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A genre of Humongous Mecha with a gritty, hard-Sci Fi take on the concept of literal Mechanized Infantry.

Real Robots are built in factories, in mass quantities, and are tools of war, like tanks, or jeeps. The mechs are often more or less interchangeable, as are the pilots.

While a Real Robot pilot may have special powers, they don't require them to pilot the mecha, unless the mecha makes use of very special equipment — and even then, in nearly all cases, the mech can be piloted by somebody else with the same ability, or even without that ability, who will simply be unable to use the special equipment. Real Robot series tend towards the themes of "War is Hell" or "We're all alike, if only we could sit down and talk to one another".

Real Robots are very often damaged, even destroyed during the series, and in many cases, main characters get killed in rather pointless ways... just like in a real war. A Real Robot doesn't require being made with current technology, but does require a relatively well-tested, "hard science" aspect at its core — something with properties which are very well defined in scope and limitations.

Real Robot series tend more towards "cynicism" on the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism. If they're computer games, they tend to opt toward more "realistic" controls using as much extra input hardware as they can get their players to buy, sometimes even making their own. A general rule of recognition is that if tanks are more dangerous to you than other robots, you're in a game with Real Robots.

The distinguishing trait between Real Robots and Super Robots is whether the mech is seen as a tool or a vehicle: a Super Robot acts like a tool, in that its a focal point for the pilot, who supplies the skill, willpower and sometimes power; a Real Robot in contrast acts like a vehicle, it has greater power, speed, mobility or defense than the pilot, who serves as the equivalent of higher brain functions.

The term ironically came from Super Robot Wars 's attempts to distinguish from Mazinger Z and Mobile Suit Gundam units and became the industry standard terms.

Tl;dr. Real Robot (Mobile Suit Gundam) is to Super Robot (Mazinger Z) as John 117 is to Kal El.

Compare Super Robot and Spider Tank.

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Examples

• Mobile Suit Gundam and its sequels and spin-offs, except for G Gundam.
• Patlabor, where mecha are mostly used in a non-military setting by industrial workers and the police. The military (Japanese Self Defense Forces in particular) have some mecha too.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Melded into Robotech in the US), and its sequels Macross Plus, Macross 7, and Macross Frontier.
  • Macross 7 is perhaps not the best example of this, since the main character uses the power of song, converted into energy, to defeat the Big Bad.
    • Which doesn't really matter, since the mecha are all merely customized variants of mass-produced machines with extra bits strapped on.
• Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (Melded into Robotech in the US)
• Genesis Climber Mospeada (Melded into Robotech in the US)
• Martian Successor Nadesico
  • Much to the chagrin of Gai Daigoji.
• Armored Trooper Votoms, which is famous as being one of the grittiest and hardest mecha shows ever released. The mecha are small, ugly and utilitarian and seemingly very disposable, at least to the main character who goes through dozens of them by the series end.
• Fang of the Sun Dougram
• The Terran Goliaths from the videogame Star Craft.
• Gasaraki, except the mecha are rare, and made from ancient demon parts.
• Full Metal Panic has a notably serious and semi-realistic depiction of mecha on a battlefield. Ironically, pointing out inside the series that mecha are unrealistic gives it room to keep a Super Robot trope or two.
• Eureka Seven is also rather borderline. The mecha are bio-mechanical, and their nature depends on their allegiance (military ones are mundane, "real" weapons, while the main characters' are a bit more extraordinary).
• All the mecha in Soukou No Strain but Ram-Dass and the Gloire are mass-manufactured and the pilots generally expendable. (There is more than one Gloire in the Union's ranks, but one has illegal modifications.)
• The eponymous weapons of Metal Gear. Theseries even goes as far as specifying different mecha models for the US Marines, Army, and Navy, as well as mentioning copies being built by terrorist organizations and Third World countries. Although the Navy's Metal Gear is later revealed to be more of a giant floating fortress than a mecha.
• The Battle Tech universe and its MechWarrior games. The BattleMechs are simply robots and their pilots simply humans. BattleMechs are akin to modern tanks in being kings of the battlefield, but like modern tanks they are still under threat from armored vehicles and even infantry; lone infantry troopers have been shown taking down a BattleMech with nothing more than a grappel rod and demo charge. A few particularly gifted pilots almost cross into Super Robot territory, but then they get old or suffer some other infirmity.
• The HERCULANs of the Earthsiege/Starsiege/Tribes series.
  • The closest thing to a mecha in the Tribes games is the Heavy/Juggernaut armor class, and that is, at most, about 8 feet. It mentioned in the backstory of either T1 or T2 that the Blood Eagles tried to use HERCs on the frontier (where the games take place), but without access "heavy quantum industry," they were incapable of maintaining them. Thus, they adopted the Tribes' powered armors instead.
• The VTs of the Steel Battalion games are the most blatant example. Especially when you must figure out how to drive a Humongous Mecha with a Humongous Controller featuring 3 joysticks, 4 pedals, and more than 50 buttons and dials! Have a looksee◊.
  • It's worth noting that it has one button for the windshield wiper, and another for the eject button, which you must use in time or else the game will erase your save file, as if you died.
• This is one half of the premise of Dai Guard, the other half is the economic and political ramifications of the existence of of a Real Robot, and the effect piloting it has on the professional and personal lives of the pilots and crew involved. The level of damage sustained, the lengthy repair times, and inability to operate the robot for extended times due to extrodinary costs might make this one of the most credible Robot anime of all time. Consider that when the military finally develops its own version of the titular robot it's straight gray metal with none of the flashy paint applications that like Dai Guard to the Super Robot way of thinking.
• The Guymelefs from the Vision of Escaflowne probably count, though the series itself is not fully a Real Robot one. (Most of the mechs fit the trope, but not the eponymous one. It's also somewhat more idealistic than most.)
• Both the manga and anime versions of Appleseed have Landmates, which are larger than a bodysuit but smaller than an average mech. The pilot's feet end up where the kneecaps are, and the larger set of upper arms mirror the movements of a form-fitting set of forearms and hands.
• This troper doesn't know about the other games in the series, but Assault Suits Valken/Cybernator employs this trope - the titular assault suits, as well as other Humongous Mecha, are deployed in large quantities, all very similar in design. As evidenced by the intro, any schmuck who was unlucky enough to get drafted can pilot one. In addition, the game's box art shows an assault suit being fueled and worked on, like any real vehicle would.
• The Armored Core series is also an example. As of AC4, there are three types of robots: MTs, extremely expendable fodderbots that usually go down in one hit, "Normals", custom-built giant robot built to spec from the ground up for each pilot, with modular equipment and parts that can be swapped out between missions (Also known as old-style Armored Cores), and the "Nexts", Armored Cores with the latest advances in Applied Phlebotinum to create energy shields and perma-thrusting. (Admittedly, this troper believes AC strays fairly far from this trope as it's generally pounded into the player's head that Ravens are special, somehow, be it simply ability to endure the Phlebotinum without dying messily in AC4, or for extremely heightened reflexes and combat endurance before then. Normal humans generally can only handle MTs.)
  • In the AC1 series, most Ravens are explicitly normal humans. There are some exceptions, and the player can become a modified human if he or she loses enough money to be 'volunteered' into the Human+ program. In AC3, you even get to watch a few MT pilots graduate through the ranks into Ravens. It seems more as though it's a matter of economics rather than physics, and the average pilot just isn't worth the cash to put into an extreme giant mecha.
• The titular HOUNDs of Chrome Hounds. Essentially a combination of Mech Warrior and Armored Core with a speed limit of 20 MPH, anything smaller than an ACV is essentially an non-entity compared to the HOUNDs, but ACVs can cause trouble when they have numbers on their side, and HOUND v HOUND combat is brutal almost beyond belief. One's first ten or so forays into multiplayer combat are guaranteed to end badly for the new guy, as the more experienced pilots rip both the fung and themselves into tiny chunks of metal. Much like real life air combat, the victor is the one who screwed up the least.
• The Front Mission series of games is another one. War machines there include tanks and 'copters as well as robots, most of which are camo-painted and equipped with bigger versions of infantry or armor weapons. Pilots can swap parts in and out as they wish, but their skill lists generally tend in a certain direction for each pilot in order to create a balanced team. Also, the mecha of this series see heavy use in construction and civil engineering as well.
• Code Geass clearly starts out as one and its setting is definitely Real Robot, but a Lensman Arms Race introduces new technologies, Super Prototypes and Ace Customs that by the end of second season cause it to verge on Super Robot territory, because at least two of the machines are just that powerful. This trend undergoes a bit of a subversion during the final battle and, overall, calling the series a hybrid would be more accurate than either classification on its own.
• HAVWC units from Flag are slightly larger than tanks (in their four-wheel mode), are usually deployed from real-world Osprey transport helicopters, and use their four-wheeled mode to travel across terrain before the four wheels come together underneath the machine to make it "stand up" so it can fire its massive gatling gun. It also requires extensive modification and testing to attach a new weapon to it, and an entire episode of the series is devoted to tuning the machine in preperation for loading a giant sniper rifle to it. Its designers and pilots were concerned that the machine's frame wouldn't be able to withstand the recoil of the artillery-sized rifle, and if the frame was tuned to compensate for this problem, then the rifle wouldn't be as accurate. It's quite apparent that this show was made by the director of Gasaraki.
• The Striders and Gears of Heavy Gear are somewhere between Humongous Mecha and powered armor, but they're pretty clearly Real Robots. The only marker they don't hit is interchangeable pilots, and that's because most pilots are only trained for one specific type of Gear or Strider over an entire lifespan. Beyond that point, they're treated like lighter, cheaper, and more mobile tanks, without the tank's hefty armor and heavier firepower. This can lead to problems when the computer games pit you against dozens of tanks.
• The AFW units in Ring Of Red are exemplars of this trope - requiring a crew to load the main weapons, and additional infantry squads to provide support and cover fire.
• Warhammer40000 tends to treat its various Mecha along these lines, varying between different factions and types of giant robots. Imperial Guard Sentinels, Tau Battlesuits and Eldar War-Walkers are simply specialised units that die about as fast as anything else, while Space Marine Dreadnoughts and Eldar Wraithlords are a class up. Then there's the Titans...
• Warmachine has warjacks which are massed produced by the various nations and bonded to the minds of the warcasters that use them. These bonds can be easily severed so as to allow warcasters to switch warjacks as they are destroyed or otherwise replaced, though personality traits and sparks of self awareness can develop in warjacks if they are bonded to one warcaster for long enough.
• While the main characters in any series of Zoids tend to make it look like a Super Robot show, the rest of the characters and background are more grounded and treat them more like machines.
  • Made glaringly obvious when one team has their machines disabled by a Face Fault.
• Having given the name, Super Robot Wars has loads of these (not counting about a third of the above), from Grunt and Mook mecha like the Gespenst and Lion to Super Prototypes like the R-2 and Huckebein Mk III.
• In Empire, the rebel's mechas - simple two-legged machines with two machine guns - are great against infantry (and normal civilians), but police are able to destroy two by ramming a police car into the thin legs, and helicopters can stay well out of their range of fire and destroy them.
• Getter Robo, despite traditionally being thought of as a classic Super Robot series, gains a bunch of Real Robot elements during the second installment of the manga. The old Super Robot elements still remain (and still exaggerated to impossible extremes), but they now take place in a more Real Robot setting, with a greater focus on politics, strategy and featuring some harrowing depictions of warfare. These elements prevail to some extent in the installments that followed.
• Exalted's Warstriders are a Magitek version of this. While one does have to be an Exalt to pilot one, that's simply because only Exalts can provide the Essence to power them. They're tools of war, that provide greater strength and defenses (and bigger weapons) in exchange for being a massive pain to maintain.
• The RideBacks from the anime/manga of the same name, motorbike-esque vehicles with arms and the ability to convert between a splits-like speed mode and a humanoid maneuvering mode.
• Exosquad had very Real Robot mechas that got damaged or put out of commission as easily as most military vehicles in Real Life are. In fact, the titular Squad specifically included a repair specialist whose primary purpose was maintenance of others' E-frames. And, of course, she wasn't 100% successful. The Squad's mechs did get a Mid Season Upgrade but it only propelled them into Super Prototype zone appropriate for an elite regiment that they are, rather than Super Robot space.
• The Five Star Stories, sort of.
• The Air Gear manga has a few of these in the form of the 'Caesar's Chariot', a one-person vehicle similar to a tank. Although it has a turret, in place of tracks it has a twin two-segment legs with wheels on the end that fold up much like a human kneeling. It's considered a prototype, but being able to stand, crouch and even jump combined with its smaller footprint makes it far more maneuverable than existing tanks. Doesn't stop them from being thrashed by the series' protagonists though.
• In spite of being based off of an old 1970s Super Robot anime by Go Nagai, Gaiking Legend of Daiku Maryu obeys a number of Real Robot conventions. They accurately describe the abilities and uses of he series's resident Minovsky Particle, the Daiku Maryu frequently needs supplies, and it takes steps to show many of Gaiking's enemies are Not So Different.
• Command and Conquer has several example. The Titans and Wolverines from Tiberian Sun spring to mind, although the latter border on Powered Armor.
• Iron Soldier for the Atari Jaguar has the player piloting a stolen Real Robot against the enemy's forces.
• Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, a PC FPS, made by the same people who made FEAR years later, was pretty much the closest thing to a Gundam FPS before they actually made a Gundamn FPS. In Japan only, on the Wii. Completely deviating from series like Mech Warrior, it featured multiple types of mecha, as well as on-foot sections, critical hits long before Team Fortress 2 ever came up with the idea in an FPS, a story with Multiple Endings (complete with an Unknown Rival played for laughs), and it was an in Animesque style inspired by various mecha anime. Also, provided you have the right weapons, lots of Stuff Blowing Up. Basically, it was pretty damn fun. Unfortunately, it came out roughly the same time as Half Life, but would become a source of references for future Monolith titles, including FEAR.
• This is the pre-amnesia backstory of the megadeuses in The Big O. Given, a number of them have some pretty fantastical abilities so it may not completely apply.

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