Thank you guys for enjoying Mecha March 2021. Next week is the in review portion of Mecha March. Next year, I need to come up with a different thing for the weekends next year for 2022. But for now we need to cover the last question of 2021. Yay!
Do you think that adding mecha into a genre that doesn’t have it as often like sports or otherwise can add some new energy or is it just a waste of time?
It can work, but it depends on the context and the situation of the story. Sports could work especially in a futuristic or sci-fi environment, so I have no issue with that. If there’s a legitimate reason for there to be a mecha in a genre that wouldn’t normally have them, then it could be fine. If it’s there just because and doesn’t have any comedic or sensible value, then I think it could be very shallow.
I think it depends on the why’s and how’s. If they just make baseball series with mecha characters, just because another baseball anime wouldn’t sell; then no. I need some world building as to why they decided to make it baseball and mecha. I want some logistics about why we as a society (if it was on earth), decided human baseball wasn’t enough anymore, etc. Also the intention, if it’s done to put on a spin on both genres, and there’s some care taken to the story and characters, it should work. Just doing it to do it, isn’t enough.
Adding mecha means explaining why the mechs are there, and that leads to the point that some genres work better with mechs than others. For instance, I could imagine Hypnosis Mic as a mech show because of the fact the speakers could be rendered as mechs and it could work because basically anything goes in that kinda-futuristic universe in the first place. In fact, any series which has an “anything goes” policy, even Ranma 1/2, would work really well with a mech or few added. (This is kinda spoilers, but…porcupinefish mecha from Boueibu, anyone…?)
However, if you tried to make, say, a mecha horror series…it would probably end up falling flat on its face, because giant robots and scary things don’t mesh well. Gridman showed you can pull off a sense of foreboding and unease with having kaiju in the background, but just having the atmosphere doesn’t make a proper horror series.
From Me (Of All People)
I agree with the others. If mecha is inserted in a way that makes sense for it to be there through how the world is constructed or having a reason for it, then it’s fine. Otherwise It’s just kind of there I suppose. Or there could be the opposite direction and go completely insane with it and it just works in tone and such. That has worked for quite a few series too. Is that a justification again? Hmmm…
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This actually sounds like something I would watch. Regardless of world building, I think robots playing baseball would be pretty hilarious.
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