Mobile Suit Gundam | Other Series | Movies
Mobile Suit Gundam
Gundam Breaker Battlogue
Year: 2021
Synopsis: A major Gunpla tournament is set, and this time an angry young woman is determined to win.
EMN Notes: I’ve never played Gundam Breaker, though I’ve admired the custom mechs you can create in the game and I considered importing it. Sadly, New Gundam Breaker doesn’t seem like a great game. Oh well. Anyway, I added this because I saw that it has an angry young woman as a protagonist and it’s a six-episode OVA. It sounds like a lot of fun, and while the gunpla-focused series’ are the most “wow cool robot” of them all, sometimes there’s nothing wrong with that.
Gundam Build Fighters/Try
Year: 2013/2014
Synopsis: In a world where remote-controlled model-battling is a top sport, teams of idealistic youngsters aim for the top.
EMN Notes: We have the dubbed version on EMN’s main channel for fun since we discovered it was…interesting, to say the least. However, on Mecha we’ve went with the subbed version. The thing is, it’s a really fun show! It has incredible music and is sort of a Yu-Gi-Oh take on Gundam that focuses on flashy battles. It’s very different from basically everything else on this channel by virtue of being a toy show. Plus, model battles always make me think of the GBC game Power Quest, and I love that game.
Gundam Reconguista in G
Year: 2014
Synopsis: A young man is ushered into the war of Gundams after developing a strong attachment to a captured space pirate and her mecha.
EMN Notes: I know very little about this series outside of the basic synopsis and a very famous two screencaps of a character saying “I am a genius!” and “Oh no!” one after the other. I’m excited to learn the context. According to some friends of mine they like this one, so it was an easy add.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Year: 1994
Synopsis: Domon Kasshu enters the Gundam Fight, an international tournament to determine the greatest country in the world, unaware of the secrets lurking under its surface.
EMN Notes: I’ve brought this show up on the EMN One programming guide but man, this was one I loved back in the Toonami days. It just has wild energy, it’s silly, but it also is deep enough to know that hey, perhaps this nationalism stuff is kind of extremely awful. It’s funny how the G in G Gundam stands for God, and yet Domon’s final mech was changed to the Burning Gundam. They should have localized the show as B Gundam.
Mobile Suit Gundam
Year: 1979
Synopsis: Engineer-turned-pilot Amuro Ray struggles to defend his home colony in what would come to be known as the One Year War, the ongoing war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon.
EMN Notes: The more time I spend with the original Mobile Suit Gundam (mostly thanks to EMN) the more I grow to truly and fully appreciate it. Amuro is such a complex character, and we would eventually learn that Char is as well. It really creates this world of deep loss and tragedy and backs it up with fascinating pieces of futuristic sci-fi and what humanity could evolve into. It’s really magical stuff, with atmosphere that I really, really enjoy.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Year: 2007
Synopsis: In an era where world powers all fight over humanity’s last source of renewable energy, a private militia called Celestial Being appears to end all war by force using Gundams.
EMN Notes: It’s easy to see why this particular Gundam was so well-received. The animation is thrilling, the characters are great, and being one of the biggest AU Gundams since Wing definitely helped. From what I’ve seen, I’m super into it. I really love the dynamic between the protagonist and villain – it’s really emotionally charged and super intense. There is a lot of focus on shades of grey and the individuals who are part of these big national machinations, which makes the series feel both grand and personal.
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
Year: 2011
Synopsis: Three generations of Federation pilots fight in the war against an alien force.
EMN Notes: I hear this show isn’t as good as it could be, which is a shame because the concept of a cross-generational Gundam story is really cool. Something that makes Gundam really neat is seeing how the world and alliances shift during the war, how one era leads to the next, how small conflicts affect large worlds, and often how they don’t shift anything at all except for personal grudges. It’s fascinating, and a series based around seeing longterm effects of several generations is cool. Like, it’s still pretty good, all things considered, it’s just not as exciting as the concept allows. Hopefully Gundam will do more with the idea in the future.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Year: 2015
Synopsis: On a terraformed Mars, a group of war orphans start a private security company after rebelling against the adults that kept them as child soldiers.
EMN Notes: This show is, along with Unicorn, the Gundam series I see the most buzz around in the modern day. I can understand the appeal – it’s really neat to see this wholly outmatched group struggle against the realities of war and impossible odds, tasting sacrifice along the way. It’s intense and probably launched a whole new generation of fans the way The 08th MS Team did. Like, if I had to guess. It’s the vibe. And hey, I like it too! It’s a really cool series from what I’ve seen.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Year: 2002
Synopsis: In the future, tensions between genetically-altered humans and “naturals” have erupted, catching pacifist Kira Yamato in the crossfire.
EMN Notes: When I was in high school in Italy, I checked out basically anything I could from the library on base. One of the first things I checked out was Gundam Wing on DVD, which I’ll talk about later. One of the other things I checked out was as much manga as possible and that included the six-volume run that was the Gundam SEED manga. Something about it really spoke to me, with beautiful pages and a main character I really cared about. Throughout the years, Gundam fans have done their best to convince me that Gundam SEED is bad. Maybe the show has issues, I don’t know, I’ve never given it a straight watch, but the manga at least was to my high school brain magnificent. And it turns out that Kira Yamato and Gundam SEED are super popular in Japan! So take that, Gundam fans! I was right!!
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
Year: 2004
Synopsis: Two years after the events of Gundam SEED, an Earth defense force hijacks several mobile suits and it’s up to new pilot Shinn Asuka and his team to retrieve them or risk another galactic war.
EMN Notes: To be honest, I’m not particularly familiar with this series. That said, it’s still just as popular as SEED, so I’m willing to give it a shot. That’s really the fun of a marathon channel – sometimes it’s all about the type of content and keeping up the energy level behind it all. Plus, well, I like Gundam SEED! So more set in that universe and around that timeframe is a good enough reason for me to approve it.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Year: 1996
Synopsis: A small army of Federation ground soldiers is dragged into a scandal when commander Shiro Amada falls in love with a Zeon test pilot and is accused of treason.
EMN Notes: This series is so inspirational to so many things I’m fond of. I’ve recently been looking into mecha-focused tabletop role-playing games mostly because of this channel and consistently every single US-made TTRPG has cited 08th MS Team as a primary inspiration. I think it has to do with how it focuses on a small skirmish and a very human cast of characters grappling with their own place in a much-larger world. It’s a theme that’s only become more poignant as the years go on. I also like Shiro Amada because in Gundam Battle Assault 2 he’s the pilot of the Ball, AKA the best character. I love the Ball.
Mobile Suit Gundam – The Origin: The Advent of the Red Comet
Year: 2019
Synopsis: Many years before the events of Mobile Suit Gundam, the man who would become ace Zeon pilot Char Aznable lived a life of tragedy and pain. This is his story.
EMN Notes: Char Aznable is all over the Gundam series because he’s such a fascinating character, so it’s neat to see a show that’s focused on him and the pieces of his past we only somewhat knew of until now. One thing that gets me about the series is how interesting the animation is. The art style has a modern flair to it yet characters are still recognizable. I’m pretty sure from the brief glimpse I got of it on our channel that Kamille Bidan shows up, and though he was a little different it was still recognizably Kamille! It was pretty cool!
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury
Year: 2022
Synopsis: An upbeat young woman from Mercury transfers to a school to train a new generation of Gundam pilots.
EMN Notes: I’ve heard mixed things about this show, but from what I understand the academy elements have shades of Utena. Knowing that the Kiznaiver writer worked on this, that makes sense, and the show from what I hear has the same issues Kiznaiver does in that it’s a little less queer in heart than it could be…still, it’s intriguing to me and sounds like a great Gundam series with an interesting premise, with the next season going harder into the mech piloting aspects. I’m more than willing to give this a shot.
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
Year: 2015
Synopsis: During the One Year War, a spectacular skirmish takes place in the Thunderbolt Sector between Federation pilot Io Fleming and Zeon’s top sniper, Daryl Lorenz.
EMN Notes: Wow, this show is beautiful. This is not a particular deep OVA series, though I really enjoy the exploration of the people of Zeon, but man it’s one of the few Gundam shows that leans heavily into ‘wow cool robot’ territory. I don’t think that’s a bad thing when the cool robots are this cool. And even then it still manages to explore the planets and the moons and the people living there! This one held a soft spot in my heart from the moment I saw it play. It’s just neat.
Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight Axis
Year: 2017
Synopsis: Two remnants of Zeon are contracted by the Federation to explore a destroyed asteroid base, on which they find something neither could have predicted.
EMN Notes: This is a fun three-episode OVA that has slick animation and a fun bite-sized story. I wouldn’t say it’s much to write home about, but I really like how many Gundam properties have little movies and OVAs that just explore the timeline of this world. It’s overwhelming at first, I admit, but I’ve grown really fond of how interconnected so much of it is while also standing along enough to hook you in.
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
Year: 2010
Synopsis: Sixteen years after the One Year War, Banagher Links becomes the pilot of a Gundam that has ties to a mysterious civilization-threatening artifact called Laplace’s Box.
EMN Notes: Ah, this is the one, the Gundam series I heard the most about not counting the Toonami heyday. It’s probably because it’s one of the first to hit the mainstream again, or at least as mainstream as the ‘people who still watched Adult Swim and Toonami in 2010-2014′ audience was. I can see why it worked, being an OVA series that follows up on a lot of that timeframes’ plot points while also being accessible enough for new fans to enjoy. It’s wholly dramatic, full of fantastic mecha, and contains pretty much every alien, political, and adventurous idea the Gundam universe has to offer. Personally, I’m a big fan of Merida Cruz. It’s good to see Gundam going strong all over again!
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE0096
Year: 2016
Synopsis: An extended television retelling of the story of Banagher Links and what happens when he pilots the titular Unicorn Gundam.
EMN Notes: It’s interesting that they decided to reanimate, retell, and extend the Unicorn OVAs, but considering the mainstream attention they got that makes sense I suppose. There’s nothing bad about this retelling, either, don’t get me wrong. It’s still well-animated and it is really cool to see the relationships between all the characters and the exploration into the Cyber-Newtypes and fallout of the One Year War and a lot of the most dramatic moments are even more dramatic as a result. It’s just neat to get A Little Bit More, and I like the OP a lot, too.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Year: 1996
Synopsis: Five young Gundam pilots, headed by a mercenary calling himself Heero Yuy, are sent to Earth to wage war against the tyrannical forces governing their colonies.
EMN Notes: I love this show. I touched on how I rented all the DVDs from the library while living in Italy and trying to find ways to entertain myself, but I have a really precious memory of my dad coming home from work and watching a few episodes with me. I remember so clearly my shock at the episode where Heero self-destructs his Gundam and Dad explaining to me a plot point I had missed. I really like that he still watches animated shows and anime, even if his taste is terrible. I’m pretty sure he’s seen a huge chunk of the shows on this list because he watches everything that hits Netflix. Anyway, I love this show for all its flaws, I love Duo Maxwell, I once built a Gundam Deathscythe model, and always picked Duo in Gundam Battle Assault 2. That’s my story.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Year: 1985
Synopsis: After the events of the One Year War, a corrupt group of Earth Federation officials trying to exterminate the remnants of Zeon are opposed by the Anti-Earth Union Group, which includes autistic teenager Kamille Bidan.
EMN Notes: Zeta Gundam is famous for Quattro Bajeena and the ‘I came here to laugh at you’ scene, and yes, who doesn’t love themselves some Char, but in our research for Sunrise vs. Capcom we got really, really into Zeta Gundam’s entire presence and especially the character of Kamille. He’s so short and angry, struggles with being seen as a child, has an inferiority complex due to his feminine-sounding name, and is in general just a really cool character that does, in fact, say he’s autistic in an early episode. People argue as they are wont to do over the translation of the nuances of the term that closely means ‘neurotic’ and his own denial of his status as a Newtype but damn it, we’re taking this as a win. It’s just so cool to see this morally-grey approach to the people at war with how a seeming-villain like Char can mean something to someone who needs him, which is something explored later in Char’s Counterattack. A very pleasant surprise all-in-all.
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
Year: 1986
Synopsis: After the events of Zeta Gundam, Captain Bright Noa forms a Gundam team to finish the job and fight Neo Zeon.
EMN Notes: A really cool thing about EMN Mecha is how we’ve seen so many pieces of Gundam media that we’ve started seeing the connections between the different series’. Like, yeah, obviously this is a sequel to Zeta and it’s cool to see what happens next and to see where Kamille goes following his series, but it’s things like Bright Noa who later shows up in Char’s Counterattack and whose son launches a whole next phase of Gundam that is beyond cool to me. ZZ is quite good, though I haven’t seen enough of it to be as fond of it as I am of Zeta, but the space opera epic continues and it’s just so cool to follow like this.
Turn A Gundam
Year: 1999
Synopsis: Loran Cehack, a member of a technologically-advanced race from the moon who goes to the steam-powered Earth on a reconaissance mission, is caught in the middle of a war when the Moonrace invades his new home.
EMN Notes: When making EMN Mecha, this was one of the shows I was most excited to add. I learned about Turn A Gundam through a friend who is a big Gundam fan and while we don’t always agree I was fascinated by this one being his favorite. I actually wanted to add it to Contact before Mandy and I made this channel but it’s doing well here. From what I’ve seen of it, I really love Loran. He’s so compelling and the world he lives in and internal battles he faces are all so interesting, and the character designs in general just speak to me. There’s a lot to like about this show, and I hope one day to have experienced enough of it to say I truly love it.
Other Series
86 -Eighty-Six-
Year: 2021
Synopsis: In the year 2148, an idealistic young commander takes over a doomed mech platoon.
EMN Notes: I hadn’t heard of this show until Mandy found it for the channel, and that’s wild. It was apparently quite popular, and the animation is absolutely crazy with really cool spider mechs and a bleak but exciting combat and world. It could have something to do with how right at the end the studio behind it faced difficulties with keeping the quality up and had to delay the last few episodes for an entire year. I guess that’ll do it. The anime industry is a complicated place. But hey, this show is really interesting and the dash of hard sci-fi keeps this channel exciting.
Aquarion
Year: 2005
Synopsis: The rumored reincarnation of a fallen angel pilots mankind’s greatest weapon in a fight against celestial beings.
EMN Notes: So, this show is kind of difficult to categorize. There are many different shows called Aquarion, a bunch of sub-series’, and often the show is called Genesis of Aquarion. This particular show is just called Aquarion and I can’t always figure out where in the series it takes place, which season it is, whether it comes before or after Genesis…I don’t know anything about this show, basically. Except for what I’ve seen, which is that it uses the power of music and has a lot of angelic imagery and holy magic to go along with great celestial mechs. It’s pretty darn cool.
Armored Trooper VOTOMS
Year: 1983
Synopsis: A war between neighboring nations rages on, fought by soldiers in dangerous power armor known as Armored Troopers.
EMN Notes: For the longest time this was a show that utterly fascinated me. A friend of mine who is really into mecha enjoyed it and something about the dark civil war between soldiers in hard sci-fi mech suits that were liable to explode at the slightest provocation really struck me. I enjoyed it enough when we added it to EMN Contact that we ended up adding the whole series here. It’s unapologetically grim but unexpectedly spiritual and I think that’s awesome. Plus, it’s the series that gave several KOF characters their names, and that’s just a fun fact!
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Year: 2006
Synopsis: Lelouch Lamperouge, gifted with the power to control others, leads a revolution against the Holy Empire of Britannia as the masked vigilante Zero.
EMN Notes: This show went from one I knew very little about but knew of into one I knew rather a lot about the moment I met my friends Kris and Alyssa. They have a large soft spot for this original series. Mandy then suggested we put it on Contact, and from there on I’ve been absorbing pieces of it slowly. It’s a very fun show to have on here because the CLAMP art style helps it stand out a lot, and in general I just think it’s very neat. I love the characters, Lelouch’s arc, the world at war, and the raw emotion of the upper class fighting.
Cross-Ange
Year: 2014
Synopsis: A princess is framed, kidnapped, and forced to train as a soldier in a foreign military, but beneath the surface she plots revolution.
EMN Notes: One of the things that spurred Mandy and I to really look into this channel concept was creating a fan roster for a Sunrise vs. Capcom fighting game. One of the coolest-sounding shows we hadn’t hear of was Cross-Ange. The central concept sounded super interesting, and Ange herself just seemed like a great character, and the mech designs were awesome. Well, we’ve seen some of it on the channel by now and I gotta say, we were right to be interested in it. It is, in fact, awesome. And also a lot more salacious than we were expecting. This isn’t a bad thing.
Eureka Seven
Year: 2005
Synopsis: Renton Thurston’s life is changed forever when a giant robot crashes into his garage along with a girl who pilots it. Together they form a friendship that blossoms into love as they learn to pilot the mecha together.
EMN Notes: I originally learned about this anime because of a PS2 game that was in the BX in Italy, the same BX that lead me to Steambot Chronicles and the Ace Attorney series. Unlike those games, I didn’t pick up the Eureka Seven game. I’m sorry, anime. Now I’ve seen a few episodes of the show maybe I’ll play the game when PS2 emulation becomes convenient enough for my tastes. The show itself is really fun and has a great vibe, sort of that strange era where anime was starting to move into the widescreen era but before it got massively samey. The relationship between the leads is very fun and I think it’s funny when people clown on Renton. It has a really light tone that contrasts nicely with the harder shows on here.
Full Metal Panic!
Year: 2002
Synopsis: A gifted high schooler is recruited by an elite military organization for her skill with machines.
EMN Notes: So, I read some of the manga growing up, back when I would steal any manga my brother had and read it when he wasn’t looking. All I really remember was absolutely loving the heroine and finding an author’s note about how people kept misspelling the male lead’s name funny. We tried to look into this anime version to see if it was a good fit for main EMN, but the vibes just weren’t hitting. Luckily, though, that’s not the case here! It’s a very charming series but also much more combat-focused than I remembered. See, I mostly knew it as a sort of fun slice-of-life-on-a-military-vessel thing but no, it’s as war-forward and can get as intense as any Gundam series. It was a shock when the first episode that played on the channel was an absolute heart-wrencher of a failed mission. Well, it certainly has a nice tonal variety!
Getter Robo
Year: 1974
Synopsis: In order to fight the Dinosaur Army from the center of the Earth, mankind creates a giant robot.
EMN Notes: You gotta love the classics! This and Mazinger Z were musts for me, and while we only sort-of got Mazinger Z, I’m glad the original Getter Robo was easy enough to find. It’s as Super Robot as they come and a lot of fun. It’s cool to see the roots of the mecha genre, and I really enjoy the bold lines and colors in these old shows. Plus, I mean, it’s Go Nagai and you get a big robot fighting dinosaurs. Shows back then knew what was up. I think we need more of this in our shows in general.
Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still
Year: 1992
Synopsis: Based on the all the works of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the world has been brought to ruin as all of humanity fights over a single energy source.
EMN Notes: This series is so cool to me just from a conceptual level. Imagine someone making an OVA ostensibly based on your most famous work but using it as an excuse to include all of your OCs in a wild crossover. And it works! It’s well-animated, full of super interesting designs and colliding stories, and it definitely made me interested in the artists’ works. Also I just think the design of Giant Robo is cool. The Sphinx thing is super unique.
Gigantor
Year: 1963
Synopsis: In the far-off year of 2000, terrorists and criminals have become unstoppable. Unstoppable by all, that is, except for Earth’s mighty robot Gigantor.
EMN Notes: Okay, we originally added this to EMN Contact because Mandy finds the theme song hilarious. And they’re right. It’s also fun to have something super old school on the channel. It’s a piece of history! It’s a big chunky black-and-white super robot show and, yes, the theme song is hilarious. GIGANTOR!
Guilty Crown
Year: 2011
Synopsis: A high-schooler is thrown into a war between the Japanese government and a group of rebels called Funeral Parlor after he awakens an ancient mystical power.
EMN Notes: I know several things about Guilty Crown. I know I really like the main characters’ designs. I know I really like the big chunky mecha. I love the name Funeral Parlor. That’s about it! When finding shows for this channel, Mandy looked into shows that were considered by mecha fans to be worth your time, sometimes shining examples, and it seems like this was one of them. Funny story, they almost got a Gen Urobuchi show to put on here before remembering we can’t stand Urobuchi. I’d rather have whatever this is instead, anyway. Looking forward to diving deeper into this show in the future.
Gunbuster
Year: 1988
Synopsis: In the far future, an elite squad of beautiful ace pilots come together to stave off an invasion of Space Monsters, lead by the daughter of a deceased war hero.
EMN Notes: This is another series I discovered through my mecha-loving friend. This one is cool because it’s the first thing Hideaki Anno ever directed. Neither of us are particularly big on Evangelion, but this really works for me. It has great character designs, a super interesting old-school art style, it’s pleasantly titillating at points, and the story of the pilot squad and their place in the world is really engaging. It’s also a short collection of OVAs, all with really cool animation, so it’s an easy addition.
Gunparade March
Year: 2003
Synopsis: In 1945, World War II abruptly ends when aliens invade Earth. 54 years later in 1999, the 5121st Platoon commandeer walking tanks to combat the invaders.
EMN Notes: I don’t know much about this show except for that premise and that title and I gotta say it is doing a fantastic job of selling me based on that alone. It’s apparently based on a video game and has another anime follow up called Gunparade Orchestra. They’re really doing a good job with these titles. I think I saw a video on the game once, and it really does seem cool on every level. Shoutouts to weird video game adaptations – has to be one of my favorite genres.
Gurren Lagann
Year: 2007
Synopsis: Ages after humanity moves underground, a young man named Simon is convinced by an idealistic young rebel to break through to the surface.
EMN Notes: Mandy loves this show. It means a lot to them as it was one of the first anime series’ they ever actively sought out after catching a few episodes of it on Sci-Fi’s anime blocks. I have my own history with it, too, as I remember getting the Netflix app on my iPod Touch while in college to watch the first few episodes, usually late at night. It’s stylish and exaggerated and memorable, and along with Mandy plenty of my other friends find it formative and inspirational. It was a must-have for this channel.
IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix
Year: 2005
Synopsis: In 2048, mankind has developed a new sport – a combat mech race called the Immortal Grand Prix.
EMN Notes: There are two series’ called IGPX. One is a mini-series, and this one is a sequel series to said mini-series. I love weird futuristic combat races, and weird futuristic combat races with mechs and cool suits of armor have me giddy. Despite this never airing on Toonami I never watched it, but I definitely have a vague memory of it existing. I think I confused it and Eureka Seven a lot as a kid. I blame those PS2 games at the BX.
Listeners
Year: 2020
Synopsis: Music has left humanity. One day, a woman with the ability to interlink with a mech-powered audio device appears to bring it back.
EMN Notes: This series was one of the first ones struck hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with episodes and then its dub being delayed. We were watching several shows from this season and this is one that really stuck with us. The performance of the heroine in English is unique and interesting, but more importantly the show itself is a very cool exploration of the history of music. As is obvious by now I’m always attracted to shows with a musical bent, and combining it with mecha is really fun. It’s not always the most well-put-together show plot-wise but I like seeing the main characters explore the worlds of gospel and jazz, among others. It’s fun!
Macross
Year: 1982
Synopsis: In 1999, a spaceship crashlands on Earth. Ten years later it’s been rebuilt as the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross – and the aliens want it back.
EMN Notes: Wanna know what’s really cool about this series? The aliens. The aliens have such weird and fun designs, and it plays nicely with the exaggerated more Tezuka-like expressions and art style of the humans to create a really, really fun space show with cool transforming ships. Fun fact, for a really long time I had this tiny transforming jet toy that I really loved. It would fold into a cube. I always thought it was a Transformer I stole from my brother or something, but one day Macross was on EMN and I saw the same tiny transforming plane! It was such a fun moment and it made me immediately fond of this show as a whole.
Macross 7
Year: 1992
Synopsis: On board an intergalactic ship called the Macross 7, a struggling rock band works to achieve fame and bring peace to the galaxy.
EMN Notes: This show was MADE for Toonami and yet it inexplicably never got a dub. I assume it’s because of the many songs the rock band sings. It’s a shame, because it has killer action, killer music, and a super fun cast of characters. The colorful aesthetic and pace of it all means you could really see it fitting perfectly between episodes of Tenchi Muyo and Outlaw Star. It’s also the show where the gif of the guy eating the leaf comes from. That episode was the first to play on this channel and no, it doesn’t make any more sense in context. Basara just eats a leaf.
Macross Delta
Year: 2016
Synopsis: A deadly disease threatens the universe, and the Tactical Sound Unit Walkure is on the case to stop.
EMN Notes: Mandy originally added this to EMN Contact so we could have a Macross series and didn’t reveal to me that it was an idol series until we were well into an episode. That said, it’s fun! Mecha blasting pop songs at aliens is a charming concept and the sentai-esque color-coded team makes me smile. I’ve come to learn that music has always been part of Macross’s DNA, so really an idol series was the natural step.
Macross Plus
Year: 1994
Synopsis: Two test pilots and rivals are reunited in a battle over an old flame with a strange connection to the world’s top virtual idol.
EMN Notes: Between this and 7 you really get a sense of how important music becomes to Macross as a property. It’s pretty cool! Obviously I’ll never complain about any show becoming more musically-inclined. To see a sci-fi future that actually explores how music and art affect humanity and how it can evolve, even if it’s something as seemingly-silly as virtual idols…well, it’s something that really means a lot to me. So yeah, I think this series and franchise in general is pretty cool.
Magic Knight Rayearth
Year: 1994
Synopsis: Three women are transported to another world where they are recruited to become magical knights that pilot fantastical mechs.
EMN Notes: This show rules. It’s a magical girl show, an isekai, and a mech show all in one. It just goes crazy for no reason. No wonder it was so popular, especially with a great Sega Saturn game to boot. There are mech sword fights and magic battles and episodes where there are no mechs at all. It’s awesome. More shows need this hyper-exaggerated 90s art style and genre mish-mash. It’s just electric.
Martian Successor Nadesico
Year: 1996
Synopsis: Robots invade Earth, causing our leaders to send in our most dangerous weapon, the battleship Nadesico. However, its crew has a whole host of problems it has to work through first.
EMN Notes: Did you know this is considered by some to be the best anime ever? It at least won an award for anime of the year when it released and it certainly has some serious popularity. I once stole the name Nadesico for a story I wrote for 9th grade English. Anyway, it’s fine and it’s fun! This is such a quintessentially mid-90s anime to me, one of those that definitely influenced every bad parody of anime Western media did until around 2013. It’s goofy, it’s full of dumb space action, and it’s all about gags and hijinx. I like it! It has a really fun vibe that counterbalances pretty much everything else we have on this channel.
Megas XLR
Year: 2004
Synopsis: An auto mechanic who loves TV and video games finds an old mech in a garbage dump and along with his slacker friend gets dragged into an intergalactic conflict that travels space and time.
EMN Notes: We debated whether or not to put this show on this channel considering it’s a Western series that definitely apes the super robot aesthetic while being more comedic than anything but honestly it’s just such a fun show nonetheless. It’s so affectionate, and as a result feels like it was just a little too early for its own good. It’s such a shame that the rights are in limbo. It deserves to be revered as more than just a cult classic but as something that really predicted a lot of trends in animation while being a delightful and funny series in its own right.
Patlabor the Mobile Police
Year: 1989
Synopsis: Robots called Labors are commonly used for day-to-day jobs, but sometimes humans misuse these tools to create destruction – which is where police officer Noa Izumi and her own Police Labor comes in.
EMN Notes: I love Noa Izumi! I knew of Patlabor but it was Mandy and I’s Sunrise vs. Capcom project that made me really into it. Sunrise did a few of the movies so we didn’t make Noa playable but we did add Patlabor as a miscellaneous mech. It’s such a fun show, and Noa is so cute and earnest and has SUCH a cute design. Something about the entire aesthetic and atmosphere of the show brings the biggest smile to my face. It’s so bright and a breath of fresh air.
RideBack
Year: 2009
Synopsis: A former ballerina who was forced to retire after an injury joins a club in her college dedicated to turning motorcycles into bipedal machines.
EMN Notes: I hadn’t heard of this series before a friend of mine bought me the Blu-Ray set for Christmas one year. It was such a thoughtful gift! I love when people see something and think I’ll like it, it’s very meaningful. And guess what, I DO like it! It’s a super cool series with a really unique hook and the mech suits are neat as heck. A little underrated gem and I’m glad it’s here.
Robotics;Notes
Year: 2012
Synopsis: A plucky young high school girl has one goal in mind for her after-school Robotics Club: build a giant robot from the ground up!
EMN Notes: I’ve been in love with this protagonist from the day I saw the first episode of this show. She’s so upbeat and so devoted to her goals and so cute in general. I love the Sci;Adv franchise, but Mandy likes them way more while I’m more of a Steins;Gate person solely. They’re the one who watched this show first and showed me episodes from it. I really want to get into the visual novel one day, as I hear it’s a pretty good time. In the meantime, I’ll continue to appreciate this show for being itself a pretty good time. Let’s build a giant robot!
SSSS.Gridman
Year: 2018
Synopsis: A high schooler and his friends are contacted through his computer by a Hyper Agent Gridman, an alien force that needs their help in the fight against Earth-infiltrating kaiju.
EMN Notes: Every time I see this show on this channel it looks like pretty much the coolest thing ever. I love the energetic style of the animation and I like that it’s an update on the classic Gridman property. It’s also apparently a sequel? Neat! Anyway, yeah, it has such a bright color pallette that it really grips you. Makes sense that it’s Studio Trigger consider it really reminds me of the best parts of Kiznaiver in that regard. Would love to give this a proper watch some day – I’ve heard nothing but good things.
SSSS.Dynazenon
Year: 2021
Synopsis: Yomogi Asanaka is the next unfortunate high schooler to get dragged in the war against the kaiju that threaten Earth.
EMN Notes: A sequel to a sequel?! Take everything I said up there about Gridman and put it here. It seems super neat, I just haven’t had a chance to watch much of it! The animation is still slick and expressive and the action is eye-popping. I’m glad we put them both on this channel either way, even if right now it was an aesthetic choice rather than a particularly creatively-driven one.
The Big O
Year: 1999
Synopsis: In Paradigm City, a billionaire playboy picks up dirty work as a “negotiator”, aided by an ancient mecha called The Big O.
EMN Notes: I mentioned during the EMN1 programming guide that this show was a pleasant surprise. We actually debated whether or not to put it on this channel as well as we didn’t want to detract from that special feeling it has on EMN1, but ultimately we realized that there is never a time we don’t want to watch this show. It’s so slick, so cool, so unusual, and I love Dorothy and Roger with my whole chest.
The Vision of Escaflowne
Year: 1996
Synopsis: A girl blessed with the power to see the future is transported to a fantasy world where she teams up with a handsome knight who pilots a transforming magitech dragon mecha.
EMN Notes: The history of this show is super interesting, because I distinctly remember it being advertised as Escaflowne with a full Fox Kids dub. It turns out it was a heavily-edited version that downplayed the heroine’s role completely and tried to make it more action than romance. Luckily, there’s a more accurate dub out there, and so we get a fun little fantasy-romance-mecha-thing with a cool transforming dragon mecha. I really like that mecha is a series that can tell varied stories like this.
Tranzor Z
Year: 1984
Synopsis: The English version of Go Nagai’s Mazinger Z, where a super robot puts a stop to the evil machinations of Dr. Demon.
EMN Notes: The localization for this show is completely and utterly bonkers which adds a uniquely chaotic energy to this channel. Obviously Mazinger Z is a classic and very influential, but I didn’t even know it had any kind of localization until I was halfway through downloading it for this channel. I’m glad we went with it, though, because it’s super interesting to see what flew in the mid-80s and what didn’t in terms of things like Devilene’s gender. I just wish they hadn’t changed Dr. Hell’s name to Dr. Demon. Dr. Hell is way funnier.
Valvrave the Liberator
Year: 2013
Synopsis: A young man discovers an ancient weapon that blesses him with immortality and declares his school an independent state during the war between three world powers.
EMN Notes: This show is so cool. Shockingly cool. It came out of nowhere, added just because it was a well-received mecha series, and the first episode we saw was the one where the high school is betrayed by the two warring nations and declares independence. It was so cool, and so exciting. The titular Valvrave is such a cool-looking robot and the story seems to go in insane directions. It just really struck me with a fun main cast and an action-packed politically-charged world. I love when a show can blindside me positively like this.
Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i
Year: 2001
Synopsis: A blue collar space transporter is given the task to deliver a sentient mecha named Dolores to Earth, but it’s going to be a lot harder than it sounds.
EMN Notes: Zone of the Enders is a series that’s always fascinated me. I read all about it, I thought it was so cool that the Vic Viper was in it, and I played a little bit of the GBA game. However, I never played the PS2 games despite knowing they’re by Hideo Kojima. Well, one day perhaps I will. In the meantime we have this series on EMN Mecha and on EMN Gaming, and I enjoy it on both! This is a fun departure from other mecha series’ because of Dolores’s sentience and dialogue, meaning she and her pilot have a really fun rapport.
Movies
Appleseed
Year: 1988
Synopsis: Police officer Deunan Knute and her bioroid partner Briareos have to foil a plot to shut down the supercomputer keeping the futuristic city of Olympus afloat.
EMN Notes: The version of this movie we have is actually a VHS rip courtesy of Dr. RIP VHS from YouTube, which has since been taken down from his channel. I love that it’s on Mecha. It’s on Vibes as well! It’s such a fun rip, and it’s such an interesting piece of work too. I actually thought Appleseed was a proper anime rather than a movie collection based on a manga thanks to this – I saw it listed on Netflix along with the CGI movies and just kind of assumed. It’s cool how there are so many versions of Appleseed all based around the same simple concept of Deunan, Briareos, and Olympus.
Appleseed
Year: 2004
Synopsis: In this new adaptation of the manga of the same name, Deunan Knute is recruited into Olympus’s E-SWAT anti-terrorism unit, but she’ll soon learn that Olympus is not the utopia it pretends to be.
EMN Notes: The original Appleseed CG movie may not be a patch on Ex Machina or even Alpha but it’s cool that it’s the one that started it all. I like having the Appleseed movies here as despite Briareos not being a traditional “mecha” in the giant robot sense, he’s still a pretty hulking robot guy and he’s super cool. And Deunan is so cute. I love the bright sci-fi and action of these films. They just bleed cool to me.
Appleseed Ex Machina
Year: 2007
Synopsis: Deunan and Briareos are back, this time investigating a mysterious conspiracy surrounding the latest trend in wearable technology.
EMN Notes: This movie is the reason I’m so fond of the Appleseed movies. I saw it in high school, shown to me by a youth group leader who insisted it was the coolest thing ever. He’s right. It has a fantastic sci-fi world, Deunan is awesome, and the action is directed by John Woo. I don’t even think the CGI has aged particularly badly – it just has a neat aesthetic. This is a movie that will always be nostalgic to me. It oozes cool.
Appleseed Alpha
Year: 2014
Synopsis: In a new origin story, Deunan and Briareos meet in the war-torn ruins of Times Square and hunt for the mythical city of Olympus together.
EMN Notes: One day, a friend of mine from college convinced me to buy this while at an FYE he worked at, and as I was a big fan of Appleseed Ex Machina I did! I took it home and watched it and was really into it! It’s really cool to see Deunan and Briareos stumbling around ancient ruins of cities like ours. I love it when media does that – my first experience with it was the Sonic OVA calling an overgrown modern-day city “the ancient relics”. Urban exploration is so cool, and this whole post-apocalyptic vibe is something you don’t really get often with Appleseed. It’s very fresh!
Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
Year: 2007
Synopsis: A retelling of the start of the original series in which a young boy is recruited by an underground organization ran by his father to pilot a mecha and destroy invading interdimensional angels.
EMN Notes: Our feelings on Evangelion are…complex, to say the least, but neither of us can deny the influence it had on modern mecha. That’s why we decided to put two Eva movies on this channel. I hear wildly conflicting things about the rebuilds, but as I have little investment or love for the original series it felt at least okay to put this one on so we can get our dose of Eva. It’s not a bad show or anything, and there’s a reason we have the show proper on Contact, it’s just not a show we can take a lot of. This and End of Eva feel right at home.
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Year: 1998
Synopsis: Following the events of Gundam Wing, a rebellion on a new colony leads to a seven-year-old taking over the leadership role and launching a quest for revenge against the Gundam pilots who were part of Operation Meteor.
EMN Notes: You’d think I’d have watched this by now because of how much I enjoyed Gundam Wing, but I haven’t. That said, by all accounts it’s absolutely fantastic and I’m super stoked to finally get to it. The final thing that pushed me towards it were the old Toonami adverts for it that made it seem like the coolest movie on the planet. That entire plot summary up there was written with the help of those Toonami ads. Thanks, Toonami! Thanks, Gundam Wing!
Macross II
Year: 1992
Synopsis: The galaxy’s peace is threatened when a new alien race called the Marduk attacks the united human and Zentradi civilizations. In the middle of it all, a rookie reporter and an ace pilot befriend a Marduk creation.
EMN Notes: I don’t know much about the movie itself, but Macross is something that this channel has taught me a lot about and I’ve had a blast learning all about it. This film is fun because it has a few versions available, either as a three-part OVA, edited into a long movie, or in this version which I think is a two-parter where one is dubbed and one is subbed. It’s a little weird. But hey, it works!
Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture
Year: 1998
Synopsis: Set several years after the original series, a new battleship called the Nadesico B is sent on a mission to take on an alien splinter group looking to cause new conflict to erupt.
EMN Notes: This movie is a sequel to a Sega Saturn game. They made a movie sequel to a Saturn game and released it in the US as “The Movie” and tricked a bunch of anime fans in 1998 into buying it on VHS. Awesome. This is so EMN it hurts. I love everything about this. I haven’t even seen the movie, and I’m expecting it’s the usual mid-to-late-90s sci-fi-gag stuff that Nadesico is all about but the story behind it is so weird that I’m wildly excited to eventually watch it.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
Year: 1988
Synopsis: The ace of Zeon, Char Aznable, has come out of hiding to crash a meteor into the Earth. Meanwhile, two Earthlings find themselves on the opposite sides of an intergalactic conflict.
EMN Notes: We watched this as part of one of our movie nights and really enjoyed it. It’s such a cool exploration of how a charismatic dictator can win someone to their side and radicalize them to commit unspeakable atrocities. It’s as much an emotional finale to Amuro and Char’s stories as it is a contemplative film about the nature of the opposing sides of war and the power of humanity to come together and what can be achieved when it happens.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash
Year: 2021
Synopsis: Char’s Counterattack leaves Hathaway Noa disillusioned and hurting, so under a new identity he starts an anti-Federation terrorist group.
EMN Notes: Hathaway! Hathaway my dude! What have they done to you?! I mean, I watched Char’s Counterattack, so I know, and your trauma is pretty valid actually, but man! I’m looking forward to seeing this one for the first time. I really love how I know who Hathaway is and that they’re focusing on him. That’s the coolest thing about Gundam to me – there are so many characters and factions they can just afford to dedicate a whole movie to one character’s journey if they so choose. There’s a wealth of material out there.
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: The Afterglow of Zeon
Year: 1992
Synopsis: Three years after the One Year War, a rogue Zeon military group steals a prototype Gundam and it’s up to rookie pilot Kou Uraki and the crew of the ship Albion to get it back lest another war break out.
EMN Notes: I JUST mentioned how cool it was to me that Gundam can just pick seemingly minor characters and moments and create an entire movie about them because the galaxy and the war are all ultimately about humanity and humanity’s ability to keep pressing on for good and for ill. That really applies to this. I love the title because it really tells you everything you need to know, and I like that despite the defeat of Zeon it doesn’t mean there aren’t Zeon sympathizers out there. There’s always trouble brewing in the Gundam universe, and yet there’s always a yearning and hope for peace. It’s beautiful.
Mobile Suit Gundam F91
Year: 1991
Synopsis: Reluctant rookie Seabook Arno and his girlfriend Cecily Fairchild are dragged into a conflict when a militia called the Crossbone Vanguard attempts to create a new aristocracy.
EMN Notes: I’m going to be honest, I wrote this summary as an excuse to namedrop some all-timer Cool Gundam Names. Gundam really knows how to give their characters super weird and super interesting names that really roll off the tongue. I wish I could make names half as cool as people who write for Gundam. Even the militia group has a cool name. This movie seems great, a really interesting look at a home being invaded and what that means for the people in it. I’ll let you know if it lives up to the hype.
Pacific Rim
Year: 2013
Synopsis: Kaiju are coming up from the center of the Earth, and in order to fight them humanity creates mechs called Jaegers that can only be piloted by two people in perfect sync.
EMN Notes: This movie was so awesome when it first came out, and honestly it’s still pretty awesome. Guillermo del Toro, you really knew what we wanted, which was to see big robots fight big monsters. Drift Compatibility is still such a cool concept and a really fun way to explain certain types of relationships – I say it to myself about me and Mandy more often than one would expect. It has fun characters, big robots, big monsters, and Del Toro treats all the genres he pulled from to make it with respect. Such a shame it all stopped here. It would’ve been neat to see him helm a franchise. Maybe an actual mecha anime based on it would’ve been neat. Oh well, we got a cool movie with a fun central friendship and cool mechs.
Promare
Year: 2019
Synopsis: A group of mutants is setting fires all over the world, and the Burning Rescue Fire Department has to stop them with their mech suits.
EMN Notes: I have friends who swear by this movie. The gay couple at the center of it were all over every social media for a while. The lineless animation is captivating and I love the concept, basically just a Burning Rangers anime movie. Great! I’m not sure how much I trust Studio Trigger to deliver when I actually watch it, but I do more-or-less trust my friends who really liked it. I’ll have to pass my own judgment on it when I get a chance, but I’m actually pretty hopeful and looking forward to it. If nothing else, I want to see mech suits and firefighters.
Robot Jox
Year: 1989
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic world, fights over land are settled with giant robot combat. Now, the American Achilles and the Russian Alexander must square off for the as-yet-unclaimed territory of Alaska.
EMN Notes: This movie is like if America made a live-action G-Gundam but took it completely seriously and didn’t include anything except for the Wow Cool Robot moments. It’s a whole bunch of dumb junk, but it IS very fun junk. Plus it’s directed by Stuart Gordon! He did Re-Animator! We LOVE Re-Animator! I can’t say I love this movie as much but it certainly is another bizarre feather in Stuart’s cap. Good on you, man. Good on you.
The End of Evangelion
Year: 1997
Synopsis: The finale to the series Neon Genesis Evangelion and a symbol-heavy dive into the psychology of Shinji Ikari.
EMN Notes: Evangelion is a series I have mixed feelings on but as I explained up there we both felt we had to have something here. End of Eva is a really cool piece of work in so many ways, and I do really enjoy the mixed media nature of it all and the overall finale. It’s a very unique experience, and that’s a good enough reason for me to want it here. Marathon channels work best when the vibes are cultivated through unique works that nevertheless share common bonds.