The giant robot action of the mecha genre has been a top performer in anime for decades, and it’s still one of the industry’s most popular niches. There are many influential mecha franchises that have left their mark on the medium, but the Mobile Suit Gundam series has emerged as top-tier mecha material.

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Gundam has transformed in impressive ways and rightfully deserves the attention that it receives, but there are also some other monumental mecha series that are just as strong as Mobile Suit Gundam, if not even stronger.

10 Neon Genesis Evangelion Sends The World Into Oblivion Through Its Haunting Story

Eva 02 from the NGE opening

Mobile Suit Gundam has produced hundreds of satisfying episodes across dozens of entertaining series, yet the kinetic space combat struggles to compare to the two-dozen episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Evangelion presents a familiar narrative where put-upon pilots must control giant mecha to take on extraterrestrial threats.

However, Evangelion gradually gets consumed by a stark depression that turns this battle into an existential journey of the soul like nothing else. Neon Genesis Evangelion evolves into a haunting and enlightening look into grief and the end of the world.

9 Code Geass Turns Into An Enlightening Character Study About The Perils Of Power

Anime Suzaku Awaits His Orders In Code Geass

There are some amazing spectacles and climactic showdowns that take place in the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, yet it’s a series that tends to put the mecha above the characters. Protagonists like Amuro Ray are still iconic, but they’re hardly groundbreaking figures.

Alternatively, Code Geass is a series that emphasizes its deadly mobile machines, Knightmare Frames, which are not far off from Gundam, but the majority of the tension stems from the dark path that its protagonist, Lelouch, heads down. Code Geass is able to resonate on a whole other level due to the deep questions that it asks about power, responsibility, and corruption.

8 Gurren Lagann Gets The Audience’s Attention With Stunning Visuals But Doesn’t Lack Substance

The Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is born in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Anime can be such an expressive and exaggerated medium of animation that there are definitely plenty of series that are representative of style over substance. Mobile Suit Gundam more or less sticks to its grounded character models and designs, but in doing so it misses out on the joy that more inventive animation studios tap into with chaotic visuals.

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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann touches on familiar anime tropes like a future dystopia where humanity is subjugated, but its unpredictable animation and colors make it a consistently thrilling adventure. The ending of Gurren Lagann has a contentious reputation within the fandom, but at only 27 episodes, it makes for an easy binge.

7 Patlabor Presents A Flawed Tech-Heavy Future That’s Not Far From Our Own

A mecha performs construction work in Patlabor

Mamoru Oshii is a visionary mind in the anime industry who's responsible for the Ghost in the Shell movies and other important cyberpunk anime texts. Oshii's fascination with humanity's ability, or failure, to co-exist with increasingly powerful robots asks thoughtful questions that are even more relevant today, several decades later.

Patlabor posits mecha as a natural extension of future crimefighting, which is a problem when this technology gets out of control. For many, these are compelling questions, and Gundam frequently doesn't ruminate on whether their mecha are more of a burden than an asset.

6 Macross Plus Turns A Fighter Pilot Into A Mecha Master

Isamu Dyson in the mecha cockpit during the movie, Macross Plus.

Macross Plus features all the staples of a classic sci-fi space opera. A lengthy war plays out between humans and aliens, and the use of a transforming mecha appears to be the biggest hope for survival. There’s a huge universe in Macross Plus, but it succeeds in telling a story that feels personal through the eyes of its unconventional pilot protagonist.

Macross Plus benefits from being co-directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and features a score by Yoko Kanno. This automatically elevates the subject, and, if nothing else, Macross Plus guarantees to be a satisfying audio-visual spectacle.

5 RahXephon Uses The Pressures Of A Powerful Weapon To Open Up Its Protagonist’s Eyes

Characters stare at RahXephon mecha in awe in RahXephon.

Neon Genesis Evangelion became such a cultural landmark that several other mecha series tried to embrace gloomy, depressing storytelling with surreal twists. This feels like hollow melodrama when it's done poorly, but RahXephon stands apart as a dour mecha series where the heavy, introspective feel natural and not forced.

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RahXephon parallels Kamina's familiarity with the titular mecha against this lost teenager's passive identity in the world. The heights of RahXephon hit hard, and the anime uses music in a really effective way that's beyond the strong but utilitarian score of Gundam.

4 The Vision Of Escaflowne Gives Mecha Warfare The Fantasy And Isekai Treatment

Main cast of Escaflowne in judgment.

The Vision of Escaflowne is an impressive genre hybrid that takes the basics behind the mecha genre and puts it into a fantasy isekai environment with a heavy romance angle that runs through it all. Hitomi is a high school girl who winds up in a wartorn fantasy kingdom where she aligns herself with a brooding prince who pilots a dragon-like mecha.

Escaflowne is a strong example of how versatile mecha content can truly be. The anime has a fairly maligned English dub, but it at least exposed a lot of children to this odd mecha property from the 1990s.

3 FLCL Uses Out-Of-Control Combat To Reflect The Burdens Of Adolescence

Anime FLCL-3

Anime is a fantastic filter for tender coming-of-age stories where the medium elegantly unpacks grounded, human issues in creative ways. FLCL celebrates its larger-than-life wildcard, Haruko, who explodes into Naota’s life and forever changes the boy.

The mecha theatrics and high-tech combat are visually dazzling, but the best moments in FLCL are the ones that are driven by character development and internal epiphanies. The anime’s two follow-up series, while not as strong, still effectively continue the original show’s themes. The fact that two more FLCL sequels are on the way is a testament to this plucky mecha property’s enduring reputation.

2 Full Metal Panic! Puts A Precocious High Schooler At The Center Of A Mecha Assault

Anime arbalest and tessa from full metal panic

The Universal Century timeline Mobile Suit Gundam series handles the fractured government, complicated politics, and the palpable warfare that's a driving force in these shows particularly well. Full Metal Panic! is another series that doesn't just involve one powerful mecha, but a whole militia of these precise machines, whose pilots have been assigned with a very unusual mission.

This military force is responsible for the safety of a seemingly normal female high schooler named Kaname. Full Metal Panic! looks gorgeous and doesn't overstay its welcome, but this juxtaposition of wildly diverse genres and extremes is where Full Metal Panic! proves itself.

1 Gunbuster Shines A Light On What It Takes To Be A Famous Mecha Pilot

Anime 2 Gunbuster

Gainax is an animation studio that made a name for itself through its subversive mecha series, which would include Neon Genesis Evangelion. Gunbuster is a six-episode OVA series that contains a lot of the same DNA as Evangelion, right down to Hideaki Anno as the director.

Gunbuster is fascinated with the toll that committing one’s life to war or any cause takes on an individual and how a cause can consume an identity. This is something that the Gundam series wouldn’t do until considerably later in its run with projects like Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.