When it comes to mecha anime series, it’s pretty much a given that I like them as they were what I was initially exposed to when it came to Robotech and Macross. These were the big boys of the 80’s but their influence waned over the years, though they have been a key part to what many animators and creators grew up with as well that are working in the trenches today, so there are some real beauties that continue to get made. While I absolutely adore the Macross mecha elements and they are for me the cornerstone of my education to that particular sub genre, they’re not exactly the pieces that I’d draw out when talking about the best mecha series out there. Like the other challenges, there is originally just one question with the overall big picture, but we’ll again break it down a bit to talk about a variety of shows that are worth having the title best of.

Best Overall Mecha Series

While Macross is my cornerstone, the Universal Century Gundam series and OVAs are what really took it to a whole other level and made it into a sprawling storyline about so many characters, so many mecha types and intense amounts of politics and intrigue. The original TV series had a shoddy release here but the movies were those rare types that show that compilations can be done well and better than a TV series. My first introduction to Gundam was through 0080: War in the Pocket and that made me an instant fan as it dealt with a fascinating side story to the One Year War and the subsequent fallout from it. There’s such a rich tapestry to this original storyline that went through Z Gundam ZZ Gundam, F91 and even the usually derided but I like it 0083: Stardust Memories OVA. With the return of the UC calendar with Gundam Unicorn, it’s like being a kid all over again in reminding me of just how great these series can be.

Best OVA Mecha Series

Old school wins out here again with Gunbuster taking the nod. This series was one of my early introductions to Gainax after Wings of Honneamise and it totally blew me away with how they started out with a simple little high school style comedy, playing up the tropes easily enough, and then went into such a huge scale yet kept it amazingly personal. It was creative, inventive and has not been replicated in the slightest since then. This is when I discovered the kind of storytelling that I adore and made me a die-hard fan of Gainax and their ability to pull the rug out from under you when you least expect it.

Most Epic Mecha Series

Which, of course, is why the best of the modern shows is also the most epic as we see Gurren Lagann rise to the top here. With its start in similar territory, working in a small underground place with a fringe group of human survivors after the world had ended for quite some time, it proceeds to tell an intense and over the top story of brotherhood and friends and doing what’s right that leads to a universe-wide conflict that just keeps pushing and pushing. Every ounce of this show is infused with such passion, such energy and such amazing mecha designs and combinations that it’s incredibly intoxicating to watch it unfold.

Best Unloved Mecha Series

While this show has gotten little love, Zegapain proved to be the series that could do great things and go unnoticed. Done with a nod towards The Matrix to a large degree, it gave us a world in which what we saw wasn’t real and when the reality arrived, those who could see it had to do their best to defend it with great looking mecha designs and a real sense of style to it that kept it from seeming like it was just more of the same. Zegapain was the kind of series when it came out in that you found some very passionate fans watching it, but it never caught on. It has so much going for it, tells such a great story with some very neat hooks and tricks to make the virtual reality world possible, all while tying in videogame playing and giant mecha with an end of the world storyline. It’s still one of the best series out there.

Honorable Mention

While he gets the best nod here with the Universal Century Gundam series of releases, I have to make a special shout out to Yoshiyuki Tomino who has been involved in dozens of the best and most creative series over the years. While there are certainly failures in there, the man has definitely wielded considerable influence over the years. He amazed me with Gundam and did the same when I got a hold of Aura Battler Dunbine. And he left me confused but entranced with Brain Powered when that came out. Where he showed me just how creative he can get, we got Overman King Gainer. Through all the variations and ideas he’s had, he’s helped to shape the mecha genre in a huge way and definitely deserves a shout out there. Especially because of the opening sequence he gave us for Brain Powered and just the sheer craziness of Overman King Gainer which still blows me away nearly a decade later.

Similar to my view on the whole dream versus match, I don’t have a heck of a lot here to be honest. I’ve seen so many permutations of characters going at it over the years and then team-ups later on, combinations across publishers and so forth that there’s no real novelty to it. In fact, I’d love to see more books not do guest appearances and team ups. I grew up reading part of the old Marvel Team-Up series and saw the way that certain Batman books largely operated as that. I thoroughly loved the Brave and the Bold animated series with its team ups as well.

But not much really gets me when it comes to this because a large percentage of what I read is outside of the usual shared universe system. Now, I could say give me a Skottie Young Walking Dead book and that’s a team up I’d like to see. I’d love to see a month where creators swap books entirely and just do something weird and out of place with creative teams playing with characters that they never would ordinarily. That’s probably the only kind of team-up of sorts that I’d like to see these days.

As we’ve found with some installments, some of these challenges are harder than others because of what they’re really asking. The 21st day is another one of those as it asks for your favorite goofy anime character. I typically do not care for the goofy type at all since they tend to be more of a distraction than anything else, forcing humor into a situation and being the kind of friend that most people would want to slap after prolonged exposure. The one that came to mind that I actually rather do look is that of Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho, but there are so many instances where he’s not goofy that I felt it would be hard to include him for this day. What I realized though, in a moment of lucidity, is that there is one very adorable goofy character out there that I love very, very much.

And that’s Chi, from Chi’s Sweet Home / New Address. After four seasons of the series, which ended in 2009 with 101 episodes, we were treated regularly to lots and lots of adventures of this silly, goofy, cautious and energetic young kitten getting to know their world. Chi managed to make me smile and laugh repeatedly throughout it as we got to see what she does to occupy her time and she can legitimately be a goofy character without being irritating. It also helps that the episodes were just under three minutes in length, so you got the right dose of her antics. Yet even after that many episodes, it never got tiring and the manga is much the same way. Chi brings the right kind of goofy to the screen and puts it all behind one of the most adorable expressive faces out there when it comes to goofy characters and makes it work. While there’s an uncountable amount of goofy anime characters out there, Chi’s isn’t forced and comes from her natural curiosity and playfulness, making it delightful to watch.

Having completed the 30 days of anime challenge awhile ago and finishing up yesterday the 30 days of comic books , we’re going to hit one more up before the end of 2014.

As those who have spent a lot of time with me will know, I’m very much into movies. While my anime DVD/BD collection is strong, it’s rivaled by the movie collection. I’m a fan of a whole lot of genres and have watched a ton of things over the years, so it’s a challenge that I’m interested in once again as it really does get you to think about things, which I’ve seen with the two previous challenges.

There will likely be a little bit of crossover with some of the other challenges since there’s some bleeding between them, but I’m looking forward to delving into the realm of movies a bit more. There’s a lot of fantastic stuff out there from the days of past and what’s out in the last couple of years to deal with. So I hope you’ll join in with these as well and sound off on what you think with the individual challenges and where you fall with them as we move into the challenge this November!

I’ll admit that back in the day, I used to do a lot with wallpapers. Organized, lots of variety, themes and moods and the like. But over the years as things got busier and I adjusted to a dual monitor setup, more tabs open in my browser and other apps, wallpapers faded into the background for me. So much so that for one particular system, I didn’t have any of them working. All I see are browsers, man. That said, I do grab some from time to time that appeal, largely because I throw them into a directory for my Apple TV unit to grab from as they make for some great screensavers on a 70″ TV or as part of various collages and the like. Here’s a sampling of some of my recent pickups that are floating through my TV screen these days.

Click on any of the images to get a larger desktop worthy version. Share your favorites with us below!