Currently finished: Episode 3
Once upon a time, like everybody else, I too enjoyed animes with big mechas for their metal-on-metal actions. However, after having seen more or less every single animes from last 10 years (in a literal sense, I'm quite serious), I'm starting to notice that pretty much all mecha animes since the late 90's are all just beating on the same dead horse (with few exceptions here and there) both action and plot-wise. So instead of watching the variants of the same fights I've seen so many times, I start to pay more attention to the details and logical consistencies of the stories themselves. That is when I noticed that majority of mecha animes place so much emphasis on actions, they almost always leave everything else unpolished. This, is where my often-unfavorable-biased opinions towards mecha anime come from. Because while it's exciting to watch, blow away the dust storm stirred up from the metal-on-metal actions (which I have
nothing against, I too enjoy a good Michael Bay movie once a while), you
are left with many logical inconsistencies underneath.
Let me just dissect Muv-Luv real quick to show you what I see:
First, the main villains of the story are those giant alien creatures called BETA who are trying to invade earth. One major pitfall for stories of this kind is that it's really hard for me to image aliens with highly advanced technology that is capable of interplanetary travel who can invade earth with such ease would be such an unrefined savage specie that they wouldn't just send some automated armament to wipe out humankind. Even if you want to argue such technologies are difficult to come by, these aliens seems to be completely naked aside from their natural armor like shells. You'd think if they're technologically advanced enough to invade earth, they'd at least have some sort of armor to protect their infantries' lives, or, you know what, better mecha to fight us, right? Can you image if we human somehow decide to invade an alien planet, all the infantries we're sending to the battle field are butt naked? You wouldn't even do that if you want to invade a rat's nest, let alone rats in the nest are swarms equipped with metal exoskeletons which are capable of firing high velocity projectiles, which I think that's what the BETAs would see us as, LOL. So why would BETAs do that here?!
Second, outside basic exoskeleton, mecha hardly seem to be an efficient equipment for combat--if that's the case, I'm sure the top military research nowadays would all be circled around mecha development research instead of these so called armored viechles, helicoptors, jet fighters, etc. right? Well, of course unless the "mecha physics phenomenon ", where somehow a pilot could make the macha push harder or go faster by simply pushing harder on the lever or stepping harder on the pedal even though the mecha has already previously reached its physical limit, is an undeniable fact in all mecha universe.
Lastly, what's the point of the "TopGun" type pilot training when the enemy isn't another country with comparable mecha technology? Wouldn't it be better to have combat training scenarios where your simulated enemy behaves more like your real enemy instead of your wing man who's going to fight along side with you?
I'm sure by now I have angered some mecha loving or
Muv-Luv loving fans out there. If you like to defend your beloved genre with some intelligent comments, I would converse with you in the comment area and would even agree with you if you can bring valid points to the table. But if you have nothing intelligent to say, then don't bother commenting, I'll just ignore and delete them as quickly as you post them.
