This series' dive into the principles of certain 'types' of mechs is an incredible breakdown of design philosophy not just on the visual level, but at the philosophical and cultural levels that the best of the best designers and directors think at in order to create full embodied worlds and communicate themes within their stories. I loved this video especially, and I can't wait to keep watching the rest.
I identify with these Sky Riders more than the Super Heavyweights, probably for the same reasons you idolize submarines. These things are heavier than air, but they always feel like the *masters* of their medium, to the point where it feels like they simply don't care about it half the time. Look at how the Valkyrie and VF-19/21 just flagrantly disregard such things as 'aerodynamics' and 'stall speeds'. They're aircraft *of* the sky, in a way that only balloons can match, and the way they move reflects that.
The mobile fortress in Appleseed Alpha is one of the most impressive mechs designed and animated. Appleseed in general does an awesome job with mech and exosuit/landmate design.
It's from a very related expression of the ideas broadly, the landmates however lose a bit too much airplane symbology and material reference for a 1-1
I generally like any form of mecha, but these types tend to be up there with my favorites. I kinda sorta refer to them as semi aircraft based ones but that term doesn't really do it justice and neither does High speed ones, but I guess that's probably more accurate. Macross is the most famous one, but I'm glad you included Metal Armor Dragonar and the 4th Gen Armored Core, as aside from being 2 big favorites of mine, they're probably the best examples of that I find. The aircraft esc aspect of Metal Armors is just really cool and makes them pretty unique and Gen 4 ACs probably showcase the best sense of speed that these things can do.
This is such a great video!! I have an idea for your next video on mecha design: ornate and fantasy/medieval style mechs. Escaflowne, five Star stories, Galient, rune masquer, etc. I’ve always been a big fan of those type of designs, and I’d love to see something like that!!!
I do want to eventually get to medieval styled mecha at some point, However its not exactly relevant to what im trying to do with this series right now, hopefully you dont mind a bit of patience, Escaflowne is one of my favorites.
"They exchange their DNA freely" I'm having both a perverted thought about that, and a thought about capitalizing on that. Man, I'd fit nicely for a B/C-rate villain slot, or just that random annoying NPC.
All I know is that anything can fly if you have enough thrust and that's how I get myself to like these highly aerial mecha. It's also worth noting that AC For Answer really does sell that concept's complexity pretty well for a video game as you do not exactly have unlimited boost, but you still have a pretty generous pool with all the boost shenanigans like quick turn and quickboost as well as the ever so old overboost. However you still get that feeling that you are indeed pretty much walking on air pushed at extreme speeds with hovering requiring just the right amount of trigger input. In fact as you get to higher levels of play you start to learn about boost stages where you can get enormous bursts of speed beyond regular quick boost not through being harsher on the trigger, but being smoother and slower yet not too slow.
Man, your editing, attention to detail, everything.....This is one of my favorite channels on the hellsite. I shill your stuff to everyone lol. Thanks for paying tribute to this little niche, keep up the good work!
And then there's the Big Duo, a human-shaped superheavy bomber. By the way, mind sharing the titles of series you used for footage? I recognized some Macross and Eureka, but it's the unfamiliar ones that got me interested.
