[1] In this series, the robot, which was made as a last-ditch effort to win World War II by the Japanese military, was remote-controlled by the protagonist Shotaro Kaneda, a twelve-year-old detective and "whiz kid".
[1] The series also was the genesis for different tropes of the genre, such as the idea of a robot as a "dynamic entity" that could join with other machines or humans to become unstoppable.
[1] By 1977, a large number of super robot anime had been created, including Brave Raideen and Danguard Ace.
[1] The super robot genre became heavily commercialized and stagnant, creating an opening for innovation, which was seized upon by Yoshiyuki Tomino in 1979 with the creation of Mobile Suit Gundam, a complex "space saga" that was called the "Star Wars of Japan" and birthed the real robot genre, which featured more realistic, gritty technology.
[1] 1990 saw the release of Patlabor, an animated movie directed by Mamoru Oshii that popularized the mecha genre and aesthetic in the West.
[1] Due to its unusual psychological themes, the show became a massive success,[1] and further caused Japanese anime culture to spread widely and rapidly around the world.
[7] Similarly the genre was inspirational for the 1998 first-person shooter Shogo: Mobile Armor Division developed by Monolith Productions.
These robots are usually piloted by Japanese teenagers via voice command or neural uplink, and are often powered by mystical or exotic energy sources.
[11] The genre has been compared to hard science fiction by its fanbase, and is strongly associated with sales of popular toy models such as Gunpla.
[17] Other examples include Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972), Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007).
[21][22][23] This refers to mecha that are powered exoskeletons rather than piloted as vehicles, such as in Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (1983), Bubblegum Crisis (1987) and Active Raid (2016); merge with the mecha, such as in Detonator Orgun (1991) & The King of Braves GaoGaiGar (1997); combine with the robots, such as in Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (1988); or become mechanical themselves, such as in Brave Command Dagwon (1996) and Fire Robo (2016).
Lego mecha construction can present unique engineering challenges; the balancing act between a high range of motion, good structural stability, and aesthetic appeal can be difficult to manage.