What is Mecha manga?

Mecha in Japanese basically means mechanical things; everything from an electric whisk or a car to a spaceship or a robot. Here however we limit it to the more exotic things usually referred to as mecha anime: robots, whether controlled by a human or not, and their ilk. See Androids, Piloted Robots, Power Suits, Robot Helpers, Transforming Robots for a more specific classification.

Trending Mecha Manga You might like

Neon Genesis Evangelion

(Neon Genesis Evangelion)

8.26

Description:

In the year 2015, the Angels, huge, tremendously powerful, alien war machines, appear in Tokyo for the second time. The only hope for Mankind's survival lies in the Evangelion, a humanoid fighting machine developed by NERV, a special United Nations agency. Capable of withstanding anything the Angels can dish out, the Evangelion's one drawback lies in the limited number of people able to pilot them. Only a handful of teenagers, all born fourteen years ago, nine months after the Angels first appeared, are able to interface with the Evangelion. One such teenager is Shinji Ikari, whose father heads the NERV team that developed and maintains the Evangelion. Thrust into a maelstrom of battle and events that he does not understand, Shinji is forced to plumb the depths of his own inner resources for the courage and strength to not only fight, but to survive, or risk losing everything. (Source: AniDB)
Type

manga

Volumes

14

Chapters

97

Status

finished

Started

1994-12-26

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin

(Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin)

8.07

Description:

Zeon ace pilot, Commander Char Aznable, thought he could foil the Federation's plan to build a mobile suit by attacking their research base on colony Side 7. He was wrong. With a prototype already active, the besieged Federation forces strike back using their new weapon, the mobile suit Gundam, with devastating consequences. Amidst the fighting, young electronics wizard Amuro Ray is determined not to let his friends and family die in the crossfire. But what can one boy do to repel a squad of mobile suit-clad invaders? (Source: Viz)
Type

manga

Volumes

24

Chapters

112

Rating

Status

finished

Started

2001-06-25

Full Metal Panic! Sigma

8.02

Description:

Tells the same story as Full Metal Panic Second Raid and is as such, also based on the novels The End Of Day By Day. Leaving off after the original series, this series tells of Sousuke and Mithril as they fight Amalgam. Like the original series, but both sides have gotten a bit more aggressive...
Type

manga

Volumes

19

Chapters

90

Status

finished

Started

2005-04-09

Darling in the FranXX

(DARLING in the FranXX)

8.01

Description:

The story is set in the distant future. The land is ruined, and humanity establishes the mobile fort city Plantation. Pilots produced inside Plantation live in Mistilteinn, also know as the "birdcage." Children live there knowing nothing of the outside world or the freedom of the sky. Their lives consist of battling to carry out missions. Their enemies are mysterious giant lifeforms known as Kyouryuu, and the children pilot robots called FranXX to face off against them. For the children, riding the FranXX proves their existence. A boy named Hiro is called Code:016, and he was once known as a prodigy. However, he has fallen behind, and his existence seems unnecessary. Not piloting a FranXX is the same as ceasing to exist. One day, a mysterious girl known as "Zero Two" appears before him. Two horns grow out of her head. (Source: ANN)
Type

manga

Volumes

8

Chapters

60

Rating

Status

finished

Started

2018-01-14

Getter Robo Saga

7.96

Description:

A compilation of the long-running Getter Robo series into one continuous story. Includes several new pages and chapters as well as revisions to old material and a newer, more conclusive ending to Getter Robo Āḥ. Getter Robo (1974) Getter Robo G (1975) Getter Robo Go (1991) Shin Getter Robo (1997) Getter Robo Āḥ (2001)
Type

manga

Volumes

9

Chapters

73

Status

finished

Started

2002-02-19

Bokurano

(Ours)

7.94

Description:

During a summer camp, 15 children, 8 males and 7 females, find a grotto by the sea. Deep within they discover working computers and some electronic equipment, and later the owner, a man called Kokopelli. Kokopelli claimed to be a programmer working on a brand new game, in which a large robot has to defend the Earth against fifteen alien invasions. He persuades the children to test the game and sign a contract. All but one of them signs, barely a moment later they mysteriously awaken on the shore believing what happened was just a dream. (Source: ANN) An extra story called Bokurano ~Mō Hitotsu no Bokurano~ (Yet Another Bokurano) will run in Ikki the issue after the end of the main story.
Type

manga

Volumes

11

Chapters

66

Status

finished

Started

2003-11-25

Getter Robo Go

(Venger Robo)

7.92

Description:

Getter Robo Go is the third Getter Robo series chronologically. Following the disaster at the end of Shin Getter Robo, Hayato Jin has become the new leader of the Saotome Research Institute and Ryoma has retired to the countryside. Robot technology has advanced to the point that most major countries own them, but Getter Rays research is now forbidden and kept secret from the rest of the world. In order to defeat the madman Randou whose base lies the Arctic, a new team of Getter Robo pilots is formed, piloting a new form of Getter Robo which runs on simple plasma energy. Allying with the militaries of various nations, the war with Randou's army begins. This series marks the debut of the Shin Getter Robo.
Type

manga

Volumes

7

Chapters

28

Status

finished

Started

1991-02-11

Full Metal Panic!

(Full Metal Panic!)

7.9

Description:

Jindai High School was a relatively safe place, right up until Sousuke Sagaka transferred there. A total nut, he wreaks havoc on the school's student body and gets into a world of trouble with the teachers! But there's more to Sousuke than meets the eye—not just a hell-raising student, he's actually a member of an elite military unit, on an undercover mission to protect the beautiful schoolgirl Kaname Chidori from the KGB. (Source: Tokyopop)
Type

novel

Volumes

12

Chapters

72

Status

finished

Started

1998-09-09

Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt

(Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt)

7.84

Description:

The Universal Century began with mankind moving its burgeoning population into outer space. The year is UC0079. The cluster of colonies furthest from the Earth, Side 3, proclaim themselves the Principality of Zeon and launch a war of independence against the Earth Federation. Now, it is nearly one year since the war broke out. In the “Thunderbolt sector”, a reef section of space where a large quantity of wreckage from battleships and destroyed space colonies from the war lies, a violent battle plays out as the Earth Federation Forces set their sights on recapturing the Zeon controlled sector. (Source: Zeonic-Republic)
Type

manga

Status

current

Started

2012-03-01

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

7.81

Description:

In their closed-off underground village, Kamina and Simon chafe at the limits imposed by the village elder. Yet all this will change, when Simon stumbles across a fantastic device - just as the village's peace is broken by a violent intrusion.
Type

manga

Volumes

10

Chapters

65

Status

finished

Started

2007-04-27

Koukyoushihen Eureka seveN

(Psalms of Planets Eureka seveN)

7.76

Description:

Renton Thurston is a young 14-year-old who is tired of his monotonous life. The only thing that makes him happy is when he "lifts", an extreme form of aerial hoverboarding. His feelings of frustration come from his life of toil in his Grandfather's garage and being the son of an enigmatic yet legendary "hero." One day, a large LFO (Light Finding Operation) craft called Nirvash falls from the sky and a beautiful young girl named Eureka emerges and asks for repairs. When a smitten Renton literally falls over himself to help her, the two begin a journey that will change both of their destinies.
Type

manga

Volumes

6

Chapters

23

Rating

Status

finished

Started

2005-01-26

Date A Live

7.72

Description:

Shidou Itsuka has a problem. The world has been racked by massive quakes of an unknown source for years now, though life goes on. Then one day, Shidou's calm life ends forever when in the middle of a quake in his city, he meets a girl who's apparently a spirit-and the cause of all the destruction! When a team arrives to eliminate the threat, Shidou becomes embroiled in a war to protect these spirits-by making them fall in love with him?! (Source: Yen Press)
Type

novel

Volumes

22

Chapters

146

Status

finished

Started

2011-03-19

Sidonia no Kishi

(Knights of Sidonia)

7.73

Description:

Outer space, the far future. A lone seed ship, the Sidonia, plies the void, ten centuries since the obliteration of the solar system. The massive, nearly indestructible, yet barely sentient alien life forms that destroyed humanity’s home world continue to pose an existential threat. Nagate Tanikaze has only known life in the vessel’s bowels deep below the sparkling strata where humans have achieved photosynthesis and new genders. Not long after he emerges from the Underground, however, the youth is bequeathed a treasured legacy by the spaceship’s coolheaded female captain. Meticulously drawn, peppered with clipped humor, but also unusually attentive to plot and structure for the international cult favorite, Knights of Sidonia may be Tsutomu Nihei’s most accessible work to date even as it hits notes of tragic grandeur as a hopeless struggle for survival unfolds. (Source: Vertical)
Type

manga

Volumes

15

Chapters

78

Rating

Status

finished

Started

2009-04-25

Hoshi no Koe

(Voices of a Distant Star)

7.72

Description:

To what distance would you go for your one true love? In the midst of an alien invasion, Mikako joins the resistance, leaving behind the one young man she loves. As she goes deeper into space, Mikako's only connection with her boyfriend is through cell-phone text messages. The war rages on and years pass, but Mikako barely ages in the timelessness of space while Noboru grows old. How can the love of two people, torn apart by war, survive? (Source: Tokyopop)
Type

manga

Volumes

1

Chapters

10

Status

finished

Started

2004-02-01

Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing: Episode Zero

(Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Episode Zero)

7.69

Description:

A series of short manga stories, revealing important background details about the five young Gundam pilots and Relena Peacecraft. Episode Zero explains such details from the series as the origin of Duo Maxwell's nickname "Shinigami" (Grim Reaper/God of Death), Quatre Raberba Winner's link with the Maganac mercenaries, and other elements that would go on to play major roles in the Gundam Wing anime and its sequel, Endless Waltz. Before the outbreak of the colony war, forces were at work shaping the future and preparing its players for the final game. As children, each of the Gundam pilots endured hardships that would have broken the will of any normal person. Gundam pilots Duo Maxwell, Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Quatre Rabbera Winner and Chang Wufei have endured more pain and difficulties than most people experience in a lifetime. But not even their comrades in arms could have known about the even more tumultuous childhoods as war orphans and other hardships. (Source: ANN)
Type

manga

Volumes

1

Chapters

8

Status

finished

Started

1997-07-26

Shin Mazinger Zero

7.71

Description:

A retelling of Mazinger Z seperate from the original series as well the recent anime remake.
Type

manga

Volumes

9

Chapters

42

Status

finished

Started

2009-04-18

The Ghost in the Shell

(The Ghost in the Shell)

7.71

Description:

In the near future, technology has firmly taken root into society at large. Cybernetic implants are nothing uncommon and robots roam as plentiful as humans, all connected through their ''ghosts'' to the electronic datastreams of the net. Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Public Security Section 9 find themselves in a constant battle with the newly created wave of technological terrorists and cyber-hackers. But things take a turn once Motoko gets involved in a certain case involving an extremely dangerous ''ghost'' hacker nicknamed the Puppeteer, as she dives deeper and deeper into the limitless reality of the net, to reach her own startling conclusions. (Source: ANN)
Type

manga

Volumes

1

Chapters

11

Rating

Status

finished

Started

1989-05-01

Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

(Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion)

7.68

Description:

There is an island in the Far East called "Japan." This small country is being threatened by the superpower nation, the Britanna Empire. And there are two boys lining there. One is the son of the emperor of the Holy Empire of Britannia- Lelouch vi Britannia. His mother was murdered by an unknown assassin, and Lelouch was sent to Japan as a political tool. The other is the son of the Japanese Prime Minister-Suzaku Kururugi. Their meeting will be the prelude to a war involving the whole word!
Type

novel

Volumes

5

Chapters

28

Status

finished

Started

2007-04-28

Magic Knight Rayearth

7.65

Description:

Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, girls from separate schools, find themselves linked together as they fall through the floor during a field trip to the Tokyo Tower. They land in a place called Cephiro, where their will controls what happens. They meet with Guru Clef and find out that they were summoned to save Princess Emeraude who has been imprisoned by High Priest Zagato. They learn magic and acquire weapons on their quest to save Cephiro from the evils of Zagato.(Source:ANN)
Type

manga

Volumes

3

Chapters

15

Rating

Status

finished

Started

1993-11-01

Otomege Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu

(Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs)

7.65

Description:

Leon, a former Japanese worker, was reincarnated into an “otome game” world, and despaired at how it was a world where females hold dominance over males. It was as if men were just livestock that served as stepping stones for females in this world. The only exceptions were the game’s romantic targets, a group of handsome men led by the crown prince. In these bizarre circumstances, Leon held one weapon: his knowledge from his previous world, where his brazen sister had forced him to complete this game. Leon, who really just wants to to live as a shut-in in the countryside, uses that knowledge to raise a ferocious revolt against the women and handsome men. (Source: MU)
Type

manga

Status

current

Started

2018-10-09

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