Top Mecha Manga Recommendations

PLUTO

Also known as Pluto.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mecha , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated...except for one very conspicuous clue - the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case - and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.



Tags: Seinen , Robots , Artificial Intelligence , Detective , Police , Tragedy , Politics , Memory Manipulation , Philosophy , Anti-Hero , Foreign , Post-Apocalyptic , Real Robot , Ensemble Cast , Conspiracy , Amnesia , War , Noir , Anachronism , Cyberpunk , Urban Fantasy , Male Protagonist , Cult , Suicide , Agender

All You Need Is Kill

Also known as All You Need Is Kill.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Psychological , Romance , Sci-Fi

When the alien Mimics invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor called a Jacket and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his 158th iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally--the female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?



Tags: Military , Time Manipulation , Seinen , Aliens , Survival , War , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Male Protagonist , Time Loop , Guns , Revenge , Alternate Universe , Heterosexual , Gore

Shin Seiki Evangelion

Also known as Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi

In 2015, the "Angels" have returned, and Shinji Ikari, a fourteen year-old child of the new Earth, is forced by his father Gendo--commander of the secret organization NERV--to pilot the monstrous biomechanical weapon called "Evangelion" to match the Angels' fearsome power...



Tags: Philosophy , Coming of Age , Kaiju , Tragedy , Military , Body Horror , Primarily Teen Cast , Real Robot , Conspiracy , Male Protagonist , Post-Apocalyptic , Denpa , Seinen , Cosmic Horror , Robots , Super Robot , Tsundere , Angels , Kuudere , Gore , Memory Manipulation , Cyberpunk , Amnesia , Bisexual , Espionage , Guns , School , Urban , Nudity , Space , Tokusatsu , Love Triangle

Otomege Sekai wa Mob ni Kibishii Sekai desu

Also known as Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Fantasy , Mecha , Romance

Office worker Leon is reincarnated into a particularly punishing dating sim video game, where women reign supreme and only beautiful men have a seat at the table. But Leon has a secret weapon: he remembers everything from his past life, which includes a complete playthrough of the very game in which he is now trapped. Watch Leon spark a revolution to change this new world in order to fulfill his ultimate desire…of living a quiet, easy life in the countryside!



Note: Includes four extra chapters.

Tags: Male Protagonist , Isekai , Reincarnation , Anti-Hero , Female Harem , Matriarchy , Male Harem , Shounen , Artificial Intelligence , School , Boarding School , Villainess , Love Triangle , Ojou-sama , Video Games

86: Eighty Six

Also known as 86―EIGHTY-SIX.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

A War Without Casualties:

The Republic of San Magnolia has long been under attack from the neighboring Giadian Empire's army of unmanned drones known as the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties-or at least, that's what the government claims.

In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the "nonexistent" Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the "unmanned" weapons into battle...



Tags: War , Dystopian , Military , Class Struggle , Tragedy , Robots , Seinen , Survival , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Politics , Ensemble Cast , Guns , Artificial Intelligence , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Ships , Super Power , Heterosexual , Ghost , Time Skip , Alternate Universe , Yuri

Darling in the Franxx

Also known as DARLING in the FRANXX.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Ecchi , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

In a devastated post-apocalyptic future, Earth is a ruinous wasteland. Humanity’s only remaining strongholds are mobile fortress cities called Plantations. Massive beasts known as klaxosaurs, the planet’s new apex predators, have pushed mankind to the edge of extinction, and within the walls of the Plantations, things are no less dire. Humans no longer love or reproduce–adults live on in sterile immortality while children are regarded as nothing more than parasites, artificially created to pair up and pilot the Plantations’ giant defense robots known as Franxx. Former child whiz kid Hiro fails out of the piloting program after falling out of sync with his co-pilot, and a fateful decision to skip his group’s graduation ceremony puts him on a collision course with a horned girl known as Zero Two, whose co-pilots always end up dead. She claims Hiro as her “darling,” but what can that word even mean in such a loveless world?



Tags: Dystopian , Monster Girl , Super Robot , Kaiju , Male Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , Love Triangle , Nudity , Robots , Aliens , Shounen , Heterosexual , Coming of Age , Yuri

Sidonia no Kishi

Also known as Knights of Sidonia.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Mecha , Sci-Fi

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.



Tags: Aliens , Space , Military , War , Male Protagonist , Survival , Post-Apocalyptic , Agender , Seinen , Real Robot , Heterosexual , Clone , Space Opera , Nudity , Female Harem

Bokurano

Also known as Bokurano: Ours.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mecha , Psychological , Sci-Fi

One summer, fifteen kids innocently wander into a nearby seaside cave. There they meet a strange man who invites them to play an exciting new video game. This game, he explains, pits a lone giant robot against a horde of alien invaders. To play the game all they have to do is sign a simple contract. The game stops being fun when the kids find out the true purpose of their pact.



Note: Includes one extra chapter.

Tags: Cosmic Horror , Tragedy , Philosophy , Ensemble Cast , Alternate Universe , Denpa , Seinen , Primarily Child Cast , Super Robot , Politics , Anti-Hero , Adoption , Urban , Death Game , Battle Royale , Military , Gore , Bullying , Dystopian , Body Horror , Age Gap , Nudity , Aviation , School Club

Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi datta node, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei to shite Jiyuu ni Ikitai

Also known as Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship!.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Comedy , Drama , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

Sato Takahiro was an ordinary office worker and hobbyist gamer until the day he woke up on a spaceship–one that strangely resembled a craft from a favorite space-shooter game. With a decked-out ship, a crew full of babes, and a fantastic universe to explore, he’s going to make the most of his good luck and create the life he’s always dreamed of!



Tags: Space , Isekai , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Female Harem , Heterosexual , Elf , Maids , Space Opera

Date A Live

Also known as Date A Live.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

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?!



Tags: Female Harem , Super Power , Primarily Female Cast , War , Male Protagonist , Isekai , Urban Fantasy , Tragedy , Heterosexual , School , Amnesia , Witch , Ghost , Kuudere , Otaku Culture , Time Manipulation , Twins , Yandere , Crossdressing

Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin

Also known as Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Sci-Fi

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?



Tags: Military , War , Space Opera , Space , Real Robot , Full Color , Politics , Male Protagonist , Coming of Age , Tragedy , Shounen

Hoshi no Koe

Also known as Voices of a Distant Star.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

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?



Tags: Space , Heterosexual , Robots , Denpa , Philosophy , Aliens , Seinen , Tragedy , Time Skip , Revenge

Ore wa Seikan Kokka no Akutoku Ryoushu!

Also known as I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire!.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Ecchi , Fantasy , Mecha , Romance , Sci-Fi

In his last life, Liam lived as a moral, responsible person...but died deep in debt and betrayed by his wife. Reborn into the ruling family of a vast interstellar empire, Liam knows that life is divided into the downtrodden and the ones who do the stomping, so this time he's going to take what he wants and live for himself. But somehow, things refuse to work out that way. Despite doing his best to become a tyrant, Liam's decisions lead to nothing but peace and prosperity for the empire under his rule, and he just gets more and more popular!



Tags: Isekai , Artificial Intelligence , Reincarnation , Space , Super Robot , Male Protagonist

Magic Knight Rayearth

Also known as Magic Knight Rayearth.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Fantasy , Mahou Shoujo , Mecha , Romance

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.



Tags: Shoujo , Magic , Isekai , Female Protagonist , Medieval , Swordplay , Primarily Female Cast , Tragedy , Henshin , Primarily Child Cast , Tomboy , Tanned Skin , Robots , Super Robot , Urban Fantasy

Levius

Also known as Levius.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Mecha , Sci-Fi , Sports

Having fought his way into the top grade of Mechanical Martial Arts, Levius faces an ever-changing world that grows more threatening by the day. The shadowy megacorporation Amethyst wields its military might across the world through advancements in the arena. Can Levius be the fighter who changes the course of the world’s fate?



Tags: Seinen , Gore , Steampunk , Martial Arts , Boxing , Tragedy , War , Male Protagonist

Tetsuwan Atom

Also known as Astro Boy.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Mecha , Sci-Fi

In the distant year 2003, Japan is a technological utopia, and robots are everywhere. One such robot, Tobio, was built by the brilliant Dr. Tenma to replace his dead son. But when it soon becomes apparent that Tobio is an imperfect copy of his departed child, Dr. Tenma throws him out. He is rescued from the scrap heap by the benevolent Professor Ochanomizu, a crusader for robot civil rights. Now the little robot, renamed Astro Boy, is given a mission to defend Japan and the world from all manner of sinister threats. Using his seven super-abilities and 100,000 horsepower worth of strength to battle evil, Astro hopes to set an example to the world of the good which all robots are capable of.

Note: Chapter count only includes chapters from the original 1952 to 1968 serial

Tags: Robots , Artificial Intelligence , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Philosophy , Episodic , Politics , Space , Aliens , Time Manipulation , Tragedy

Chao Shen Jixieshi

Also known as The Legendary Mechanic.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mecha , Sci-Fi

Han Xiao, a veteran player of the game "Galaxy" died unexpectedly in the middle of doing a leveling request. He was transmitted to the game world ten years earlier and became an NPC with a player's panel and was reborn in the base of the game's villain. In order to survive, Han Xiao resolutely chose the "Mechanic" occupation and concentrated on cultivation. Familiar with the iterations and rules of multiple versions of the game, he vowed to lead the army of machines, overthrow the villains, and rise from scratch to become the strongest.



Tags: Video Games , Virtual World , Full Color , Male Protagonist , Isekai , Guns

Break Blade

Also known as Broken Blade.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mecha

Rygart Arrow is the only one in his world who lacks the inherent ability to power up quartz, the energy source that makes all of the machines run. Good thing the King and Queen of his country of Krisna happen to be old college friends! But so is Zess, the leader of the army of mechs invading Krisna. As usual, Arrow feels useless in the face of battle, until he comes across a powerful, ancient battle suit that no one else can run. His natural affinity for the suit's operating mechanism may just turn Arrow into the most important player of all.



Tags: Military , Shounen , Robots , War , Male Protagonist , Post-Apocalyptic , Tragedy

Knights & Magic

Also known as Knight's & Magic.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mecha

A mecha otaku is reincarnated into another world as Ernesti Echevalier, also known as Eru. In this world exists a huge humanoid weapons known as Silhouette Knights. Dreaming of piloting those robots, Eru, with childhood friends, Archid and Adeltrud Walter, aim to become Knight Runners, pilots of these Silhouette Knights.

Tags: Reincarnation , Isekai , Magic , Male Protagonist , School , Alternate Universe , Female Harem , Seinen , Super Robot

86: Eighty Six

Also known as 86―EIGHTY-SIX.

Status: Cancelled
Genres: Action , Drama , Mecha , Sci-Fi

A War Without Casualties:

The Republic of San Magnolia has long been under attack from the neighboring Giadian Empire's army of unmanned drones known as the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties-or at least, that's what the government claims.

In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the "nonexistent" Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the "unmanned" weapons into battle...



Notes:
-The total chapter count includes 3 extra chapters.
-The manga was cancelled due to the poor health of the mangaka.

Tags: Military , Tragedy , Robots , War , Politics , Real Robot , Dystopian , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Nudity