Arcsquad12 posted:

Since I'm still stuck on this topic I've tried to come up with a list of European and North American series that could be considered Mecha or at least adjacent. Some are technically still Japanese but their western association wins out. In no particular order:

Straight up Mecha:
Transformers is the obvious and most popular one by far.
Pacific Rim
Battletech/Mechwarrior/Mech Assault
1920+ with Scythe and Iron Harvest
Sym Bionic Titan
Megas XLR
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Voltron
Robotech (because gently caress Harmony Gold)
Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander
Titanfall
Robot Jocks
GenLOCK
Brigador
Real Steel

Mecha Adjacent:
Star Wars walkers
Warhammer 40K walkers and titans, or straight Mecha with the Tau suits.
Warmahordes Warjacks
Robocop ED209s
Starship Troopers Roughnecks treats the Marauder suits more like mecha than power armour
Starcraft Goliaths
Halo Mantis units
Gears of War 4 and 5 DB Constructors
Killzone Mawlers
District 9 Prawn battle suit
Avatar bowie knife mechs.

The big thing I've noticed is that most of these properties are games rather than television or films and that speaks to the greater differences in how certain types of media are financed between Japan and other countries. It must be hell to try and make a mecha series without proper backing because of the demands of the Hollywood blockbuster system demanding ludicrous returns to be considered successful. Because mecha is so reliant on visual design to stand out, the way the system works in North America makes the costs balloon out of control. They can get away with it in the gaming industry more often because that industry is a mess of corruption and sunk cost fallacy among AAA publishers and shareholders so money isn't as much of an issue. Still, like Hollywood, it only takes one flop to kill a franchise and in gaming it also consistently kills studios.

Meanwhile in Japan if you have a dedicated enough fan base even something like Fafner can survive.