http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRobotGenre

Getter Robo Armageddon "So much for the laws of physics!"

Advertisement:

The counterpoint to the Real Robot Genre (or rather, Real Robot is the counterpoint to this), the Super Robot Genre is a genre of science fiction — mostly Anime and Manga, but found in other mediums as well — focusing on a fantastic, Superheroic form of Humongous Mecha.

In contrast to Real Robots, Super Robots are often (but not always) the creations of eccentric Mad Scientists who work alone in their secluded laboratories; exactly where they get the parts, funding, and equipment, manage to even build the thing without helpnote For comparison, the closest thing in size and complexity to a Giant Mecha in real life is probably a modern aircraft carrier — which, very roughly, takes 150,000 people and 7 years to build. Even allowing for a lot of these people not working on the carrier for the entire course of its construction, you're still looking at a build time many times greater than the average human lifespan if only one person was doing everything., or how they manage to keep anyone else (except the select few needed to drive the plot) from finding out about their activities is usually left as an exercise for the viewer. The pilot tends to be an average-across-the-board Audience Surrogate, sometimes even an Ordinary High-School Student, who falls into the cockpit and discovers they have a natural aptitude for piloting a giant robot. Instead of using an elaborate system of controls like those found in an airplane cockpit, the pilot controls a Super Robot using a mere handful of buttons (and maybe a joystick), motion capture or even a mind-reading system, and the motion of the mecha itself is often implausibly humanlike. Overall, the science behind a Super Robot is usually on the soft side of the scale, with the Rule of Cool and the burning passion of The Hero and his friends and lovers having more effect on the machine's capabilities than a list of well-defined specifications. In contrast to a Real Robot, where the mecha is just one more piece of equipment in the overall arsenal (even if it is the cornerstone), a Super Robot is an enabling device for its pilot to pull off badass heroics.

Advertisement:

Super Robot shows are typically personified by "Love/Courage/Compassion/Friendship/Righteous-Anger/Insert-Positive-Emotion-Here Conquers All", and almost always have at least one character that is Hot-Blooded, though there are certain notable exceptions... mostly those directed by Yoshiyuki "Kill 'em All" Tomino, to whom anyone can die is less a possibility than a life philosophy (...or at least it used to be). They also typically follow the Monster of the Week format, especially in older shows, though as always there are exceptions. Super Robots tend towards idealism on the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism and romanticism on the Romanticism Versus Enlightenment scale.

Checklist

Advertisement:

The chances of the series being a Super Robot series rises exponentially with each item present. This, of course, doesn't apply to total parody or gag series, such as SD Gundam.

Note that in general the longer a Real Robot series runs, the higher the chance that the protagonist's mecha will start to display Super Robot traits. If this is the Grand Finale the odds are doubled.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Anime and Manga

Comics

Film

Live Action TV

Power Rangers/Super Sentai: The various Zords cover most of these aspects all of the time, and a few specific ones depending on the exact season. Denshi Sentai Denziman's Daidenjin was probably one of the more outstanding examples. Not only did it have all the moves of a Super Robot, it acted extremely sentient at times, often showing up when the Denjimen are in danger without being summoned. Plus, the backstory of the Daidenjin is quite long-winding. It's a combination of Lost Technology and Space tech from the Denji aliens. The inclusion of these into the franchise was inspired by the Japanese live-action version of Spider-Man, which had its own Super Robot called Leopardon. Subverted in that most Megazords/gattai robos lose to any main cast villain, and, unless combining two Megazords together, beating any significant villain is nigh-impossible.

The titular Super Robot Red Baron is one of the earlier examples, in Toku.

Mech-X4 is an American take on the genre with the titular mech controlled via technopathy, the ability to control machines from the mind.

Roleplay

Video Games

Visual Novels

Heaven Will Be Mine centers on three women fighting in three different factions in an interstellar conflict using "ship-selves." Saturn pilots the (stolen) ship-self Interloper Prototype String of Pearls, Pluto pilots the ark-self Creation Star Type Krun Macula, and Luna-Terra pilots the ship-self Original Archetype Mare Crisium.

Webcomics

Adrastus is an alien robot hidden by the main character's family. It has rocket punches, beams, and an amazing mohawk.

Titanzer is equal parts parody and homage. Example: Johnny doesn't trust any robot's really dead unless it explodes. Linky

L.E.G.E.N.D. from Energize and Heroes Alliance is a super robot built by the Heroes Unite Initiative to help take down Energize when he went rogue in the Energize: Hunted arc. L.E.G.E.N.D. barely slowed Energize down for a moment.

Web Original

The eponymous Ilivais X and its fellow prototypes definitely fall in here. The GEKICOM units have implausible Elemental Powers, the STRUQ units are a massive Combining Mecha pastiche, and the Phonos Weapons are as a whole incredibly powerful and dangerous. X itself is more of a Deconstruction though. It's sentient and has its own agenda of sorts, has an unlimited source of energy that by it's very nature is just off, there's all sorts of parallels between it and Lucifer, and so on.

There are plenty of these mentioned in How to Hero, there's even an entry to help them blend in with human society here .

Western Animation

Eastern Animation