Before Mecha
The Advent of Mazinger
Mecha on the Battlefield
Western Invasion
The Present
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Machine Evolution
Assimilation
From superhero stories to war stories, mecha inevitably stepped into other anime genre. The high-tech universes of the cyberpunk genre readily allowed for the possibility of mecha being developed as neurally-linked battle armor in their grim, dystopic futures. Battlesuits and tank-sized mecha, regularly featured as the perfect tool of high-tech crime in such stories as Bubblegum Crisis and Appleseed, naturally also became tools of authority, allowing mecha to cross over into the police story genre as well (Mobile Police Patlabor).Mecha have even found their way into the medieval and fantasy genre, this time as iron-wrought, steam-powered monstrosities and magically-animated baroque armor. More recent epic fantasies such as Magic Knight Rayearth and The Vision of Escaflowne feature warriors in mecha wielding magic and ten-meter long swords, doing battle as did the knights of yore, only on a much larger scale.
The 'guymelfes' of The Vision of Escaflowne are huge, magically-powered suits moved by a complex series of actuators controlled by the wearer's body movements.