Mech Films and TV Series

[LoS]

Hey everyone, so as you can guess from the thread title I wish to pursue viewing Mech based animation.

Well, I have only seen a few, Gurren Lagann which I thought was pretty good, and Eureka 7 which was good as well.

I am interested in hearing from you recommendations for Mech Films and TV Series, because basically I am a noob at knowing what are the good/must watch ones. Well, that and there are just so freaking many of them.

I have been trying to get into the Evangelion stuff for a long time, but there are so many films, ova's, and tv series I just don't know where to begin. Can someone tell me the order in which they were made, and the order in which the story unfolds(as in earliest/beginning to the end). Which order is the best way to view them?

The same can be applied to the Gundam series. I saw a few episodes of them and enjoyed them enough, but there are tons of different series with the "gundam" title in them I just don't know which ones to watch.

I saw a Macross series or movie back in the day and definitely enjoyed that, but the same can be applied as the Gundam scenario, there are just too many things with "macross" in the title I don't know which to watch.

If you could help me out on the Gundam, and Evangelion stuff that would be awesome. Oh, and PLEASE go ahead and recommend any Mech film/ova/series I have left off. Because, odds are I don't know about it.

[CBlitz]

for Evangelion its: TV Series (Original) -> End Of Evangelion -> Rebuild of Evangelion (The new movies). There's stuff like Death & Rebirth but that's just a recap mostly.

For Macross uhhh...I think its: Macross -> Macross 7 > Macross Frontier

alternatively you could just start at Macross Frontier. Each series also has some Movies and OVAs but I haven't seen em.

Never watched Gundam so I can't help you there. As for other mecha shows, try: The Big O, Xamd, Code Geass, and Escaflowne.

[LoS]

As for other mecha shows, try: The Big O, Xamd, Code Geass, and Escaflowne.

Saw a few of the Big O years back when it landed on Cartoon Network in America. I thought it was the Batman of mecha.

Heard plenty of Code Geass and Escaflowne, might have even seen an episode of both, but I can't remember.

[<.Haruka.>]

For the gundam series i've watched so far are: Gundam Wing, Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, After War Gundam X, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny.

I've also enjoyed watching fullmetal panic series: Fullmetal Panic!, Fullmetal Panic: Fumoffu, and Fullmetal Panic: The Second Raid.

Escaflowne and Magic Knight Rayearth are good mecha/fantasy anime series also.

[saladesu]

For Evangelion, do as CBlitz says The Rebuild of Evangelion OVA movies are (as the name suggests), just remakes with some alteration, so they can also be standalones. But of course it's better to watch the original TV animation first~

Since you've watched Gurren Lagann, you might be interested to watch the two OVA movies. As their names would also suggests, they go in the order of Gurren-hen first and Lagann-hen second

Code Geass is a good series (even if a bit convoluted in the second season), too, I recommend it

Full Metal Panic is another good series as recommended by Haruka It's comedic and light-hearted, so really enjoyable. Fumoffu is not really mecha though, it's focus is more on comedy, but if you like the FMP franchise, you'll love Fumoffu

As for Gundam, I've only watched SEED, SEED Destiny, 00, 00 Second Season, 00 -Awakening of the Trailblazer- and am currently watching Unicorn. SEED was a good series, but IMO Destiny kinda ruined it a little. 00 is great as well, I enjoyed it a lot and the animation is better than in the two seasons of SEED, mostly because it's more recent I guess. Unicorn's animation is astounding, but you'll need to put up with breaks of like 4-6 months between episodes, so you may want to wait till it's over to watch (a couple of years? ).

As for Macross, I've only watched Frontier and Frontier: Itsuwari no Utahime. Well both were amazing, especially in terms of animation. Really breathtaking especially when watched on a good TV in HD and Blu-ray Also, the soundtrack and insert songs are really good, especially those from the main Frontier TV series.

Like Gundam, the Macross series are often not so related that you MUST watch the other series to know what's going on. As you can see I didn't do that and enjoyed them all the same. Oh, but for the Gundam meta-series, you might be a *little* confused if you don't watch some series, as the time-line is the same for a good number of series. However, SEED and 00 are in their own timelines (Cosmic Era and Anno Domini respectively as opposed to the Universal Century timelines the rest are set in), so no problem there. Oh, Gundam Wing is also not in the UC timeline.

If you wanna watch something ongoing then you could also take a look at Star Driver or Infinite Stratos...

[LoS]

Wow, thanks everyone. That sure is a lot to process. I think I will have to tackle this in installments.