Western Mechs SUCK! - Anime Editorial 

battletech mechs have so much context behind their designs though. the assassin was made straight up to grift government contracts. the fire moth was made to be a transport for battle armor, so dudes were just supposed hang off pods held by the bizarre looking arms. entire reason mechs came to be in BT is because humanity's lack of unity, avarice, and pettiness haven't changed in over a thousand years of progress. you're right about how western mechs are more industrial and more like how we see military equipment today, but that's exactly what makes them appealing in battletech. it's still very much a reflection of how humanity is today, and BT does not shy away from that fact

Entire video comes down to "I like anime mech designs, why aren't they all like that?"

With regards to militarized designs that don't suck: Front Mission's mecha design is very militaristic and utilitarian at a glance. Some even are definitely chonky bricks. But they somehow still retain that elusive japanese design appeal. In addition to everything mentioned in this video, I'd add that it's also related to target audience and toy production. Western mecha simply aren't targeted towards kids and adolescents - not that this would exclude adults, it's just adults enjoy this toylike appeal too. Instead the western designs largely skip children and adolescents, instead targeting adults, less as action toys and more as statues or static display pieces.

I will not take any walking tank style Mech slander.

The reason for mec difference is the difference in philosophy . The Japanese see the weapon as an extension of the person , western culture see the weapon as a tool . That is the reason why they tend to look different . I like both designs . I would also add their are about 1,700 mecs in battletech soooo some of them will look the same .

Im not really getting the issue. You talk a lot about that you dislike mechs and titans, but you dont say why. "Bad design" how? And why is "deliberate slow walking tank" less cool than "nippy fast ninja mech"? It´s an opinion piece, i get it. But besides "i dont like it" you have no point.

Never made sense for me how the Anime Mechs could go so fast and why did they had so many human features. Western Mechs gets my vote all day long. (Except Front mission, the Wanzers are amazing).

It could be that we focus on Function over form. The depression of the 1930's, WW2 and the cold war do show that. But as a sci-fi fan I'd want to take what made 60's, 70's and 80's non mech sci-fi good in mechanical design and put it into mechs. Honestly it's not that hard as Shoji Kowamori based his design thought process on the old Gerry Anderson super marrionation shows like Thunderbirds ( to which he then went to design thunderbird Shadow in the 2016 reboot). Or Mamoru Nagano who while wanting to show internal mechanics made sure to not make anything too exposed ( hell his Five Star Stories designs for non mech things are a gold mine of good designs). I would love a western walking tank with Thunderbirds style design thinking.

It's like western mech designers are trying to combine the realistic utility with the inherent campiness of mechs. And while it can do it's intended job, it certainly will not be memorable or stand on its own without the context of it's story. Also - wow this is a convent of the western mecha fans. Hello to you all! Having watched all of the video, I agree with all of the points. Wish there were more memorable western mechs.

Like engineer myself and militari lover, I love those bulky western tanks, more then those colorful sportscars :D

I think that you have a point about the west designing their mechs to look like tanks because we see tanks all the time, but I think it goes deeper than that. In both the west and the east, the mecha designs are heavily influenced by the cultures' self ideals about their own history of warfare, at least when applied to the real mecha genre. The heroic mecha tend to reflect what the culture feels was their own apex of military might, tanks in the west and samurai in the east. The villainous mecha tend to reflect the visual style of their most dangerous opponents. I don't think that this a deliberate choice, but rather designers using cultural shorthands for strength and danger and evil. I'm surprised that you didn't mention Heavy Gear as one of the major western mecha franchises. It's designs were heavily inspired by VOTOMs. Of the major western franchises, I think it might be the one that you would least object to, visually at least. I'm also going to defend Battletech's artwork a bit and I'm going to start by agreeing with a lot of your points. Yes, there is a lot of bad designs in Battletech and the early artwork is very much "scribble on a napkin" quality. In fact, I'd call the entire TRO 3025, the first major book focused exclusively on mech designs, scribble on a napkin quality and it has some of the objectively worsts designs in the game (Stalker and Vulcan, I'm looking at you). Even the redraws of the classic mecha from Dougram and Macross in it are ugly as sin. However, the quality of the artwork and design have massively improved over the years (with a few notable exceptions) and even the boxy stuff looks better when drawn by decent artists such as Matt Plog and David White.

So... you're not happy that Western Mechs aren't really, what? How do you mean? Mechwarrior and Battletech are an enormous franchise. If you count Titans from 40k they are too. Why are they mediocre? Some of the designs don't land? Some Anime mecha designs don't land either. Annoyed that these guys ripped off mecha? So what? People take from others ideas and build on them all the time? I just don't understand the problem here. Essentially your issue is... that they're not anime enough? Well of course they aren't anime enough. They're not anime.

Glad you didn't riff on Battletech too much as it's the best the West has to offer. I love Macross and Gundam but Battletech was my first big stompy robot love.

I’m gonna get in on this before the battletech fans get on here, and give my two cents. Basically, I get what you are coming from, but apples and oranges. You are a mecha fan, gundam and things like it. I get why you like those kinds of designs. Elegance, performance, speed, innate connection to the machine, etc define those Mecha shows and universes. They are the ultimate weapon. When it comes to battletech though, they are just a weapon. The very origin of the mechs, and why they are the way they are is utterly tied to the narrative of the universe. Battlemechs are quite literally products of an awful military industrial society. I was under the impression that this was a critique on some of the nitty gritty stuff, the operation of the mechs themselves, which I was very interested to hear coming from someone with a larger passion for mecha. Perhaps you should do a video like that, on how Gundams and Battlemechs differ or are superior to one another. But when it comes to your encapsulating point of “getting away” from the rugged military box-like inspiration, my only retort is “why?”. There is no disadvantage to either perspective between proper mecha, and western mechs. Mind you this mainly commenting on Battletech, as I do not have stake in the other western examples.

Couldn't disagree more. I prefer the Battletch style of mech. No hate for the Japanese ones mind. Still an interesting video. Worth the time to watch.

*sees Prof yelling about mech designs again* *gets popcorn*

I kinda like the idea of walkers that look and act more like functional war machines than glorified super-suits. Don’t get me wrong: mecha are amazing and I’m a sucker for a nice Eastern design, but there’s something very grounded and realistic in how Western mechs are designed and how they act. Mechs are likely to never become an actual part of IRL combat no matter how advanced our technology gets, because they’re just way more bulky, easy to hit, and carry way more potential mechanical fail points. But if I had to pick which design philosophy would likely be in the wars of the future, I’d go Western every time.

you know im realising something over the years i've made a personel point to try to make "walkers" and "mecha" two seperate but related catagories it's not strictly correct i don't think, but it's a destinction i felt was neccessary in part because of this i think japanese designs feel more like "mecha", and western designs feel more like "walkers" its a range, not a binary keep in mind, but those are the vibes the two lineages gravitate to in my experience.

I'm reminded Babylon5 movie about Rangers. A minbari complains how human ship desings are boxy and only acceptable colours are black and grey. I think the main difference is that in how weapons are viewed. In most asian martial arts weapons are extension of body, while western tends to go for tool. Me, I like the boxes with guns, no need to be fancy with tools of death. Though the exposed cocpit makes only sense if you need to see or in case of APU's strapped for resources.

Western Mecha, Battletech and Heavy Gear, led me to Japenese Mecha. Both BT and HG, fused eastern and western philosophical ideas; and have frankly stood the test of time (as best as bipedal mecha can reasonably be expected to 'supplant' tracked and wheeeled armored vehilces that in the real world are likely to never truly be replaced). Your opinion is interesting, and acceptable by reason of it being an opinion. Frankly, after having served aboard armored vehicles, supporting actual armored military units, my opinion leads me to see most 'Real' robot mecha as less than spectacular. Amored Trooper VOTOMS is probably the only real robot mecha that actually seems real to me (a combat veteran). No magic, not even the genetically engineered super soldiers are immune to the reality that any weapon system that can mounted on a humanoid, can be added in spades to a different chasis (VOTOMS provided the NA designers in Toronto Canada with inspireation). VOTOMS has a protagonist that is a competent special operations veteran, a genetically engineered person, who must rely on equipment that breaks easily... Something that happens in combat. No super prototypes with magical unobtainable alloys with super powers activated by blood or special passwords from the pilots father who designed the mech. Regarding the Avatar movie mecha, I hope you didn't miss the Weyland-Yutani refernces throughout thee film lknking it (through it's director Ridley Scott) to Aliens. Given the environment, they make perfect sense when facing giant humanoids armed with bows and spears. Polycarbonate, when cast, is used for bullet resistant windshileds and car windshields (and Nalgene bottles). It is transparent, and likely to stop up to 12.7mm DSK rounds with steel core tips; more than enough to stop Navi arrows... As demonstrated in the films. Avatar failed with mecha designs not because of a lack of understanding, but really, the film wasn't about mecha at all, it was ecological SF in the vein of "Dune" more than a film about mecha. As far as "the biggest military in the world" the US ranks maybe 3rd (total Active Military) to 51st (total Active per Capita). Our manpower is small. Sure, in dollars spent, it's the most expensive; but when comparing percent of Gross Domestic Product of a nation spent on it, it ranks well below Russia, China, North Korea and quite a few others. Something about how super carriers, stealth fighters, and precision guided munitions tend to cost more per unit than mass produced tanks wth tin foil for armor (Russian T-55/Chinese Type 59's, out stripping anything the US build for proliferation across the globe as a quick example of something mecha related). Honestly, outside of VOTOMS, only 86 seems to bring military reality to the Japanese Rreal Robot Mecha genre. In my opinion, most Japanese Real Robot mecha has been a failure to convey the true experience of warfare. While giant robots capable of martial arts feats has 'cool factor' in and of itself (which is why I enjoy Gundam, Gundam Wing, and The Big O), I enjoy them for the same reasons I enjoy 80's action films; reality be damned, lets tell a fun story you can just watch while drunk and eating popcorn to. Perhaps my military experience, and introduction to mecha through Battletech (4th Edition, without the Robotech/Macross designs) contributes to my bias; but no, Western mecha doesn't suck; it just grounds the genre in a hars reality of human nature and reminds us that any new tech will be exploited by the military warfighters (as is human nature since someone picked up a stone and killed a predator attacking his/her kids). PS- as far as exposed components on mecha, how about those Zaku power conduits on their legs? Visually interesting, tactially stupid.

I think the unspoken difference is that eastern mecha are kinda sorta aimed at kids (or their lineage started there anyway) while western mecha design were aimed at people who don’t actually want to think of themselves as kids. So we make our mecha as un-kid-friendly as possible. Walking tanks are a great example.

By the way, Starship Troopers original novel inspired Gundam, Macross, Aliens, Halo, Starcraft, and even Iron Man himself. It's known as the grandfather to all mechs and Exosquad used the book to help them make their mechs on Exosquad.

I actually like the non-human design of battle tech, but I will agree some are not that good looking. However on the defense of battle tech there is a in game lore reason for bad mech design and that is money. More human design are expensive and difficult to keep maintained. I like the simplicity of nonhuman designs it also follows a western philosophy of Mech design better.

If my mech can't swing a giant beam sword and locking onto 20-ish goddamn target while doing 360° areal acrobatics move im not driving it.

I find it funny that I fall on the opposite side of this thought process. I do occasionally appreciate the eastern style mecha designs. I'm a big armored core fan. however I find that the designs of most mechs in a setting like Battletech are far more appealing to me. BT has around 700 hundred different chassis alone. this doesn't include the insane amount of variant designs. some of them look like shit(IMO) but you cant say that that western mech desgin is less aestheticly appealing than the eastern counterparts. that is a subjective thing but you present that opinion as fact and that seems disingenuous.

Showing a picture of the atlas for you thumbnail really hurts your argument. Jokes aside as person who likes his gundams just as much as the timber wolf's. I never understood west vs east mecha thing. It's like comparing a Philips head and flat head screw driver. Both are good in there own way.

The title doesnt indicate that the video is about what mechs look like. Glass cockpits are a bad idea. It doesnt matter if its tempered or reinforced. Its easier to penetrate than almost any metallic armor and it makes it easy to see and target the pilot. Its poor design and an example of lower levels of technology. Cameras are important to see with the larger the platform the more can be carried. In Warhammer the units vary wildy. Anything with an Open-Top is unsafe The Elder have skeleton looking walkers. The War Walker looks ridiculous, sort of like an anti-air gun emplacement on stilts. The Reaver is okay with its jawless skull head, but its not as impressive as a Warlord heavy Titan. The Imperial Guard Sentinel has been upgraded. I remember an old 2nd edition Sentinel that looked goofy, like a frog with a gatling gun. The Steel Legion Armored Sentinel has the best look, like a tank on legs. Tau Battlesuits being anime-esque are better looking. Ive seen the CAV designs and some are cool, with large oversized weapons. Other times they have tiny nubby arms

Battletech is about 200 - 300 years (I could be wrong on how much time has passed in setting since the Mackie was introduced) of weapons development and alot of it is heavily inspired by real life weapons design. That is the only reason why things like the hunchback and similar mechs even exsist.

The difference Between West and Eastern style of Mecha lies with The Spirit of what is being presented to you as the audience to connect with . By that i mean The Mech Has a ''attitude/Spirit'' based on it Colour Scheme, Weaponary and design Form. For example look at the boxart of the Strike Noir Gundam. It basically screams Edgy unorthodox fighting machine. The art being 2 laser pistols sideways,a forward leaning pose and explosion like red colour in the back ground. Getter Robo is also a obvious example of how Evolution effect its Mecha in Looks and Spirit and that drives as a major plot point of the series. Its the interwoveness of mech and story that makes it more appealing imo. What im trying to say in more simple words is that The ''Eastern'' Mecha are more than just a utility machine they are designed to trigger a more personal emotion like Pride,valour or hell Pity for the derpy Zaku 1&2 underdog look lol. In the west a mech is just that a mech devoid from any real connection to the Story on screen.

Hey now, Atlas in MW5 might be some no-neck, stumpy armed, perpetually knee-bent hunchbacked clunker.. But the normal Atlas actually looks like a towering giant. And the reworks over the years on the Kodiak are sometimes really unique and full of character, while we on 100 tonners. We used to get a very wide variety of looks for our assault mechs. For some reason they're all bricks now, though, and have lost a lot of their uniqueness and flavor. Very few of the assaults, like the Kodiak and King Crab, have enjoyed improvements from the current visual themes.

also you kinda woken up the battletech hive...

Let me save you some time, complains about aesthetics arbitrarily, and ultimately doesn't like hard sci-fi mechs because they're not reliant on lazy "deus ex machina" writing, ie super powers being pulled out the aether to help them win.

Okay Prof this means I now understand you tasted Mecha better. You know how you like the original power rangers megazord better than the one from the new movie. Well that's how I feel about a lot of anime Mecca. I like my robots to look like big chunky robots not teeny tiny ballerina action figures. For me if a Mac has too little chunk it does not look like a robot anymore. A robot can have too much chunk. But usually more chunk is better than less chunk.

Nah. I like my mecha chunky. Not looking like a set of artisanal designed twigs that'll fall apart from small arms fire.

Let me guess, you never saw 1993's Exosquad, which lasted two seasons and was killed off by executives at NBC/Universal for BS reasons. The show was a Reading success with successful toys by Playmates, but after Exosquad's creator, Jeff Siegel was fired from Universal Animation Studios. I know I talked to some of the animators of the show by accident. Exosquad is currently free on NBC/Universal's streaming service Peacock. FREE!!!

The best way i would put it is that, a lot of western design is basically " Tacktic Cool " kinda as a way to suck up to the army, always trying to make it as real as possible while never just enjoying the thing for what it is. It get boring fast because its ALWAYS the same design with slight change. That why things such as titan fall and other similar type of mech always avoid those things instead taking inspiration from Eastern designer. Rule of cool vs Rule of reality

I prefer the blocky and functional aesthetic that the western militarized designs have. One look at a Yeoman from Battletech and you know what it's for. It's an MLRS on legs. Same as the Longbow. I've watched some mecha anime, but those shows weren't carried by the mecha designs for me but by the story and characters. As I find most of them to be too humanoid. Just very tall, blocky humans. Looking at you Code Geass. MSG: Iron Blooded Orphans had been a welcome departure as those mechs at least felt weighty. Even though that might sound strange as my favorite Battlemech from Battletech is the Black Knight. But even that guy looks bulky, angular and lumbering compared to eastern mecha designs that favor sleek designs. Especially his amazing BLK-NT-5H design from the Dark Age.

Rather have the brick that can take a hit over a leo that explodes if you look at it

I mean I think it’s kinda a plus in some areas it makes them look unique in a way like you know that’s an American mech. I think there could be a little more whimsy like with the look of titanfall 1 & 2 mechs cause I still like that more industrial feel makes them seem real to me

I'm baffled as to what point you were trying to make with this. You don't like Mechs that have exposed cabling and fragile looking glass cockpits... but you DO like the Sentinel from 40K? You don't like the Eldar War-walker though because the pilot is exposed, but that's an ALIEN design! Also, they are advanced aliens - why do they need armour if they have 'force fields' to protect the pilot instead? As for calling it 'western', that's laughable - it is blatantly copying Japanese design cues with its flowing, organic shapes. After all, 'western' Mechs are by your own admission walking tanks. You seem to like Anime designs, but Anime Mechs are often terrible designs that really shouldn't be able to move the way they do in their cartoons and comic books. This is actually something that Mechwarrior does really well - it's machines look and feel like giant plodding tanks because they ARE giant plodding tanks! Also, you don't seem to be giving much thought into the fact that a Mech design should reflect the setting. Space weebs do not belong in most settings - a Steampunk Mech should be a clunky, clumsy walking boiler, not a graceful ballerina. I especially liked how you declare that Battletech's best designs are stolen from dougram. If I was to point out the worst designed Mechs in all of creation, that would be franchise I go to. That wide-open cockpit on the Bigfoot is BEGGING to be shot! But better still, the geniuses behind this Mech put a shell-trap directly below the cockpit! So if you drop your shot low and fail to blow the pilot into meat paste, there's a good chance the Bigfoot's own armour will deflect your shot into its centre mass so you blow apart its precious internals instead! The fact is, western Mechs are great. They have much more focus on the verisimilitude of their designs, which is precisely why they tend to be industrial, utilitarian designs with a lot of focus given to how they supposedly work. Western Mechs are functioning machines; Japanese Mecha are magical suits of magic armour that run on space magic. They are two completely different genres, and as such you might as well have made a video called "knights on horseback are dumb because they aren't Samurai."

Unrelated comment.Wvhat do you think of front mission's wanzers btw?

i like eastern mech designs, like gundam and such, they are usually sleek and good looking, like the idealized version created after hundreds of years of development. western mech designs seem to trend more towards being industrial, chonky, and ugly, but to me, this just gives it a little more realism, a little more of that "this actually seems like something that might roll off a lockheed martin assembly line one day" kindve vibe. in short, i like both design styles, but i actually prefer the battletech approach. i will be taking away points for cockpit windows though, those are dumb and they basiclly just act as a sign that says "shoot here to kill driver", and even in modern times they have figured out vision slits lol

I personally prefer a mix between BattleTech style and anime. So my perfect Mecca is something like a vote Tom. That's why the nuclear weapon launching evil Gundam from stardust memories and the easy aid from ate thems team are my favorite Mecca.

The fact that there aren't that many mainstream designs that are good is a bit disappointing I mean we have things like lancer but that's kind of really niche isn't it

Hey! So just watched your vid! Here on behalf of warhammer, so I dunno if you've read the ocean of words taht is the lore of 40k but you have to keep in mind that humanity in 40k is kinda in a backfired stage where one of humanity's *core* features like evolution or progress has been essentially abandoned and instead practice religion. Now you should know that 40k's titans where NOT developed during the great crusade(basically emps conquest to rule unite humanity among the stars) and where created during the age of strife where techno barbarians ruled the earth and wrecked havoc and shit, when the Unification wars(name is self explanatory-he united all of humanity on Earth) ended he actually salvaged these titan and just reiterated their designs. So yeah i guess thats why the reaver looks that way, but i'm just shedding some light on to my franchise and i respect your opinion. Anyways hope you have a great day and may the Ommnisiah bless thy machine spirits and may its algorithm flow with the Machine Gods intended content..

I feel like you're arguing preference more than anything. As for me I'll take my battletech over anything the east has put out. I find that when I was a kid I preferred the God machines piloted by teenagers that could do anything and save the day. And as I've gotten older I perfer the more realistic take on mechs that you find in settings like battletech. To each there own

The bike helmet makes more sense in context, thanks.

The way I see it is that Westerners design a mech that looks like it can actually be built, Japan designs a mech that looks good on screen.

Kinda wanna see you and Mr Tex of the BPL talk mechs .

So the Western mechs are bad because they are "literal walking tanks", but when they design them differently they're also bad because they are derivative of Eastern designed mechs. Either way, Western mechs can't win to you. Which is hogwash. I love both Eastern and Western mechs, but you can't tell me that Eastern mechs aren't just armoured people fighting while Western mechs show more unique designs because they mostly are just "walking tanks".

1:14 megas XLR is an hidden gem bro

Great video! And dear god that power rangers remake mecha is horrendous!!

Western mechs bore me. People are like but "muh realism" even though its a fictional giant robot so why not make it cool as possible. Cause square cube law says we ain't getting mechs any time soon anyways

I think the blockiness of battletech mechs is a feature, not a bug. My hesitation with mechs has always been that they’re very impractical as a war machine, which is especially the case with sleeker, more agile, and therefore flimsier mechs. What battletech does really well is take the pretty impractical concept of mechs and make a reasonably believable universe out of it. When I look at really bulky, ugly mechs, I see the reflection of our bulky, ugly, but practical war machines, and it adds to the credibility of the universe.

Where do some of the gaming ones figure in or other toy lines. GiJoe had a mech T one point, and several ubits in Star Craft are mechs

Man speaks his eastern veeaboo preferences where all need to be brightly colored sweeping lines, super unique machines to every main characters. Where Militaries in real life gringe on single unique piece warmachines that need their own parts, where you need as much compatability on your gear.

I think the difference between the eastern design and western design is that typically eastern design are unique one of the kind prototypes made for a teenager to stumble upon and pilot and thats cool because its making the pilots the 'every man' that we can self-insert. Western design focuses on mass-produced mechs with military personnel piloting mechs and the mech most likely have design flaws or limitations giving them a since of realism. Yes there may be exceptions to this observation for the east and west but generally speaking I think this is true.

I think MEGAS XLR hit the nail on the 'Cuda with it's musclecar-for-a-cockpit/head in terms of originality and style. How do you make a Japanese-style mech better? You give it a hot rod paint job and replace the head with a cool classic car. It's still a matter of opinion, but you can't say it doesn't leave a mark in the subconscious.

how about Boston Dynamics robots, but scaled up?

I will say, that atleast in the novels and board game, the mechs are a lot more nimble. They function more like MS up until the Gundam shows up with its Magic.

If you prefer mecha but also enjoy battletech, maybe look at Japanese BT redesigns (ironically done by the Macross studio). Not any western "tank on legs" there.

This is all just subjective opinion that you state as fact.

(See's zaku 2 while in my awesome) see that zaku and now it's Slagle

Yeah, I don't hide that I hate western mech designs. Heck, when it comes to fan story of east vs west mechs, I'm always cheering for the east cause I know they'll kick west ass. But seriously, why is it so hard to make good designs when even the east can take western designs and make it look so much better? I've seen eastern redesigns of BT mechs and they look great while still fitting within the confines of their native reality.

A lot of this video strikes me as "If you ignore all the good western designs, then you'll see that the western designs suck". I especially got this impression when you mentioned the goofy Eldar walker while the Eldar have awesome designs such as the wraith knight. Then focusing on old goofy Battletech but not mentioning their modern takes and how they appear in games. Now this is more of a matter of personal preference, but I really like how the Battletech mechs have history and specific reasons for why they are the way they are. The Urbanmech for one ended up being one of my favourite designs for being an economic piece of crap built to do a single task and do it well. Its goofy, cheap, but really powerful if you know how to use it. It became sort of an endearing ugly pug of Battletech. Its very reflective of real world weaponry and how its built as tools to solve a specific problem on the battlefield. I really recommend the video by Tex on it. I actually used to agree with you before I got into Battletech and saw its merit.

Both Japanese and Western Mecha are both inherently rooted with one another so you can't exactly say western mecha is flawed without criticizing Japanese Mecha. I do have a preference towards battletech when it comes to mecha but I do like gundam as well. There isn't and there never should be a scenario where people should have to pick one over the other especially since mecha is a fairly niche thing compared to other media. I prefer utilitarian designs, you don't. It is best to leave it at that and not shit on what other people like as there isn't an objective truth to it as your preference in design is entirely subjective.

Just a daily reminder that battletech licensed their designs from anime, that being dougram, macross, and more

Honestly I just never cared about mecha untill I a friend got me mech warrior 5 and I found about battletech and I fell in love with the art style becaue it wasn't like Japanese mecha which I never cared about stuff like the catapult is just a cockpit on legs with 2 missle racks and I love that so much more.

One of the other problems that Catalyst faces is trigger happy Harmony Gold. HG would still be suing over the reseen designs, had it not been for the last judge saying "Go stand in a corner and screw yourself" over Mechwarior Online. We still don't know if that was enough blood for HG as the latest deals for Robotech and Macross have yet to see new fruit outside of rereleases of the original US chop job. And as for the designs going forward for BT/MW, we just started the first brand new era for the game that takes place after the Dark Age of collectible minis (Yeah, it took 15 years IRL to get away from the Jihad and Dark age eras) in the last year. Hopefully we get a fully new Tech Readout soon for it.

In spite the fact that one of my favorite kind of mech designs come from Western hemisphere, I find it mildly offensive that you didn't even mention Armored Troopers: VOTOMs by its name despite showing it on screen. Such a gem for a series, I'm almost at its end

Because we, North Americans, are more obsessed with function, whereas overseas is form.

I much prefer the kill-bricks of the west than the four story metal dude with rainbow barf colour schemes and/or enough spikes to make me think it was rendered by a dying GPU.

agreed

Alex Iglesias, the lead artist at MWO basically kicked off the modern western mecha aesthetic. Change my mind.

I'm sorry I like battletech mech dezines I grow up watching the show and also playing the mechwarrior games maybe if you give battletech a chance you might end up liking them too.

Thou DARETH to insult the glory that is the urban mech, the trachCAN!, Western and eastern mechs are equal in coolness (except the urbie, urbie best mech)

In my opinion, i like the Mechs in Battletech and Pacific rim and other such western styles because they have a lot more weight to them when they move. Every action a western mech does has weight to it and is much more Visceral. Eastern Mechs lack the weight being more light on their feet, also with the flying too. Which takes the punch out of the fighting really.

Thats the thing though, when people worship Western mechas for all their "realism" and says that's what makes it better than Japanese mecha, they usually focus on only the military sci fi aspect. Patlabor is perhaps more grounded and well thought in terms of mech design than any western mech has been with its focus on civilian applications for mecha and complete avoidance of the walking brick with battleship sized guns trope. Even then its not like the Japanese are lacking in extremely awesome looking but heavy military styled walking tank designs such as Metal Gears or Destroid Monsters.

whenever i see people wax nostalgic about stuff like battletech this is my reaction

I'm not really a mecha fan so I'm not very knowledgeable I prefer machines that exist irl. However (Idk if you'd count it as a mech but I think technically it is since a human is inside of it controlling it) I think bioschock infinites handyman is pretty well designed. Same with the wolfenstein new order prison mech. Same with those star wars chicken looking mechs.

I honestly like all types me h design I just america did their own flashy mech

Tldr: its not unique enough and doesn't scream power fantasy. Tbh that kind of philosophy is why I have briefly fallen out of the anime community, I grew bored of the rather repetative shit every seasons.

Military-Industrial is a distinct aesthetic style. The entire premise is to make it look "realistic", as part of a lived in universe. Western aesthetic trends starting around 1979 (See for example the grimy industrial sensibilities of the first Alien movie) departed from the overly stylized "futuristic" look of previous science fiction. It primarily went in the direction of making mechs and ships look like a combination of heavy construction machinery and weapons/cockpits inspired by World 2 era technology onward, and also split into a subgenre of gothic infused designs as seen in Warhammer 40K. The very idea is to make the machines look grounded and relate them to something familiar. The style absolutely has a strong appeal (James Cameron's powerloader designs are part of the biggest grossing movies of all time), you seem to have confused your personal sensibilities with an objective critique. I could just as easily do a rant about how Japanese mecha is over-stylized, spindly, ridiculous looking garbage that fails to suspend disbelief and overly relies on deus ex machina and plot contrivances but that would be unfair clickbait, much like this video.

Pragmatic design vs rule of cool the argument rages on. Idk even in Gundam Ill still take the humble Zaku 2 over the more eccentric designs. Some of the designs of Eastern Mecha has a little to much going on you know, especially Gundam G Fighter though I was miffed we didnt get a Neo-Poland mech designed like a Winged Hussar

Glad you didn’t say anything about Titianfall to even consider that shit a mech is a insult to even the Leo

hmmm...I dunno. Different strokes for different folks I guess. I'll say this though. I much prefer the tactical and political machinations of the Battletech universe compared to the Gundam universe where almost every protagonist is a whining teenager and a ham-fisted "war is bad" message needs to be at the forefront of the series. You'd think with a faction like Zeon there would be a world of interesting plots and relationships to explore (and the first series certainly hints at that). But if they ever did explore that, I wouldn't know MSG was the only series I watched. I don't care about SEED, WING or any of the other spinoffs. I did like Armored Core though (I just wish the narrative there was a bit more engaging).

Based take

"The mechs lifted whole sale from macross" Someone did not read into the legal war that broke out over that I see.

Don't talk shit about battletech. Most of the mechs might not look as cool, but you won't find a more fleshed out and believable setting than it

I mean battle tech represents a whole galaxy and different companies making mech over hundreds of years, the designs all have flaws and all have strengths, some like the Catphract are Frankenstein mechs made from different parts. But your whole point is that you don't like the design of them, when in fact a lot of the designs are different. Instead of humans thay are metal and flashy, just say you prefer flashy moving things instead of technicals xD it's not that hard.

TL;DR: Author likes humanoid space ninja mechs.

I think this is more a of preference thing than an objective fact. I've read the description and I see you are prepared for a war in the comment section even down to replying to comments with a sarcastic tone... and claim that you didn't state your opinion as fact when you did by using your clickbaity title, lol. You were intentionally inflammatory, which tells me more that you aren't coming from a place of criticism and more like disrespect towards a genre of entertainment and the people who like it for maximum rage bait... which is sad, because you could have been talking about something you love instead. You're arguments in the comments have a more coherent points that I can believe is actual criticism. It is surprising that Mech manufacturers don't have more common traits among their mechs. I mean, the Cataphract for example looks nothing like the Shadow Hawk, Phoenix Hawk and Marauder that it supposedly is made of from recycling their parts. The only thing on the damn thing that looks like it came from another Marauder is the right arm. I completely disagree with the notion that Western mech designs are unrememberable. If that was the case, I wouldn't be able to remember design features nor the names of specific mechs off the top of my head as I do with the Gundam and Zeta Gundam. The Atlas and Timber Wolf are iconic. And not the mention the fact that the individual pilot of each MS personality affects the perception of the design as well. Battletech is rather impersonal, so you don't really get attached to the pilot too, like you would with the Elmeth or Psycho Gundam. If it wasn't obvious already, I prefer the mechs of Battletech to MS of the Gundam franchise, but I love the story of Gundam and their personal connection to show the impact war has on a pilot or teenagers. I want that kind of storytelling in my mech games. Like Armored Core 6 was. I loved that game.

By suck you mean superior in every way? Nothing better than a King Crab Jenner or Locust.

I agree! Thoughts on the mecha designs on 90's "ExoSquad"?

bruh

I have to disagree man. I like both but Western Mechs can be a lot of fun. I like how they are more grounded and have less space magic in them. It's a big reason I couldn't get into the newer gundams like 00. This really comes off more like an opinion piece and less like facts.

Gundams are for people that disregard physics. Battlemechs are for that one mad lad that stuck five howitzers to a torso and said good enough for me.

Ok... so no. Just no. Are you trying to argue for the "rule of cool"? If so that is ok. But comparing Gundams to a Battlemech is like comparing apples to oranges. Both with different themes. One is more futuristic and the other is basically cyberpunk. If you're arguing for realism and practicality, then Battlemechs are far far far more realistically possible that the gods in armor that are Gundams. Fuck dude, strapping a gun on an industrial powerlifter is even more realistic than Battlemechs. The fist tanks in WW1 were essentially tractor engines with armor and guns on top of it. Stuff that had use in the private sector were then used in war with some modifications. Why? Because they were cheap and having a weapon is better than no weapon. This is a bad take IMO. Battletech and Gundam are far too different beasts to be compared. If you like Eastern mechs more then I have no problems, but you talk like you're both arguing for rule of cool and practicality. I'm confused. My apologies for this long comment and I hope you take no personal offense as you're reading this.

"wEsTern mEchS sUck... aNimE rUbBer sUitS 1010101010 tImEs bEtTer reeEeeeEEEEeeE" Nuh uh!

Before watching the video, Thems some fighting words my man