A Mech by Any Other Name: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|''"...So they gave me this spear and I said, 'What the hell am I supposed to do with that if we get attacked by giant robots?' and they said, 'First of all, they're called Guymelefs because that sounds more fantasy like...'"''|'''[[Red Shirt]]''', ''[[Vision of Escaflowne Abridged]]''}}

 

 

 

The name used is usually different in just about every series that features [[Humongous Mecha]], unless it's deliberately trying to reference another series.

 

 

(By the way, the Japanese equivalent to "mech" or "mecha" is ''kitai''.)

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** The established term for this in sci-fi is a "waldo", or maybe "voodoo control". Whether this is better or worse term is dependent on the beholder.

* '''Variable Fighters''' ([[Transforming Mecha]], with the mecha mode additionally being refered to as a '''Battroid''') and '''Destroids''' (Non-Transforming) in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]''. The Zentraedi also have their '''Battle Pods'''. Also, variable fighters are frequently referred to as '''Valkyries''', which was the actual nickname of the first regular production VF.

** ''[[Robotech]]'' mostly uses the same names, although they call the fighters and other human transforming mecha '''Veritechs'''. It should be noted, however, that the series often ''did'' refer to them collectively as "Mecha."

** Joined later in the series by the '''Giga Knight Fortress''', which is essentially a giant flying cockpit with '''KMF''' technology.

* [[Sora Kake Girl]] has '''QT ARMS''' (or '''Q'''uantum '''T'''echnology '''A'''dvanced '''R'''einforced '''M'''aneuvering '''S'''hroud) for the main girls, with the '''B.O.A.R''' Ship ('''B'''eyond '''O'''rbit '''A'''zonal '''R'''unabout) for two employees of the Space Police, and a mechanised force called '''Existence''' {{spoiler|who were made to serve the titular Girl Who Leapt Through Space}}

* ''[[Mars Daybreak]]'' has '''Round Bucklers'''. They are further separated into '''Corded''' and '''Cordless''', the difference being that the former are remotely controlled through EVA-style umbilical cables linked to a "Seahorse" command craft and the later have a conventional cockpit.

* '''Guymelefs''' in ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]''.

** Smaller ones were simply known as '''Melefs''' but these never played much of a role in the series.

* ''[[The Five Star Stories]]'' call theirs '''Mortar Headds'''. (No, that's not misspelled.)

** Not to mention the giant demoic creatures dressed in samurai armour known as '''Kugai''' that both of the above were based on. (though the group that calls their mechs '''FAKES''' refer to the '''Kugai''' as '''Originals'''.)

* '''KLFs''' and '''LFOs''' in ''[[Eureka Seven]]''. Stands for '''K'''raft '''L'''ight '''F'''ighter and '''L'''ight-'''F'''inding '''O'''peration respectively.

* ''[[Bubblegum Crisis]]'' calls the [[Powered Armor]] used by the heroines '''Hardsuits''' and their transforming motorbike / exoskeletons '''Motoroids''' or '''Motorslaves'''. Other armors are '''Battlesuits''', and large mechs are called '''Battlemovers'''. Genom's ubiquitous synthetic soldiers are known as '''Boomers'''. Or, if you prefer mistranslations-made-canon, '''Voomers'''.

* In ''[[Super Dimension Century Orguss]]'', the Chiram faction call mecha '''Device'''s.

* ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' had '''STRAINs''' ('''STR'''ategic '''A'''rmored '''IN'''fantry) and '''GAMBEEs''' ('''G'''eneral '''A'''xis '''M'''otorized '''B'''attle '''E'''xoskeleton '''E'''quipment).

* '''Evangelion'''s, (mostly shortened down to '''EVA'''s) from, obviously enough, ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.

* ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' calls theirs '''Koubu''' (or Kohbu, whichever spelling you prefer); the now-defunct European Star Troupe had '''Eisenkleids'''. The English translation of the fifth game calls them '''S.T.A.R.'''s.

** Those are model names. The generic term is Ryoushi Katchuu (bless you), which translates as "psychic particle armor".

** However, the general term actually ''is'' mecha.

* ''[[Brain Powerd]]'' has '''Grandchilds''' or '''Grand Chers''' (depending on your translation) on the antagonist side, and the titular '''Brain Powerds''' on the protagonist side. Universally, a machine with a pilot is called an '''Antibody''' (although the term is also used to describe the pilot himself, sometimes).

* ''[[Flag]]'' has the '''HAVWC''' (pronounced "havoc") or '''High-Agility Versatile Weapon Carrier'''

* ''[[Gun X Sword]]'' calls theirs '''Yoroi''', Japanese for "armor".

* ''[[Zoids]]'' has, well, '''Zoids'''.

* ''[[Vandread]]'' has the mecha used by the men called '''Bangata''' ("Barbarian" - although the translations call them "Van-type" instead) which the women call '''Vanguards'''; while the spacefighters that the women use are '''Dreads'''. When the two combine...

* ''[[Innocent Venus]]'' has '''Gladiators'''.

* ''[[Eidoron Shadow]]'' calls them '''Shadows'''.

* ''[[Patlabor]]'' calls them '''Labors''' since they're mostly used for industrial work. The series name refers specifically to police Labors, being a shorthand for '''''Pat'''rol '''Labor'''''.

* ''[[Xabungle|Combat Mecha Xabungle]]'' has '''Walker Machines'''. The titular WM gets the '''Combat Mecha''' due to the fact that dedicated combat [[W Ms]] are rare.

* ''[[Pluto]]'' by Urasawa Tezuka has Brando using a '''Combat Suit''' in a war and a '''Pankration''' for championship fighting.

* ''[[Fang of the Sun Dougram]]'' has '''Combat Armor'''.

* ''[[Blue Comet SPT Layzner]]'' has two terms. A pilot model call '''Super Powered Tracer''' and unmanned model call '''Terror Striker'''.

* ''[[Star Driver]]'' gives us '''Cybodies'''.

* ''[[Blue Gender]]'' has '''Armored Shrike'''.

* ''[[Gigantic Formula]]'' has '''Gigantic Figures'''.

* In the ''[[Getter Robo]]'' metaseries, the airplane components are known as '''Getter Machines''', while the actual combined unit is known as a '''Getter Robo'''.

 

** Warren Ellis' rebooted ''newuniversal'' series reimagined this with the H.E.X. ('''H'''uman '''E'''nhancement e'''X'''perimental) Initiative, a project to create a robotic battle suit and hunt metahumans.

* For DC Comics, there's the '''Rocket Red''' Armor, Soviet-based [[Powered Armor]] built by [[Green Lantern]] Kilowog.

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' usually calls them '''Walkers''' or '''ATs''' ('''A'''rmored '''T'''ransports).

 

 

== Literature ==

* There was also the novel named ''Warstrider'' that called its, guess what...

* [[Dale Brown]]'s ''Act of War'' duology had '''CID''' or '''C'''ybernetic '''I'''nfantry '''D'''evice. Other books had a [[Powered Armor|skinsuit]] colloquially called '''Tin Man''', or officially '''BERP''' ('''B'''allistic '''E'''lectro-'''R'''eactive '''P'''rocess), because its inventor has a juvenile sense of humor.

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has '''Zords,''' named for the sage Zordon from the early seasons (though seasons with no connection to Zordon and company also call their [[Humongous Mecha]] "zords," and even seasons that ''don't'' still call the [[Combining Mecha|combined forms]] "Megazords.") Since Bruce Kalish came along, villain-used mecha are just called 'giant robots'. More specifically, "Zord" was originally a shortening of "Dinozord", a play both on the sage who had created them and the ancient animals on which he had modeled several of his designs.

** However, The Super Sentai Battle Dice-O card game classifies all forms as Mecha, while the individual forms are called Machines and the combined forms are called Robos.

*** Not for ALL the mecha, but each season tends to use a different one. Vehicular mecha are sometimes called 'Machines', bestial ones are 'Animals' or '-Ju' (meaning animals), and combined mecha are sometimes called 'Robo' (usully tech-themed seasons) 'King', or the Japanese '-Oh' (meaning 'king') or 'Jin' ('god', both in the mystically-aligned seasons). There's lots of single-season terms sometimes lampshaded in the season title, like 'Kidenjuu' (''[[Gosei Sentai Dairanger]]''), 'Bakuryu' (''[[Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger]]'') 'Majin' (''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]''), and 'Origami' (''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]''). Sometimes it gets rather inconsistent ('Vehicles' referred to the regular vehicles in ''Dekaranger'' and the ''mecha'' of ''Boukenger''.)

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** They actually hold the trademark for the term "mech", which is why one runs into "mecha" frequently.

** The ''very'' first edition was called ''Battle'''Droids''''', but someone ''[[Star Wars|else]]'' held the trademark for ''that'' term.

** Actually, IndustrialMechs exist. It's just that they are so varied that there really is no one "category" of IndustrialMechs. You have LoggerMechs, LifterMechs, I mean the list is pretty long (They even have CattleMechs). They have a partial list in one of the older Tech Manuals.

* The title of ''[[Mekton]]'' is also the default name for mecha in it, though plenty of others exist on a 'verse by 'verse basis.

** The Imperium has its '''Dreadnoughts''' (piloted by crippled veteran Space Marines), '''Sentinels''' (Imperial Guard scout vehicles), and of course '''Titans''' (''very'' [[Humongous Mecha]], the size of which varies from the 15-meter-tall Warhound through to the colossal Emperor-class Titan, which houses an entire company of Space Marines and whose upper body is a gothic cathedral.)

** The various Eldar mecha are known as '''War Walkers''' (piloted scout vehicles), '''Wraithlords''' (mid-sized mecha controlled by the souls of dead warriors) and their own Titans.

** The Tau have the '''Battlesuits''', which are all more or less powered armor, though they get rather big for the type. They have no Titan-class mecha, using full-up combat starships instead.

** Chaos has Dreadnoughts and titans, which are merely Chaosified versions of their imperial counterparts, and they also have '''the Defiler''' (a very big daemonically possessed [[Spider Tank]]).

* ''[[Bliss Stage]]'' has the '''ANIMa''', or '''A''' lien '''N''' umina '''I''' nversion '''Ma''' chine. It's not [[Empathic Weapon|literally a giant robot,]] though.

* ''[[Iron Kingdoms|Warmachine]]'' gets its name from its big, steam powered robots called '''Warjacks'''. The predecessors to modern warjacks were the much-larger '''Colossals''', though these are obsolete and no longer produced in "modern" times.

* ''[[Rifts]]'' typically uses the term '''Robots''' to refer to piloted humanoid combat machines, though the lines between them and [[Powered Armor]] are frequently blurred. The training skills are referred to as "robot combat" and the most prominent series of designs is the IAR; '''Infantry Assault Robot'''.

 

== Video Games ==

* '''Virtuaroids''' in ''[[Virtual On]]''.

* '''Wanzers''' (Short for the German: ''Wanderung Panzer'', which means "Walking Tank") in the ''[[Front Mission]]'' series.

** Which would be a really bad translation, as "Wanderung" is the word for the group activity. "Wanderpanzer" would be gramatically correct, though "Laufpanzer" would be the actual german term, as it's unlike to be supposed to be a tank that is "going for a walk".

** Interestingly, the term Armored Core is actually a nickname-turned-regular term for the AC. Originally, the units were called '''Armored Muscle Tracers''', or '''AMT's'''.

* The ''Gungriffon'' series has the '''AWGS''' which stands for '''Armoured Walking Gun System'''.

** That's just what they're called for short. The full name is HERCULAN, which stands for '''Humaniform-Emulation Roboticized Combat Unit with Leg-Articulated Navigation'''.

* '''[[Metal Gear]]'''

** [[Parrot Exposition|Metal Gear?!]]

** Early Kojima nomenclature (''[[Metal Gear]]'', ''[[Metal Gear]] 2'' and ''[[Snatcher]]'') made Metal Gears a subgroup of mechs as a whole, which were referred to as '''Heavy Walkers'''. The presence of Metal Gear Gustavs, a rejected boss from ''[[Metal Gear]] 2'', suggested that the term "Metal Gear" was just an affectionate nickname for Heavy Walkers. ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 4'' [[Retcon|clarified]] the issue by saying that the difference between a Metal Gear and a '''Walking Tank''' is that the Metal Gears are useful in terms of the global nuclear map, and Walking Tanks (like the Gekkos) are simply weapons. This was probably brought into the canon because the main Metal Gear of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' was more of a {{spoiler|submarine.}}

* ''[[Ring of Red]]'' (An early Playstation 2 game, not that problem with your Xbox 360) called them '''AFW's''' (Armored Fighting Walkers).

* In addition to most of the above (i.e.: you may have Mobile Suits, Variable Fighters, ''and'' Arm Slaves in the same universe), ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' also gives you '''Personal Troopers''' and '''Armored Modules'''.

** Although justified in that these names are assigned to them by their ''manufacturers''. Personal Troopers were developed by '''Mao Industries''', the Lion series are manufactured by '''Isurugi Heavy Industries''', the Grungust super robot-types originated from the '''Tesla Leicht Institute''', '''Fremont Industries''' built Assault Dragoons while '''Z&R Company''' develop Valkyries.

** And in [[Endless Frontier]], denizen of Kagura Amahara use term '''Karakuri''' to call all mechs.

** Starcraft II has introduced the transforming '''Viking''', effectively replacing both Goliaths and Valkyries with a single unit.

** It also introduced ''Thor'', which is a significantly more humongous mecha.

** And the Protoss get Dragoons (I), Stalkers (II), Immortals (II) and Colossi (II).

** Checklist completed... [[Stop Poking Me|SOB]].

* In ''[[Total Annihilation]]'', the infantry units (which are essentially mechs) are called '''KBOTs'''.

* The ''[[One Must Fall]]'' series of robot fighting games called 'em '''H.A.R'''s (Humanoid Assisted Robots), though most characters in-game still referred to them as just robots or "'bots."

* The SNES game ''[[Battle Clash]]'' called their mechas '''Standing Tanks''' (or '''S.T.''''s for short)

* The PlayStation game ''[[Vanguard Bandits]]'' had '''All-Terrain Armoured Combatants''' ('''A.T.A.C.'''s).

** Does that remind you of [[Star Wars|something]]?

* ''[[Exteel]]'' has '''Mechanaughts'''.

* ''Battlefield2142'' has '''Battlewalkers''', or just Walkers for short.

* ''[[Shogo Mobile Armored Division]]'' has '''MCA''', '''M'''obile '''C'''ombat '''A'''rmours.

* ''[[Robot Alchemic Drive]]'' gives us '''Meganites''' for the human controlled robots. The enemy aliens are all called '''Volgara''', but this is more a species name than a type of mech.

* HOUNDS of ''[[Chrome Hounds]]''. Doesn't actually stand for anything, it's a reference to the way squads act like a pack of hounds.

* ''[[Lost Planet]]: Extreme Condition'' has the '''Vital Suit''', or '''VS'''. Models range from simple open-cockpit machines to advanced [[Spider Tank|quadrupedal]] models that [[Transforming Mecha|can turn into tanks]] and ones with arms (with hands and [[Blade Below the Shoulder|mounted]] [[Chainsaw Good|chainsaws]]) and hover jets. ''Lost Planet 2'' adds multi-seaters, tamed Akrid, and even [[Combining Mecha|one that can combine with another]]!

* ''Bumpy Trot'' aka. ''Steambot Chronicles'' has '''Trotmobiles'''.

* ''Metal Fatigue'' has '''Combots'''.

* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic|Heroes of Might and Magic IV]]'' has '''Dragon Golems''' as one of the two top tier units of the [[The Magocracy|Order faction]]. A huge mechanical dragon piloted by dwarves may be called a Golem, but it is a [[Humongous Mecha]].

** Bingo. Nearly all [[The Empire|Combine forces]] are species that have been previously enslaved, surgically implanted with weapon systems, and forcibly evolved around them. These various types of semi-organic enemies are collectively referred to as "synth."

* Anise Tatlin of ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' carries a small doll ("Tokunaga") on her back which transforms to mecha-sized proportions when deployed and is controlled by Anise for fighting. Interestingly, there's a wide variety of '''dolls''' to be found and equipped for different effect, but Anise will ride Tokunaga even when stripped of all equipment. This is because she cannot otherwise fight (even though she can be equipped with a melee weapon).

* ''[[Demonbane]]'' has two types. A mundane '''Destroyer Robot''' and [[Magitek]]-based '''Deus Machina'''.

* The security robots in ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'' are simply referred to as '''mechs''' (although only some of them are humongous). The geth in both games use humanoid troopers, four-legged '''Armature''' support, scaled-up-humanoid '''Destroyer''' units for melee combat, and lizard-like Stalkers for ECM support.

* In ''[[Jak II Renegade]]'', we have the '''Titan Suit'''.

* ''Metal Warriors'' for the SNES has '''Battledroids'''.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Transformers]]'' has quite a few...

** '''Vehicons''' are soulless, mass-produced models controlled by a single commander.

** '''Targetmasters''' are a type of [[Powered Armor]] that can transform into a Transformer-scale gun.

** '''Transtectors''' are (generally) lifeless bodies that must combine with a smaller being, often of the organic variety, to function.

** '''Powermasters''' (Western name) and '''Godmasters''' (Japanese name) are similar to the ''Masterforce'' Headmasters, but instead of heads, they transforms into the Transtectors' engines.

** Similarly, the Japanese ''[[Transformers Victory]]'' series has '''Brainmasters,''' where the smaller driver/pilot becomes the face (and brain) of the larger robot.

* The giant robots in ''[[Robotix]]'' were called, well, robotix. It's a non-pluralizing word, so you'd have one robotix or two robotix.

 

[[Category:Naming Conventions]]

[[Category:Mecha Tropes]]