Why do mecha's use swords/spears/ect. ?

I'd say it's something to do with romanticism. A bullet has no feeling behind it, all one need do is pull a trigger and the fight is over. Swords however, are something much more emotional. It's a very personal thing to fight with a sword/spear/etc. You're right up in their face, and can feel the fight they have in them, and vice-versa for you're opponent.


Also, bullet play does not a good action scene make.

Because it looks cooler and they can! If you can have melee weapons and guns then the more the money-er. Realistically mechas make little to no sense in the real world they would just be replaced by computers or wireless controls there would be no pilots in the mechas them self, nor would they look human mechas really are dream machines so let them dream there will be giant robot sword fight's in the future.

hmmm...... oneshott have a good point, but why they have heads, i prefer the robots of lost planet.

It's sort of tied into the fact that many mechs use swords. Since Japan still holds many of it's roots dear to there hearts, some of that comes into play. In the case of most anime, the Samurai is alluded to quite often. Hence, another reason why mechs use swords and look humanoid

Well I think the primary reason why mecha's use melee weapons is for the same reason why our soldiers keep melee weapons like knives and bayonnets. You will eventually run out of ammo/energy and when that happens what do you do? Melee weapons are for the most part better than bare hands.

Let's run this down mathematically. Okay so the biggest armor piercing round today is the .50 caliber BMG or .50 cal rifle, okay. And a Gundam to scale is roughly 60 feet tall, by comparison a human is around 6 feet tall. that's a 10:1 size ratio. So naturally for bullets to be effective on enemy gundams they would need to be the same relative size. Now factor into account that a typical FMJ .50 caliber round costs about 2.50 USD a shot. Then a round of Gundam proportions would be 25 USD per round. Not only that but traditional lead jacketed with copper will probably not effective in anti gundam warfare so each round would have to be made with tougher metals which would cost more. Not only that but the upkeep and serviceable parts on a gundam sized weapon despite the constant cleaning they would need would ultimately have a cost far greater than the base 25 USD per shot. By equipping gundams and other mobile suits with capable melee type weapons it conserves repair and operation costs as well as letting the gundam have less serviceable parts to maintain.

Okay for one a bayonette (physical weapon) has no ammo limit and is more practical in close range battles. Also, finishing off an oponent with a single sword strike is way more elegant than blowing them up with a gun. 00 raiser anyone?

I'm not sure why you're questioning this. You might as well ask why people are fighting in giant humanoid robots in the first place. It's not like the human form is the most efficient thing for a weapon. Really in most cases giant mechs would be vastly inferior to air/spacecraft or hard suits (like Bubblegum Crisis).

Because only pansies and pussies use guns. Swords are fucking awesome.

It's also a cultural thing, but that's too sophisticated of an answer :P

Mobility and utilization are key in this matter.

When you have a 'meelee' weapon you have a sweeping or stabbing range of damage which can then be followed up by a consecutive sweep or stab. This is a much looser and harder to dodge than projectiles.

Only problem is that, like humans, you don't go rushing into a barrage of bullets with a katana. Thats suicide.

Great thing about that is for mech bullets to be viable, you'd need heavy ones with alot of power out of the barrel. Easy to avoid and combat on a terrain with gravity such as Earth will be a challenge. Even easier in space once we develop an energy source that will allow 'dashing' to change direction of movement in seconds.

So yes I think this is why Mechs would use meelee weapons.
However, as implausible as it sounds, in the SRW OG mechs, the Neo Granzon shoots out black holes. Soooo, yeah, meelee weapons will only last for so long.

because hand to hand combat is the fucking shit

This. And in the event that ammo runs out or that the weapon is blown/missing/jammed, a melee weapon would come in handy as another means of defense/offense with the exception of hand to hand combat.

Actually the simple and venerable tank would kill most of these "super weapons" with ease (hadsuits and power armor included). Do you know how fast a APFSDS round moves? 975 m/s, that's Mach 3. You simply don't dodge that. In other words if the tank sees you, you're dead.

A guy - even a guy in a power suit - can't carry anything that could even scratch a tank at ranges where it can already paste you several times over. That's not to say that infantry can't take down tanks, in fact they can be very good at that. However to do so the tank has to be enticed into an ambush where the weaker side or rear (or top if you've got the elevation) can be hit from reasonably close.

Mecha are no better. Even if they could carry the same sort of weaponry as a tank -(Which they can't cause legs make for a shitty load distribution compared to those giant threads, The mecha's own height exacerbates the issue since the recoil not only creates a push but a huge torque as well). - they would still be the more vulnerable of the two since the tanks low profile and slanted armor (which you can't do on an upright humanoid humongous fighting vehicle) simply means that for any ton of armor it will be better protected than the mecha.

What infuriates me though, is that game designers can't even get tanks right. They are usually just units with high HP and low movement...
...which is bullshit.

Even the best tank is only moderately or slimly protected on the sides or the rear. Since they're meant to attack the enemy can only shoot at their front and that's where their thickest armor is.

From the front it can kill anything but another tank. From the sides IFVs can take it out. From the back even a single GI with his single LAW rocket can down it. As for movement: modern tanks can cross very harsh terrain at insane speeds.

Also, who in the Nine Hells thought that putting two guns into a single turret is a good idea? It's madness. From Gundam to Command & Conquer you have these huge armored behemoths that mount two guns that a panzer half their size could carry for likely a quarter of the cost. (...and be able to cross bridges built for mere commerce not humongous weapons of war or - God Bless, who'd have thought that Logistics matter! - be airdropped). Never mind, that in reality a gun either penetrates or it doesn't and if it doesn't it won't do any damage. So two guns =/= twice the damage. It's twice the fire-rate, and saturation weapons like AA guns have several barrels for that reason. MBTs have a single gun, 'cause it needs to be as big and powerful as possible - as big as the chassis and power-plant can carry and still be maneuverable on the battlefield.

Now, why do we have mecha shows, and no tank shows? Maybe tanks are dull. Maybe producers and animators are dumb. Maybe even with all this awesome a tank battle is still so frightening and bloody that you couldn't make a mainstream anime out of it.

(Do you know why T-72 are made so roughly? The Russians had more armored fighting experience than the rest of the Allies combined, so it couldn't be because they couldn't make a better tank. They just realized, that regardless what they do, in all out fighting a tank won't last beyond 15 minutes...)

because tanks are useless in mecha shows

Yeah! why cant they use nunchaku instead? and why don't superheroes chop off their nemeses' heads in order to make SURE they don't come back?

just another one of those things that is unexplainable, other than maybe the fact that swords are awesome

it also probably because of this http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool

SO... with that, I guess we are now asking ourselves: how the hell did the creators of mecha anime expect us to go this long while suspending our disbelief?

Nah I still don't question and like Voltron

To make fights last longer. And because you don't need a giant robot to fire a big gun. It can fire on its own.