The Clone Wars is the closest thing Western Media has to a Mecha Anime

It doesn't quite officially qualify because there are no humanoid giant robots piloted by human pilots.

But it does feature Droids of various sizes fighting in a war (called Clankers by the Clones), and ace fighter pilots, and being Force sensitive is a little like being a Newtype.

And the stories it tells are frequently about how war is bad, how it's usually not worth it even if one does have a good cause, and this war's cause is quite questionable.  It features Heroes On Both Sides but also evil everywhere.

This war is like the One Year War in that the Antagonists are the secessionists.  And like in some Gundam timelines we know the Protagonists' side's victory will only result in them becoming a totalitarian dictatorship later on.

There are many female characters in Sunrise shows of the last 20 years I feel were based on Padme Amidala, though some perhaps are more like Duchess Satine.

Ahsoka Tano is practically an Anime Girl, she even has a vaguely Japanese sounding name (not the only one in Star Wars).  And the fanbase does plenty of Yuri shipping her with Barris Offee (the first part of the Forces of Destiny - Ahsoka & Padme comic feels like a Doujinshi that had the H scene edited out).  And there are some other Lightsaber wielding Waifus as well, like Aayla Secura, Luminara and Shaak Ti.

Star Wars as a whole has been drawing on Japanese Media from the beginning, first and foremost the films of Akira Kurosawa starting with The Hidden Fortress.  And Japan has returned the favor with the Real Robots sub-genre of Mecha having Star Wars influence right from it's 1979 beginnings.  I see no evidence of specifically Anime influence on the Original Trilogy, but it wasn't long till Anime started being a factor.  Grand Admiral Thrawn I suspect was inspired by the aliens in Space Battle Ship Yamato and maybe also Macross, both had localizations Zahn could have been exposed to in the 80s.  And my theories about Anime influence on the Prequel Trilogy may be the subject of a future post on this Blog.

The inability of the other Star Wars to work this way isn't just because of less literal Mecha, but the fact that once everything becomes Rebels vs Empire or Resistance vs First Order everyone's perception is too wrapped up in the perceived Nazi allegory to allow any actual nuance.

The Clone Wars is unlike most Anime in that it doesn't much matter if you watch it in order.  For the first three seasons the release order wasn't the chronological order anyway.  Some may find it weird how I'm more okay with watching this show out of chronological order then the Six Episode Movie Saga.  But that's because this show is all filler to the Skywalker saga anyway.  Those who think it actually fixed problems in the Prequel Trilogy are morons.

And the movie isn't the best first impression of the show, it isn't as bad as some make it out to be but it doesn't work as a theatrical film and is far below the show's high points.  I can't just compare it to the filler movies many Anime have because it's also the beginning of Ahsoka being Anakin's Apprentice, including the reason he calls her Snips.  But there isn't much you need to know, the gist is Anakin's assigned a Padawan and is at first not thrilled with the idea but warms up to her.  Actually all that happens in the first 28 minutes and 10 seconds, the rest is basically just a filler movie.

My biggest divergence from most Clone Wars fans is I don't support bringing Darth Maul back, fortunately that doesn't really come into play till the end of season 4.  And I'm not big on the Ventress and Nightsisters stuff either.

I wish I could share other fans' excitement for Disney bringing the show back.  But the main reason Clone Wars is like a Mecha show is something I'm afraid Disney will tone down, Disney doesn't like it when people think Capitalism is bad.

The main selling point of the show was Ahsoka, and they kinda wrote her off.  I suppose they could do stuff with her, maybe show how she starts on the path that takes her to where she was on Rebels.

I'd like to see more spotlight episodes for Aayla Secura, and an explanation for what happened to Barris.

YouTube has some MashUp trailers of Star Wars trailers and Code Geass that are pretty cool.