Gundam Chronology

[Devils_Advocate]

Okay I need some help here. As rightstuf.com is having a Bandai sale, I was debating whether to try out this series. I will first state that I know nothing about it except that it is widely popular.

There are so many Gundams. I need to know the chronology. Where to I start? Is each series a true sequel or are there offshoots that are pretty much unrelated? I am a person that does not like to start in the middle of a series. I was thinking that some of the Gundam Series could be the same universe but otherwise be unrelated. Those could be easy to pick up as you don't need the history of the charaters.

Any help is appreciated. I will not buy randomly so unless I have an understanding of the chronology and an understanding of what series I really should start up with, I will not be buying any Gundam.

Thanks for the help.

D_A

[GWOtaku]

Okay, for Gundam stories there's the original UC timeline which involves several series and movies and then there are separate stories. Here's a chronological breakdown of each different story released here in the states.

Universal Century

1. Mobile Suit Gundam (get the movie trilogy if you can, IMO)
1a. 8th MS Team, Gundam 0080 (these happen at the same time as MSG)
2. Gundam 0083 (fills gap between MSG & Zeta Gundam)
3. Zeta Gundam
4. Char's Counterattack (awesome movie, ends the main UC arc)
5. Gundam F91 (another movie, set many years after CCA)

After Colony

1. Gundam Wing
2. Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (direct sequel, 1 year later)

Cosmic Era

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (sequel, 3 years later)

And then there's G Gundam, which is its own story and doesn't have a sequel. Doesn't really need one, it wraps things up nicely. If you like fighting anime or super robot anime at all, this may be your show.

I don't know how much money you've got. If you want to get started the MSG movies are a great choice since that's where it all started. If you don't mind old animation its great. Zeta is a very good follow up and would make it easier to understand Char's Counterattack, which is the best Gundam has to offer in my view...you don't *need* to see Zeta first though (I didn't). MSG trilogy + Zeta + Char's Counterattack will get you the essence of the UC story.

You may prefer to simply make a smaller purchase and know you're getting a complete story, in which case G Gundam, Gundam Wing, and Gundam SEED would all work for you. 8th MS Team and 0083 stand on their own pretty well too, even though they're part of a greater story. Just be sure to buy Endless Waltz if you get Gundam Wing, its pretty much essential viewing after watching the TV series.

I'll leave it to you to decide which is best, go with whatever sounds interesting. I'd recommend either Wing/Endless Waltz or the MSG trilogy first, but every fan has his own bias.

[rubberchicken]

How could you forget 0080... ;_;

[Zeonic Freak]

And you also forgot Double Zeta, Victory Gundam, and if you wanna add, G Saivor.

[GWOtaku]

0080 was mentioned in my post. Double Zeta and Victory aren't released in the United States so he can't buy them, and G Savior is better left forgotten.

[Funkmasta Zeph]

Your suggesting to skip the original Gundam TV series and watch the movie trilogy version?

[Jacob T. Paschal]

Your suggesting to skip the original Gundam TV series and watch the movie trilogy version?

The movie trilogy is closer to Tomino's vision, i.e. less super robot-esque.

[HellCat]

To be honest, the version of the show that is available to America is fairly poor. On the translation side you have a fairly flat dub cast, a missing episode by Tomino's request which was then available to Japanese fans and the OP/ED being replaced by the Toonami versions. Sunrise/Bandai pretty much screwed the English speaking fans just to secure the home market. On the actual story side- the show itself is good but you can definetly do with just seeing the movies. These aren't like the poorly handled SEED attempts, you're getting the meat of MSG in 3 easy chunks. As said, you also have some revisions like Tomino writing out useless gadgets that the sponsors insisted on for the TV version.

Since we have this thread, I might as well ask here- to save space, I'm considering replacing my DVDs with the relevant complete collection releases. However, I have some questions-

How are the cases? Are the discs easy to remove? Roughly how much space does each case take up?

Are there any changes to the discs? As far as I'm aware these are just repacks but I know there was a minor soundtrack change to Endless Waltz.

[GWOtaku]

I don't own any of the boxes yet but I've seen them in the store...I think they're like my Prince Valiant DVD sets, maybe a little wider than two standard-sized DVD Cases. They squeeze in 5 discs and some inserts and that's the package. It seemed pretty simple to remove discs to me. Maybe Bandai doesn't do it the same as the folks that put out Prince Valiant, but there can't be very many ways to pack these things.

To add in one more comment, its without a doubt a massive space saver.

[KuwabaraTheMan]

The movie trilogy is closer to Tomino's vision, i.e. less super robot-esque.

I think a big part of the TV vs movie debate for MSG stems from what you were introduced to. I personally was introduced via the TV show, so that's what I'll always consider the 'real' version. I'll give respect to the movies for doing a great job at condensing it, unlike most other Gundam compilaitons (Zeta, SEED, Destiny)

But the Televesion show will always be the version I reccomend to see first.

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I think a big part of the TV vs movie debate for MSG stems from what you were introduced to. I personally was introduced via the TV show, so that's what I'll always consider the 'real' version. I'll give respect to the movies for doing a great job at condensing it, unlike most other Gundam compilaitons (Zeta, SEED, Destiny)

But the Televesion show will always be the version I reccomend to see first.

The thing is, it's what is considered canon by Tomino, I think he sort of sees the TV series as a small nuisance. He didn't want the javelin, hammers, or G-Armor because they restricted the more scientific and realistic vision he was going for.

I suppose you can call the TV series a 'x draft', 'cause God knows, it went through dozen of rewrites during production and whatnot.

[HellCat]

One idea, I think it came from Mark in an old Gundam Watch post, is that in a sense the movies don't overwrite the show. All the extended events can still have happened, we just don't see them. This seems to be what reference books go with.

[Devils_Advocate]

I went with Gundam Wing, inclusive of the Endless Waltz OVA. I am assuming that all the different series have different characters and the characters do not cross over series.

The help is appreciated.

BTW, I am a she, not a "he" unless my mother lied to me all these years.

D_A

[Jacob T. Paschal]

I went with Gundam Wing, inclusive of the Endless Waltz OVA. I am assuming that all the different series have different characters and the characters do not cross over series.

The help is appreciated.

BTW, I am a she, not a "he" unless my mother lied to me all these years.

D_A

All of the Wing characters appear only in Endless Waltz and the actual series. Characters from the original 1979 series appear in Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam, as well as Char's Counterattack.

[Lutochris]

While we're on the subject, what's the story with the missing episode "Donan's Island" or whatever it's called. I saw the episode after seeing the rest of the series first, and I can't see why it wasn't included. I know Tomino didn't want it translated for some reason, but it seems like a pretty good episode to me. Also, it's actually kind of important in the story since it's the first time Amuro meets a Zeon soldier face-to-face, and sees the human side of the enemy.

[HellCat]

While we're on the subject, what's the story with the missing episode "Donan's Island" or whatever it's called. I saw the episode after seeing the rest of the series first, and I can't see why it wasn't included. I know Tomino didn't want it translated for some reason, but it seems like a pretty good episode to me. Also, it's actually kind of important in the story since it's the first time Amuro meets a Zeon soldier face-to-face, and sees the human side of the enemy.

It's said to be due to the lack of art control. I agree on it being included...I'd rather have kept that then Time Be Still, awesome Zeon hoverbikes not withstanding.

[Zeonic Freak]

All of the Wing characters appear only in Endless Waltz and the actual series. Characters from the original 1979 series appear in Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam, as well as Char's Counterattack.

Bright and Mirai were the only people you see from 0079 to 0093 (although Mirai made brief apperances) in every series, Salya was brief as well, for an episode or 2 throughout Zeta/Double Zeta timeline.