jollyreaper wrote:
Well, I should clarify that we're talking the initial era of real robots, specifically giant fighting robots. 70's and 80's. Towards the 90's there was enough cross-pollination from Japan so that you had Americanized versions of the Japanese approach. Same way we can talk about American comics and Japanese manga even though at this point there are people from both countries borrowing heavily from other styles.
Ok I'm gonna stop you right here because I don't think you know your shit. Don't be like one of those /m/tards from 4chan.
ED never jumped around. Robocop himself moved a bit like Terminator who was also slow, lumbering death. But also the special effects couldn't have depicted a robocop doing ninja flips.
ED-209 is pretty nimble actually. He has a staccato feel to his movements (some of this is due to stop motion animation) but he's definitely not lumbering. He engages Murphy in close combat, squeezes through a doorway, and utterly fails to navigate stairs but he's a far cry from Mechwarrior's jogging turrets.
And Robocain (aka Robocop Mk 2) is crazy aggressive for a machine. He scrambles up an elevator shaft, grabs Murphy and whacks him against pipes, and all kinds of fluid movement. He's also pretty handy with a TV remote.
Robocop himself tends to walk slowly, mostly because the costume didn't let Peter Weller do much else. However when aiming his gun in that awesome 80's "I'm not even looking where I'm shooting" way, he is pretty quick on the draw. I never saw much of the third movie but he does get a jetpack that lets him scream around like he's in a bad movie.
And you're taking the slow Terminator out of context. The one from the first movie that we see with all of its skin removed was damaged by an explosion. It was hobbling towards Kyle and Sarah because its leg was broken. We never really see a fully functional endo-skeleton until I think T4. Normally, a Terminator moves like a super strong human being when fully skinned and clothed. That's just the advantage of real actors with steely gazes.
When talking about robots, I thought it was clear we were talking specifically about mechs and mecha, the big boys.
To me there is no difference. Militaristic giant robots like Mobile Suits were heavily inspired by the Powered Suit from Starship Troopers. While their size is a compromise between what the director wanted and what the toy sponsors wanted, Mobile Suits are essentially scaled up power armor.
And much to the creator's own admission, Mazinger Z was just a way to navigate traffic with a robot you can drive like a car.
Avatar power suit? Moves like a man inside a suit of armor.
Yeah so? People can do cartwheels in armor. It just makes them tired :3
Where to start? Evangelion. How tall are they, 150ft? 200? And just as nimble as an acrobat in a leotard. Gundams could swordfight. About the slowest I've seen a Japanese mecha move would be the ones from Gasaraki.
Ok I'll grant you Evangelion but you have to understand the context. Eva's combat is a love letter to live action shows, especially Ultraman. So much work is put into the fights in Ultraman convince the viewer that these men in rubber suits are roughly 50 meters tall. They use lots of low angles, slow motion, and wire work to get the right feel even if it isn't perfect. So if an Eva unit does a backflip, it's only because they watched footage of a physical actor doing it.
Gundams sword fighting is perfectly fine. They're large and clearly powerful. Nobody complains about an AT-AT moving its entire head and body just to ping little speeders.
Right. It depends on what people want. Like I said, the American tradition was for big robots to move slow and ponderous, the Japanese want them fast. But you've seen Americans influenced by the Japanese and not just stealing the designs to make them slow (Battletech.)
I'm going to side more with Stark on this. It's really only Mechwarrior that constantly beats the slow and ponderous image over people's heads like it's some mark of distinction even when it's in direct contradiction to official Battletech game mechanics, artwork, or even the opening cinematics to Mechwarrior games. It's like a brainbug at this point.
Seriously we can't even get a Mechwarrior game that lets the robots extend their arms out to shoot their guns. Or even do what the Thor in Mechwarrior 2's intro does where it casually steps around a rock face while pointing its arm out to take a potshot at the Mad Cat.