/m/

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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/m/ is the Mecha board on 4chan. While the board is used primarily for television, movies, games, books, etc. about giant robots and cyborgs, it can also be used as a general science fiction board. Star Wars, Star Trek, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Stargate, 2001: A Space Odyssey, West World, Heavy Metal, Futurama, The Terminator, Godzilla, Battlestar Galactica, Mega Man, Sonic The Hedgehog, Doctor Who, creepypastas about haunted machines, all of it qualifies as /m/.

Because of this, traditional games can also be considered /m/-related topics; Fantasy is generally not seen as /m/ due to the dearth of fantasy giant robots, with the notable exceptions of Escaflowne and Dragonmech.

Culture

/m/ is one of the slower boards on 4chan, much slower than modern /tg/ while still faster than /po/ or /diy/. While their aesthetic preferences seem to mostly resemble Tau, in terms of behavior they act more similar to Necrons, maybe even the Sons of Malice chapter. Because anything mechanical qualifies as /m/ it is harder to post off-topic threads compared to other boards; derailing threads is much easier than other boards due to /m/'s seeming inability to filter trolls and avoid the bait. Combine these two factors and it comes as no surprise there is little initiative from moderators when rules are broken.

While no board is a stranger to flaming and trolls, /m/ has a serious problem with samefagging and because of the board's below-average traffic this has a disproportionate impact on the board's culture. At times, it is hard to tell if a flame war is legit or just one guy talking to himself. The most discussed franchises on the board are Gundam and Kamen Rider. Anons usually refer to each other as /m/en. Gong by JAM Project is their unofficial theme.

Major Moments Of /m/

Due to 4chan archives often ignoring /m/ much of its history is lost to time and screencaps.

2004

/m/ is spun off from /a/ owing to flood of interest in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, a modern reinterpretation of the themes of 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam.

2005

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny ends, bringing much rage. Questionable animation, excessive recaps, and bad writing lead it to be considered the poster child for bad mecha anime until the advent of Valvrave the Liberator.

2006

Hit anime Tengen Toppa Gurenn Lagann brings renewed interest in classical /m/ to the board and results in an influx of newfags from various boards owing to it's quality of animation, writing, and overall bucking of the trend by returning to hot-blooded pilots, humanoid robots moving fluidly without regard for mechanics, and cosmic conflict touching on deeper themes. In a similar manner, Code Geass captures a broad audience owing to it's shameless hamminess, plot twists, animation quality, and tragic tale of revenge. As a result, /m/ becomes one of the more populous boards on the site, with all the attendant benefits and problems. Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 was released, a video game that united fans of robots from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. While seen as bloated to many, it was a celebration of the genre beloved in spirit.

2007

The 1997 hit anime The King of Braves GaoGaiGar was licensed in the US, and is warmly received.

• SageGaiGar: A parody of GaoGaiGar made of 4chan memes was constructed, until the board-tan designs this was the board's unofficial mascot.

2009

Owing to the rising popularity of Kamen Rider and other such shows featuring rubber-suited heroes and villains, debate rises over whether tokusatsu is /m/ or not. Former 4chan owner moot declares toku /m/ following the opening of /q/, and mods begin temp-banning anyone claiming otherwise. "Toku is not /m/" remains a popular troll phrase to this day.

In an unforeseen consequence, declaring Toku /m/ results in non-Japanese "toku" series such as Doctor Who to be declared /m/ as well. This leads the gradual broadening, and some would say degradation, of /m/ from Mecha board to general sci-fi board.

Bandai celebrates the 30th anniversary of their flagship franchise by erecting an RX-78-2 Gundam in Tokyo. /m/ loves that their most discussed franchise has achieved such national acclaim.

2011

Mazinkaiser SKL was released, /m/ enjoyed it despite it not being a sequel to Shin Mazinger Z. The OVA was praised for action, easter eggs, and the soundtrack.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is announced in July 2011, purporting to tell the tale of three generations of war. The released designs and first trailer are seen as so child-friendly that mass butthurt ensues and the series is declared "worst Gundam ever" on both sides of the Pacific. While the series is well-animated and has innovative mecha design, the character designs remain controversial throughout its broadcast, and the writing is seen as somewhere between "lazy cliche" and "terrible." Low ratings result in the series becoming the biggest commercial failure in the franchise's history, with video game and gunpla sales at such low levels that the line was cancelled. Following revelations that the series' writer deliberately ignored plot holes on the basis of "nobody cares in video games where things come from, so it won't matter in anime," debates on whether AGE or Destiny were worse become much more common on /m/.

2012

Aquarion Evol, the latest in the cult Aquarion franchise, is widely mocked on /m/ and /m/'s Japanese equivalents, more so by general anime shippers. Noticeably bad/Disney fairy tale level writing, terrible character development, retcons of previous series, and bestiality make Aquarion into the butt of many jokes; despite this it still has a vocal fanbase reminiscent of oldfags that love obscure stuff (and Shoji Kawamori fans). It has been shown more favorably in recent years, mostly because most shows after it were much worse.

Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean suffers a similar fate. Announced as a sequel/AU to beloved anime Eureka Seven, Astral Ocean suffers from noticeably bad writing, terrible character development, retcons of previous series, and numerous plot holes brought about by a literal retcon gun wielded by the main character. Strangely people that didn't care for the first series enjoyed this one and it gets praise for mech and monster designs.

2012 is also notable for the release of GOTHICMADE, a brand new animated movie created by noted mecha designer and mangaka Nagano Mamoru, of The Five Star Stories fame. A prime example of his obsession with control over his franchise, it has not been released outside of theaters to this day. Nobody on /m/ knows anything about it except that it is to blame for the redesign of all the Mortar Headds into tall, willowy, triple-jointed monsters.

Rinne no Lagrange emerges as a cult hit, mostly liked by shippers from /u/.

2013

Widely considered to be the straw that broke /m/'s back, which broke the board into autonomous groups of trolls trolling trolls.

• Only four notable mecha anime that year, three of them literally aired within a few days of each other in April with Gundam Build Fighters being the fourth. The big three consisted of: Majestic Prince, Valvrave The Liberator, and Gargantia. Gargantia and Majestic Prince were both considered best for different reasons, the former for production design and story elements and the latter for entertainment value in action and comedy. Valvrave on the other hand was loaded with problems which almost single-handedly shifted the board and arguably the worst part of the year. The things considered wrong with it warrant its own article, but the main points include:
  • Nearly everyone involved with the show was a professional in the industry, expectations were very high.
  • The main character being a massive beta male even by beta male standards.
  • Every single episode had either some major plot twist or shock value for the sake of it. Every. Single. Episode.
  • The first half was filled with unnecessary fanservice, slow pacing, little action, and bad comedy. Seriously if you hate ecchi this can be cringe inducing.
  • Background characters suddenly drive the plot starting with the sixteenth episode.
  • Episode 10 has a sexual assault scene, because the attacked girl consented /m/ debated whether or not it was rape. For four months straight. Topics on /m/ could reach over three hundred posts in two hours from this which was considered insane for a board this slow.
  • The second half was insulting to the audience for various reasons, being increasingly worse with each episode although at this point some were just glad it amped up the action scenes.
  • Every female character was either fap fuel for the sake of it or insanely hated while every male character died, allowing for sexism across the board.
  • The underdeveloped faction saved the day during the credits. No, you didn't read that wrong, the guys who are known only for being the major enemy of the main antagonists, making fighters, and whose only character representative was a cowardly politician won while the protagonists accomplished next to nothing and was almost wiped out, making them bigger losers than dark elves or warriors of chaos on their worst days.
  • "The Curse of Valvrave" became a meme to describe all fallout that occurred after it aired, no thanks to a demotivational poster that became the most reposted picture in /m/'s history clocking in at 1013 reposts before the archive deletion of 2015. Starting in 2014 a troll used the intense rage generated to raid /m/ on a regular basis who was given the nickname Valvrager.
  • The seventh episode was a "coming out" moment for gag fetishists on the board too soft for /h/ or /d/, essentially "gagfagging" which took over several livestream threads.
• Influx of posters from other boards thanks to the release of Pacific Rim including many trolls the board was not used to that brought in the broadening of what could be defined as /m/, eventually turning it into what is now the general sci-fi board.
• /m/-esque shows Vividred Operation and Symphogear G aired, both attracted severe dislike from moralfags, asexuals, people that dislike ecchi (which is uncommon in mecha anime), and /m/en that disapproved of /a/ culture. For the latter it lead to one guy literally making generals only to delete them, unintentionally framing a janitor, and generals being off topic with samefagging filled mainly with menstrual jokes. Because of mods rarely doing their job when they bothered to clean up the messes this was jokingly seen as favoritism. Two years later he came clean and did it out of depression. Speaking of which....
• Depressed people made their depression public and continued throughout the year. Mostly happened in the spring, but it still gets remembered.
• Build Fighters debuted the Beargguy-San which became the target for a series of macros with the term "Beargguy Mother Fucker". The guy that made the macros eventually revealed he role played out of boredom, but something that was supposed to be cute got out of hand. The primary macro eventually became the third highest reposted picture before the archive deletion of 2015. Even TVTropes references these macros.
• The sole Super Robot Wars game to come out that year, UX, was on the 3DS, which was region locked, which prevented the vast majority of the board from playing and not even bother. Despite supposedly selling decently it is seen by trolls as an example of the worst entry of the franchise despite the generally liked cast. This also started a trend where English speaking fans stopped bothering to give information of the new Banpresto Originals which still plagues Z3, the Lord of The Elemental sequels, and BX to this day.
  • The sequels to Super Robot Wars Z were spread between 2011 to 2015, guess which year was the one nothing came out from there.
• Kamen Rider Wizard was airing which is considered by fans to be the most boring entry in the franchise to date, it did not help that the successor series, Gaim would be written by Gen Urobuchi who is seen as a mixed writer for a good chunk of the board. This was not helped by the annual Kamen Rider/Super Sentai crossover that year, Super Hero Wars Z, was considered a tremendous disappointment to pretty much anyone that was not a fan of Space Sheriff Sharivan.
• Go-Busters was revealed to have had the lowest in toy sells in the Super Sentai franchise since Timeranger, it was a favorite among Sentai fans for going back to its semi-dark and spy minutia of the early days of the franchise while giving it a military-esque aesthetic which appealed to military otaku and jimmie rustling memes.
• One good thing did happen that year though, /m/ tells Christmas stories as MS paints.

Current /m/

After 2013, /m/ essentially became a chaotic board with nearly every side attacking each other, some of which stopped watching anime that was airing due to the intensity called "Valvrave Fallout", and trolls were quick to find a current anime worse than Valvrave, several titles included Daimidaler, Aldnoah.Zero, Cross Ange (its livestream threads also hijacked by gagfagging), Gundam: Reconguista in G, Gundam Build Fighters: Try, and Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans; Captain Earth is sometimes considered, but the mascot squirrel, Pitz, is (somehow) too well liked. That and the amount of porn from the anime. Because of /m/'s now divided culture it was essentially ancient Pre-Alexander The Great era Greece: a bunch of territories barely united and unafraid to recruit mortal enemies just to piss off the neighbors. The three Gundam series mentioned above are often seen just as bad, maybe even worse, than Destiny and Age now. The board became so disjointed that on Easter 2016, the day Iron Blooded Orphans finished, twenty four joke threads, negativity threads, and desperate "please don't be upset about the ending!" threads littered the board; to be somewhat fair to /m/ ever since its Toonami airings, IBO has been slowly detested by /co/ and regular Toonami viewers. Said Gundam series has gained such notoriety that a macro about purging space rats has become the most reposted image on the board since the 2015 archive deletion. In August 2016 the 4chan banner contest had /m/'s turn, resulting in one guy submitting forty percent of the banners submitted which featured macros and memes reviled by /m/, demonstrating how rampant samefagging was on the board. Mecha anime that air are barely talked about and livestream topics last for weeks due to lack of interest.

Any Hope?

/m/ has been (extremely) slowly fixing itself, likely because Nurgle is hogging all the best robot toys from Tzeentch. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid as seen as the current Gundam substitute in uniting the board's love for long franchise and action scenes, neither of which Iron Blooded Orphans does well and even /co/ is agreeing with them. Battlefleet Gothic Armada was seen as likable and entertaining. One of /m/'s underrated gem mecha series, Zegapain, is returning to public spotlight to the shock of what few fans it has. Super Robot Wars V is total hype train. Pacific Rim 2 is in production. Super Robot Wars BX was warmly received by 80s and 90s mecha fans. Aquarion Logos, whether on its own merits or imitation Demonbane meme status is one of the few mecha anime of the decade that is liked even if Anime News Network found it too complex (it isn't). /m/ has a chance of being good again, but it will take shitloads of time. Emperor help them if Khorne feels like putting on his rage-induced version of a puppet show.

/m/ memes and language

• Char clone: A term derived from Char Aznable, references lolicon/pedophiles who wear fancy masks.
• "I came here to laugh at you": A line spoken by Char in cult classic Zeta Gundam.
• "I'm just an autistic child": An out of context quote from Camille in Zeta Gundam.
• "Puru puru puru puru": Catchphrase of Elpeo Ple from ZZ (Double Zeta) Gundam.
• Newtypes: Gundam term for space telepaths, think psykers without magic/mental attacks.
• Ryusei: A term named after Ryusei Date from Super Robot Wars, references robosexuals.
• "It's orgone, I ain't gotta explain shit": A joke referencing orgone, a metaphysical sci-fi energy source used in Super Robot Wars J and Captain Earth(/m/'s equivalent to "it's magic, I don't have to explain anything").
• Rider Kick: Flying kicks used by Kamen Riders as their fatality.
• "This is all Decade's fault!": A running gag from Kamen Rider Decade, /m/ adopted it as a joke term to refer to inconsistencies in Kamen Rider continuity and to a lesser degree other Toei tokusatsu.
• Go Nagai: The Gary Gygax equivalent /m/, everything made by him is considered /m/ no matter how far from being mechanical said thing is.
• Yoshiyuki Tomino: The George R.R. Martin of /m/. Anime News Network has a massive hateboner for his dialogue to the point of translating articles out of context.
• "Get your Obari on!": A phrase on anything animated that goes from looking normal to super shaded, usually in a cool sword pose; based on the animation style of legendary animator Masami Obari.
• Tomatoes: Comes from The Big O, used to describe overly complex symbology lacking any meaning or context.
• Pineapple Salad: Originates in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, /m/'s version of a deathflag. Has been subverted in subsequent entries of the series.
• "Cool mouth, does it talk with dialogue?": /m/ equivalent of "Here's your (you)". Usually followed up with mouths being compared to cherry ice cream (seemingly smart, but not really).
• Snapfag: Derogatory term for gunpla builders that build gunpla straight from the box without any customizing.
• Shoji Kawamori: An angel to some, a demon to others. /m/ is not sure whether he is like Graham McNeil or Matt Ward. The guy is mainly known for creating Macross, but his other projects get mixed results. Normalfags find him too weird, critics find him too unstable, intellectuals find him hysterical, shippers find him rage inducing, and those that see him as a genius/artist are in the vocal minority. He has his own studio, Satellite, and has no problem creating unconventional shows to a fandom that supposedly whines about creative stagnation (anime fans). The problem? He is one of those people whose writings are so culturally specific they are difficult to translate outside of their home country (sometimes it's too Japanese for even the Japanese, Aquarion Logos anyone?). Tzeentch would be pleased with how drawn it out his trolling can become.
• The "Undefeatables": Every large fandom has "who is strongest" debates like Goku vs. Superman ones. /m/'s undefeatables is a small pantheon consisting of Getter Emperor (Getter Robo Arc), Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Gurren Lagann second movie), Elder God Demonbane (Demonbane), Full Possession Shurouga (Super Robot Wars Z3), and Aquarion Logos (Aquarion Logos). Never start a power level discussion on /m/, it is usually declared over when one of these guys is mentioned.
• Super Hero Time: Airs on Sunday mornings in Japan, Saturday afternoon in the United States, the time when new Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Precure episodes air with subs coming days later.
• Crabsticks: A term from a badly translated sentence in the first episode of Mazinger Z by Doctor Hell, references bad translations.
• JAM Project: A Japanese rock band that performs opening theme songs for many mecha anime and tokusatsu, among /m/'s favorite musicians.
• TV-Nihon: A fansub group /m/ dislikes, due to the prevalence of lengthy translator notes, grammar errors, and untranslated terms.
• Ein Graze: /m/'s only favored part of Gundam IBO, their equivalent of Skarbrand who is rumored (by no one) to train fallen /m/ characters in Mecha Valhalla.
• "Must be a Gorgom plot": In reference to the main antagonists from Kamen Rider Black, usually the titular hero finds out the villains are behind a plot through very broad and bad deduction skills. It eventually became the tokusatsu community's equivalent of the "Must be aliens" meme.
• "Mods are dead, post Ginguiser": Ginguiser is an old 70s robot anime and one of many to have few subbed episodes and no adaption into Super Robot Wars titles. Because of this, low quality animation and out of context images are posted to be jokes pared with the "It's magic we don't have to explain" view. Then a few episodes were actually subbed and /m/ gave it a chance, the meme now barely qualifies as low quality bait threads.
• Leos getting a high grade: Leos are the main cannon fodder grunts from Gundam Wing, a high grade gunpla kit is the most demanded kit from the gunpla threads that seems unobtainable. There is also one guy that likes Thielva from Gundam Age, but nobody takes him seriously.
• Super Robot Wars Boob: A old joke name form the DS video game Super Robot Wars L since most of the anime in the crossover game were ecchi (meaning heavily perverted).

In a Fantasy Perspective

While usually grounded in science fiction, /m/ can fit into fantasy settings although while normal boards have enough to be Hive Fleet sized they're more akin to Genestealer Cults in sense of scope. Aside from standard steampunk machines and automatons, /m/ can be seen as having an elemental affinity to Earth: rich in resources, sturdy, made up of different things, and when they get pissed everything gets fucked over like an earthquake. In terms of standard fantasy archetypes they can easily be seen as dwarfs or mercenaries (why not both?).

See Also

• Board-tans/m
• Malal (their chaos god)
• Sons of Malice (their warband)