MeinMMO editor Jasmin Beverungen looks at the wildest animes. In principle, she is interested in any new anime, no matter how stupid it may sound. But as soon as mechs appear on the scene, she switches off.
The anime genre has become increasingly – let’s just call it “special” – over time. The names of animes are getting longer, and the premises crazier. Especially the isekai genre is brimming with brilliant ideas, some of which you must see. Looking for some examples?:
- In “My Reincarnation as a Slime in Another World,” 37-year-old Satoru Mikami is stabbed. He wakes up as a slime in another world. As a slime, he can learn the abilities of other beings.
- It gets even wilder in “Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon,” where a man is resurrected as… a vending machine.
- The anime “I’m a Spider, So What?!” focuses on the story of a Japanese schoolgirl who has become a spider.
Even outside the isekai genre, there are wonderfully quirky anime series that I loved watching. For example, Bananya is about cats living in bananas. The art style and premise were just too cute for me to ignore the anime.
A popular anime that could fall into the category of “What am I even watching?” would be Assassination’s Classroom. An alien tentacle monster becomes a teacher to a class and tasks them with killing him within a year. Otherwise, the Earth will be blown up.
As you can see, there are numerous examples of crazy animes that you can just love. But as soon as I see a certain type of weapon in series, it flies off my watchlist.
Which anime films you absolutely must see, we’ll reveal to you here:
Mechs belong in the junkyard, not in animes
I absolutely can’t stand mechs and find them simply silly. This may seem a bit controversial considering I tolerate banana cats in animes. But in my view, mechs just make animes worse.
The major downside of combat robots: Mechs take away the characters’ ability to become stronger. The pilots of mechs only develop their combat skills when they get a new robot model. Otherwise, they can’t push their own limits.
This character development can only be seen when the fighters use their own bodies or other melee weapons. For example, Son Goku trains his whole life, learns new techniques, and can thereby defeat stronger opponents.
That’s why realistic weapons seem completely legitimate to me. The fighter can learn to handle them better or use them differently, as in Sword Art Online. Mechs, on the other hand, are the pumped-up arsenal of weapons, where you might have to memorize the manual.
I find the combination of mechs and melee weapons particularly terrible. Why should they engage in close combat and fight with lightsabers or other melee weapons? What’s the point of having a long-range arsenal if they don’t use it?
Mechs also take the tension out of battles for me. I find it boring to watch gigantic machines firing their cannons. I have the same phenomenon with tanks or other overpowering weapons. Only that they do not symbolize a gigantic humanoid.
I think that is one of the main reasons why I find mechs silly. If there are gigantic combat machines, why do they have to look like a human body? Other weapons are designed according to their purpose, so why couldn’t that be done with gigantic combat machines?
There is actually one exception I have made so far. In Code Geass, mechs cause havoc, but the story is so exciting that I forgave the anime for the robot scenes. The series reminded me strongly of the tactical games from Death Note, one of the best animes of all time.
However, I was chastised by MeinMMO demon Cortyn for not having seen one of the best animes with mechs. Had I watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, I would have had a different opinion regarding the huge robotic beings, so their theory goes. But probably, the series will never run across my screen because I’m currently busy with animes about witches and elf brides.
Is there something that you absolutely cannot stand seeing in animes? Which animes make you switch off immediately? And do you have suggestions that could still make me a mech fan? Share it in the comments!
There are even worse abysses that MeinMMO demon Cortyn has ventured into. There are series that we cannot recommend to anyone. Cortyn reports on which terrible trash animes you should definitely avoid: I watched 10 hours of the worst trash anime so you don’t have to
