If you really want to get technical about it, Gundam should've never went further than Char's Counterattack or maybe even further than Tomino's original storyline where Amuro get's killed off.

That said, I guess you could blame wimpy protagonists on japan's subconscious feelings of inadequacy from losing the war but there's also the fact that mecha anime hasn't been all that relevant in a long time. I mean you've got some shows that are made for nostalgia's sake and gundam itself pretty much just exists to sell model kits.

>>61
While I agree with you about the fact that Gundam should have ended with CCA, I don't really think franchises like Muv Luv and Fafner are made because of nostalgia. They're just made because people want mecha even though it's a pretty dead and small time genre post 1984.

>>62
Well Muv-luv's a niche that intersects with the vn crowd (the robots are pretty cool though) and I've never watched Fafner so I'd have to get back to you on that.

>>61
I like Seabook though.

>>67
The girl in that was good and in that cartoony shota enforcing manga she gets command of a pirate ship. The F91 stuff was a neat spinoff and I would have liked to watch the show, but if I had to pick a time to end it I would still pick CCA. I guess since Takara was using Sunrise as a successful marketing platform that Bandai needed to as well so we got more Gundam even after it was time to move on.

I guess...sure I like the 90s some somewhat but it didn't need to go on as long as it did. Maybe it could have stopped at Turn A?

I'll get the obvious one out of the way; Shinji from Get in the Fucking Robot (but don't because then we'll all die, but you need to get in it to defeat other cool as fuck looking monsters and possibly save a friend or two, but not really because you'll end up killing him later ;) )

>>146
I never mention him in these lists because he's supposed to be lame.