In a dream a few nights ago, I found myself sitting in a restaurant tasked with making a list of attributes necessary for a great giant robot anime. I didn’t get very far in the list, being able to only list one tenet of a great mecha anime, but it sat very prominently in my mind, even making it past my dream memory into reality, something that sadly does not happen to most of my dreams.

Rule #1 of great giant robot anime: Giant Robots have to be important.

It wasn’t those exact words, but the whole point of this first rule is that you cannot call something a good giant robot anime if the viewer believes that the show would be better without giant robots. This is not to say that any show is made better with giant robots (Kannazuki no Miko is proof of that), or that a show without giant robots is somehow worse. Nor is it to say that giant robots have to be prominently displayed in the anime.

What there cannot be is disdain towards the giant robot from the creators and viewers. The giant robot cannot be pushed to the ignored or regarded as some kind of detriment to the show itself.

This came to me in a dream, but I realize that I believe strongly in it. As for rules 2 through 10 and beyond, well who knows. Rule #1 might be all that’s truly needed.