do you think the mecha genre ever could or will be revived

the west fundamentally doesn't understand what makes a mecha series compelling, so no.

>revived
When was it alive before?

>>13924331
>that pic
How does that deviantart tier art get on TV?

>>13924707
>Insulting Genndy
Get out

>>13924711
He's right, only the robot looks not bad.

>>13924711
He drew that? Did he break his hand or get brain damage or something?

File: 1444369432933.png (170KB, 382x346px) Image search: [Google]

170KB, 382x346px

Well this thread is off to a brilliant start.

You know what?
Fuck the west
Robot is an Asian thing and will always be Asian

File: robot_bastard_2_by_rob_schrab.jpg (248KB, 600x727px) Image search: [Google]

248KB, 600x727px

>>13924692
This most of the time.

>>13924854
I wouldn't be that pessimistic. I just think the West needs more time to make more good mecha, and in turn that needs a chance to find its audience. I have faith in this.

File: Metropolis.jpg (103KB, 1041x793px) Image search: [Google]

103KB, 1041x793px

>>13924854
>Robot is an Asian thing and will always be Asian

File: st dance.gif (693KB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

693KB, 320x240px

SHE'S TWERKIN, MAGGLE

File: 2w3udz6.jpg (32KB, 320x480px)

32KB, 320x480px

>>13924707
Western animation is designed to be animated. Unless you have a million dollars to work with then doing more than four frames per second requires simplified character designs.

>>13924854
>>13924871
Piloted robots originated in Western fiction.

File: motorcity.jpg (54KB, 550x275px)

54KB, 550x275px

Why do all of Gennedy's shows get canceled?

>>13924696
During the days when that monkey robot show still aired.

>>13924925
Technically Samurai Jack wasn't cancelled, it was put on indefinite hiatus. An indefinite hiatus that's apparently ending, after years of fooling everyone into believing that it was just another way of saying, "cancelled."

File: srmthfg.jpg (75KB, 380x250px) Image search: [Google]

75KB, 380x250px

>>13924930
Holy shit I remember that show. Didn't it get kind of dark near the end?

>>13924692
Only rare weeaboos like Tartakovsky or Del Totoro understand what makes a mecha show work.

This is why PacRim 2 will suck - for all its flaws, Del Toro's movie felt heartfelt and genuine, but with a new non-weeb director they will constantly wink to the camera. As if going "yeah we know robots are silly, we know it's not real".

>>13924957
It was a tad dark the whole way through IMO, and pretty underrated too.

One ep that comes to mind is the one where cyborg bugs have conquered the future, and so come back to the past to devour everything. Some of the Monkey Team actually die offscreen and are only saved by time shenanigans.

>>13924949
but isn't it coming back?

>>13924963
I really need to watch that show again.

it can....whenever the Animation Age Ghetto fucks off and dies forever.

sure, we occasionally get a show like Regular show, where it's meant for older audiences, and can also be enjoyed by the younger

99% of the time, we get shit like Teen Titans Go, meant for young boys and alienating literally everyone else. how the fuck does this thing run for 8 1/2 hours a day again? (yes, I counted. it's depressing)


as for the topic, the western animation industry seems almost AFRAID of any sort of "Action Show", nevermind mecha. I can't even think of ONE Action Show in the west that DIDN'T get cancelled. Samurai Jack. Megas. even the shit ones like Totally Spies.

...now excuse me, I need the brain bleach for reminding myself of THAT show.

>>13925067
It isn't fully a action show, but the first Avatar wasn't cancelled. Honestly it shows that people would flock to one, but nobody wants to change their target audience.

>>13925080
Avatar was the exception rather than the rule in the mid-2000s. most shows in that time had a ham-sandwich budget, were "animated" in Flash exclusively, and were about as creative and original as white bread with butter on it.

and then this showed up. Effort. Budget. Creativity. people flocked to it!

Sure, Korra had an ending too, but it was treated pretty shitty by Nickelodeon. old habits die hard I suppose.

>>13925067
>I can't even think of ONE Action Show in the west that DIDN'T get cancelled.

Every show gets cancelled eventually. Even The Simpsons will end one day. 26 episodes or more is a pretty respectable run, and there are a lot of shows that surpass that number.

Transformers ran for 98 episodes. Batman The Animated Series had 85. Gargoyles ran for 78. Exo-Squad has 52 episodes, as do Samurai Jack and Batman Beyond.

The big problem is that nobody wants a repeat of the late 60's/early 70's, when parent groups went ballistic on Hanna-Barbera for "corrupting the youth" with "excessively violent" shows like Herculoids, Jonny Quest, and Space Ghost. Even up until the 90's we had to deal with all kinds of ridiculous rules surrounding what could and could not be shown in cartoons, which got us the infamous, "When Spider-Man lands on a rooftop he must not be shown to harm any pigeons" rule that the 90's Spider-Man show had. We've actually come quite a ways since then. Spider-Man's allowed to punch people now, on screen and everything.

>>13924907
Yes, but it's made popular with Japanese animation.
Until then nobody gives a damn about Tripod.

>>13925216
TRIPOD!!.....HAHAHAHA!!

It COULD. Problem is, not a lot of directors even want to try making a mecha show.

File: 2588606-titanfall+frontier's+edge.png (3MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1920x1080px

>>13924331
titanfall 2 and its show might be able to do it

>>13925278
What show?

>>13924331
The recent influx of UC Gundam and increase in gunpla availability is a step in the right direction. I'm a senior in college right now and I've definitely noticed an increase in people's awareness of mecha (specifically Gundam) over the past 4 years. We actually have a video game store that just opened up less than a block from campus that has a huge gunpla section. I don't think everyone around me is necessarily watching 1979 Gundam (they're turned off by the animation) but I have seen some students buying kits. They seem to treat it more like collecting pokemon than mechs from a show though. Its really weird. Regardless, awareness is increasing, so I'm willing to believe that at least a few of these kids will actually get into the genre.

>>13925333
>They seem to treat it more like collecting pokemon than mechs from a show though
Really? That's unexpected.

40k is alive, Battletech is alive. We don't need to be pumping out giant robot shows in the west to be consider western mecha alive.

>>13925297
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/titanfall-2-has-single-player-campaign-tv-spinoff-/1100-6434584/

>>13925356
>Battletech
>alive
>Battletech
>western mecha

>>13925370
Neat. I wonder if it'll be live action or animated.

While I vehemently disagree with >>13924692
I've long accepted that mecha is never going to be big in the west. If even Del Toro can't make giant robots punching monsters in the face with a Hollywood budget appeal to western audiences, I don't think any one can.

I think that western creators have gotten mecha multiple times, and it doesn't matter since those shows still never were hits and got canned. Exosquad, Big Guy and Rusty, and Megas are all shows that I think were well done, and ever single one of them had sponsors abandon them.

No matter how good the show is, it's not capturing audiences, and can't get past critics shouting
>GIANT ROBOTS ARE STUPID AND DO NOT WORK!

Look at your example. When Genndy came out with the idea the critics slammed him, hard.
>When even Genndy is forced to do giant robots and high school, it's proof this industry has ran out of ideas.

Even if a handful of creators and fans get it, the vast majority of people don't get it, and don't want others to get it.

>>13925389
The Western obsession with 'muh realism' fucking baffles me.

>>13925389
Transformers and Power Rangers are huge in the west, but in a way that's part of the problem. Everything else that involves giant robots is instantly lumped in with "kid's stuff" because that's what the two big franchises are considered to be. Tons of Pacific Rim reviews brought up Power Rangers, not to draw any actual comparisons, just to deride it by association.

>>13925406
Me too.

File: 1456337361057.jpg (1MB, 1719x1240px)

1MB, 1719x1240px

>>13925411
>Tons of Pacific Rim reviews brought up Power Rangers, not to draw any actual comparisons, just to deride it by association.
Like, professional reviews by critics?

>>13925422
>The squarest, clunkiest and certainly loudest movie of director Guillermo del Toro's career, a crushed-metal orgy that plays like an extended 3D episode of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" on very expensive acid.

- Justin Chang, Variety

http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-pacific-rim-1200535260/

>>13925434
Well, I read two paragraphs and I can see this moron shouldn't be reviewing movies for a living.

>>13925356
>Battletech
>alive
>Battletech
>western mecha

>>13925372
>>13925456

>Battletech
>alive
So dead it raised $2,785,537 on Kickstarter. Battletech's never going to a billion dollar thing, but that's not bad for a finicky 80's boardgame.

>Battletech
>western mecha
You know that they stopped using the Macross designs in 1994, right? They were just blacked out for a long time, and are now replaced by different designs. The issues with licensing were such a headache that it became policy to never use any artwork that wasn't produced in-house.

Why did you comment the same thing twice, anyway?

>>13925456
>>13925372
Did you have to repeat yourself?
There is plenty of original designs in battletech you retard,

>>13925406
>Superman
>Realism

It can be bypassed, it just matters about how you approach it.

>>13925467
You do realize that the last Superman outing was a gritty retelling, because films like the 1970's Superman films would be too campy for today's audience.

Superman's not the best example you could've used.

>>13924854
The west gave us Bionicle one of the apex /m/ franchises imo
>>13924957
I remember watching this show,loving it and getting pissed at the end.
Iirc Shiro,the human kid sacrifices himself and becomes a super huge ape (like early dbz saiyans huge) the black one died and came back and I think the blue one died too

>>13925619
>one of the apex /m/ franchises
>bionicle

>>13924331
>do you think the mecha genre ever could or will be revived in the west?
mecha was never much a thing for the west

File: HeavyGear-ants.jpg (27KB, 195x300px)

27KB, 195x300px

>>13924331
i think heavy gear would been great if it had war story than tournament one

>>13925658
I don't understand why they even bothered to pay for the license if they weren't going to use anything from it except for the title and some of the robot designs.

>>13925619
I don't think it had a proper finale. Just a cliffhanger into the final battle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kuw7wYN5nw

File: latest.png (437KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

437KB, 1280x720px

>>13924331
>Sym-Bionic Titan
A haiku:
I expected shit
But was great, to my surprise
Then it was cancelled

>>13924331
>do you think the mecha genre ever could or will be revived in the west?

yes, but you would hate it

>>13925206
On that note, Swat Kats can be considered a case in point of a show getting cancelled, simply because it was getting a wee bit dark.

>>13925067
Given today's conditions, it's a wonder that Tenkai Knights got a full 52-episode run. Yes, it's a West/Asia co-production that relied on toys, but still.

>>13925202
>Nickelodeon
Meanwhile, Power Rangers can only air a full installment over two years, while SpongeBob gets more episodes (though at least Hillenburg's coming back for that).

>>13925658
>>13925668
IIRC, it had to do with the fact that the Starship Troopers series was also in development at the same time, so the suits decided that it wasn't good to have two war stories airing on TV...

>>13925349
That does says things of those designs.

>>13925406
Me fucking too. I have friends who do the whole "muh realism" thing and it's hard to agree on a design that looks good.

>>13924331
Why does the MCs pose look so awkward? Everything else is alright, but damn man

>>13925278
Titanfall doesn't have mecha in it.

>>13930132
No idea, Samurai Jack had pretty good posing in my opinion.

>>13930159
stop this meme
they were talking about battletech
they said that they aren't like "mechs"

>>13930273
And they were just as wrong there. Many mechs in Battletech are pretty fucking zippy.

everyone os overthinking this. the target age group in the west does like mecha genre shows, its just the merch market for these doesn't seem to catch hold. no toy robot market, no robot show. its about making money. toons is be expensive

>>13930290
regardless it's time to shut up. Don't kill a potentially sick mech game because of muh may mays

>>13924961
>with a new non-weeb director
Del Totoro won't direct it?

>>13925632
Early Bionicle was one of the most original and creative franchises in the last 20 years. I've never seen something like it.
>A tropical island with primitive villages threathened by a living shadow
>And yet, the inhabitants are highly advanced cyborgs and there's a lot of advanced technology lying around
>And yet, the main characters are mystical, totemic embodiments of elemental powers, who use magical Tiki masks
2001 Bionicle really was something new and amazing. I wouldn't call it an apex /m/ franchise, but it still shows that the West can do something /m/ related that's good.

>>13924331
>tfw we're getting new episodes of Samurai Jack
>but Sym-bionic Titan is never coming back
>tfw it's getting a full DVD release in Australia
>tfw $20 overseas shipping agian
>>13933056
Some new guy is being hired to direct it. Not sure if Del Taco's on board

>>13933097
Bionicle was too good to be wasted on lego.

>>13925434
That raises the other problem with the west, everything gets accused of being a ripoff. Apparently only power rangers and transformers are allowed to exist

>>13924925
because he's not very good.

>>13933097
>>13933948

Exo Force was alright aswell


Lego always goes DEEPEST LORE on shit sometimes

>>13925389
Not to go "full weeb" but why the fuck is the West so bad at Mecha? Fuck, I saw a concept art video a guy did where he was asked to redesign the Bubblegum Crisis Hardsuits. He redesigned Priss's suit to look exactly like that RoboCop reboot.

His reasoning? "You just can't have silly colorful things like that."

>>13924925
Motorcity was Krstic, not Genndy. It was however canned.

>>13934796
This makes me sick.

>>13924957
It was kinda always dark. But for a Western show is was an awesome loveletter to 60s and 70s anime

There was also that time Shiro's robot girlfriend got mindraped and joined a biker gang.

>>13934796
To many people in the west, Mecha is more of a tool of war then a super hero robot. So they make something that is more like a tool of war unless they wanted to make something eastern (Gennedy) or something that is in their style (Mead)

>>13934813
>>13934796

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XKLZ7VSR9qw

This is it

>"This IP is old. You can't have plastic-looking armor! We have to make this look realistic "
>designs leather bodysuit with a helmet

Hollywood makes me want to puke

I'm wonder if part of the problem for western mechs is the whole shows can't be advertisements for toys rule.

Being able to make good merch money would certainly make a good incentive to make a good mecha series.

>>13934890
Hollywood used to be able to design decent shit. Not nowadays though.

>>13934888
Even western superheroes get the same treatment though- look at the X-Men movies. Everything has to be tacticool

Iron Man is kind of close to Mecha, since at least it isn't a bunch of exposed wires and scaffolding like the Avatar robot suit. You'd think that Iron Man would have taught Hollywood that robots can have armor plating, but nah

>>13934890
I'm actually one of those guys that think that the new robocop design was good, and it certaintly wouldn't hurt to see a modern designed Hardsuit from BC.

But this? This is fucking shit.

>>13934902
Yeah, taste also matters, for the west it's grit, while for the east it's pretty much Moe.
What would a mead designed sympongear look like?

>>13924854
When I was a kid I watched Dexter, Power Rangers and Wing. It made me think giant robots were universal

>>13934892
The thing is that Mecha shows are the most toyetic things possible. If you can't make toys of a show that is LITERALLY about toys then you suck at making toys.

Cartoon Network cancelled Sym-Bionic Titan because Secret Saturdays' toyline didn't sell. Young Justice and Green Lantern were cancelled because Man of Steel and Green Lantern movie toys didn't sell.

Really, the death of action cartoons is due almost entirely to Mattel being a bunch of brain-dead criminals

>>13924854
The US are idiots, rather. Other countries are probably more open to the concept.

I think we need to put things in perspective here. Mecha is far from the only type of anime that doesn't have much of a western equivalent. When was the lady time you saw a western harem show? A western battle shounen? A western pretentious 2deep4u cartoon?

There are a lot of things the mainstream west doesn't get and doesn't want to get. Mecha is one of them

>>13933575
Del Toro is still producing.

>>13935025
The west only does a couple type of cartoons. Action, so randumb comedy and Loony Tunes.

>>13925406
It's almost like Western culture, especially with regards to entertainment and creative works, places a preposterous emphasis on being grown-up and serious.

Count the number of critics who use "for adults" or "adult" as if those things in of themselves make something better.

>>13935056
You forgot "Humor aimed at adults that eventually devolves into 90% pop culture references"

>>13925804
Hillenburg is coming back? Thank God. That show was pretty awful without him.
Honestly though i think that cancelation would be its only true savior.

>>13934892
Exo-Squad was a toy commercial and the designs sucked ass.

>>13924331
Not until the west realizes cartoons aimed at older audiences can go beyond the realm of animated sitcoms.

>>13935076
It would be ironically funny if SpongeBob got cancelled shortly after it just got good again, like Wacky Deli in Rocko's Modern Life. But yeah, Hillenburg's been slowly coming back since late season 9 (which is good overall outside of a few clunkers) and the second movie.

File: 1448816073237.jpg (83KB, 474x600px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 474x600px

>>13925411
I think one thing that could really hope break away from that is if there were more mecha shows from Japan brought to the west. It's easy to shit on a critic for associating Pacific Rim with that but I can't blame them when it took until late 2014 for something as influential as Mazinger Z to finally get a fully subtitled release in English speaking countries.

>>13935060
>as if those things in of themselves make something better

They do though.

File: 1272257555326.jpg (51KB, 618x474px)

51KB, 618x474px

>>13935128
>it took until late 2014 for something as influential as Mazinger Z to finally get a fully subtitled release in English

It's difficult to release old stuff commercially. A lot of mecha was made in the 70s/80s and are things we generally will never get in any official capacity for a variety of reasons basically relating to the fact that they're old. If it weren't for the anime boom of the early 90s in America, we probably would have never gotten any of the late 80s era anime like Gunbuster of Kimagure Orange Road. A lot of Euro countries had anime booms 10 or 20 years before America and ended up getting a lot of classic anime like Lupin III or Candy Candy ingrained into their anime culture. America's anime culture was founded on late 80s ultra violence sci-fi OVAs and eventually things on mainstream TV like Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z and Pokemon.

The fact that the 1970s Mazinger Z TV series could sell in 2014 is testament to how enduring the series is despite being a foreign cartoon made over 40 years old on a volcanic Chinese island chain somewhere past California.

>>13935251
To be fair, isn't this because Go Nagai refused to work with any western distributors after Tranzor Z? Mazinger Z, Cutie Honey, and Devilman all got released by the same company in rapid succession.

Think about how small the anime market is in the US, and how tiny the chunk of that market is that gives a shit about 70's shows regardless of how much influence they've had over the years. They couldn't just buy him off because sales would never justify it. It's not surprising that it took this long to get the classic Go Nagai stuff in the US.

>>13933575
>Some new guy is being hired to direct it.
DeKnight apparently. I don't mind personally, I liked Spartacus and Daredevil (the series).

>>13936596
>To be fair, isn't this because Go Nagai refused to work with any western distributors after Tranzor Z? Mazinger Z, Cutie Honey, and Devilman all got released by the same company in rapid succession.

That's completely unfounded. Go Nagai had titles like New Cutey Honey and Mazinkaiser released in America long after Tranzor Z.

File: adults are the enemy.jpg (47KB, 191x191px)

47KB, 191x191px

>>13935138
Only if you're a cynical bastard that hates everything not grounded in your limited reality.