Uncharitably saying that 90's Japanese pop culture reflected that boys must be forced to relive the trauma of losing WW2 well into the future (just with giant robots) while a strong independent young woman who has her choice of romantic partners was confined to the realm of fantasy.
Memes aside realistically it probably was everyone bandwagoning Miyazaki and Tomino. Then Anno came and fucked everything up.
There is a specific beauty about the 90s thing where fantasy is for girls and sci fi is for boys.
You can have mech battles but if you have a harem of boys there needs to be a dragon in it.
Then there's shows like Magic Knight Rayearth, which is a 1994/1995 Mecha Shojo Isekai.
spoiler
Even if mechs only show up in the imo better S2.
Uncharitably saying that 90's Japanese pop culture reflected that boys must be forced to relive the trauma of losing WW2 well into the future (just with giant robots) while a strong independent young woman who has her choice of romantic partners was confined to the realm of fantasy.
Memes aside realistically it probably was everyone bandwagoning Miyazaki and Tomino. Then Anno came and fucked everything up.