hokuto no Ken, Dragonball and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure; stories inspired by the Chinese use of Qi that featured humans using a supernormal form of energy resembling Qi to achieve superhuman feats. This genre which would later be called shounen/action became a replacement for the mecha genre. Why watch robots that look like humans fighting each other when you can watch humans with superpowers fight each other instead?
Dragonball Z was a prime example of a replacement for the mecha genre and a big reason as to why it was so popular; big explosive fights with flying 'humans' shooting lasers from their hands which the story explained to be highly concentrated Ki, Dragonball's form of Qi. Replace a few words in that sentence and I'm basically summarising a Gundam fight yet the fact that 'humans' were fighting and not robots made it alot more approachable for people. The characters of shounen did not grow stronger through upgrades, they grew stronger developing their own strength and attacks on each other felt alot more impactful due to the skin to skin contact. The idea of it was alot more interesting to people.

With the audience of the mecha genre growing older and newer, younger audiences being introduced, shounen anime grew and grew to completely overshadow the mecha genre and make it a thing of the past. Gone too are the days in which a good majority of people fantasized about a future with flying cars. Fantasizing about flying cars and mechs became a futuristic fantasy of the past, something you'd associate with older generations and kids/teenagers being the main demographic of anime/manga they share a common stigma; they don't care or like to take interest on things that are old.

This applies to nearly all kids and it used to apply to me too. Originally I grew up on both shounen anime and Gundam yet after moving to a country which didn't air any mecha anime but still aired Dragonball, I slowly grew to become indifferent to mecha anime as I subconsciously thought of it as something old. With that being said, the genre is not as different as all the other anime genres, anime in general are rather stale regardless of what genre they are.

Vieira wrote:

SPOILER

The hating on mecha is completely a personal thing. It's not something you begin to hate just because you saw a mecha anime you dislike. Most of the time when I see a mecha anime I won't even think of watching it. I don't have any "real reason" to hate on it, I just dislike it because it is not of my taste. This may apply also to Mahou Shoujo, Yuri, Yaoi etc. for some.

Pre-Madoka I would be inclined the agree with you about Mahou Shoujo being in a similar vein but nowadays I think sport is more unfairly dismissed critics often labeling them pandering with their attractive male casts forgetting the reality that most of these are shounen series. With Yuri and Yaoi I could write a whole other thread on how people get these wrong.
But even then most modern fans have a particular propensity against Mecha much more than any other genre often naturally avoiding them. You yourself include Mecha in the list of genres you dislike in that thread and the only Mecha show you've seen is one episode of TTGL. While MAL includes Date-A-Live and Mai-Hime as mech shows you probably understand why I'm not including them.
My issue is more about why people avoid the genre I'd be fine if they gave it an actual try and concluded they didn't like what it had to offer.

EneT wrote:

SPOILER

Idiots using 'hate' as if it's a word they should be throwing around so easily...
Just because you dislike something doesn't mean you hate it and just because you don't like something doesn't mean you dislike it.
There is a line between like and dislike and that line is called indifference; when you're simply not interested in something.
They don't hate mecha anime nor do they dislike it, they are just indifferent to it.

To answer why they're indifferent to it is due to the advancement in anime and advancement to popular culture as a whole. The reason the mecha genre began was because during those times, many people believed in a near future in which there would be flying cars and many other futuristic mechanisms. Anime was a medium which made fantasies into reality. They wanted over the top action with big explosions and big weapons yet they wanted something at least resembling human to make it easier for people to accept rather than having something look foreign and alien; taking advantage of popular culture which fantasized about futuristic mechanisms, the mecha genre was born and rose anime in popularity. The late 80s though was the turning point for the mecha genre due to the introduction of manga/anime such as Hokuto no Ken, Dragonball and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure; stories inspired by the Chinese use of Qi that featured humans using a supernormal form of energy resembling Qi to achieve superhuman feats. This genre which would later be called shounen/action became a replacement for the mecha genre. Why watch robots that look like humans fighting each other when you can watch humans with superpowers fight each other instead?
Dragonball Z was a prime example of a replacement for the mecha genre and a big reason as to why it was so popular; big explosive fights with flying 'humans' shooting lasers from their hands which the story explained to be highly concentrated Ki, Dragonball's form of Qi. Replace a few words in that sentence and I'm basically summarising a Gundam fight yet the fact that 'humans' were fighting and not robots made it alot more approachable for people. The characters of shounen did not grow stronger through upgrades, they grew stronger developing their own strength and attacks on each other felt alot more impactful due to the skin to skin contact. The idea of it was alot more interesting to people.

With the audience of the mecha genre growing older and newer, younger audiences being introduced, shounen anime grew and grew to completely overshadow the mecha genre and make it a thing of the past. Gone too are the days in which a good majority of people fantasized about a future with flying cars. Fantasizing about flying cars and mechs became a futuristic fantasy of the past, something you'd associate with older generations and kids/teenagers being the main demographic of anime/manga they share a common stigma; they don't care or like to take interest on things that are old.

This applies to nearly all kids and it used to apply to me too. Originally I grew up on both shounen anime and Gundam yet after moving to a country which didn't air any mecha anime but still aired Dragonball, I slowly grew to become indifferent to mecha anime as I subconsciously thought of it as something old. With that being said, the genre is not as different as all the other anime genres, anime in general are rather stale regardless of what genre they are.

I think the general trend is true for the anime generations who got into anime from the big three, those who were introduced by Deathnote and those introduced by AOT and SAO. Even those who have never had much history with mecha seem naturally inclined against it.

I think it may be more due to inaccessibility. Additionally not very much discussion to drive others into seeking it out which punishes older anime as a whole and apathy for historically important titles.

As someone who watches the mecha genre, I can say that I tend to like them because they look pretty and I love the designs. I have a semi-large collection of mecha models because of this. Some even from mecha anime I haven't even seen, as they just look interesting. There are, of course, other factors to me liking parts of the anime such as the music or characters that really pulls me into a show. For example, while I don't think Aldnoah Zero is really all that great with regards to it's story, I really love Hiroyuki Sawano's work (composer, who also did Attack on Titan, Guilty Crown, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, upon others) so that gets me more into the show that I'm watching. I might be in the minority on that.

That being said, I find that mecha anime can have poor stories and the poor story is a common complaint I hear from other people who I talked to, who watch anime. I've heard that some of the older anime tend to have better or more original story ideas. I haven't watched Evangelion, Gundam Wing, Guren Lagen or Code Geass, but anyone I know who has watched them, likes them because they do have decent to strong stories. Personally, if I want something with really strong stories, I'll watch something in a different genre (though, there are exceptions like Gundam 00, whose story I quite enjoyed). Mecha anime can fall into the trap of "this is war, that's the story". The newer stuff simply don't pump out really strong stories.

Yeah, some genres have different tendencies and maybe that's why some genres are hated more than others for different reasons. Just a personal preference type deal. It's like music. I personally like rock, but not rap. Certain people will be the opposite. Some genres are just more popular because it appeals to a larger audience. There is an audience for mecha anime. It's just smaller.

Of course, then you get the people who haven't given them a fair shot and just dismiss mecha anime, saying they hate it. Can't do much about that.

That's just my opinion anyway.

Kinda dislike it, not my taste

but its not like I hate mecha tho.

And what Mecha shows have you seen and what about them led you to that conclusion?

We really need a discussion on 'taste' because it is not a hand waiving rationalisation for every position under the sun. You can discuss the issues and preferences that underpin your tastes. I don't know how people even function without some examination into why they like/dislike certain things.

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Darling in the Franxx is kinda like Qualidea Code

Meah wrote:

Darling in the Franxx is kinda like Qualidea Code

And it's still similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Y'know, Trigger just stole several methods and plot moments (e.g. doctor Franxx's story is very similar to Ikari Gendo's). After all, two workers left Gainax and formed Trigger. Both were working on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
The plot, whatever one may say, still reminds of NGE. Unknown crap is trying to kill humanity and only teens can save everyone. Isn't there something suspicious? Hmm...

i used to dislike them as i found them just not my type but darling in the franxx changed that for me but it's the only mecha anime i can watch, i've tried other ones they just don't have the same vibe