Mecha

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Not to be confused with Macha.

Mecha are typically GIANT ROBOTS normally operated by bags of flesh. Thought to have originated in Greek myth with Talos, but it's the Japanese that revitalized the concept. They needed something to fight off Godzilla and company.

They come in two types: Real Robot and Super Robot. Where "Real" involves mechs which are ostensibly realistic in operation, (see Battletech, Mechwarrior) "Super" are built to kick reason to the curb and do the impossible. The super type predates the real type by about 10 years or so, first popularized by Go Nagai's manga, Mazinger Z in the early '70s, whereas the Real variety has its roots in the now-prolific Gundam franchise, which started at the dawn of the '80s.

This topic can be further discussed at /m/.

Usually seen in the following sizes:

• Power Armour. This fits over the body of the pilot. Size dependent on the species of whoever's wearing it.
• Small. About the size of a car or SUV. Appleseed presents these nicely. Warmachine warjacks usually scale into about this size. Also see Dreadnoughts
• Medium. About the size of a smaller building (15 to 25 meters). See generic Gundam or Macross mechs. ASs from Full Metal Panic and Warmachine warjacks can be this big. A Reaver Titan fits into the higher end of this category.
• Large. Size of a 20 story building. Think Eva Units from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Jaegers from Pacific Rim.
• Huge. Stuff north of 200 meters and rising. The largest Titans fit the bill nicely. Also the three tallest experimental units in Supreme Commander or Battle Macross (~1200 meters) which dwarf both Titans or any real man-made structures. Protoculture is a hell of a drug.
• XBOX HUEG. Anything larger than Huge would go here. From moon-sized to the size where you can toss planets and and even galaxies with ease. Examples includes, Getter Emperor (which is evolution incarnate) of Getter Robo, Unicron from the Transformers, Mata-Nui from Bionicle, and the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (It actually is about the size of our sun. The misconception comes from the fact that the final battle was happening in super spiral universe, where everything is powered by emotions. So basically if the heroes thought that this battle would decide the fate of entire galaxies, they fought on galaxies. The size of mecha is proved when antispiral mecha is shown to have an earth sized planet on it's head which could not be seen if mechas were truly galaxy-sized The databooks have confirmed it's size to be 10 million light years tall, one hundred times the size of the Milky Way).

Then there are various sub-types:

• Mechanized. Typical giant robot made from metal.
• Flesh. They are usually called "bio mecha" and are made of fleshy bits. See Eureka 7 or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Or early Attack on Titan, but it became shit after blatantly ripping off Code Geass at the very end. Not Tyranid Bio-titans, however, due to lack of pilots.
• Will powered. Mechs powered by raw fighting or other such fiery emotion. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the go-to example. Sometimes present in Code Geass. Some Gundams, especially those with Pychoframes. Could theoretically fit the bill for Eldar Titans and Wraithlords, and on the same note Warjacks. This type is more often implied than directly stated. More likely to be of the super variety.
• Combiners. These mechs are composed of various other mechs. See Power Rangers and Voltron. See ALSO GaoGaiGar. Also more likely to be of the super variety.
• Transformers. Mechs that have two or more forms they can switch between. See Macross and (durr) Transformers [Transformers are sentient robots, not mecha. They have passengers, not pilots. (Except for Headmasters/Powermasters)] for examples. Can be of either the super variety or the real variety.
• Syd Mead. TURN A. GUNDAM.

Notable Mecha Verses

There are a lot of different mecha series out there, so we'll list some of the more noteworthy ones here. As to whether or not /tg/ recommends them... check the Mecha subsections on the Approved Anime and Manga pages for that info.

• Mobile Suit Gundam - Giant piloted robots are used to fight a war between Eerth-based and space-based human factions. We have a page for this one.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion - A mysterious conspiracy uses sinister giant robots piloted by tormented human children to battle eldritch abominations. We have a page for this one.
• Mazinger - Generally regarded as the original Mecha anime.
• Getter Robo - Created (or at least defined) the Combiner Mecha subgenre with its tale of a universe where three psychos are recruited by force to pilot three experimental vehicles that can fuse together to create three different giant robots, based on which order they are combined with, all of it powered by a mysterious radiation which is implied to be the manifestation of evolution itself. Notorious for its cosmic horror themes and super-gory combat. Has multiple iterations. We could probably make a page on this one.
• Transformers - A race of sapient giant transforming robots fights a bitter civil war. A rare mecha series in that it traditionally does much better in the West than in its native Japan, which tends to find the idea of making the robots into characters rather than mere tools to be "weird". The original G1 series did get three follow-up series with more traditional mecha storylines in Japan, though. We have a page for this one.
• Space Runaway Ideon - Human colonists on a remote world unearth an ancient battleship and three fighting vehicles that can fuse into one super-robot, the Ideon. Doing so causes them to come under attack by an alien race, the Buff Clan, who are terrified of what might happen if the Ideon is allowed to wake up, as it's actually a mechanical eldritch abomination powered by the vengeful souls of an extinct alien race. The colonists initially try to flee to Earth, only for humanity to become so scared of the Ideon that it allies itself with the Buff Clan to try and destroy it, leading to a mutual kill of galactic proportions in which all sapient life in the galaxy is wiped out. This was made by the same guy who made Mobile Suit Gundam, and cemented his "Kill 'em All" nickname/reputation.
• Super Dimension Century Orguss - An attept to use an experimental weapon called a Space-Time Oscillation Bomb goes disasterously wrong, trapping a mecha piloting soldier in a mishash world made of up multiple different dimensional versions of Earth that have all been smushed together. He has to find the bomb and deactivate it because it's still operating, and will eventually kill them all if he doesn't.
• Macross - Humanity uses transforming space-jet mecha and humanoid battle-tanks to fight back against an invasion of alien giants.
• Robotech - The first "Western Mecha", a totally unique series created when an American director took three unrelated mecha animes and rewrote them into different parts of a multi-generational single story. We have a page for this one.

Mecha Games

Mecha in tabletop games are usually implemented as vehicles with fluff about arms and legs. A reskin of Steve Jackson's Ogre describes it as a giant robot, but the rules are no different than when it was a giant tank. Some games have the fluff baked-in so strongly it's hard to think of their mecha as mere tanks-with-arms.

• Battletech by FASA (now by Catalyst Game Labs) , the ur-example of tabletop giant robot wargaming.
• Robotech RPG by Palladium Books. Famous for introducing the idea of MDC, hit-points used only by mecha that are different from the SDC hit-points used by people, and having handguns(!) that could switch between SDC/MDC. Palladium lost the rights to Robotech which means the license has now been handed out to two different companies starting in Summer 2019.
• Rifts also by Palladium. Okay, so Rifts is a little bit of everything, and that includes Giant Robots and Power Armor. Nearly every major setting has some kind of mecha, with certain books being shameless mecha showcases.
• Mechaton by Vincent Baker. Build unwieldy monstrosities out of LEGO blocks, pit them against each other.
• Mekton by R. Talsorian. Absolutely batshit awesome RPG that goes all the way up to Demonbane levels of crazy.
• Gundam Senki by T.O.Y International Inc/Aspect. It uses a licensed version of the Mekton Zeta system with some modifications, namely with suit stats. Released in Japan in 2000, it has not been officially translated to English and remains in limbo, however fan translations do exist.
• Heavy Gear by Dream Pod 9. They're supposed to be exosuits, but might as well be midget-mecha.
• Jovian Chronicles also by Dream Pod 9. Where Heavy Gear operates more like the anime VOTOMS, Jovian Chronicles is their attempt at Gundam (specifically Zeta Gundam). Was originally a Mekton setting.
• Gear Krieg again, by Dream Pod 9. A Weird Wars game where modular tigers and shermans with legs battle and pulp is forever.
• Gamma Wolves by Osprey Games. A post apocalyptic Earth sees "frames" of various look and make duke it out for whatever garbage they can get their smelly, irradiated hands on.
• Battle Century G by Gimmick Man. Tabletop RPG that focuses on cinematic feel with a tension gauge, which gives everyone bonuses to offense, essentially turning the game into rocket tag as the fight goes on.
• Strike Legion includes frames as part of its quest to be every soft science fiction cliche at once.
• Lancer by Massif Press. The sorts of mechs you make are quite bizarre in both form and function, but the setting gives a feel more in line with Titanfall.