Forum - View topic'Realistic' mecha anime
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major_pain
 Posts: 46 Location: Down the six thousand steps~ |
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I was watching the new trailer for Chromehounds, and it got me wondering; are there any realistic mecha anime?
Now I know that 'realistic' and 'mechs' don't really belong together because, well, a giant walking tank is most definately not realistic what with it being so inefficient and so much less effective than a standard tank (at least with current technology), but let me try to explain what I mean. (And I am most definately not trying to start a retarded "zOMG you idiot, mechs are so much koolerz than normal tanks" argument, lets not even go there  )
I don't really go for the whole mecha thing, the only mecha anime's that I've seen are a little bit of gundam, mars daybreak, and Eva, and the one thats most similar to what I'm trying to describe would be Eva, and that's even a bit of a stretch. I guess what I mean most when I say 'realistic' is being very similar to how things are currently in the military/wars. Sort of like a modern day conflict involving tanks, except instaid of tanks there's mechs. Probably the best way to understand what I'm trying to say would be to check out the first Chromehounds trailer, as its pretty much exactly what I'm trying to describe. (the first one mind you, the second one is utter bullshit and is all about showing off the multiplayer.) Also, I haven't seen Full Metal Panic/the Second Raid, but I've heard about them, and they kind of sound like they fit the glove, or am I not even close? |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7992 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I love mech shows of every variety but if you're looking for more down to Earth mecha shows I'd suggest the likes of Full Metal Panic, Patlabor, and maybe Gasaraki although I haven't got arround to seeing that one yet. There's also the more down-scaled mecha in the Bubblegum Crisis universe which are more like personal powered suits.
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jaybug39
 Posts: 552 Location: Oregon, Is it FOOTBALL yet? |
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I agree with Kruszer about FMP. In that I believe this is moe akin to the direction that the US military is hoping to go. Still need a good small sized powerplant to go with the weapons suites currectly available. Either we'll get fusion power, or they'll have to go with hydrogen.
It seems to me that military sci-fi writers are thinking this is the way to go. I would think in about 30 years a sgt. Sagura could be driving around in one of those machines. Sorry, forgot what he called them. They don't do things that seem unbelievable in the not too distant future. Such as flight, and then walking. Ah that's the word, transmogrify! They don't transmogrify! really they are just a modern interpretation of the armored knights from the age of chivalry, sans cheval. I wonder how much of that"age of chivalry" had to do with the making of FMP? I am not so sure that humanity will create super-sized robots in the future. No one has yet to make a gun that can shoot Los Angeles from Iraq. (Although a Canadian was starting the work of producing such a weapon for Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf war. ) And no one even makes battleships anymore either. Some things are just too expensive to even think about putting into combat situations. I haven't seen anywhere near enough anime to be a good judge of "real", I do think FMP has come closest to that goal. |
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TwinSkies
Posts: 49 Location: Philippines |
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As a long-time mecha fan, I hate to say this but: I just don't see the humanoid form in the guise of a giant robot as a weapon to be practical.
There are simply too many locomotion issues that haven't been figured out yet, and then there's the problem of maintenance - a typical M1 Abrams needs at least several hours of down time being fixed at the motor pool after a routine patrol, what more an Arms Slave (FMP) or Mobile Suit? And on a note on the mecha in Gasaraki - remember that they didn't exactly have any real long-range clout. The 90-mm light cannon they were carrying pales in comparison to a full-powered 120-mm or 125-mm, but their strongest attribute was their maneuverability and flexibility - remmeber that they had to get close to the tanks to hurt them. A modern tank can engage targets out to 2km, and still have a 95% first-round hit. So if you look at these stats, it's more that that mechs complement the long range firepower and armor of tanks with the close range capability. At least that's how I would depoly them. Still, that never stopped mecha otaku from having fun! Not to mention, I think they built a prototype power suit in Japan - it's actually more of a set of mechanical legs - but it amplifies your leg strength, and it actually responds to your movement instantaneously! It was featured in Popular Science a few years back... On a second note: Regarding that gun that can shoot from Iraq to Canada - That's the Harp gun, I presume? The Germans built a similar cannon back in the 30's, they called it the Paris Gun. It was designed to fire from Berlin all the way into the French capital of Paris. Then there's the 800-mm Gustav, the largest cannon ever built. They built that to punch through the Marginot line all the way from Germany. 
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TranceLimit174
 Posts: 960 |
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I haven't seen it, but I've heard that a great mecha anime that falls closer to realism is Armored Troopers Votoms. One of the interesting things about it is that the mecha in that series are treated like weapons in the sense of the military. I.E. one character is not assigned to one particular unit. Sure they have preferences but a different robot is more suitable for a different task. Same idea as not using a pistol if the job is sniping. If I can save up enough cash I may try to get my hands on the recent collectors release that will be out (then again I already have a Tekkaman Blade fund).
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jaybug39
Posts: 552 Location: Oregon, Is it FOOTBALL yet? |
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Maintenance is maintenance. Unless you make it plug-n-play. Could be you just have a central core, and the arms and legs get removed for maintenance and re-loading. It may make more sense to have the arms and legs identical.
In Aliens II, wasn't that a plug-in CAT (Caterpillar) that was used to load cargo? I couldn't find evidence if it was a working robot or not. As opposed to being a "muppet." A "Paris" gun was from WWI. And was forbidden afterwards at the treaty of Versailles. The germans did invent a gun named "Thor" that was part of the Blitzkrieg of WWII, it was used to pound Warsaw into submission. This was not the biggest gun, but was the largest that was not rail mounted. The difficulty of hauling around 800 pound shells prohibited extensive use of this gun throughout the war. See "The World at War" series. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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Full Metal Panic is probably the closest you are going to get to 'real' mecha. However, based on what I've heard of Patlabor, I think it is fairly realistic in its presentation of its mecha.
The U.C. Gundam series tend to be more realistic than your typical mecha show. The most realistic ones are probably 08th MS Team and 0080: War in the Pocket. The original movie trilogy and Zeta Gundam are not as realistic but they still try to stay grounded in their own reality and stick to real physics as much as possible. Also, U.C. Gundam series have a realistic reason for using mechs. Something called 'minovsky particles' had made radar and/or long-range weapons unfeasable. I don't know all of the details on that though. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Haven't the later versions of Transformers had realistic robots when they're transformed into their vehicle forms?
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x_silversurfer
 Posts: 163 Location: Hotel California |
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I would say that Gasaraki's Mechs seem to be the most realistic (despite the oddities about them... I'm offering no spoilers here) and that all the war machines are pretty realistic for a near-future war.
Also, The battles are pretty realistic, with ammo runing out and power issues, as well as interface, etc. I would guess that if mechs were to ever be created then Gasaraki's would be the closest to what they might look like. Khrim |
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opaquescum
Posts: 235 |
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Well the entire maintanance issue is a difficult one to go into, but not all tanks are abrams. The issue there is the same issue with panzers in WW2. They, and many nato tanks are built like swiss watches. With thousands of working parts. It goes back to the concept in engineering which is KISS Keep it simple stupid. You want low maintanance on anything you need to streamline, and keep only that which is effective.
If anyone has HBO I strongly advise if you get the chance to watch the movie pentagon wars. To see how a simple concept gets overly complicated, and see how a low maint vehicle. Can become a high maint vehicle. I too would recommend gasaraki. I would also suggest you look into some american animation. In the late 90s there were a slew of american mech series. Series like exo squad, and more importantly mech warrior. Were very deep mechanics wise. I would also recommend Roughnecks the starship troopers chronicles. That series had very well thought out mechs where they function explicitly as tanks. Also to get a small fix of mecha check out Ghost in the shell SAC. There are mechs in that seriies that are realistic. I think they are called tachkomas, or something like that. |
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x_silversurfer
Posts: 163 Location: Hotel California |
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Yeah, with all that you wrote, i caught that you are either a huge War Otaku like Sousuke from Full Metal Panic!, or were in the armed forces such as myself. After seeing and studying modern war machines, I came to that conclusion not only on the mech of Gasaraki, but pretty much everything about it. The other tanks and such in the anime was hugely realistic as well as the battle (keep in mind it was made long before these wars started). spoiler[The fact that Nato would be fighting an terrorist organizaion that was multi-national, and that it would all start from one nation's action was phenominally correct! Also, the nation just being a pawn in the terrorist organization's plots was acurate as well.] It is because of these traits that Gasakraki is far superior to any other anime out there right now on the terms of realism, mech or otherwise.
The AI tanks? not really... hah I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there. Those tanks, though real, hold a lot of "duds" when it comes to technology... The "steel strands" it shoots out of it's sides is a little unbelieveable, not to mention the ammo... like, where does it come from? the storage capacity in those arms to fire a gatling gun is a little outrageous... I suppose that they could be probable when more technology comes out in the future, but as of yet, I do not want to commit to any decisions on weather or not these are completely plausable. Unless that is you were speaking of the mobile armors that the "bad guys" wear (yeah, I'm keeping away from spoilers). They are pretty realistic, though I would have to say that the armor takes a grenade to the chest a couple of times, and if you've ever seen what a grenade can do in real life, you wouldn't think that it wuld last... I would also like to point out that I am just talking about today's grenades, which are far superior to those used in the Vietnam and Korean wars, and not to mention that in the 2nd GIG of SAC, they mention briefly about how the americans no longer use C-4 and have begun using something like M119... I assume this to be a more reliable and potent explosive and as such putting the same abount into a grenade would have devistating results. However, I do have to digress and offer a counter point that new metals will be invented in the future that can withstand temperatures greater then 5000 degrees F (this is the normal temperature caused by today's incendiary grenade which normally melts through the most advanced metals and alloys known to man), but hey, they haven't been invented yet so I don't know... Also, notice how the armors have 4 arms? The small ones are the operator's arms and they are left basically unarmored except for some light weight body armor... Highly unrelistic, and to make one in the near future would be extremely unpractical and unefficient. (without getting into as much detail as before... if you wuold like me to though, I can) Still sticking with Gasaraki. Khrim |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18400 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Let me also add my vote in for Gasaraki as the ultimate anime example of a "realistic" mecha title. Despite the mystical elements that occasionally creep in, Gasaraki is as hard-core technical as mecha ever gets. It deals with numerous practical issues about mecha that most other series overlook and takes a very plausible approach to how they might move and be used tactically. The technical detail on the artistry is also probably the best ever for mecha. Full Metal Panic! doesn't even come remotely close.
Of course, it should also be noted that the superb technical detail is the only compelling reason to watch what is otherwise a rather dreary series with a plot so dense it risks implosion. |
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Digital Dreamer
 Posts: 287 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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When I think REALISTIC, it also the believability of the characters in the show too that I look at. |
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x_silversurfer
Posts: 163 Location: Hotel California |
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True true, then again there is large amounts of eye candy... And by that I mean the Guns! The detail on the other weaponry is out of this world! I was comparing screen shots to the real thing at a gun show once and some of them looked more realistic then the actual gun... Go figure. EDIT ((I was trying to pull a Sagara Sousuke from FMP! where he always mixes everything up, like where people would think "girls," him and I think guns.. Like Sagara, I am a huge Weapon Otaku, real and fake. That is all, thanks ))
I wonder how they actually got that good at drawing them (even as they are firing). I heard that you aren't allowed to own a gun in Japan unless you are a cop or something... I kinda doubt that is true but then again... Oh, I was going somewhere with that, I remember reading somewhere that the artists all went to taiwan before starting the series so that they could fire the guns that they were going to draw. I think it was in Annimerica. But yeah, that anime is outrageously realistic! Khrim Last edited by x_silversurfer on Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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opaquescum
Posts: 235 |
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Actually the quality of future armor is probabally far supperior then most would imagine. For a long time the technology was at a virtual standstill. When you can find real technical discussion on the subject it blows your mind. With recent innovations in supercooling for instance. You have a totally new class of metals. You might not remember a few years ago when the developement of glassy metal was showed on television, but that stuff was utterly impressive, and the science behind it is equally so. The metal that was displayed on television. Could reflect almost 100 percent of the kinetic energy directed upon it. They dropped the metal ball on a iron plate and it bounced there for many minutes before finally comeing to a rest. Add onto that all the technologies being born in crystal formation, and composites.
The point being I suppose is we cannot really use old armor as a fair comparisson anymore. The technology now is in a huge growth spell. Ten years from now the situation maybe armor multiple times stronger, lighter, and more reactive. |
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