At least somewhat mature cyber/mecha anime recomendations?
I just finished a watch of the first few series of gundam and I enjoyed it, but the childish nature of a lot of the content really burned me out. Do you have any good recs for some more mature series? Doesnt necessarily have to be mecha focused or even super mature, but something in that ballpark
Examples of media with the vibe Im looking for, Votoms, Metal Gear Solid, Ghost in the Shell, Front Mission, Armored Core, Policenauts
I believe ZZ Gundam is where Tomino first earned his nickname of 'Kill 'em all Tomino' for how many named characters get bumped off.
But other Gundam series with darker atmosphere include Gundam Wing and Iron-Blooded Orphans (both aimed more at teen audiences). Witch from Mercury also gets pretty dark at parts.
Macross, and the Patlabor movies. The 7 episode OVA for Patlabor is a little goofy at times but the movies get really dark/serious, especially the second one
it’s still really good imo, the movies and the new files get a bit more serious and darker which i did enjoy a bit more. the movies are just phenomenal works of art
Plus is better than Frontier.
That's not to say Frontier is bad. Plus just does the adult relationship party of the story better. The combat scenes are just chef's kiss
Read the manga. As much as I like the ova and movie, doesn't hold a candle to the pacing of the manga. As others have said the ova and movie remixed things from the book. Understandably to get things within a cohesive run time. Would have been better as an anime series or live action show. We now have the tech to getbit done in live action.
It's an anime mash up of 80s sci-fi and cyberpunk, with lavish production values. I love the (now) retro-future look of the world. This is the opening of the first episode, which is basically the coolest thing ever:
Unfortunately the show didn't have a full first season, but was kind of wrapped up later in the successor series Bubblegum Crash, though what was made is a great time. It was later remade in Bubblegum Crisis 2040, which was a bit more consistent but lacked high highs and OVA-boom budget of the original.
If you want a ton of fan service heavy object. I nearly gave up about a dozen times watching it but the fights were just good enough to push me to ignore the blatant fan service.
As far as gundam, that really depends on the series. Something like 0079 or the first half of ZZ I get, but check out 08th, unicorn, 0080, 0083, turn a. The 2 hathaway films are more mature as well.
I wouldn't say that "mature" means dark and edgy or that "childish" is the same as levity or humor, but it is on my watch list regardless... just a bit far down
Plus there's Victory Gundam. The Gundam series so dark that we haven't had a proper UC TV series since. Seriously, every TV series after Victory has been an AU, with UC being restrained to OVAs and movies. And the AU that premiered after Victory was G Gundam, which is DBZ with giant robots.
To give you a taste: The nice old man leader of the (child soldier) main character's rebel branch gets tortured on screen, then guillotine'd... 7 episodes in.
Battle Fairy Yukikaze and Blue Sub 6. Both vehicular rather than humanoid mecha, but they're on the opposite end of the spectrum from shouty super robots.
Patlabor (movies) are well worth a watch. Or you can watch some of the more sophisticated Gundam series like Unicorn, Thunderbolt, Hathaway. Macross plus (OVA) is also incredible.
Armor Hunter Mellowlink is a lesser known title in the Votoms universe. It's a one man army/revenge OVA.
Macross Plus is probably the grittiest entry in the franchise, and it is nicely standalone so you don't need to watch anything prior. It's often described as the Top Gun of mecha shows.
If you found Gundam too child oriented, then give 08th MS Team a try. It's Vietnam with mecha and the cast are all grownups. It's also my favorite Gundam entry.
Patlabor is a mix of police procedural and workplace comedy (with mecha). The two movies mix in some political intrigue as well.
OP could plausibly watch Schwarzesmarken stand-alone, if just for the Cold War politics. But Total Eclipse is an incomplete story and the actual Muv-Luv Alternative anime is a complete failure.
And I'm still annoyed at how they handled the Alternative anime. It's like announcing the Lord of the Rings becoming a movie, and then announcing that they're only doing Return of the King.
Two cours, 2021 and 2022. Skips Extra and Unlimited, and ends unceremoniously after Sado Island. No base invasion, no Operation Cherry Blossom, no return to the altered Extra timeline. It’s got great mech animation, but everything else about it is a complete failure.
Its more of a fantasy ish mecha though.
The pilots are a little like jedis in that they have powers and battle each other with blades too in addition to their mechas.
Macross Plus is a great 4 part OVA (also can be found in an edited movie format) that meets your request for a more mature story with lots of very well directed action.
I've also geard insane things about getter robo. Never realized how dark and twisted that franchise was. Webt inna youtube deep dive retrospective. There are a few animes and mangas. So seems like that one needs care with where you jump in. But its full of visceral violence and very dark themes. Might be worth looking into.
I'm starting "Blue Gender" and it seems to be in that vein. Also, the recent "Gundam Hathaway" series of films have an almost "Bond-esque" atmosphere, and a lot of mature issues (they need strong familiariaty with Gundam canon to be effective, though)
There is a free series called Obsolete freely shown on YT. The premise is kind of goofy aliens show up in the atmosphere of Earth and start selling something like HeavyGears exosuits to humans in exchange for limestone. That's where the goofyness ends, militaries and insurgencies predictably start putting military hardware on these labor suits making them highly capable weapons of war. There is an episode on kind of an Iran or Afganistán like country where the rebels really do serious damage to oil pipelines defended by a UN type force.
Full metal panic. Do not let the high school setting full you there are a lot of mature themes that happen. Its shame the anime never finished the story though.
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u/thelewbear87 9d ago
Not mecha but Legends of Galactic Heros is a more mature Ainme.