Presenting the 2011 Sai Mecha Champion
June 23, 2011
It’s been a long and arduous season for our thirty-two contestants. Thirty-two worthy challengers were assembled and did battle for the glory of being proclaimed the first Sai Mecha. Voting has at times been fierce, and comments and campaigning fiercer. But in the end there can be only one…
It All Comes Down to This: The Final Round of The Super Dimensional Robot Tournament SAI MECHA 2011
June 13, 2011
No surprises and incredible surprises. The finalists are some of the most recognizable robots in anime and merchandising history. On the one hand you have the Evangelion Unit-01 Test Type, a unit that toy line after toy line are still making versions of several times a year to this day, on the other hand you have the Principality of Zeon’s Zaku II, the ‘monster of the week’ that never was, and changed the game of anime merchandising forever. Read the rest of this entry »
Sai Mecha Semi-Finals: Results
June 5, 2011
And then there were two. Here are the results of the Sai Mecha 2011 Semi-Finals! Two mecha chosen by the people will advance into the first ever Sai Mecha Championship. Thank you for all your votes, enthusiasm, and interest thus far. We salute all four contestants that made it this far. To the winners, congratulations. And to the two defeated, good luck next year. And now the results…
NEVAR FOURGET How This Awful Pun is Inversely Proportional to How Awesome the Sai Mecha Semifinals is.
May 26, 2011
The only thing more Four than this Final Four is Four Murasame. These are the robots who prevailed, brought forward by voters who are winners. The losers and their junk buckets are all in the gutter, now littered by spider tanks, fake real robots, shitty mobile suits, and a fat fake Egyptian in drag.
Even so, they are winners to have made it to Sai Mecha, unlike the entire line of Getter Robos with their loser fans unable to get a single one in even if only to be used as toilet paper by some shitty Gundam.
MORAL (FOR THE SECOND TIME): CAMPAIGN IF YOU WANT TO WIN.
At this point, you already know the semi-finalists. There are fewer (polite) things to say. But I will reach into the wells of my burning passion for robot anime and present to you with much fanfare, YOUR SEMI-FINALISTS!
Sai Mecha Round 3: Results
May 17, 2011
The Elite Eight round fiercely contested and now the results are in. All the contestants are immensely popular among the fans and things will only get tougher from here on out. Read on for the results, and get ready for the semi-finals.
NOT EVERYBODY HURTS, in fact only a few really do. Those are the fans who have the misfortune of caring more about this tournament, those who take it a little more seriously, than perhaps those who are playing along, throwing neighborly support, or were just bored enough to give a flying vote.
Sai Mecha Round 2: Results
May 9, 2011
The first unified Earth-Colonies round of Sai Mecha is over and the results are in! No surprise upsets this time with the eventual winners quickly taking the lead and never giving it up. With the exception of one match, most winning contestants received a healthy margin of victory.
Sai Mecha Round 2: EVERYBODY HURTS
May 5, 2011
It’s only going to get worse as more robots you like fight each other, and more robots you hate go forward. This is Sai Mecha. PAIN IS SUPER REAL.
I’ve already given you the information about these boys in the previous round. This time I’m going to share one awesome milestone in each particular robot’s narrative. I’ll try to make it as non-spoilery as possible, which means what? When you do watch the show of the robots that we’re showcasing here expect more awesomeness.
Ultimately, what I write here isn’t supposed to make you vote one over the other, but rather a justification why these boys and girls belong. Okay, let’s do this!
Round 1, Colonies Side: Results
April 26, 2011
Before you get to the voting breakdowns, take a minute to look at this F***ING BADASS VIDEO that Sai Mecha fan Tronulax from Anime New Modality made as a promo video for Sai Mecha 2011. (Ok, so he got the Gundam Mk II and Zeta Gundam mixed up. That does not take away one bit from how MECHA-BLADDER BURSTING THIS VIDEO IS. YOUR BODY IS NOT READY! WATCH IT! Once you’re sufficiently filled with HOT BLOODED ENTHUSIASM, check out the Round 1, Colonies Side results below the cut.
Sai Mecha Round 1 Colonies Side
April 20, 2011
[Once again, here's Ghostlightning's breakdown of the contestants. Polls are open until 23:59 EST on Sunday 24 April. -EO] Just like in the Earth Side of the bracket, we have here an diverse mix of robots in the various traditions or sub-genres of robot anime. What I personally find interesting here are the mix of “real robots” that betray their aspirations for verisimilitude by possessing magic powers or being powered by fantastic magic sources. An example would be the truly novel sky-surfing Nirvash TypeZero from Eureka SeveN who seems so much different from the likes of the MS-06 Zaku II from Mobile Suit Gundam, or particularly the ATM-09-ST Scopedog from Armored Trooper VOTOMs.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg here. All the Gundams in this side of the bracket are fantastic, super-powered prototypes: The Zeta, Exia, Master, Deathscythe, and God Gundams are all superheroes in robot form (in varying degrees). To me this says so much about the supposed real-robot subgenre, even if we discount Mobile Fighter G Gundam.
Of course, none of the above discussion are value judgments. I am in fact more of a Super Robot fan than the main organizer of the Sai Mecha, despite my favorite anime being SDF Macross. I’ll reserve my value judgments on WRL, just like last time. And just like last time, I’ll present the robots here for context without spoilers – so those who haven’t seen their respective shows can form an opinion and vote.
