It's not it's own genre.: Real Robot Genre

A Real Robot is a prop. It's not a genre, the genre is usually Military Science Fiction, but other genres do apply (I remember one in particular being a Police Procedural featuring them). I think we should split off the robot and just make an index of Mechanized Military Sci Fi or something for the works that feature mecha/tanks.

The one I was thinking of being Patlabor.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:22:10 AM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

Real Robot is most certainly a genre.

Your avatar is the ass of one of the pilots of the most recent entry in the series that created it.

I disagree.

It may be a sub-genre (I would not know), but it is most definitely not a genre.

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

No, the genre is Military Science Fiction, which is older than Gundam. Just because a deconstruction of the Super Robot Genre stumbled into Military Science Fiction territory does not make it it's own genre. Besides which, the page needs a rewrite anyway since all the examples just point out real robots.

Fight smart, not fair.

Genre is one of those words that's vague (in this case, in scope) to the point that it might as well not have a definition at all.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

Ok, yes. Its a sub-genre, obviously. That doesn't make it not a genre.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:44:02 AM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Can you explain what makes it it's own genre, rather than a general Military Sci Fi or a subtype of Military Sci Fi that focuses on mechanized units? If you say "it's got Real Robots in it", I'm going to throw a salmon at you.

edited 5th Aug '11 1:53:15 AM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

And a slice of cake only being a slice doesn't make it not a cake. It's still not a cake by people's usage of the word.

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

Eh? Real Robot is a subgenre of Sci Fi Military Fiction.... They are distinct enough to be a subgenre, they have Humongous Mecha! Also tend to have some sort of super power like being a New Type or something. lean on the "cynicism" on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. Its a specific genre thats developed around cloning Gundam (in the same way High Fantasy developed around Lord Of The Rings but it is different from the standard fantasy series too)

Military Sci Fi Fiction does exist in anime too Legend Of Galactic Heroes for one.

Whatever happened to the page about dividing the RealRobot from Real Robot Genre though?

edited 5th Aug '11 5:42:31 AM by Madrugada

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Now, if we want to split up Military Science Fiction into subgenres based on the machinery used, I'd still probably lump Real Robots in with a general "Mechanized Mil Sci Fi" subgenre. Unless it was a minimecha, in which case it would fit Infantry more likely.

Either way, the page currently describes a prop, not a genre, and should be changed.

Edit: I think the old page fell off somewhere. Maybe it's attached to Super Robot? Bah, whatever.

I'm not seeing "it's cynical and has superpowers*

" as a genre separator. Having one or two differences does not a genre make.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:05:09 AM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

That example of mine was stupid. Sorry.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:02:49 AM by CyganAngel

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

@Deboss (7)

Mecha-specific subgenre of Military Sci Fi, in the setting, "Giant Robots" (ranging anywhere from a few meters (Code Geass, Armored Trooper Votoms) to 20+ meters (Gundam) are used as weapons of war. The robots come in both mass produced forms and in customized or prototype versions, the latter being the most likely to be used by the protagonists (unless the setting is being super-realistic). Frequently but not always focuses on conflicts between humans, though conflicts with extra-terrestrial beings are not unheard of (Layzner, Muv Luv)

Distinct from Super Robots due to having more focus on the use of robots as military weapons, instead of, for lack of a better term, "Super Heroes". Note that a Real Robot show may contain Super Robots (The Super Robot Wars anime series for example) and Super Robot shows can contain Real Robots (G Gundam).

Largely a Japan-centric genre, though there are western works that would qualify, many of them highly influenced by early Japanese work (Battletech used designs originally created for Super Dimension Fortress Macross). A work that does not contain humanoid or at least legged mecha would not be considered Real Robot (Bolo, for example uses large-scale tanks, but no humanoid or legged mecha).

Edit:

Also, Real Robot shows will frequently use Minovsky Particles to explain their tech, as opposed to the Phlebotinum generally found in Super Robot shows. Though not all do this, but most make at least a stab at having their tech make logical sense in-universe.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:06:33 AM by SakurazakiSetsuna

You're problem is that you're taking the presence of the mecha to mean something special, the whole point of Real Robot is that it's not different from any other mechnanized focused Military Sci Fi I can see. "It's got robots instead of tanks" is not a genre it's a trope.

Edit: I'm not saying that Real Robot is the same as Super Robot, I'm saying it's just Military Sci Fi, plain and simple.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:09:09 AM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

I highly disagree.

If it's good enough for Wikipedia, it's good enough for here. Besides, we have Patlabor, which is real robot but not military at all.

Also, we have to distinguish between Real Robot, Real Robots, Super Robot, and Super Robots.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:10:33 AM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Fine, explain why the presence of one piece of aesthetic difference makes it a different genre despite using almost all the same plot tropes beyond some machinery configuration preferences.

Fight smart, not fair.

Honestly, Gundam tends to treat its mecha and their pilots almost exactly like fighter jets operating off an aircraft carrier. You could probably substitute all the mecha for jets with almost no changes whatsoever to the plot or storytelling.

Edit: I do think it might be worth having a Sliding Scale Of Real To Super Robots page or something along those lines.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:11:52 AM by Clarste

Its considered a Genre by the makers and fans its something that is categorized, advertised, marketed etc as a genre and a specific counterpart to Super Robot.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:13:35 AM by Raso

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Its a sub-genre. Thats the entire point of sub-genres.

Real Robot is the intersection point between Mecha and Military Sci-Fi, just like how Super Robot is the intersection point between Mecha and Super Heroes.

Also there is far, far more Real Robot anime/manga than vanilla Military Sci-Fi anime/manga. And this is, to a great extent, a Japan-only trope. And before you even start, the vast majority of counter-examples I'm sure people will start listing either straight-up originated in Japan or were directly and obviously influenced by Japanese works in the genre.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:14:03 AM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Genres, like INUH said, are vague. All that is really required for something to be a genre is for some people to consider it to be one.

And the distinction between a genre and a subgenre is murky at best. I don't see anything wrong with calling this a genre.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:15:03 AM by BobbyG

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Clarste, they'd have to double as tanks as well.

Raso, then we make it a fanspeak page and point it at the actual genre: Military Science Fiction, which is what it is.

@ Bobby, can we at least get a chance to separate the object from the genre? Just retitling it was a mistake.

edited 5th Aug '11 2:16:21 AM by Deboss

Fight smart, not fair.

There is no "actual" genre. "Genre" was not an objective term to begin with. Real robot is no less "actual" than military sci-fi.

Ninja'd.

Hmm. You mean the real robots themselves?

edited 5th Aug '11 2:16:59 AM by BobbyG

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Most Real Robot shows also have normal tanks and such in them.

Oh, and we definitely need to get the genres split from the robots. Like I said, you can have Real Robots in Super Robot shows, and vice-versa

edited 5th Aug '11 2:17:26 AM by SakurazakiSetsuna

And of course there's the third, gameplay definition for these terms, but we can probably just note them in the description for the Robot pages.