Medieval Knight Mecha?

[Mafty]

So when exactly did Medieval Knight Mecha first start appearing in mecha shows? You can see some examples of this in FG (i.e. the Gyan), and more examples than you can count in later Gundam entries. As for other real robot series, you have the somewhat obscure Panzer World Galient, wherein all the mechs have Knights and Armor themes (Dunbine predates this as a Medieval Fantasy Isekai, but they had insect mechs). So was FG the first to have it followed by Galient, or do these designs predate Gundam?

[Kuruni]

Since you count Gyan, it's clear that you only want medieval-ish design instead of full fantasy medieval mech. Well, Mazinger has some among the mechanical beasts. See this guy and this guy for examples.

[Seto Kaiba]

So when exactly did Medieval Knight Mecha first start appearing in mecha shows? You can see some examples of this in FG (i.e. the Gyan), and more examples than you can count in later Gundam entries. As for other real robot series, you have the somewhat obscure Panzer World Galient, wherein all the mechs have Knights and Armor themes (Dunbine predates this as a Medieval Fantasy Isekai, but they had insect mechs). So was FG the first to have it followed by Galient, or do these designs predate Gundam?

You'll find a fair number of super robot anime titles with overt samurai themes in their designs, but western fantasy tropes were still kind of obscure in the early-to-mid 1980s.

The Record of Lodoss War light novel series probably did most of the heavy lifting in familiarizing a Japanese audience with western fantasy tropes, but it took a while to catch on. AFAIK, the YMS-15 Gyan is probably the first mechanical design from a major series to adopt a knight-in-shining-armor motif. That said, Dunbine probably has the best claim to being the first one to make is a general aesthetic for an entire series. A few more efforts like Heavy Metal L-Gaim followed, but I think the first one to really catch on was probably Five Star Stories.

Mind you, the lack of public familiarity with western fantasy styles and tropes was a big part of why Dunbine's reception was lukewarm. Recognition of that deficiency was why Dunbine's setting was retooled in the show's second half to move events to the real world.

[Kuruni]

And here's EXACTLY knight-like Faiza V1. Unless Tetsujin or Gatchaman's villain ever use knight robot, this should be the first.

[yazi88]

Yeah fantasy mecha for the most part never really took off in Japan. Escaflowne was more popular outside of Japan too.

Speaking of Sunrise, there was another fantasy mecha show from the mid 90s, Lord of Lord Ryu Knight, all fantasy based with SD'ish looking designs. Not only a TV series, but 2 different OVAs too. It was based on a manga too.

[hitokirigarou]

There's Magic Knight Rayearth and Knight's & Magic. Both are/were popular in Japan.

[Kuruni]

And of course, there's SD Gundam Gaiden series. Especially from the third chapter on (Seikihei Monogatari) that feature pilotable mech (this chapter is adapted for SD Gundam Festival movie, so go ahead and watch Gundam pilot a Gundam).

There's also Jushin Liger.

Finally, I don't know if it's present in the original 1971 manga or can it pass as a mecha, but Eve from Maou Dante anime does wear knight-like armor.

[MythSearcher]

Yeah fantasy mecha for the most part never really took off in Japan. Escaflowne was more popular outside of Japan too.

Speaking of Sunrise, there was another fantasy mecha show from the mid 90s, Lord of Lord Ryu Knight, all fantasy based with SD'ish looking designs. Not only a TV series, but 2 different OVAs too. It was based on a manga too.

I was one of those who read the manga of Ryu Knight and never watched the anime until pretty recently. And boy, the difference. I still can't get over with the all pure and just, nice young man Galden who was the extremely aggressive main villain and last boss in the manga.

Saying the series was based on the manga isn't entirely correct. The series was a multi-media mix project from the very beginning, all of them started in 1994 and ended in 1995.

The difference of the TV and manga are a bit less than Nadesico where you get a completely different enemy. You get a lot of Ryu(Mostly from a design competition thus submitted by fans) to join the final battle against the evil dragons tribe and Galden gets Stein to class change into Ryu Dark Lord and curbstormed the Dragon Emperor and Adieu+Ryu Paladin. Only defeated by the combined forces of Ryu all projected on Adieu for the final attack.

Yes, the second OVA ran from 1995 to 1996 but the OVA series(13 episodes) was published during the TV and only the second OVA(with only 3 episodes) and the final side story episode that is even more remote to the original story was in 1995~96.

Basically the manga and the TV shared mostly the same characters and story until towards the end. They even have a timeskip in the manga where 2 characters already joined the team and you get small prints next to that manga frame stating "If you want to know how they joined and what happened in between, watch the TV anime ep. X and Y"
The OVA was released about every 3 TV eps and have a much more different plot and different enemies. The Ryu designs are also quite different. The 2nd OVA was kinda based on that so you won't really understand the story with just knowledge of the manga or the TV.

Typical for Takehiko Itō, while he got his own manga running, he seems to be involved in quite some 90's mecha anime.(Often under the name Hiroyuki Hataike instead. He insisted they are different people, but Ryu Knight's chapter 1's author was printed as Hiroyuki Hataike...) He also assisted in the designs of Dunbine and Escaflowne.(under the name Hiroyuki)

So we come to the related anime also with a medieval knight concept, NG Knight Ramune & 40.
The sequel VS Knight's mecha design seems to be much more modern, but NG Knight surely is much more medieval knight looking.

So when exactly did Medieval Knight Mecha first start appearing in mecha shows?

If you really think about it, Tetsujin 28-go's head is a medieval knight helmet. And that surely is the first giant robot anime, so there you go.(Side note: Tōru Furuya claims that Tomino said he watched Tetsujin 28-go during his primary school years and think it is impossible to have something so large to simply walk between buildings and led to his creations of Gundam, Daitarn 3, etc. But Tomino was born in 1941 so it is impossible for him to watch a 1960 show in his primary school years. Whether this is a mis-quote from Furuya or Tomino's mind playing tricks on him is entirely another matter.)

[Kuruni]

For few more knight-like mech in non-medieval setting. Giga Volt from Liveman (1988) is desigbed to resemble a black knight.

There's also Zoid's spin-off toyline called Soukou Kyoshin Z-Knight (with short promo anime by Sunrise). The titular Z-Knight as well as few other (including the final adversary, Gilga) are modeled after medieval knight.

[Mafty]

Some of the Mechs in Z Knight look kinda like the later (The Short is from 91) Jenice from Gundam X (Particularly the Slash Buffalo), as well as the enemy mechs from Space Battleship Tiramisu. I'm not sure how obscure the toyline is, but these could be references. Also does anyone else kinda wish they made a full Anime out of the toyline?

[Kuruni]

Yes. Too bad that even Kotobukiya's reviving it for High-end Master Model stop after just two release (Z-Knight and Marinekaiser).