It’s in the near future that technology has advanced to a point where human powered machines make people into, larger than life, super powered robots. Sound familiar? Well that’s the basic premise of Mecha stylized Anime. This science fiction backdrop varies, but the influence is the mainstay; without this genre, Anime would not be the same.

My first vivid memory with these massive exoskeleton suits was the American version of the Macross series. Known in the USA as Robotech; the storyline follows pilots of the UN spacey as they take flight to beat an over-sized race of humanoids, called the Zentradi. The type of Mech our brethren used made ordinary humans just as tall as their alien enemies. This also allowed them to transform into air fighting jet planes.  What was even more common is the Zentradi soldiers also wore protective mechanical suits making this technology universal.

So where do these diverse metal wonderment’s come from? Maybe it is in the imagination of sheer necessity that these exoskeleton ensembles find life and do much more then look cool. For example in 1986 the sequel to the Sci-Fi film “Alien”, Ripley stylized her own machinery adornments to move cargo and successfully protected herself from one of those mean-ole drones. These vehicles can work as plows, tractors, do heavy construction, and work as fire trucks. Mostly we see that those who run Mechs are considered pilots and part of integrated military force; we see this in the Black Knights of the modern Anime Code Geass.

The infectious part to this anime genre goes way back when we see Mech were originally vehicles that would combine to make one humongous super robot. We all remember those mechanical lions driven by the 5 colored heroes to form Voltron… and then there is Gundam which is synonymous with Mecha. Spawning over 20 anime arcs, 15 movies and 52 mangas can be considered its own phenomenon. The ever-present series in Japan is just as omnipresent in the worldwide community of Anime and its fans.

However in Japan where Anime is pure culture, Mech is just a word relating to anything mechanical, it does not mean giant robot. It’s the west that kidnapped the term and connected it to the bipedal contraptions and made it a genre. Some say it was the elite groups of gamers that coined the term but it was in surely in use before that game was popular among the arcade denizens. More so the trend breeds collectors, model makers and Mech experts who know every last nut and bolt in these pretend appliances. Mech Anime is here to stay, and the fact remains true to when Lynn Minmei sang a song about how her boyfriend loved his jet more than he loved her and we can see why Minmei was annoying but Mechs are awesome!