Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha

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    Console RPG Cliché #54: "There are always giant robots. Always."

    Relena: Why was the Romefeller Foundation so set on using mobile suits anyway?
    Noin: Because people have a tendency to fear large machinery but at the same time they have a strong admiration for it.

    Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, itself not an example of this trope

    Simply put, this is when a work is not about Humongous Mecha, but throws one or more in at some point(s) anyway. Why? Because giant robots are cool, duh!

    Note that perhaps no work absolutely needs mecha, but some works still center around them, especially a Super Robot show. This is when you can throw out the mecha and still have most of the work intact. But it wouldn't be as awesome, right?

    Sometimes this comes from adaptations where mecha is not in the original work. This could apply even to classic works. Just put the works in a futuristic setting, and you can throw in the giant robots. A sort of Recycled WITH MECHA!

    Compare Rent-A-Zilla, Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons.

    Examples of Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha include:

    Anime and Manga

    • In Axis Powers Hetalia, Sealand asks Japan to making him like a power ranger and Sealand randomly becomes a Super Robot Mecha with a rocket punch. He has to call Iceland to get the fist back because The Rocket punch just kept going straight to Iceland and Iceland's head was in the way so it couldn't come back.
    • Soukou no Strain, which is based off of A Little Princess.
    • Gankutsuou, based off of The Count of Monte Cristo.
    • Another "mechanized" classic: Samurai 7, based off of, obviously, The Seven Samurai.
    • The Big O might fit this, if, repeat if, you think the other elements could stand on their own. Even if you don't, there are some episodes in which it feels like they shoe-horned a giant robot fight in even if the episode didn't call for it.
    • Laputa: Laputa: Castle in the Sky has not a trace of Humongous Mecha until about halfway through the movie.
    • Happens in the last episode of Kaiba.
    • The final battle of the School Festival arc in Mahou Sensei Negima throws in mecha just for the heck of it. And Gundam references. Plenty of Gundam references.
    • Burst Angel. 'Course, 90% of the the plot is things they thrown in for the hell of it, so it doesn't stand out too much.
    • Some fans of Kannazuki no Miko argue that the entire god-mecha thing is unnecessary.
    • Code Geass is a tale of war, oppression, supernatural powers and Black and Gray Morality. It also has mecha as a primary weapon.
      • The manga version of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion follows the same plot as the anime, except the Knightmares are non-existant. Instead, they wage war using way more realistic weapons (infantry, planes, VTOL-crafts, and ships. Kururugi Suzaku is seen piloting a VTOL-craft (an armed helicopter) most of the time).
      • Also done in the writers's new anime, Guilty Crown. It's a story that takes place after a major viral outbreak deemed Lost Christmas. Japan sacrificed its independence in exchange for stability and an eventual vaccine. Now, ten years later, things are under control. GHQ, the international organization charged with maintaining Jpan's stability has diverged form their original goal ad has developed a new Phlebotinum known as the Void Genome, that grants its user the power to draw weapons from people that reflect their personalities. After terrorist group bent on liberating Japan steals this weapon, it winds up being accidentally bonded to Ordinary High School Student Ouma Shu. And in this story of friendship, strife, and action filled with these fantastically animated weapons... Are Conspicuous CG robots that have no real purpose in the main story.
    • In One Piece, Mr. 3 creates one for himself out of candle wax. It's more dangerous than it sounds.
    • The finale of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's first season had Precia summoning an army of Mecha-Mooks, including a Humongous Mecha or ten. Though considering all the mecha references in Nanoha, it's more surprising that there aren't more.
      • A few years prior, the same director had Kyosuke Date go a few rounds with giant machines in SoulTaker.
    • Now and Then, Here and There, an anime about cruelty and child exploitation in an apocalyptic world where the majority of civilization has hit a technological regression, adds in mechas when they're entirely unnecessary. Doesn't stop the show from being terribly tragic, but sort of contradicts the Dark Age atmosphere.
    • Soul Eater is best described as a supernatural-themed Fighting Series. Towards the end, however, there's one fight scene where it manages to pull off this trope in the most absurdly hilarious way possible. And yes, it was indeed awesome.
    • Basquash is street basketball in giant robots.
    • Magic Knight Rayearth. Although the mecha are cool to look at, they don't particuarly do anything that the Power Trio couldn't do on their own aside from scaling up the fights.
    • In the High School comedy I My Me! Strawberry Eggs old lady Lulu has a motorbike that transforms into a humanoid firefighting mecha. There is no valid reason for this other than Rule of Cool.
    • This is pretty much the entire shift for Idolmaster: Xenoglossia where it was just a talent show sim in its original form.
    • In Naruto, one of Pain's bodies is inexplicably some sort of Hollywood Cyborg, with rocket boots, a Rocket Punch, Macross Missile Massacre deployed from his other arm, and a laser beam from his head.
    • Red Garden: Dead Girls (OVA), Because being hundreds of years in the future isn't interesting enough, Gonzo decided it was time to add some mecha. Looking back on the TV series beginning episodes, one could never imagine this is how it would all end.
    • Full Metal Panic!. Time: present. Location: Siberia. Scene: a jeep fleeing with two passengers, one of them a victim of illegal Soviet experimentation. As they are nearly safe, a Hind appears and blows away the jeep. The survivor is about to get shot by the Hind's chaingun when suddenly a HUGE knife flies out of the forest and impales the heli. Enter the protagonist in an M 9 E mecha using equipment that shouldn't exist for about 50 years. Seconds later we are treated to a scene of mechas jumping around like ninjas. Note again: this is the present, not the future.
    • Even though Ghost in the Shell has Spider Tanks, actual mechas are very rare and rather on the small side. The lobby fight in the first season of Stand Alone Complex is already awesome, but when the mecha appears on the scene, the awesomeness instantly goes critical.
      • Not exactly a mecha, it was just a fairly large suit of Powered Armor
    • In Buso Renkin, most of the titular objects take the form of weapons. The boss of the Alchemist Army has his take the form of a giant mecha, which amplifies other weapons and abilities that are used by its other pilots.
    • Quite literal in Hanamaru Kindergarten: Tsuchida's puppet show is a fantasy fairytale...up until the handsome prince summons his giant robot, which the children think is awesome.
    • Air Gear has had a couple of these lately, starting with Caesar and Nina's AT Armors. Hell, soon enough even Kaito gets to pilot one
    • In Zettai Karen Children, one of the characters ESPer powers involves making toys real and fighting with them. Guess what he tends to fight with? (hint: it's a toy model, starts with the letter 'M' and ends with 'echa'). Aside from pure awesomeness factor, there is no justification for this.

    Comic Books

    Fan Works

    • This Warrior Cats fanfic declares that the only way Warriors could possibly be more awesome would be if the cats piloted giant mechs. And so they do.

    Film

    "Its a Transformer!

    • Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, and the two video games modelled after it.
    • Even though Starship Troopers is based on the back cover of the novel that originally introduced the whole concept of Powered Armor, it and it's sequels have little to do with the original, and thus don't have the armor. Then the third movie "introduces" mechs just for the cool of it.
    • The first three Terminator films were conducted at the human scale. Watch the trailer for Salvation, however, and... suddenly, giant robot!
      • Particularly glaring because the future has motorcycle robots and flying robots. Why bother with a giant mecha?
        • Because in Salvation, Skynet was specifically enslaving the survivors, not just wiping humans out to the last. Not yet anyway. It was a mix of Shock and Awe and, given that it was programmed by humans in the first place, a bit of thematic flare. Besides, Terminator 2 also showed us the Hunter-Killer machines, which came in two flavors: 20-foot tall tank with a semi-humanoid upper torso and VTOL laser-armed gunship, so it's not like "bigger is better" wasn't already on their minds.
    • Sucker Punch. That is all.
    • All Star Wars films since The Empire Strikes Back have added walkers such as the AT-AT and AT-ST. The Phantom Menace even introduced Transforming Mecha (specifically, droid starfighters which could shift into walkers when needed.)
    • The new Gulliver's Travels movie has a giant mech. Except it's used by the Liliputians, and as such is only human-sized.
    • Wild Wild West. Dr. Loveless' giant steam-powered Spider Tank.

    Live Action TV

    Tabletop Games

    Video Games

    • The titular Metal Gears could be anything, really, considering the themes of the games otherwise are unrelated to giant mecha. They do make for awesome boss battles, tho'.
      • Especially in Metal Gear Solid 4 when you finally get to pilot one.
      • In a nice bit of lamp-shade hanging in the book of the first game, Snake reflects that Otacon even gave the thing sound effects to sound like a dragon. It doesn't get much cooler than that.
    • The Knights of the Holy Lance in Persona 2 are what happens when you throw this on a pot with Stupid Jetpack Hitler. They were supposed to have actual personalities and be feminine.
    • Warmech from Final Fantasy I.
    • StarCraft: The Goliath (and to a lesser extent the Dragoon) could've been a more normal tank-type vehicle, but that wouldn't have been nearly cool enough. The sequel adds even more.
    • The first Destroy All Humans! game's second to final boss. Behold! The Roboprez!

    Crypto: That is seriously messed up.

    Web Comics

    Web Original

    • The Whateley Universe is arguably one of the settings where despite the best efforts of human and mutant engineers, giant mecha canonically just plain don't work. (Power armor exists, but is much more to human scale.) And yet, during the big Halloween 2006 battle, perpetual school project Tiny Tim gets a personal Crowning Moment of Awesome once it's been brought to the surface—not under its own power, mind—by demonstrating that while it may not be able to walk worth a damn, at least some of its guns are quite operational...

    Western Animation

    Real Life

    • There is real-size Gundam in Japan. It was finished in July 2009 and put down in september. Then it was put up again in July 2010 but with a beam saber. Oh, and it also moves a little bit.
      • The 2011 earthquake collapsed it.
    • Sumqayit, Azerbaijan. Polluted almost to the point of unihabitability, post-Soviet city-factory. Not cool at all? Think twice.
    1. Mostly due to the kids not being as fond of Darker and Edgier as adult fans, the biggest example of why Pandering to the Base doesn't work.
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