Eita Touga of 12 Beast has some of these in his army, piloted by small, adorable golem girls.
In 20th Century Boys. The Big Bad, Friend, holds a robotics engineer hostage so that he can construct a 15 metre giant mecha to use on the Bloody New Year's Eve. However, throughout the brainstorming process, the aforementioned engineer is on the verge of snapping because he can't get them to understand that a robot constructed in such a way probably couldn't even stand, much less cause massive havoc and destruction. They eventually make a cheap, pretend mecha out of a balloon and a tarp that just looks like a humongous mecha instead. Not that everyone else realises this, though...
Nevertheless, the final arc plays this straight when said robotics expert finally succeeds in making a working one. It's kind of justified in that by then, it's been about 20 years since the first time.
In Albegas, three talented students create three robots which are then modified to form a super robot (the titular Albegas) in order to battle the evil Derinja race.
In Aldnoah.Zero, the titular Aldnoah technology found on Mars was used to create the massive Kataphrakts.
Terran Kataphrakts used by the United Forces of Earth are rather humanoid in shape and not specialized in any way. The Areion is pretty much a Red Shirt machine, but Inaho Kaizuka, the main protagonist, uses an orange training model called the Sleipnir. It is an inferior build compared to the green-tinted Areion which succeeded it, yet Inaho prefers it due to its mobility compared to the Areion's armor.
Martian Kataphrakts used by the Vers Empire are smaller in number, but more akin to super robots with unique specs and builds that woefully outclass the U.F.E.'s Kataphrakts. They are exclusively used by Vers' Orbital Knights, all nobles and aristocrats piloting unique machines with differing powers. Slaine Troyard, The Rival turned Big Bad, becomes the pilot of the Tharsis, a white and golden Kataphrakt once owned by Count Cruhteo.
In Appleseed, a 4 meter tall death machine appears in Volume 4 of the manga.
The Armor Troopers from Armored Trooper VOTOMS VOTOMS (Verticle One Man Tank for Offense and Maneuvers) are perhaps among the most perceivable (combat based) humongous mecha in real life. They are no taller than 4 meters, do not transform, don't fly, and generally don't have any unique powers. They are more like bipedal tanks than anything else.
See also many of the other series created by Ryosuke Takahashi, such as Dougram and SPT Layzner. While they're not as realistic as VOTOMS, they are compared to the majority of mecha shows and have a similar gritty atmosphere.
The protagonist builds an AT from scrap parts several times over the course of the show. They're repeatedly shown as disposable and cheap.
Pluto from Astro Boy comes close to being one, despite not being a piloted mecha.
Attack on Titan: No really. The Shifters' Titan forms are a flesh-and-bone version of this, with some fight scenes reminiscent of Neon Genesis Evangelion. All Titans are like this, except the "pilots" of Pure Titans are rendered mindless by the transformation, and those "piloting" Abnormal Titans show some sign of intelligence. The reason going for the nape kills Titans is because that's where the "pilot's" head and spine are connected.
Henry Legolant from Black Clover has Recombination Magic, allowing him to restructure a mansion to his liking. He essentially turns the Black Bulls' base into one thanks to his magic, and gets into a Behemoth Battle with Sally's gel salamander creation.
The robots from Bokurano are freaking enormous. Zearth is half a kilometer tall, and was estimated to be able to destroy the entire military forces of the U.S. in two days and in the ending of the manga it destroyed an entire planet's population of 10 billion within 40 hours. They are also piloted by untrained, inexperienced children which isn't silly as you thought.
The Brave Series franchise is a series of mecha shows each starring a different Super Robot and their respective crews. They will often feature a pair of main characters, rather than a single one (usually a young boy and a grown man, who often serves as a big brother feature). By far the most famous of these is The King of Braves GaoGaiGar, a series which managed to recapture the feel of fun and Hot bloodedness of mecha from the 70's amidst a wave of Darker and Edgier mecha series in the wake of Evangelion. Also had a sequel OVA a few years later which managed to be of better quality (especially the fight scenes!) than most series of its kind. That proved so popular it got a special edition just 5 years later, linking it to Betterman, a much different kind of mecha show from the same company.
BBK/BRNK has the Buranki, which are controlled from the outside by their component Bubuki's users, each perched on the top of the part of the Buranki which they wield individually.
Mecha known as Knightmare Frames are part of the central conflict in Code Geass. A one-sided war was won with them, and now they're being used to reclaim the country from The Empire. And in a case of Fridge Brilliance, dodges the whole too-vulnerable-to-having-its-legs-shot issue by adding landspinners, making the mechas too friggin' fast to target their legs accurately. Or in the case of the Lancelot, target the whole mecha accurately.
Though most Knightmares are more akin to Mini-Mecha, each only being a few meters tall. The truly humongous mecha are Knight Giga Fortresses like the Siegfried (which is really the only one) which is 5 times as tall as most mecha in the series, and 8 times as heavy, but is less a robot, and more a flying spiked ball. The Gawain is the largest true Knightmare Frame, but is only 6.5 meters tall, when most Knightmares are 4 to 5 meters.
There is also the Galahad, the Knightmare Frame used by Bismarck Waldstein, the Knight of One. It stands at 9.5 meters tall and is so heavy, its sword sheath needs its own rocket booster. It also wields a BFS, Excalibur, about as large as itself.
Cross Ange: The Normas who are shipped to Arzenal to become a part of the Army of Thieves and Whores there are trained to pilot Paramails, mecha that can shift between a fighter mode and robot mode. With the Paramails, the pilots of Arzenal fight the vicious interdimensional DRAGON invaders that portal into the main world. Ange, the main character, uses a more ancient model called Villkiss, which is a much older Ragnamail.The Ragnamail are an invention of the Big Bad, Embryo, who pilots his own Ragnamail named Hysterica (which is also an extension of himself). There are seven known Ragnamails, the other five of which Embryo grants to his Diamond Rose Knights; they vaguely resemble Villkiss aside from being mostly black with different colored stripes (Cleopatra has blue stripes, Theodra has green, etc.).
The more-evolved DRAGONs later reveal they also have their own Ragnamail-like machines, called Ryuushinki. Only three are known to exist, and they are piloted by Salamandinay and her aides, Kaname and Naga.
Dai-Guard turns its focus on the giant robot's pilots and all of the red tape they have to cut through to save the world.
Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops have Nobita coming across the spare parts of a giant robot, which he later assembles (with Doraemon's help) into a completed giant mecha which he then names "Zanda Claus". It turns out Zanda Claus was actually sent by an army of hostile robots in order to conquer earth and Kill All Humans, but Doraemon managed to retrieve Zanda Claus' brain and reverse-engineer it so when the robot went active, it's on the human's side.
Eureka Seven also uses mecha similiar to Evangelion, where the mecha are more than simple robots. The LFO and KLF units, as they are called, have a form of sky surfing applied to their operation. Additionally, the units are Transforming Mecha, as most can change into land vehicles.
In Fairy Tail, King Faust of Edolas owns one called Doroma Animu, a mecha dragon with an Anti-Magic metal coating and armed to the teeth with blades, missiles, and magic lasers. However, it was considered a weapon of last resort due to draining the magic of Edolas away in order to function, with it being hinted overuse of the Doroma Animu in the past is why Edolas' magic has been vanishing.
In Gad Guard, the mecha aren't piloted, per se. Rather, the person they "belong to" rides around on their shoulder, or some such. While some of them occasionally give their mechs orders (especially the villain), they tend to act on their own. In battle at least...
Galilei Donna has them. Kind of overshadowed by the fish-themed airships, though.
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet opens with high tech mecha battles in space but quickly switches to an After the End water world Earth where the mecha are more along the lines of highly advanced forklift-truck/submarine mash ups in vaguely humanoid form. The more advanced mecha — Chamber — actually has a highly developed A.I. and 'he' can make his own conjectures and decipher scenarios faster than his pilot Ledo usually can; making him very close to sentience almost certainly making the leap to self awareness by the last episode.
Gasaraki attempts (amidst an incomprehensible mass of mysticism) to show a "realistic" view of giant war robots in a contemporary setting. The "Tactical Armors" of Gasaraki are not much larger than a main battle tank, require extensive support squads, and can have their joints fouled by blowing sand. The "incomprehensible mass of mysticism" also gave the series the Kugai, ancient Japanese proto-mecha in the form of giant suits of samurai armour, brought to life by ritualistic Noh dancing, with the dancer sitting inside the suit's abdomen once the Kugai was activated and controlling it by their will. The one time a Kugai is activated in the story's present, it attacks a Tactical Armor and rips it apart with its bare hands, and in the ancient period in which they were created they (unsurprisingly) made the clan who owned them almost invincible in battle.
Geneshaft has a very weird mecha, which looks more like a set of cranes welded together to vaguely resemble a human outline. It is also unclear why it should look remotely human anyway, given its function in the story.
In Genesis of Aquarion the Humongous Mecha "Aquarion" is a combination of three Vectors (machines each piloted by one person).
Getter Robo, the first Transforming Mecha and Combining Mecha, which also features some of the most humongous mecha in the medium. The mecha progressively increase in size and ridiculousness over the series, ending with the Getter Emperor which stands over a freakin' galaxy.
On the other hand Freeder Bug, also created by the late Ken Ishikawa has some of the least humongous Humongous Mecha in anime or manga, not counting power suits. They're essentially just heads with stumpy limbs and a chair fixed to the back, and are smaller than an adult man.
Giant Robo is a descendant of a 1960s live-action series brought to the U.S. as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.
Gigantor was probably the first "giant robot" anime imported to the United States. This black-and-white series was aired during the 1960s in many markets.
The "Endlaves" from Guilty Crown are a more realistic example than most — most prominently, rather than actually being piloted by human beings they are remote controlled via a virtual reality interface by operators that might be sitting kilometers away in a bunker (or just on the edge of the battlefield, in an armored van). They are generally not very tall (with the largest ones appearing no more than 9-10 meters, and most looking around 4), and travel over long distances in a vehicle-like fashion using wheels while keeping close to the ground and hard to target. It's also worth noting that they don't appear to be actual military weapons, but rather, tools of law enforcement/riot control (which goes a great deal to explain giving them a humanoid form in the first place).
GunBuster and its sequel DieBuster have Mecha even more Humongous than most- Gunbuster is two-hundred fifty-meter-tall, and Diebuster is approximately the same height as the Earth itself.
Probably worth noting that Gunbuster and Diebuster were made by the same studio as Gurren Lagann. In fact the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was probably partly to upstage the Diebuster, which in turn upstaged every other Humongous Mecha that came before (except those from Demonbane prequel novel,note released in 2003, a year before Diebuster, that is).
Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the first Gundam series not set in the Universal Century timeline, swerves back to the Super Robot Genre with designs that get really weird at times, and suits that are practically powered on Hot Bloodedness.
In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, a bit of Justified Trope goes on for the humongous mechas in the series where Lt. Noin explains that the advent of the mechas came about when the Alliance wanted a physically intimidating weapon.
Technically, both Transforming Mecha and Combining Mecha have been in most Gundam shows. Gundam, ZZ Gundam, V Gundam, V2 Gundam and Impulse Gundam all use the same principle, with being module based and all. Freedom and Justice can both combine with the METEOR Units, and Exia and Dynames both have the GN-Arms Type-E and Type-D respectively. 00 Gundam also had the 0 Raiser and Arios had the GN Archer. In the Gundam 00 Movie, the large backpack on Raphael Gundam turned out to be an upgraded Seravee Gundam, transformed into a giant weapons-platform.
As for Variable Mobile Suits, the Z Gundam, ZZ Gundam, Methuss, Re-ZEL, Re-GZ, and a lot other UC Suits qualify. Also, the Wing Gundam, Wing Gundam Zero, Airmaster, Airmaster Burst (the latter two from Gundam X), Aegis, Murasame and Savior (from Cosmic Era (SEED and SEED Destiny)). And Kyrios/Arios/Harute and Gadelaza, Regnant, Empruss, GN Archer, Flag (and variants) Enacts, Hellions, Realdos and Reborns Gundam/Reborns Cannon are all Variable Mobile Suits from 00. And there are probably some that were left out.
Hanaukyō Maid Team. In one episode, Ikuyo Suzuki demonstrates her latest creation: a giant robot resembling the Loch Ness Monster.
In Heat Guy J, Giovanni briefly uses a mecha that's basically a more gracile version of Heavyarms from the above-mentioned Gundam Wing.
Heroman, although he started out as a much smaller toy, only gaining his current size after being struck by lightning.
Infinite Ryvius have the characters burst into laughter when they first saw a giant humanoid robot because it seemed so impractical. Needless to say, they were proven wrong.
The mecha in Irresponsible Captain Tylor seem to be specifically designed to subvert the "Humongous" part of this trope, in fact most of their pilots are huge and shown to be very cramped inside their mecha. The big butch leader is in a pink one. The general design of the mecha is similar to the squat egg-shaped ones found in Sakura Wars.
The Atlas-class ship Deucalion (Mecha Form) in Kiddy Grade. Just watch the last 4 episodes (and mind the statistic of the Deucalion) then you'll understand why (one of its design goals being to steal the Earth).
6358 fucking kilometers in length. You can't go wrong with that.
Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne has the usual type that are commonly used by Mooks and supporting characters known as Ovid. Then there is the Transforming Mecha versions known as Vox. Only The Chosen Ones can pilot them (symbolized by the Memoria marking their Vox gives them) and they are controlled more by telepathy than actual controls (which is good for the Ordinary High-School Student lead who doesn't even have a scooter licence). Unfortunately the Vox are actually the "bridge" between the normal reality and an Eldritch Location influenced by human thoughts and feelings. If something goes wrong, the prettiest Apocalypse How is the result.
Super Dimension Fortress Macross (one of the main shows incorporated into Robotech) features some of the earliest transforming mecha, with the Valkyrie jet/space fighters that could turn into humanoid robots and a hybrid semihumanoid/semijet ("gerwalk") form, which have gone on to become an iconic franchise staple.
The original Macross itself was a huge spaceship that could rearrange itself into a humanoid configuration; this is because when SDF-1 performed a Hyperspace Fold at the beginning of the show, its fold drive mysteriously disappeared along with a chunk of other machinery and major powerlines. So, the whole point of the transformation was to reconnect the Macross Cannon to the power supply, with the humanoid form being more coincidence than anything else. This, however, was completely ignored in Macross 7, with "Macross" type spaceships always transforming into some pointless humanoid form to fire their main gun. Rule of Cool all the way.
In Macross Frontier, however, the Macross Quarter and Battle Frontier are both seen firing their primary weapons while still in "ship" mode.
Also, the humanoid configuration also allows the capital ships to use the MacrossAttack without compromising the firepower, safety, or maneuverability of the entire ship.
Another mech that's particularly iconic to the series is the Destroid Monster, which, along with the other Destroid models, has an appearance and speed that wouldn't look out of place in BattleTech, though that's partly because in the early pre-1995 versions of BattleTech, Macross was one of the various animes it licensednote incorrectly; it's a long story mecha from.
Worth noting that the Humongous Mecha in this series were originally built specifically because the Zentraedi they were fighting were giants; the Valkyries and Destroids are what allow humans to fight Zentraedi on an even playing field. Of course, the Zentraedi have their own mecha, which despite technically being Mini-Mecha still manage to somewhat tower over the human mecha.
The Rune Gods/Mashin in Magic Knight Rayearth take form of not just beastly creatures, but also Humongous Mecha based on those creatures. The second half introduces a faction that uses regular mechanical mecha, too.
This funnily created a lot of fan-wishing to include Rayearth in Super Robot Wars, despite the difference in theme of story. After all, who wouldn't want to see Rayearth teaming up with, say, GaoGaiGar? And then in 2018, the announcement that it would finally happen came to pass.
The immensely popular Martian Successor Nadesico not only features a battle mecha class called the "Aestivalis", but also incorporates a 1970s-style Super Robot Genre anime called Gekiganger 3 as a Show Within a Show. "G3" is a clear homage to the early classic Getter Robo, and manages to hit all the classic melodramatic cliches of the genre.
Go Nagai's Mazinger Z was the first series to feature giant robots piloted by humans, the convention which came to define the entire genre. It also created the Super Robot Genre as we know it, featuring, if not originating, many of the tropes that have come to be associated with the genre. The series, along with sequels Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer, have been aired worldwide.
The caption for the previous page imagenote "Perfect for those early morning commutes" is in fact a good example of Hilarious in Hindsight. Go Nagai, trying to come up with an idea for a giant robot story that wouldn't rip off Tetsujin, was observing a gridlock one day when he mused to himself that the drivers in back must be wishing for a way to bypass those in front. From that idle thought came the concept of a man-driven robot, and the rest is history.
(Much) Later on, Haruna uses her artifact to create a life-size robot body for Sayo. Sayo can only use the robot body by possessing a small voodoo doll and climbing inside the robot body and piloting it Humongous Mecha style.
The titular Evas are biological robots in the form of cloned Eldritch Abomination humanoid beings plated in restraining armor and having their spine and nervous system fitted with cockpit housing units. This is important because the Entry Plugs, designed to mentally and physically synchronize the pilot with the Eva in conjuction with LCL, will vary in effectiveness depending on their depth and the pilot's psyche, to the point that going too far can and will result in the synchronization transcending metaphysical levels.
Episode 7 features Jet Alone, a more conventional mecha that is purely mechanical and powered by a nuclear reactor. It was a private attempt at a replacement for the Evangelions that fails partially because of NERV's sabotage.
The "Ikusa Yoroi" ("War Armors") in Nobunaga the Fool; their designs seem to range from Medieval knights (like in The Vision of Escaflowne), to samurai (fitting, given the setting of the Western and Eastern Planets).
One Piece: Vegaforce-01 is a giant mecha built by Vegapunk and piloted by Lilith, measuring around 300 meters in height and strong enough to carry the Going Merry in one hand. It is modeled after the Iron Giant, a 900 year old autonomous mecha the size of a city slumbering in Egghead's scrapyard.
Panzer World Galient has the titular giant robot and the panzers of the Big Bad's army. Panzer mechas are approximately Gundam-sized and they come in all kind of shapes: centaurs, humanoids, winged humanoids...
Patlabor focuses on Mundane Utility of Humongous Mecha anime tropes, featuring short, non-combat robots used for civilian purposes such as construction. The combat robots belong to the police, who prevent mecha-related crimes, the military like the Japanese Self-Defense Force, and MegaCorp like the Schaft Enterprises.
In one episode in the Diamond and Pearl series, it was noted that Team Rocket stole various parts from a factory, which they used to build that episode's mecha. That seems to help keep their expenses down.
They also occasionally mention buying cheaper "build-it-yourself" mechas online, especially in the Johto story arc. That's one explanation for why most of the mechas have at least one glaring weakness.
The Xephon from RahXephon, although obviously and definitely not mechanical, follows many of the genre's tropes to a T.
Regalia: The Three Sacred Stars: Both Rena and Tia are Regalia, young-looking girls who transform into robots, and Regalia Gear, non-sentient robots who have human pilots fused with them.
Each of the different nationality random girls in Rizelmine has one, each almost more ridiculous than the last.
Robotics;Notes is a very unique reconstruction. While the opening features many mechas that look like they belong in a Super Robot Genre anime, the series focuses on a club of students living 20 Minutes into the Future as they work together to build a Humongous Mecha of their own. Aside from the comic relief moments and the Otaku shut-in, the characters don't feel like mecha anime characters, but ordinary people. The anime also feels much more like a Slice of Life. However, this being by the same people who brought us Steins;Gate, a darker conspiracy soon comes to light and our group of protagonists are pulled into the mix when it becomes clear that the world's leader in robotics is planning on causing a global disaster and wiping out more than half of the human race. Now it's up to them to quickly complete their mecha and save the world.
Funnily enough, Saber Marionette J parodies this when the Imperial Palace eventually transforms into a Giant Robot, who is then used to attack and stop a Giant Bomb.
The leaders of the Nobuseri bandits in Samurai 7 are massive cyborgs, with swords the size of houses.
In episode 35 of Smile Pretty Cure!, Cure Happy accidentally gets transformed into Happy Robot with Buttlerfly Wings and Rocket Punch, and Wolfrun and Akaoni create the Hyper Akanbes. The Hyper Akanbes of Wolfrun and Akaoni double as Combining Mecha.
Space Runaway Ideon features unusually large mecha for its time, with the Ideon being 105 meters tall. While the most numerous Mooks, Adigo, are 48 meters tall when standing straight, and considered as small class mecha, most of the Elite Mooks are taller than Ideon.
In Steel Angel Kurumi 2, Uruka's father sends out a couple on behalf of his daughter, but they're defeated by Kurumi.
Stellvia of the Universe actually provides a justification for its mecha's humanoid form: Infinity and Halcyon were built to be human-like in appearance because they are supposed to become a symbol of humanity expanding into space. Spacecraft that don't have any symbolic meaning attached to them are shaped much more practically.
Tenchi Muyo!! GXP: the main character Seina, already the captain of his own ship, finds a giant mecha in a late episode, and after using it to trash a few pirate landcruisers, decides, "Ships are great and all, but real men need giant robots!" His giant robot also looks suspiciously similar to one from another anime from the same creator.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann takes the "humongous" part to ridiculous extremes, with each incarnation of the main mecha being piloted by the smaller mecha. The show starts with the Mini-Mecha, Lagann, which was discovered by Simon. After Kamina hijacks an enemy mecha, which he names Gurren, he combines it with Simon's Lagann to form the regular sized (by mecha standards) Gurren Lagann. Simon uses Lagann to capture Thymilph's Dai-Gunzan, an enormous mecha/warship, which is renamed Dai-Gurren and serves as the base of Team Dai-Gurren. After the Time Skip, Team Dai-Gurren acquires the Arc Gurren Lagann, which is about the size of a city. Then the moon turns out to be a huge starship which is transformed into the appropriately moon-sized Super Galaxy Gurren-Lagann. Finally, in the Final Battle, Simon and the Team Dai-Gurren combine their Spiral Power to manifest the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is confirmed to be ten million light years in height. The second movie, Lagann-hen, does takes it to the next level, but the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is more of an Energy Being — a humanoid figure made out of Spiral Energy flames, with Kamina's cape and Simon's Cool Shades which are actually the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann floating in the middle of the Super TTGL's face. In other words, if you like humongous mecha, this is porn for you.
The titular Tobots of Tobot are sentient robots that transform into vehicles, and they get bigger when they integrate with other Tobots.
UFO Warrior Dai Apolon combines Humongous Mecha, Combining Mecha, and... American Football. Don't ask.
Utawarerumono has a nation composed of a religious minority who have giant mecha given to them by their god to defend themselves. Considering the rest of the world hasn't even invented gunpowder, this is probably overkill. Then again, their god is a psychotic nihilist.
Valvrave the Liberator is an anime that would not be inaccurate to describe as very Gundam like (it's animated by the the same studio but with a nano-tech vampire for a protagonist.
Voltron was, for a time, the best-known example in America. It was an amalgamation of two fairly obscure (in Japan) and completely unrelated shows, GoLion (Lion Voltron) and Dairugger XV (Vehicle Voltron), along with "The New Adventures of Voltron", which were a few Lion Voltron episodes produced by Toei especially for the American market.
Played with in an episode of Wolf's Rain in which the wolves accidentally reawaken an ancient defensive mecha while making their way through a ruined city.
Xabungle: Predating Patlabor, most mecha in Combat Mecha Xabungle, with exception of few models (like the Xabungle), are actually working machines used for digging mineral. However, the savage Wild West-ish setting means pretty much every mech is also armed with a weapon.
Zeorymer is one of eight such robots, each possessing a power based upon the eight elements (Zeorymer itself being the element of the heavens).
Zoids manages to buck the trend in giant robots by having its eponymous robots patterned after nearly every animal imaginable except humans. This ranges from tractors shaped like beetles to flying battleships that look like whales. A recurring theme through the various editions of the franchise is that the hero tends to pilot a Zoid based on a large feline (usually called a "Liger"), while his rival pilots a robotic dinosaur.
Its Spin-Off series Soukou Kyoshin Z-Knight feature humanoid mecha developed from zoids. The six Armored Titans, including the titular Z-Knight, are even powered by zoid core.
