There’s a lot of good hype behind the film Pacific Rim. This is mostly due to the fact that it’s being directed by one of the seminal directors of horror of our time, Guielmo del Toro, and the fact that it’s got Michael Bay shitting his fucking pants in terror that there’s someone out there poised to actually do a giant robot film justice in the west. I’m serious, there is a legitimate rivalry forming over this.

And while you can argue that certain Del Toro films may not always be their best you can’t disagree that whatever the man takes on he does so with an innate understanding of the subject matter that he presents. So, in this case, while it is possible that Pacific Rim might not excel at what it does I have no doubt that Del Toro will be one of the few western creators who innately understand how Mecha (the popular term for pilotable giant robots) works as a subject of artistic medium. Though, until that movie comes out the undisputed kings of this are Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic the creators of Megas XLR.

That said, you might be looking at your screen and asking questions like “Why should there be any effort in writing sci-fi stories with giant robots? The concept is easy to understand! Just strap a guy into a robot and have action.” Well while that’s kind of true it doesn’t explain why giant robot aren’t more prevalent in media.