Gundam Series Recommendations

[Gymnopedie]

Hey all, I've recently taken a giant liking into the Gundam franchise and would like to ask if there are any specific series that I should look out for.

Now I've only seen a couple, but that was long ago when I was a child, IE: G Gundam, Gundam Wing and like 3 episodes of SD Gundam. The only reason I even looked at SD was because I was about 9 or so when it aired and my kiddish spirit told me to watch it.

But on topic, I've seen a list of all Gundam Series, Movies, OVA's and Short films, even the Live-Action movie that was in fact released in America. I'm very impressed at the list, and was wondering if any of you here have some specific ones I should watch or read.

I've been thinking about Gundam Seed / Destiny but I've heard that show was pretty terrible and a huge waste of time.

[Saiko]

Seed isn't soooo bad.

But Destiny .. :/

Try watching Seed and if you like it you can even try Destiny.

If you didnt already started watch Gundam 00 try this one too.

[3625]

It'd help a lot if you could list what you've seen (such as which OVAs and movies you've seen).

Personally, Zeta Gundam is my favorite. But make SURE you watch the origional series (or the compilation for the origional movies) beforehand so that you have the backstory tthat you need. Zeta gets EXTREMELY good near the end. I haven't seen the compilation movies for it, so I'm going to recommend that you stick to the actual series. Besides, it has one of the best OPs of any show ever. =)

[Kereo]

My personal favorites are After War: Gundam X and 08th Mobile Suit platoon.
I think it's because X was the first Gundam show I ever saw, and 08th is just awesome. Gundams aren't super weapons there and there is only one really big ace in the show and he mops the floor with his competition in a realistic manner. Plus, it has two of my favorite MS of all times, the EZ8 and Gouf Custom.

[Gymnopedie]

Thanks, I'll be checking out those in a while then.

I've only seen G Gundam, Gundam Wing and Gundam 00, First season only. It's not much but you have to start somewhere.

[sazabi24]

Starting with UC is nice, i started with 8th ms team.

Seed/Destiny in my opinion is equal in quality to..................horse shit

[Gymnopedie]

Is UC an Anime or a Manga?

[3625]

First off, sorry-- I misread your first post. I saw where you said that you'd seen a list of OVA's, movies, etc., and misinterpretted that to mean that you'd WATCHED Those. Sorry about that.

Anyways, UC is "Universal Century". It's the timeline that the origional Gundam stuff takes place in (Zeta Gundam, for instance). The UC stuff is really good, and there's a lot of it. If you're gonna watch it, though, make sure you go in order, which means watch the origional series first. The animation is hard to stomach (AT FIRST!), but you'll grow to love it.

Also, pay no mind to the SEED haters. There's a lot of good stuff in SEED, and it's really easy to get into. Hell, it's starting to pull my girlfriend in (and for me--- it ALMOST ranks up there with Zeta). Of course, everyone is going to have their opinion on SEED, but don't be scared.

[denice25]

Try the Gundam Seed....

[sazabi24]

Try the Gundam Seed....

NOOOOOOOO JESUS YAMATO MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS:yell

[Logic]

00 Season 2.

[Graham Aker]

Definitely get into UC.

Mobile Suit Gundam
Zeta Gundam
Chars Counterattack
Stardust Memory
08th MS Team

Zeta especially, probably the best Gundam series I've ever seen.

[sazabi24]

I agree, Zeta is the best gundam series in the history of gundam

[NewtypeS3]

Going ahead and resposting something from a much earlier topic I worked on at Gamefaqs and a much earlier topic here...

Depends on the continuity, to be honest.
Some shows are sequels to other shows, other shows contain heavy tributes to the ones that came before and still others are just stand-alone. The real best bets to start out with are...

---Classic Gundam, from 1979. If you don't mind iffy animation and a rather generic plot, it's a great series. Also available in movie trilogy format, which compresses it into 6 hours rather well.
---Gundam Wing, from 1995. Despite being over a decade old, the animation holds strong - and the political talks actually wind up being a ton more relevant today. Solid characterization, but needs a few manga books to be read to fully understand a few things (Episode Zero, Blind Target, Battlefield of Pacifists. All found online for dirt cheap, all with solid translations to boot).
---Gundam Seed, from 2003. Rather flashy and touches upon some social issues few other Gundam shows have, but aside from the flash and generi-character designs, there's not too much to think about. Still a great starter series, and the music is really fun. Also available in a movie format... which is to be avoided, because the compression is into four and a half hours and skips nearly everything good about the TV show.

From there, it depends on what you liked.

---

Classic Gundam moves into a quartet of short-series

Original Video Animation works:
---MS Igloo, a completely CGI work made in 2004. It's currently divided into three, three-episode segments. The first two chunks of the sub-franchise focus on random Zeon experiments... and a rather unlikable main cast. The current chunk, The Gravity War, focuses on the Ground Forces of the Federation trying to survive the Zeon blitz. Unfortunately, nothing in Igloo is really worth watching aside from the CGI. The writing is crap, and it's... just plain uninteresting.
---Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) takes a look into how the war from the first series affects people on the civilian side of things when they're supposedly neutral. Also looks at a child's point-of-view and even makes a few of the 'bad guys' into genuinely likable characters. Also co-stars Bernard Wiseman. While he's not the best pilot around, he's arguably one of the best at planning his fights - and he's voiced by Solid Snake in the dub, to boot. Unfortunately, the music is some of the worst I've ever heard in anime.
---Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1996) takes a look at the grunts on the front-lines of Earth during the war of the first series. A solid series with great animation and some fun fights, but also packs in a kinda generic romance as well that just doesn't quite pay off. There's also a movie, Miller's Report, which adds a lot to the third disc's events - included with the mega-cheap-brick-release.
---Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991), a side-story that happens between Classic Gundam and it's sequel, Zeta Gundam. If you watch this series before Zeta, a lot of things will make some sense, and others will click soon after you start up Zeta. It's not perfect, as some of the music is iffy and a few characters are horrid... and some of the dub actors sound miscast, but it's worth a look. Easily has some of the best animation in Gundam to date, as well.

Each of those three are entirely skippable if you don't want to watch them, but it doesn't hurt to watch them either. MS Igloo is the only one I don't recommend at all, but that's just my personal taste there.

Reguardless of if you saw them or not, Zeta Gundam comes next. It was made in 1985 and takes place 7 years after the events of the 1979 series, featuring new characters and old faces alike. I personally enjoyed this series, but felt it dragged on quite a bit at certain points. However, it features a lot of things to like anyhow - though a few of the actors on both the dub and sub don't sound like they're giving it their all at times.
There's also a movie trilogy, made in 2005... but it changes a whole lot and is recommended to be seen after watching the series for that simple fact: it creates an entirely different timeline for Gundam!

After Zeta comes ZZ Gundam, made the following year in 1986. This one's not out in America yet, but fansubs are readily available if you know where to look. Taking place three months after Zeta, ZZ finishes up the conflict from Zeta... and throws new characters into the mix as well. Though it's got a rocky start (the first... 16 episodes or so are almost entirely painful at times), the series blooms and becomes damned awesome, if you ask me.
It should be noted, though, that ZZ reuses a lot of Zeta's musical score. A few new songs are added to the mix, but most of the musical budget actually appears to have gone into the animation budget. Thus, ZZ is perhaps one of the best-looking TV anime of the 1980's.

From ZZ (though you can skip it too if you wish) comes Char's Counterattack. If you know the character, appearing in Classic and Zeta, you know what most likely happens. It's not the best piece of Gundam around, but it's fun and has aged insanely well for something made in 1988.

After Char's Counterattack come two stand-alone works that take place in the same continuity: Gundam F91 and Victory Gundam.
F91, made in 1991, was originally planned to be a TV series... but the first 11 episodes were turned into the movie instead for reasons still not quite known. It's not important to watch and actual closure comes in a manga sequel, Crossbone Gundam, just now being scanlated by groups online. Skippable, but enjoyable.
Victory Gundam is also a stand-alone work, but is one of those things where you either love it or you hate it. Tomino himself, co-creator of Gundam and director of Victory, hates the series, whereas many fans love it. It all comes down to personal taste on this one, and the only way to really know if you'll like it or not is to sample it in the first place. However, you'll have to grab fansubs, as it's not out in the USA yet.
Thanks to post limits, I'll post the rest of my text block in a second post.

[NewtypeS3]

Concluding my post...
If you started with Gundam Wing, there's only one place to go.
After those manga I mentioned above,grab the DVD Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1996). Taking place a year after Wing, this movie/OVA reveals much of the actual backstory for the series itself. There's also some serious closure for the series and is thoroughly entertaining, though I wish they'd included more fighting scenes - or at least extended them beyond the 20-minutes they added for the movie version.

And then you're finished with Wing.

However, you can move onto Mobile Fighter G-Gundam (1994), which is much like the love child of Gundam and shows like Voltron or GaoGaiGar. It's not for everyone, but the story is insanely enjoyable if you can get past the ruts in the first and third segments of the show (out of four, of course).

If you'd rather not dive into G-Gundam yet, there's also After War Gundam X (1996). In many ways, X is a spiritual sequel to Gundam Wing - the character designs, mecha and music all retain elements of Wing, much like how Wing retained elements from G-Gundam (the series before it). However, X is also a nice transition into the stuff under the Classic Gundam banner: the Universal Century. Think of it as a smoothie blending the ice cream of the Universal Century and the fruit of the non-Universal-Century-shows together into one series.
I can't begin to recommend this series enough, it's just all-around-awesome because of... everything.

---

If you watched Gundam Seed, then there's a few things for you.

The manga sidestories Gundam Seed Astray, Gundam Seed Astray R, Gundam Seed Astray B (this one not available in the USA) and Gundam Seed X Astray all cover the important side-events of Seed thatwe never quite got to see.
Astray focuses on the adventures of Lowe Gear and Gai Murkamo, while R follows Lowe closely and B follows Gai closely during the events of plain Astray. You can skip R or B, but R is an entertaining read (never read B, though). X Astray happens after Plain Astray and focuses on more background info of Seed's own main... sorta.

Gundam Seed Destiny (2005) is the sequel to Gundam Seed and follows a new main character. Opinion on this series is... split down the middle around here, so to speak. Some love the series, others hate it. Quite frankly, if you liked Seed, you'll find at least something to like about Destiny - so it's at least worth checking out for yourself.

Gundam Seed: CE73 Stargazer (2005) is a brief (45-minute-long!) 3-episode series focusing a little on side-characters who pilot mecha made to make Bandai a little extra cash. At 45-minutes-long, there's not a whole lot going on here, but the animation is pretty to look at and some of the things going on are pretty cool...
...just don't expect a whole lot, considering the length.

---

And after any one of those, there's always...

Gundam 00 (2007) is the most recent (and still incomplete) Gundam series to date. Starting in our own timeline of Anno Domini, rather than a made-up name like Universal Century, this series focuses much on the 'why' and 'how' of war, much like predecessors Turn-A Gundam (1999) and Gundam Wing (1995).
However, Gundam 00 also has a poor startup speed - spending great lengths of time explaining the how and why of the world this series takes place in. But once these episodes are past (I'd guess around episode 9 or so), the series begins to pick up steam and keeps gaining speed right down to the finale... of the first half of the series. The second half of the series has started nicely, with new events keeping the same energy.
As for the characters, they all recieve their own moments to shine at some point or another - and the music for this series is outstanding.
However, 00 isn't even out on DVD in the USA yet (licensing has been done, it's aired on Sci-Fi, but no DVDs yet), so downloads are your only road if you choose this one.

00 isn't a bad series, but it has a few flaws keeping it from reaching the best as it stands right now.
At least, that's my opinion.

---

And when you get through pretty much all of that, there's one series left.
Turn-A Gundam.

The reason it's not under any of those is because it's kind of a treat to the Gundam fan, featuring nods of the head to... just about everything made before the series' premier in 1999. It's recommended you watch this as close to last as possible, simply because of all the references and nods to the past - as well as the fact that this was the creator's best 'farewell' to his creation.

---

...so... yeah... Hope I didn't scare you with the list, but

that's pretty much how it all goes.
Notice how I don't actually insult one single series of Gundam, or recommend a single series above all others (particularly one like Zeta, which requires seeing the previous Gundam show) - because a true fan trying to recommend a series to a newbie would let them choose what they wanted to see, encourage seeing Gundam, and seeing where they want to go.

Then again, that's just me.

[neodragzero]

The UC stuff Graham recommended is gold. Turn A Gundam is also pretty sweet. Truthfully, just avoid Gundam Seed Destiny. There's no point in watching it at all, and even if you truly can't resist, don't say I didn't warn ya when you watch past the first 13 episodes.

[sazabi24]

The UC stuff Graham recommended is gold. Turn A Gundam is also pretty sweet. Truthfully, just avoid Gundam Seed Destiny. There's no point in watching it at all, and even if you truly can't resist, don't say I didn't warn ya when you watch past the first 13 episodes.

Destiny...shudder.......:shakefist it wasted 16 hours and 40 minutes of my life

[dspr8_rugged]

If you can acquire them, watch EVERYTHING. And yes, that's including that one Gundam series that I hate so much, which is Gundam SEED Destiny, and the SD ones.

Don't listen to what hardcore Wingers, hardcore SEEDers, trolls, wannabe Gundam critics say. They take the fun out of watching.

[Zetta]

Concluding my post...

Notice how I don't actually insult one single series of Gundam, or recommend a single series above all others (particularly one like Zeta, which requires seeing the previous Gundam show) - because a true fan trying to recommend a series to a newbie would let them choose what they wanted to see, encourage seeing Gundam, and seeing where they want to go.

Then again, that's just me.

Honestly, I would never recommend any of the CE works. Mostly because I feel that if you wanna watch Gundam... why recommend the worst ones if you're trying to get someone hooked?

If I wanted to get someone hooked to Gundam... I'd start them off with Gundam Wing. The animation is still crisp enough so it doesn't seem off when compared to current anime while everything about it gets a rating from good to excellent from me (except, of course, Relena Peacecraft. Seems Zechs took all the awesomeness from that family...)

After that, then I'd recommend the different shows. But I would never recommend GS or GSD to anyone. Why do that if you can show them the much better version of those hackfests?

[3625]

This is a very biased view. Many people like the Seed stuff better than anything else.

And a lot of people hate Wing (I'm one of those). The political part of Wing is weak, and the fact that they made that one of the big things about the show just helps to highlight that.

Also, it doesn't help that the characters all seem very flat.

But hey, that's -my- opinion. Just trying to throw out the fact that not everyone hates seed. Actually, Wing was the first Gundam that I saw. I didn't like it, so I didn't care to watch anymore after that. Afterwards, I watched Seed out of boredom, and I got hooked. Now I'm working my way through ALL of the Gundam stuff (in order of production... and I just finished Victory, so I'm a decent way in).

[Zetta]

This is a very biased view. Many people like the Seed stuff better than anything else.

And a lot of people hate Wing (I'm one of those). The political part of Wing is weak, and the fact that they made that one of the big things about the show just helps to highlight that.

Also, it doesn't help that the characters all seem very flat.

But hey, that's -my- opinion. Just trying to throw out the fact that not everyone hates seed. Actually, Wing was the first Gundam that I saw. I didn't like it, so I didn't care to watch anymore after that. Afterwards, I watched Seed out of boredom, and I got hooked. Now I'm working my way through ALL of the Gundam stuff (in order of production... and I just finished Victory, so I'm a decent way in).

I prefered the SRW Z retelling of GS and GSD. It's a lot better and Shinn actually seems like an OK guy in there. Kira is still a huge douche though, and the other pilots don't mind telling him.

[Masurao]

I would recommend the UC era Gundam's first and foremost. After that it's kinda up in the air. The Wing, and SEED series seem 50/50 in terms of the haters, and fans. I personally enjoyed Wing, and didn't care for SEED. But, I would say try them out anyway and see for yourself.

[neodragzero]

I prefered the SRW Z retelling of GS and GSD. It's a lot better and Shinn actually seems like an OK guy in there. Kira is still a huge douche though, and the other pilots don't mind telling him.
:wha
Now there's something I really got to see.

[Zetta]

:wha
Now there's something I really got to see.

It's one of the awesomest things ever. Shinn was a pretty like-able guy and Shinji Ikari of all people told Kira to grow a spine and stop bitching.

I repeat...

Shinji Fucking Ikari. Apparently, spending the previous game in the presence of the Mazinger, Getter and UC crews turned him into a man... somewhat.

Then again, even the women are more manly than Kira. Case in point, Noriko from Gunbuster is one of the first pilots you get :ho

[Suzumebachi]

You should start with the original Gundam series and it's OVAs, the alternate universe stuff (G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam X), THEN Gundam Seed so you'll understand just how shitty Gundam Seed is and why Code Geass is just a massive collection of overdone cliches.

[Zetta]

You should start with the original Gundam series and it's OVAs, the alternate universe stuff (G Gundam, Gundam Wing, Gundam X), THEN Gundam Seed so you'll understand just how shitty Gundam Seed is and why Code Geass is just a massive collection of overdone cliches.

To be fair, R1 was decent with the entire Gundam/Chessmaster/Death Note mix they tried to pull. Then they just had to ruin it.

[mystictrunks]

Just go in chronological order.


Destiny = Pure garbage though.

[neodragzero]

It's one of the awesomest things ever. Shinn was a pretty like-able guy and Shinji Ikari of all people told Kira to grow a spine and stop bitching.

I repeat...

Shinji Fucking Ikari. Apparently, spending the previous game in the presence of the Mazinger, Getter and UC crews turned him into a man... somewhat.

Then again, even the women are more manly than Kira. Case in point, Noriko from Gunbuster is one of the first pilots you get :ho

Holy crap. I'm suddenly in need of a PS2...