The mecha genre isn’t just a popular genre—it’s practically the medium’s flagship. Even if the niche has been in a slump as of late, giant robot wars are synonymous with anime—and they’re not going away any time soon.
Unfortunately, not every mecha anime ages as well as Mobile Suit Gundam did. Some of these shows are just unlucky products of their specific decade, while others doomed themselves to obscurity thanks to questionable storytelling.
10 Back Arrow Belongs In The Early 2000s
For lack of better words, Back Arrow throws all of the genres it can grab at a wall to see what sticks. The result is a planned 24-episode war between cowboys and feudal lords waged using magical mecha. Describing the anime as a bland mess is putting it lightly, and it’s not surprising that none of its many ideas actually land.
Despite being one of 2021’s first anime, Back Arrow feels like a remnant of the early 2000s. The characters and their determination-powered robots are as by-the-numbers as they can be. The world-building and politics are predictably simplistic, and the story is generic at best. Back Arrow may not be offensively bad, but there’s a reason it’s a popular punchline in anime forums.
9 Listeners Is A Boring Take On A Unique Idea
Conceptually, Listeners is a great love letter to the artistry and beauty of music. In a world where music was banned after a devastating war, Echo meets Mu, one of the last remaining Players who can control the music-powered mecha known as Equipment. But in practice, Listeners squandered its potential to deliver one of the most generic mecha shows of recent memory.
Listeners started on a flat note and never recovered, underwhelming viewers with each passing episode. The mecha fights are serviceable at most, while the characters were plain forgettable. Not helping was the anime’s overreliance on music references, which some viewers felt was just a thinly-veiled way for the creators to show off their playlists.
8 Macross Delta Is An Idol Anime With Some Mecha Cameos
Macross is a popular space opera known for balancing mechs, love triangles, and idol culture. Still, the recent Macross Delta was the first to prioritize one of the three over the others. Truth be told, Macross Delta has more in common with Love Live! than Macross Frontier, and is really just an idol anime set in a futuristic warzone.
To viewers, Macross Delta was clearly chasing the already oversaturated idol trend. Not helping was that the story wasn’t anything spectacular, and the fact that the idols’ in-anime purpose was ridiculous. Basically, they sang a virus away. The one redeeming factor was the music, which made people joke that Macross Delta was only made to sell Walkure albums.
7 Aldnoah.Zero Is An Obvious Gundam Clone
With a powerhouse staff that includes Psycho-Pass mastermind Gen Urobuchi, legendary composer Hiroyuki Sawano, and Fairy Tail’s amazing A-1 Pictures, Aldnoah.Zero seemed like a surefire mecha blockbuster in the making. Instead, what mecha fans got was what’s been jokingly called one of the most expensive Mobile Suit Gundam fanfics ever made.
Here, the war between the Terrans and human colonies on Aldnoah (aka Mars) explodes when Aldnoah’s princess is assassinated on Earth. In brief, Aldnoah.Zero barely toes the line between paying homage to and ripping off Gundam. This either annoyed or amused viewers and Aldnoah.Zero is only remembered for sparking debates about the sincerest form of flattery.
6 Valvrave The Liberator Had Vampire Mecha Pilots
As an original anime made by Code Geass’ creators in-studio Sunrise, Valvrave The Liberator had everything going for it. Unfortunately, the end result was a bland imitation of Lelouch's double life as a high school student and a revolutionary leader. In fact, Valvrave only became memorable for how overdramatic and over-the-top the characters and story got.
If there’s one thing everyone remembers Valvrave for, it’s the preposterous vampire pilots and mechas. That said, viewers agree that Valvrave’s technical aspects like animation and voicing were good. These weren’t enough to save the anime from aging better as a guilty pleasure than a legitimately good mecha story.
5 Full Metal Panic! IV: Invisible Victory Is Behind The Times
To its credit, the fourth Full Metal Panic! anime is consistent with its predecessors’ quality and entertainment value. The problem here is that Invisible Victory came out in 2018, nearly 13 years after The Second Raid. By then, only old-school mecha fans remembered or even cared about Kaname and Sousuke’s battlefield romance and hijinks.
Invisible Victory was aged from the start, as it did nothing to adapt to modern sensibilities. Worse, it lost a narrative gamble by dropping Kaname for almost half its run, leaving the blank and unengaging Sousuke to pick up the slack. As if these weren’t enough, Invisible Victory ends on a cliffhanger that may never be resolved following studio Xebec’s closure.
4 Eureka Seven AO Was Disowned By Eureka Seven Fans
Even if it’s an underdog compared to Gundam and its ilk, Eureka Seven remains one of the premier mecha franchises with a dedicated fanbase. Excitement for the Eureka Seven sequel series was unimaginable, but unfortunately, AO fell short of expectations. Not only did AO pale when compared to the popular first anime, but it was a mess.
Eureka Seven was complete on its own, making AO feel unnecessary to many. Worse, it copied Neon Genesis Evangelion instead of telling a new story set in Renton and Eureka’s world. Like Evangelion before it, AO ended on a controversial note that needed a movie retcon. But unlike the former, AO won’t age into a genre-defining classic.
3 Gundam SEED Destiny Is One Of Gundam’s Weakest Entries
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED may be polarizing for older fans, but it’s respected as a reboot and gateway for newcomers. The same can’t be said for its sequel, which undid all the goodwill that SEED received. Gundam SEED Destiny became notorious for many things, such as poor characterization, recycled plots, and too much stock footage.
In its defense, Destiny was a product of a tough production cycle. Aside from budgetary and scheduling problems, head writer Chikai Morosawa was seriously sick at the time, causing even more delays. But even with those in mind, Destiny is a subpar sequel that won’t be getting any belated appreciation any time soon.
2 The Code Geass Movies Are Empty Nostalgia Bait
Code Geass remains one of the most influential mecha anime of the 2000s, thanks to its political intrigue and Knightmare clashes. In Code Geas R2, Lelouch achieves world peace when he brands himself the world’s common enemy, who’s assassinated by Zero (aka Suzaku). Whatever catharsis his last gambit achieved was undone by the reboot movies, released more than a decade later.
After a tedious recap trilogy, Lelouch Of The Re;surrection retcons Lelouch’s sacrifice so he can wage war in a country never mentioned in the anime. Re;surrection is as lackluster as it is pointless, merely copying the anime’s best moments and contradicting its anti-war themes by showing how cool Zero is at armed conflict. Unlike its timeless predecessors, these movies are just hollow fanservice.
1 Darling In The FranXX Disappointed Mecha & Anime Fans
It can’t be overstated just how much of a letdown Darling In The FranXX was. Hyped as the masterpiece of its generation, Studio Trigger’s love letter to mecha started great before devolving into a mess of clichés, rushed characterization, a saccharine central romance, and copying Neon Genesis Evangelion almost beat-for-beat.
Squad 13’s war against the Klaxosaurs didn’t age well at all, with viewers only finding more missed opportunities than hidden gems in every rewatch. It may not have even been five years since its end, but Darling In The FranXX has already gone down as one of the biggest disappointments seen not just by mecha fans but also by the anime community.