What do you think of mecha stories?

[Shrimp_eater]

Just curious what people think. I often hear ones in the west aren't fond of the concept, even if there is a fair share of western media revolving around giant robots. There's also the possibility of a person merely tolerating the mech parts because they like other aspects of the story like the characters or so on.

Personally i'm not immediatly draw to them, but i can like it depending on how its made or presented. Mecha stories are also often over-the-top interpretations of war tales and large scale human conflict, which is probably one of the reasons i may feel drawn to some on occasion.

 

[Seaspecter]

Battletech is one of my favorite universes and I have most of the novels so yeah I like big stompy robots.

 

[SailusGebel]

Depends on the quality of a story.

 

[DemonOppai]

I only like them visually. Like manga or anime

 

[Shrimp_eater]

Depends on the quality of a story.

For sure. But if you see the mecha tag in a story, it'll make you more likely to read/watch it, less likely or you're indifferent?

 

[georgelee5786]

Yay

 

[WeissBlatt]

Wow!! Cool robot!!!

 

[SailusGebel]

For sure. But if you see the mecha tag in a story it'll make you more likely to read/watch it, less likely or you're indifferent to it?

If you ask this question to understand what SH readers will read, forget about it. Forums are way too different. Plus, you can always add mecha to popular genres\tags, and people will read it, especially if mecha is not the main focus of the story.

Mecha is not a genre. Since it's not a genre, it doesn't matter to me if it's present or not. Same for every other tag. I only look for genres. Here is an example. I like romance. What am I going to read, a romance with mecha tag, or a romance without mecha tag? The answer is, if both stories are similar, and the only difference is mecha tag, I will try both. Everything else depends on execution of the said stories.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I'm a big gundam fan. But I struggle to find interest in non animated mecha stuff. Even the comics and manga don't really do it for me.

If I was gonna read a mecha story it'd have to have quite a few illustrations

 

[HelloHound]

I won't ever seek it out but I can tolerate it decently

 

[Shrimp_eater]

If you ask this question to understand what SH readers will read, forget about it. Forums are way too different. Plus, you can always add mecha to popular genres\tags, and people will read it, especially if mecha is not the main focus of the story.

Mecha is not a genre. Since it's not a genre, it doesn't matter to me if it's present or not. Same for every other tag. I only look for genres. Here is an example. I like romance. What am I going to read, a romance with mecha tag, or a romance without mecha tag? The answer is, if both stories are similar, and the only difference is mecha tag, I will try both. Everything else depends on execution of the said stories.

Not really my intention. I'm just genuinely curious since discussing games in other places i often heard mechs aren't popular in the west.

 

[LilRora]

Frankly, I love mecha as a concept. The execution though... I've yet to see a story that would portray them well enough I would have no complaints. Most of the time it either seems like the mecha are there for the sake of it, or like the author really wanted to do mecha but didn't study up and made a shit ton of mistakes, objective not subjective ones, that help make things dramatic but stop making sense very quickly once we look closer.

I know I'm arguably just complaining now, but this is such a prevalent thing it baffles me. The most prominent example that I can tell off the top of my head is Pacific Rim - sure, a massive mecha having a slugfest with a Kaiju looks amazing, but please, just what the heck. Why would you need two people for it to work, where did physics go that that mecha doesn't just fall apart, where did logic go, and why won't you mount the same damn weapons on an airship so a Kaiju won't be able to reach it and just die without a fight? I mean, yeah. Action, suspension of disbelief and all that. Still annoys me as fuck.

The same thing is with cyborgs, AI, implants, and basically all sci-fi to a smaller or lesser degree, a lot of authors just don't know how to work around issues with scientific accuracy and realism.

I used to be interested in those stories. Recently though I don't want to be disappointed.

 

[Dieter]

I don't enjoy stories up on RR, let alone mech ones (too much attempt to bedazzle by technical marvels, jargon, or large-scale stuffs) but I did end up enjoying this one. I found it quite grounded.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

I would reccomend mecha writers and readers alike to read the Mobile Suit : Gundam novel.

Gundam was turned into Novel in the 1980s. Along with Z Gundam and ZZ Gundam.

There's even an If version of those novels with CCA and Hathaway Flash as the result of the If route.

 

[Rhaps]

The prospect of riding a giant robot is already amazing!

 

[Voidiris]

I couldn't care less about the genre.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

Chicks dig giant robots!

 

[AYM]

It's better with pictures.

 

[Shrimp_eater]

Frankly, I love mecha as a concept. The execution though... I've yet to see a story that would portray them well enough I would have no complaints. Most of the time it either seems like the mecha are there for the sake of it, or like the author really wanted to do mecha but didn't study up and made a shit ton of mistakes, objective not subjective ones, that help make things dramatic but stop making sense very quickly once we look closer.

I know I'm arguably just complaining now, but this is such a prevalent thing it baffles me. The most prominent example that I can tell off the top of my head is Pacific Rim - sure, a massive mecha having a slugfest with a Kaiju looks amazing, but please, just what the heck. Why would you need two people for it to work, where did physics go that that mecha doesn't just fall apart, where did logic go, and why won't you mount the same damn weapons on an airship so a Kaiju won't be able to reach it and just die without a fight? I mean, yeah. Action, suspension of disbelief and all that. Still annoys me as fuck.

The same thing is with cyborgs, AI, implants, and basically all sci-fi to a smaller or lesser degree, a lot of authors just don't know how to work around issues with scientific accuracy and realism.

I used to be interested in those stories. Recently though I don't want to be disappointed.

I used to think like that too, but slowly i realized our own scientific processes and knowledge of the world can be rather nonsensical too, as well as biased or lacking. For example, i still see many people still stuck in a scientific method mentality in an age of quantum physics. More than half of earth remains unknown to humanity. Not to mention space.

Its amazing how much knowledge can blind us. Just because we grasped a few concepts here and there in the last few centuries, and we have easy access to these pieces of knowledge through books or the internet, as a species we suddenly started acting was if we have full grasp on how reality works, even though there's so so much that remains a mystery to us.

Since, its become much easier to suspend my disbelief when i read these kinds of stories.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Don't care for it that much. The only mecha I like is Mazinger Z. Man, I feel so old now~ lol