When I get posts like that one in this thread, it makes my whole Youtube venture feel worthwhile.
Allow me to do a little creative editing and re-posting of it to support what I want to say back to it:
To be fair, Patlabor without the giant robots wouldn't be Patlabor (they're in the title, even) so there must be something about them that appeals to me. I think it's more that I don't enjoy the fighting focussed ones (I don't think that's specific to mecha either) and even the ones that have other themes can often end up spending a little more time than I'd like on frequent battles.
I wonder if it's simply that mecha are just an element of a show and don't necessarily define what the show will be about. Kind of like "cute girls", they even both suffer from being generalised about without regard for the individual qualities of a show.
That's basically it! The great thing about anime, when it's done well and not conceived as a mediocre tie-in or merchandise to push another product, is that it can be REALLY creative in terms of the themes and issues it addresses. In some ways, I think this is wasted on alot of folks who are new to it.
A common complaint I've heard bout mecha anime from folks who (evidently) haven't watched a great deal of it is that it isn't action packed enough for them. I remember when I was in school, one of my pals was given a VHS tape of Robotech, and that made him the coolest kid in class... until the other cool kids went over to his place and saw it. They'd got this idea that Japanese cartoons were technically amazing (and as we know, they often aren't) and that it would be wall to wall giant robot action! WAY better than Transformers and GoBots! Then they came away annoyed at how the show concentrated on characters and love triangles and other guff like that.
The issue there is one of expectation versus reward. A lot of folks, I think, make the mistake of thinking that because their entertainment doesn't do what they go into it thinking it will, it's somehow bad. And that's objectively not the case.
Now, leaving aside for a moment that I REALLY don't care for Robotech, I've seen a lot of similar shows that were ostensibly billed as giant robot shows but focussed more on story ideas and character arcs. A good example would be Super Dimension Century Orguss, which is an AMAZING piece of science fiction TV, with the mecha aspect built into it as a means to certain narrative ends. Despite being made for a TV audience, and being pretty old now, there's some really, really great stuff in it. And some of it deals with some pretty mature concepts. There's a lot to keep the viewer's brain engaged besides the frequent mecha battles.
I think most shows have the potential to do interesting things that step outside the framework of their genre. Heck, look how School Days ended!
Thinking about it though, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet has a giant robot and I liked that well enough even if it had it's issues (it does also have belly dancing though, so it's possible the robot wasn't the main appeal). I did also somewhat enjoy Full Metal Panic (I should really re-watch that at some point, I haven't seen the third season once yet either), although it had the whole school thing and Tessa. I'm not sure I've seen many others.
You mention a couple of especially interesting shows there. Gargantia's kind of an odd duck in that it gives it's central robot a personality and incorporates it into the story as an actual character. (It also gives said mecha the VERY BEST line of dialogue in the whole show - but that's by the by!)
That's really unusual for mecha shows in general. I'm hard pressed to think of many others that do that. Maybe the Braves series. But then, outside of GaoGaiGar, they're not especially well known.
Full Metal Panic is a weird 'un, though. I don't mind it, but I've never really got what the fuss is about. The Second Raid is straight up fantastic. But I find the first series a bit middling. It might actually be the school elements that let it down for me.
