Where did the "big thighs, small lower legs, no foot" design come from?

[False Prophet]

While watching the Mack Knife in the latest G-Reco movie, I suddenly want to find out which mecha is the first one to have the "big thighs, small lower legs, no foot" design? You know, like the Jehuty and Hazen-thley II. I always find it has something feminine about it, you know, with the long legs, big thighs, and the allusion to high heels. Maybe that is why I always think of Mecha Musume while looking at these designs.

[Mafty]

Probably the 80s with Mamoru Nagano in Five Star Stories. The design of several of the Motar Headd's evokes this and it fits really well with Nagano's design style. As for when it became more popular elsewhere , that is kind of hard to say. You can see this design in some of the Seinen Mech OVA's of the late 80s Like Iczer 1 and Zeorymer (both of their manga came out earlier, but they might have different designs from the OVA's). After this the design kind of disappears for about a decade and comes back with the Leo-R from Gundam Wing G-UNIT(1997). 1999s Turn A Gundam would later see mass use of this in the Moonrace weaponry, and Zone of the Enders came out in 2001, so it seems as though the late 90's early 2000s is when it went more mainstream.

[MythSearcher]

Earliest examples I can think of are these:
I like that kind of design, but I do not know the original.

Zone of Enders: 2001
Strike Witches: 2005
Line Barrel: 2004
Since Strike Witches designs is by Shimada Humikane, I can tell he got much more such designs at least a few years prior to SW.

Aug 2002 capture of Humikane's website: http://web.archive.org/web/200208071749 ... ne/e-wacs/
http://web.archive.org/web/200210011854 ... acs/he.JPG
French from his website is there before the August 2002 update, seems to be the earliest.

http://web.archive.org/web/200308120316 ... ussian.JPG
The second seems to be the Russian Updated ver.
http://web.archive.org/web/200212050946 ... ne/e-wacs/
The picture is dated 11/13 on the Dec 2002 capture, so it should be Nov 2002's art.

The Germany(Deutsch) is earlier but still with feet and Russian and Italia don't have any attachments on the legs. English is not an attachment but something she steps on.

As you can see, these are early concepts of Strike Witches.(Very recognisable French, Italy and Germany.)

Yes, yes, I know these are all newer than Zone of Enders from 2001.

But if we dig into the archives, we get this list of doujin Humikane is involved in:
http://web.archive.org/web/200604110123 ... doujin.htm
and the 2000 doujin has this design:
http://web.archive.org/web/200509111351 ... taziki.JPG
It is not a booklet, no idea what kind of item it is, but it is an item of the Raiden musume from Extra.

Probably the 80s with Mamoru Nagano in Five Star Stories. The design of several of the Motar Headd's evokes this and it fits really well with Nagano's design style. As for when it became more popular elsewhere , that is kind of hard to say. You can see this design in some of the Seinen Mech OVA's of the late 80s Like Iczer 1 and Zeorymer (both of their manga came out earlier, but they might have different designs from the OVA's). After this the design kind of disappears for about a decade and comes back with the Leo-R from Gundam Wing G-UNIT(1997). 1999s Turn A Gundam would later see mass use of this in the Moonrace weaponry, and Zone of the Enders came out in 2001, so it seems as though the late 90's early 2000s is when it went more mainstream.

It seems like you have completely mistaken the topic to be the Nagano high heels.

I couldn't think of any MH's with such leg designs. Especially back in the 80's he is still quite conform to the big feet long thick calf designs popular in that era. He did introduced the high heels, but the high heels are still pretty big and at least look like they can balance. The "No foot" design usually have a rounded or sharp tip at the end where you cannot balance the unit without some other support. Nagano still looks for a clear pointy high heels look instead of the complete unification of the calf and feet.
Iczer 1 and Zeorymer mechas even Leo-R all have pretty clear feet and seriously I don't think any of Turn A's mecha fits this description.
Iczer 1's closest to this design aren't any mecha, but the girls with long boots:
https://yande.re/post/show/72640
Which is likely where this concept begun, if you have long boots, there are no clear cut between the feet and the calf, and they really like to draw them to have the feet going along the calf even when they are not on high heels. But this is not unique to Iczer 1, you pretty much have similar design for Minmay's stage clothes for DYRL or even the female military uniform in FG.(See Sayla Mass for example: https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/File:Sayla-1-.gif)

[False Prophet]

Probably the 80s with Mamoru Nagano in Five Star Stories. The design of several of the Motar Headd's evokes this and it fits really well with Nagano's design style. As for when it became more popular elsewhere , that is kind of hard to say. You can see this design in some of the Seinen Mech OVA's of the late 80s Like Iczer 1 and Zeorymer (both of their manga came out earlier, but they might have different designs from the OVA's). After this the design kind of disappears for about a decade and comes back with the Leo-R from Gundam Wing G-UNIT(1997). 1999s Turn A Gundam would later see mass use of this in the Moonrace weaponry, and Zone of the Enders came out in 2001, so it seems as though the late 90's early 2000s is when it went more mainstream.

I don't think that they are what I was talking about. But the designs you mentioned are neat in their own way. I always like the Leo-R and the Power DoLLs from the epynomous games.

[MythSearcher]

Come to think of it, the 14th Angel from EVA kinda barely fits this description, but very unlikely to be the inspiration to later designs.
And I assume Gosu and Malar from Mospeda(1983) and MS-21 Dra-C back in 1991 doesn't count.(If this counts, we kinda have to also count S[Bst], etc.)
I only count those with a distal taper where you get a generally slimming down from the thigh or at least calf to the feet or at least fairly consistent line without getting bigger like those trumpet pants.

NR-001from Gundam X(1996):
https://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/nrx-009.htm
Designed by https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Junya_Ishigaki
In 2020 he posted this:
https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/File:Meduzak_1.jpg
Where he designed for F91 back in 1991, still have feet but already showing tendency of making it an extension of the calves.
But since it is not released to the public, I don't think this counts as any inspiration of such design.
I went through his V and W Gundam enemy grunt designs and all of them still have feet.
So 1996 seems to be the earliest year something like this appeared, can anyone think of earlier designs?

[False Prophet]

If we are talking about Junya Ishigaki, then we'll have to talk about the Xenogears, which he designed alongside other Gears from that game. From this interview (https://xenogearsxenosagastudyguide.blo ... -1998.html), it seems like SquareSoft staffers had already had some inklings of Xenogears back when they developing FFVII, which was around late 94, early 95. However, they admitted that the idea of having mecha in it only came after, so we can presume that Junya Ishigaki only joined the project sometime later... So 96?

I wish I know Japanese. Junya Ishigaki has a Twitter, so if I know English I'd had been able to ask him.

[MythSearcher]

If we are talking about Junya Ishigaki, then we'll have to talk about the Xenogears, which he designed alongside other Gears from that game. From this interview (https://xenogearsxenosagastudyguide.blo ... -1998.html), it seems like SquareSoft staffers had already had some inklings of Xenogears back when they developing FFVII, which was around late 94, early 95. However, they admitted that the idea of having mecha in it only came after, so we can presume that Junya Ishigaki only joined the project sometime later... So 96?

I wish I know Japanese. Junya Ishigaki has a Twitter, so if I know English I'd had been able to ask him.

Well, Xenogears does have one fits this design:
https://twitter.com/gakky1967/status/13 ... 54785?s=20
So it is still around the same time as Gundam X.

But I don't think he is that fond of that design. We can see most of the things he designs still have quite traditional feet.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210126152 ... robo-ishi/

[Mafty]

I think MythSearcher has a point in bringing up the Gosu; while it's not exact (as MythSearcher has said), it still does seem like the earliest(or one of the earliest) of that type of design. Look at the legs of the Mack Knife and compare it to the Gosu; they do look very similar, even if the legs are slightly wider on the Gosu.

[MythSearcher]

I think MythSearcher has a point in bringing up the Gosu; while it's not exact (as MythSearcher has said), it still does seem like the earliest(or one of the earliest) of that type of design. Look at the legs of the Mack Knife and compare it to the Gosu; they do look very similar, even if the legs are slightly wider on the Gosu.

Well, I say they don't count because they are not the feminine design.
The Gosu, etc. designs are more likely inspired by trumpet trousers, the general silhouette of that kind of design is slanted outwards, like trousers covering the shoes completely, so you get thin thighs, bigger calf and end with this big flat contact to the ground.
The design we are looking at for the moment is the reverse. The silhouette is slanted inwards or the biggest part is around a very high up knee, than it gets smaller and smaller with a tip at the end contacting the ground, which it not going to be able to stand. The design is likely more like Ballet dancers tiptoeing. The Mack Knife added a bit of heel in the back so it can stand, but the silhouette is similar.
with this inward design, it makes the mecha look more feminine by giving it a slim silhouette, and curvature more like a female legs, probably on top of that like a ballet dancer(which is usually stereotypically female) I got a designer friend who hates this design because he liken it to foot binding, but I doubt there are direct connections because back in the days when foot binding was a thing, they usually have very long clothes completely covering the legs.

It might just be me, but the two are kinda opposite in design if you look at the silhouette.
The first is more masculine and looks to be powerful, especially when made like S[Bst] thrusters. It is more of a form of showing raw power, but with little elegance.
The second is more feminine and looks to be agile and elegant, at the same time fragile.