#gundam after war x

[symskellet]

Moon based gundams

[roseillith]

[gundamnet]

[gremoria411]

How to get into Gundam

Because fuck it, I was gonna do one of these sooner or later anyway.

So you want to know what this Gundam thing’s about, maybe you like the mecha design, maybe you caught part of an episode one time and want to catch up, or maybe you saw a nice piece of Chamuro fanart and want to go to the source.

But there’s so many shows and timelines that it can be quite daunting on first look, so this guide is intended to give a rough overview.

I would however like to stress two four things beforehand however:

This guide is not intended as “The One True Way” or anything. There’s no harm it coming into it a different way, and these are only my own opinions.

There’s nothing stopping you from just watching one show and leaving it there. You don’t have to watch every single show going, even I’ve only seen most of these, not all. Gundam typically has variations on similar themes - it’s very nice watching multiple shows because they complement one another, but it’s not necessarily required.

I am very much an insider looking out here, so let me know if there’s any details I’ve missed.

I’m not gonna recommend these on a “if you like X, then watch Y basis”, mostly because I don’t personally find genre recommendations helpful, so I’d recommend picking based on promotional material (vibes, if you will).

I’ll be using this chart, supplied by the excellent@l-crimson-l, to illustrate everything.

Gundam as a whole can principally be divided into three sections: Universal Century (or UC), the Alternate Universes (AU’s) and the Build Series.

The AU’s are below the light blue line, near the bottom of the Chart, the Build Series is within the bright green line at the top-right corner of the chart and UC is the big line in the middle. We’ll talk about each of them individually.

The AU’s

The Alternate Universes were conceived as a way to get away from the continuity-heavy nature of Universal Century and provide an easy jumping-on point for new fans. The AU’s are standalone and require no prior knowledge, and are thus an excellent place to start. Honestly, I’d recommend quickly searching some promotional materials (like posters) and just going with the one you find most appealing based on that. They are (in production order):

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (1995)

After War Gundam X (1996)

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2007)

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011)

Gundam: Reconguista in G (2014)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (2015)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

There’s side series and movies and other things besides, but these are the mainline shows, if you will. I have specific notes on a few of them:

Witch From Mercury - It’s of a shorter length than is usual for mainline shows, so consequently it’s a much smaller time investment than the others.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - While undeniably rad as hell, I would recommend watching another AU first. G Gundam differs from its stablemates in a few key areas, and I find it helps to have a contrast to fully appreciate those differences.

Gundam AGE - is probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t like the art style and the technical explanations just got on my nerves, so I stopped watching.

Turn A and G-Reconguista are technically part of UC as well, but it’s not really crucial information so don’t feel like you have to watch UC first (I’m only including this detail for completionism).

I’ve found all the AU’s I’ve seen to be pretty good, so I’d say that which one you start with really just comes down to personal taste.

The Build Series

Is just kind of doing its own thing. The Build series is basically Buy Our Toys: the series. It’s got a far lighter tone, and I’ve had cause to compare it to pokemon prior. It’s also chock full of references and in-jokes to the other series.

Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try are the ones I’d recommend - they’ve got actual stakes and the fight scenes are really good.

Build Divers and Build Divers Re:rise I can’t recommend - I just find Build Divers aggressively boring. Build Divers Re:Rise is just okay - neither standout good or particularly bad. Its main flaw is that it’s a sequel to Build Divers.

The OVA’s are pretty much bad across the board - I’d particularly recommend avoiding Gundam Build Metaverse.

Universal Century

Universal Century is the big main timeline of Gundam, and is the timeline the original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 takes place in. There’s a tendency among certain fans to place UC as the one-above-all of Gundam, but I wouldn’t really go that far. It’s all pretty good, but I wouldnt really say one timeline is better than another (save personal preference, anyway).

Because UC is so big, it can be subdivided a couple times. The primary division is “Mainline” UC versus everything else. Basically there’s four-five shows in Universal Century from which everything else flows. As long as you know roughly what happens in these shows, then you can watch basically anything else in UC and have a good idea of what’s going on. These are (in order):

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) - sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

With Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010) as a nominal fifth (honestly I feel like you could argue either way).

The rest of the shows are:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989 Three-Episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991 Movie)

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991 Thirteen-episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1999 Twelve-episode OVA)

G-Saviour (2000 Live Action Movie) - nobody ever talks about or acknowledges this one, it’s just here for completionism.

Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo (2004-2009 Three OVA’s with three Episodes each)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015 Six-Episode OVA, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015 Eight-Episode Series, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis (2017 episode, adapted from a light novel of the same name. Later rereleased as Gundam Twilight Axis Red Trace, with additional footage)

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018 sequel movie to Gundam Unicorn)

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021 ongoing movie series, very much adapted from the novel Hathaway’s Flash)

Most of the other series relate to events in the aforementioned “mainline” shows in some way, but a lot of the sidestories set during the One Year War require very little introduction (Thunderbolt, 0080 and 08th MS Team). Similarly, works set in “Late UC” (F91 and Victory Gundam) carry on from the other series thematically but don’t have any plot connections, so they can all be watched without any background knowledge of the rest of the Universal Century.

Compilation Movies

Just a quick note here - many of the Gundam series have compilation movies, where either a whole series or part of one are compressed down into a movie. While each movie compares differently, they usually boil down to this: Compilation Movies usually have worse pacing, but really nice animation.

One of the great things about Gundam is that different shows offer variations on themes, so seeing how different characters react to similar situations, or how different settings change their approaches can make it incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t seen enough of SD Gundam to make any sort of recommendations there, and Manga is something I might touch on another day.

EDIT: Oh hey also: You can watch a good chunk of these on YouTube, for free, officially. The Official Gundam.Info YouTube channel rotates the series shown on its channel periodically. I think it’s got F91 and SEED on there currently? But it’s had Wing, 00 and Witch From Mercury before. Also all of the Build Fighters series are there.

So yeah, that’s a thing.

[vihra]

[amalgamasreal]

Surprisingly accurate.

[fostersffff]

Garrod really has the potential to sweep Judau and take the spot of "biggest shitass (affectionate) Gundam protagonist"

[cephalopadre]

Mechtober Day 1: the Gundam X!

[grayrazor]

Gundam X kind of explicitly states something that was subtext in Gundam and Zeta Gundam.

By being Earth-born psychics, Amuro and Tiffa are living refutations of Zeon Zum Daikun’s Newtype Theory and the Space Revolutionary Army’s Newtypism respectively.

There is no superior race, no wizards and muggles, no genetic chosen one who will bring a new age of peace (coughUnicorncough). We can’t just evolve our problems away. People with superpowers are still just people.

[alphamecha-mkii]

Gundam X Early Concept Art

[lets-talk-gundam]

The DT-6800 Daughtress

When tensions between the United Nations Earth and its surrounding space colonies erupted into a series of more and more devastating conflicts, both the Earth military and the Space Revolutionary Army invested significant material and manpower into developing new weapons systems to gain an edge.

By the outbreak of the Seventh Space War, the mainstay mobile suit of the United Nations Earth was the DT-6800 Daughtress, remarkable for being totally unremarkable.

As the main mass-production unit of the United Nations Earth during the Seventh Space War, the Daughtress saw action in every theater on Earth and in space, seeing many variants developed over time.

The machine proved so resilient that it even saw use after the cataclysmic mass colony drop that ended the war.

Many leftover UNE mobile suits were pressed into service by the Alternative Company, a megacorporation in control of most of North America following the end of the war.

The Daughtress also proved popular among the many Vulture groups operating on Earth. Vultures, independent scavengers and mercenaries, were known to extensively customize their machines.

The Daughtress was also used by the resurgent UNE as they began rising to prominence, with the faction even continuing development of the machine.

The NRX-018-02 Daughtress Neo saw extensive deployment by the New UNE during the so-called Eighth Space War, as several factions rushed to take control of the mysterious lunar-based D.O.M.E.

The Daughtress line of mobile suits would see further deployment by the mysterious Eyes of Space organization in A.W. 25.

The DT-6800 Daughtress was originally designed by Junya Ishigaki for the 1996 anime After War Gundam X.

This machine was chosen because I love AWGX and think it needs more recognition.

[symskellet]

can't believe they put yaoi couples , yuri couples and regular couples in gundam

[roseillith]

[gundamnet]

[nomadwolf]

"No one knows what this the next era will look like. However, whatever form the world may take, the Moon will always be there."

Recently finished rewatching After War Gundam X, and wanted to re-share my first ever custom Gunpla - a kitbash of MG Double X and MG Freedom 2.0.

Decals are from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, playing as ISAF ace Mobius One, also known as "The Ribbon Fighter" or "Grim Reaper". I was a big fan of Ace Combat growing up and looking back I think the idea of playing as an ace pilot led into me getting into the Gundam fandom.

[thaumazomai]

assorted gundam doodles; some requests, some not. second part to come soon!