Hmmm, I went to see Howl's Moving Castle tonight. Not Miyazaki's best, but good. Lots of steamy goodness.

And an actress who I haven't heard in too long a time played one of the villains - Lauren Bacall. (Who for me will always bring to mind Key Largo.)

My biggest problem with the movie was a lack of exposition, an awful lot of stuff happens (or more often has already happened) with no real explanation as to why or who. For example:

Who Turned the Prince into Turnip Head?

Why did the dog help Sophie?

What happens with MadamWho turned the Prince into Turnip Head?

What does happen with Madame Suliman? (Who is the biggest villain in the movie, in my not so humble opinion.)

But the castle itself is very steampunky.

The Auld Grump, who forgot to get a new mouse today...

I saw one episode of EVA Extensioncord, and have no desire whatsoever to see the rest. I do not fault the creator, he has much the same to say about mecha as I do. (And I have read what he has to say on the subject, he dislikes mecha even more than I do.)

1 - High profile, a high silhouette makes it much easier to target, and means that the target (i.e. the mecha) is above the horizon earlier.
1a. - And then putting the pilot in the first portion above the horizon, before his vehicle is capable of shooting.

2. - Unstable - a high center of gravity leads to instability. Not a good thing in a ground fighting vehicle.
2a. and when was the last time you saw a tank tripped? I can name three mecha movies off hand where the mecha suffers that fate, in one of them blowing up as a result (?!!!). I hated that in The Empire Strikes Back, and I see no reason to change my mind for anime.

3. - Slab sided. - Sloped armor relies on redirecting force rather than merely stopping it, a mecha does not have sloped armor. Combined with 2. above this leads to some severe problems.

4. - Limited arc of fire - based not merely on the design, but every single anime with mecha that I have seen - even to the point where the pilot screams 'I can't target them, they're behind me!' (Patlabor).

EVA adds the wonderful idea of a limited range due to an extension cord! While it is correct that it is in fact not a robot the term power armor is equally inaccurate, a more precise term would be HFV - Humanoid Fighting Vehicle.

I have seen and and felt sort of negatively neutral toward Robo Tech. The animation was painful in its frame rate, and again, it had giant mecha.

If Gundam is the one where the mecha are about 10-12 feet tall then I am not nearly so annoyed with it, the smaller mecha fulfills a different battlefield role than the larger mecha in most anime, and might not be a bad choice in broken terrain.

My inner child is alive and well, but is not blinkered by ignorance, it does not need to be. I delight in whimsy, and am an enormous fan of numerous children's book authors. I enjoy fantasy, and love Changeling: the Dreaming, but when I see science fiction I want science fiction*. I will take a B5 over a (old) Battlestar Galactica** any day.

The Auld Grump
*A strange exception, aside from Space: 1999 I have enjoyed nearly every cheesy Sci Fi show by Gerry Anderson. Though I really could not tell you why, save that I think that it comes down to whimsy.

** I have not seen the new BG, but even as a child I hated the original series. I am however witholding judgement on the new version, not having seen it. I gather that it is quite different from the original.