>Do Transformers even count as mecha?
If Braves do, then so do transformers.
>And is it true that Japan isn't really into sentient bots like TFs?
Not sure, thought doubtful given the success of both Japanese made Transformers shows, and the aforementioned Braves series.
See, I feel that, but I wonder if that's a common sentiment.
>The difference is, the company that made Btech exploded and the IP got split into a billion different prices by lawyers, making people scared to even try filling it's shoes.
Is that why Battletech seemingly disappeared from pop culture? It was huge when I was a kid. It was like -the- American mecha franchise.
The only reason Transformers became popular was its toys.
And second, most Western mecha sucks fucking cock.
Megas XLR was a fucking abortion.
megas is cool you fucker
>I love Transformers, but it's severely limited by Hasbro's marketing department. Even stories that take place after the War are influenced by the War. It'd be nice to see something different for once.
Well here's the thing, Transformers simply isn't a "mecha" series in the Japanese sense, it features none of the tropes of Japanese mecha and if it weren't for the designs of the Transformers being originally Japanese and lets just say Hasbro came up with their own, there would absolutely be no similarity at all. As pointed out in the OP, the Transformers aren't even mechs in the first place, they're an alien race of sentient beings, so it really has nothing in common at all with stuff like Gundam and whatnot other than some design similarities.
Transformers really just isn't a mecha series, and with that being said it attracted a different audience in the West for different reasons. Transformers appeal is very similar to that of super heroes, the characters are iconic to people who grew up with them and they get attached to their favorite characters, Optimus Prime and Megatron are no different than Batman and The Joker or the Ninja Turtles and Shredder. This is why you don't see it stray from the formula too much, and honestly why most fans don't want that....Transformers isn't a mecha series to most fans, it's not simply about the design of the robots like in mecha, the robots are characters they care about and are basically super heroes. You can't have Spider-Man without Uncle Ben getting shot, can't have TMNT without mutagen and Shredder and Splinter and the gang, you can't have Transformers without the Autobots and Decepticons being at war....it just doesn't make sense because the story and identity is important to why people remain fans for decades, not just the general concept of "robots who transform", if that was true Go Bots would be just as popular.
You say that like Superhero movies aren't dominating the theaters and cop shows don't run on a 24 hour loop on network TV.
>the story and identity is important to why people remain fans for decades, not just the general concept of "robots who transform", if that was true Go Bots would be just as popular.
It's a terrible shame Go-Bots looked so old fashioned, I think that's what really sealed its fate, the design work. It's just not as visually appealing and almost looks like it was made in the '60s rather than the '80s. The human characters in GoBots were way better than the human characters in Transformers, I feel like it could be successfully rebooted if anyone cared enough, but companies don't dare risk that sort of thing any more. Transformers is popular and has brand recognition, so they'll keep making Transformers.
Doesn't Hasbro own Gobots anyway still? I know they basically just use it as a sub line of Transformers sometimes, like those G2 mini bots or the kiddie line before Rescue Bots was a thing
So in order to see something other than Bots vs Cons, I need to look elsewhere. Or hypothetically make my own IP, subsequently getting my pants sued off because Hasbro is a notoriously litigious company. Yay.