My Life In Fandom: To Grok BattleTech, Watch Dougram

Speaking of BattleTech, there is one old anime series that every fan of the game ought to know: Fang of the Sun Dougram. Not only do most of the classic Mechs of the game come from that series, so does the mood therein- especially if you're a Marik fanboy or you like the Black Pants Legion stuff. In Dougram you will find all of the power plays, political intrigue, melodrama, and Real Robot warfare (often Combined Arms) that you otherwise need to hit up Armored Trooper VOTOMS to see. It's a shame that it is unlikely to ever get officially released into the West, and not just due to legal issues akin to Harmony Gold's legal fuckery, but fansubs exist and can be found.

The OP alone demonstrates my point. Sure, '80s Japan despair issues, but still worth your time (and imagine actual BattleTech moving this fast in actual play).

You can see why this series didn't have the fandom that Gundam or Macross did. Gundam hits all its narrative themes earlier and just as hard, if not harder while Macross was a more joyful and uplifting series (believe it or not), but I think the largest issue is this: Combat Armors are SLOW. You want the BattleTech feel in anime? This is your Huckleberry, as most Dougram mecha are the walking tank sort of machine and not the walking fighters of more popular anime. That didn't play so well with a target audience that took well to the robot-as-fighter paradigm, but because of a lack of competition in the gaming space it worked for FASA.