Some series, like Code Geass and some of the Gundam AUs blur the lines a bit, but large part of the distinction between the two genre styles also informs the overall tonality of the series itself. In a true "real robot" series, the robots are treated as proper military weapons and tools, and the plot overall will reflect a more grounded, semi-realistic tone as a result. If you could feasibly replace the robots with standing human armies and not lose much of the overall presentation, you're probably in a real robot series. "Super Robot" series, by contrast, treat the robot more along the lines of a super-powered alter-ego, in the vein of Ultraman and the like, where realism is less the goal, and the overall story tends to take a more idealized stance. Sensible tactics take a backseat to broad philosophy and raw emotion. Sometimes the series will invent a weird pseudo-science to pretend that there are limits to the hero's nonsensical BS, but most of the time, that'll be there just so that the hero has an excuse to perform a badass "limits are made to be broken!" speech/action at the series' climax.
Genesis Aquarion is really good. Also, you might check out any number of the Brave series animes, which was a Sunrise/Takara project that features the occasional modified Transformer model. One (a pair of symmetrical docking trains) in Ex Kaiser was even an unproduced figure meant, I think, for Battlestars. Pacific Rim got me into watching Power Rangers and then into Super Sentai (far superior to Power Rangers). If you want a live action anime featuring sentient super robots, Super Sentai Kiramager is where it's at. Watching that right now. Not quite as good as ToQger (which it seems to be trying to emulate a bit) but not bad either. it also has some echoes of Genesis Aquarion.
I really want to check out Brave but it seems hard to find in North America. Is anybody streaming it legally? it seems like it never got a dvd/blu release here. sentai/Power Rangers was never my thing. I like the Zords but couldn’t stand the Rangers themselves. Pacific Rim is a blast. Wish they did more with that series.
The only Brave series that got any sort of release in North America was GaoGaigar, in a bit of a hobbled release. The first half was released in dual-audio format, with a proper high-quality English dub. But the company producing the dub, Media Blasters, is one of the smaller North American anime distributors, and at around the same time, they also managed to get the license for GoLion (what became known as Voltron). GaoGaigar was something of a niche release, and GoLion proved to be a lot more popular and lucrative for them. So when they finally got around to releasing the second GaoGaigar set, they wound up diverting away pretty much all the resources from it, cancelling the dub production, and releasing it sub-only. And then they never licensed the GaoGaigar Final OVA series that caps the story off. GaoGaigar is generally considerered the only entry in the franchise that has any major appeal to a periphery audience. The other Brave series are largely regarded as sillier and more childish (notably, most of the other Brave series feature a young kid as the main protagonist, while GGG splits that role between a young kid and an adult "superhero" character, eventually finding a way to elevate the kid up to the hero's level, rather than the level of conflict remaining in the realm of "child-friendly"). Not to say that GaoGaigar isn't childish itself, but it also revels more in the hot-blooded, soul-rousing drama that also made the likes of Gurren Lagann super popular. It's also got a somewhat clever, slightly deconstructionist tone going on in its first half, where outside of the giant robot fights, it dedicates a surprising amount of time breaking down the logistics of giant robot fights. And then the series shifts gears and goes full high-octane in its back half, continuing into Final. Some, if not all, of the other series have received fansubs of varying quality over the years, but no official English distributions. Again, because of their more childish tones, their appeal is generally considered more niche, so they don't celebrate much lasting popularity outside of a small nostalgic interest in the robot designs themselves.
If you've never played one of these and are a super robot fan your missing out. Each game has a different line up of bots, so there are many personal favorites depending on your favorite mech.
There are episodes on YouTube of Ex Kaiser, last I checked. You probably didn't watch the right ones. Give Jetman a try on Tubi. The series takes a big chunk of inspiration from Gatchaman and has some nice drama weight to it. I still haven't seen the Netflix series based on it....
Several of the recent releases have Chinese releases with an english subtitle track for the dialog and menus and text in english. I have a couple for the switch and some for the vita with this. The one I posted a video of can be ordered on Steam Pre-purchase Super Robot Wars 30 on Steam Others you can easily find on amazon or ebay Amazon.com : super robot wars english Super Robot Wars T (Nintendo Switch) English Subtitle / NEW 8885011013940 | eBay Super Robot Wars V (Playstation 4/PS4) English Subtitle / NEW 8885011012677 | eBay Just make sure it says it's in english when you buy it as the japanese versions don't have the english subtitles. Some older versions like Super Robot Wars J for GBA may only have fan translations.That you'd have to download the rom and mod it to have it in english. Some games may contain characters just for that game like GOlion(80's Voltron) was only in Super Robot Wars W for the DS. That game doesn't have a full english translation. I keep hoping transformers characters will be in one eventually, but the closest we've gotten so far is gaogaigar. Same thing with SD Gundam Amazon.com : sd gundam englissh
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector It's not on DVD or Blu Ray, but you should be able to find it easily enough. It's fully subbed.
