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I was wanting to see what all the hype was about Gundam. I see there are many series, and wanted to know were to start. What was the first series, and the chronological order?

Thanks

sorral wrote:

I was wanting to see what all the hype was about Gundam. I see there are many series, and wanted to know were to start. What was the first series, and the chronological order?

This, friends, is a classic example of a simple question with a VERY complex answer.

Currently, the Gundam metaseries consists of seven alternate universe timelines. The original timeline which started it all, the Universal Century, is also the longest timeline with the most titles. The other six universes (the Future Century, After Colony, After War, Correct Century, Cosmic Era, and Anno Domini era, to give them in release order) typically comprise not more than 2-3 animated titles and a few manga titles.

Overall, the first series is the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, which ran for 43 episodes and was the start of the Universal Century timeline. The rest of the Universal Century titles follow on after that. Each of the alternate universe titles has its own "first" series and unique chronology. Note that production order does not necessarily follow chronological order... as the Universal Century in particular tends to jump around a bit, and on more than one occasion, multiple shows occur during the same timeframe.


The following is a rough chronological-order listing of the animated series in the Universal Century timeline. This list does not include canon manga:


The following shows occur, with some overlap, during the event known as the One Year War... a massive conflict that ran from January 3 of UC 0079 to January 1 of UC 0080. The titles are listed by the date of the first episode:

Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO 2: the Gravity Front (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam (TV, 49ep OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team (OVA, 12ep OR 1 movie)
Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVA, 6ep)

Following the conclusion of the One Year War on 1 January 0080, the chronology becomes much less tangled, and goes in the following order with no more overlaps:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVA, 13ep OR 1 movie)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV, 50ep OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (TV, 47ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (Movie)
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (TV, not out yet)
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (Movie)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (TV, 51ep)
G-Saviour (Live action movie)
(TIMELINE ENDS)



The other Gundam timelines are far, far simpler, as most consist of only one or two titles.

The Future Century timeline consists of only one show... Mobile Fighter G Gundam, which ran for 49 episodes.

The After Colony timeline consists of only one TV show, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, which ran for 49 episodes, and a three-part wrap-up OVA (with movie ver.) known as New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.

The After War timeline consists of only one show, After War Gundam X, which ran for 39 episodes.

The Correct Century timeline consists of the ∀ Gundam (read "Turn-A Gundam") TV series, which ran for 50 episodes and had two compilation movies. In supplemental materials, it's established that the events depicted in the Universal Century, Future Century, After Colony, and After War eras all occur in the same universe, just at different times in history, and that the year UC 0100 occurs about 3000 years before year 2001 of the Correct Century (putting the events of ∀ Gundam about 3,266 years after the One Year War. The Cosmic Era and Anno Domini era are not part of this convergent timeline.

The Cosmic Era timeline consists of:
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (50ep, TV OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (50ep, TV or 4 movies)
Untitled Gundam SEED movie (pending)

The Anno Domini era is the newest, consisting thus far of only the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 TV series, which ran for 50 eps and can be found on Sci-Fi's AniMondays block. There is a movie forthcoming, but we don't know if it's a compilation movie or an all-new feature.

My RECOMMENDATION would be that you start with the Universal Century first, and start that with the original 43 episodes of the Mobile Suit Gundam series, and then go from there to the MS IGLOO titles and 08th MS Team before you hit War in the Pocket. Then go from there in the specified chronological order.

After you're out of the Universal Century, there's no set order for the alternate universes, so watch in whatever order you want.

Seto Kaiba wrote:

sorral wrote:

I was wanting to see what all the hype was about Gundam. I see there are many series, and wanted to know were to start. What was the first series, and the chronological order?

This, friends, is a classic example of a simple question with a VERY complex answer.

Currently, the Gundam metaseries consists of seven alternate universe timelines. The original timeline which started it all, the Universal Century, is also the longest timeline with the most titles. The other six universes (the Future Century, After Colony, After War, Correct Century, Cosmic Era, and Anno Domini era, to give them in release order) typically comprise not more than 2-3 animated titles and a few manga titles.

Overall, the first series is the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, which ran for 43 episodes and was the start of the Universal Century timeline. The rest of the Universal Century titles follow on after that. Each of the alternate universe titles has its own "first" series and unique chronology. Note that production order does not necessarily follow chronological order... as the Universal Century in particular tends to jump around a bit, and on more than one occasion, multiple shows occur during the same timeframe.


The following is a rough chronological-order listing of the animated series in the Universal Century timeline. This list does not include canon manga:


The following shows occur, with some overlap, during the event known as the One Year War... a massive conflict that ran from January 3 of UC 0079 to January 1 of UC 0080. The titles are listed by the date of the first episode:

Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO 2: the Gravity Front (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam (TV, 49ep OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam: 08th MS Team (OVA, 12ep OR 1 movie)
Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 (OVA, 3ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVA, 6ep)

Following the conclusion of the One Year War on 1 January 0080, the chronology becomes much less tangled, and goes in the following order with no more overlaps:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVA, 13ep OR 1 movie)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV, 50ep OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (TV, 47ep)
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (Movie)
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (TV, not out yet)
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (Movie)
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (TV, 51ep)
G-Saviour (Live action movie)
(TIMELINE ENDS)



The other Gundam timelines are far, far simpler, as most consist of only one or two titles.

The Future Century timeline consists of only one show... Mobile Fighter G Gundam, which ran for 49 episodes.

The After Colony timeline consists of only one TV show, New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, which ran for 49 episodes, and a three-part wrap-up OVA (with movie ver.) known as New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.

The After War timeline consists of only one show, After War Gundam X, which ran for 39 episodes.

The Correct Century timeline consists of the ∀ Gundam (read "Turn-A Gundam") TV series, which ran for 50 episodes and had two compilation movies. In supplemental materials, it's established that the events depicted in the Universal Century, Future Century, After Colony, and After War eras all occur in the same universe, just at different times in history, and that the year UC 0100 occurs about 3000 years before year 2001 of the Correct Century (putting the events of ∀ Gundam about 3,266 years after the One Year War. The Cosmic Era and Anno Domini era are not part of this convergent timeline.

The Cosmic Era timeline consists of:
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (50ep, TV OR 3 movies)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (50ep, TV or 4 movies)
Untitled Gundam SEED movie (pending)

The Anno Domini era is the newest, consisting thus far of only the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 TV series, which ran for 50 eps and can be found on Sci-Fi's AniMondays block. There is a movie forthcoming, but we don't know if it's a compilation movie or an all-new feature.

HOLY CRAP!

Exactly...Gundam is a series that you can easily get confused over as all of the stuff from prior to the "truce" of 0080 is kind of muddled. All of the MS IGLOO stuff is pretty new (If I'm not mistaken) but it takes place before a lot of stuff in the UC timeline.

Great series, that Gundam....

Seto Kaiba wrote:

My RECOMMENDATION would be that you start with the Universal Century first, and start that with the original 43 episodes of the Mobile Suit Gundam series, and then go from there to the MS IGLOO titles and 08th MS Team before you hit War in the Pocket. Then go from there in the specified chronological order.

After you're out of the Universal Century, there's no set order for the alternate universes, so watch in whatever order you want.

Where were you when I started to watch!!

Yes I tried once to watch in "chronological order" only to be confused.

I did watch the ones with Amuro I believe? My favorite out of the bunch was The 08th MS Team. Very realistic. The thing about GUNDAM is its realism I guess. I started to like a character only to find out he/she was dead by next few episodes.

SIGHUP wrote:

I did watch the ones with Amuro I believe? My favorite out of the bunch was The 08th MS Team. Very realistic. The thing about GUNDAM is its realism I guess. I started to like a character only to find out he/she was dead by next few episodes.

Oh, yeah...don't get attached to any Gundam characters...After all, Yoshiyuki "Kill 'em all" Tomino is the creator...they all die miserable deaths in the UC timeline...for the most part, anyway.

SIGHUP wrote:

Where were you when I started to watch!!

Depending on when you started... either in the midwest, in the UK, or in Nagano, why?

SIGHUP wrote:

I did watch the ones with Amuro I believe? My favorite out of the bunch was The 08th MS Team. Very realistic. The thing about GUNDAM is its realism I guess. I started to like a character only to find out he/she was dead by next few episodes.

Amuro Ray only appears in a few of the Universal Century shows... he's in the original series, and he shows up again in Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack, but other than that he stays out of the way. Of course, he did set the standard for "whiny newtype protagonist" that later generations like Kamille Bidan, Judau Ashta, and Hathaway Noa later built on.

When I first started watching Gundam, I wasn't going in chronological order either, but I had the benefit of a good buddy of mine who is a huge Gundam fan (he goes by MegaWingZero on RT.com) explaining everything for me.

My first Gundam show was New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, and after that I didn't really get exposed to any until Gundam SEED started running in the anime block right before [adult swim]. Didn't really care for it, but I went out and got Mobile Fighter G Gundam on DVD not long after. What bumped Gundam up on my list of top anime titles was the MS IGLOO series. After that I dug into the Universal Century bigtime.

SETO

My first Gundam show was New Mobile Report Gundam Wing, and after that I didn't really get exposed to any until Gundam SEED started running in the anime block right before [adult swim]. Didn't really care for it, but I went out and got Mobile Fighter G Gundam on DVD not long after. What bumped Gundam up on my list of top anime titles was the MS IGLOO series. After that I dug into the Universal Century bigtime.

SAME HERE. WOW. AND THATS BECAUSE I WANTED TO WATCH DRAGON BALL Z RIGHT AFTER. JUST THAT I HAD TO SIT THROUGH GUNDAM. GOT HOOKED AFTER A FEW EPISODES AND THEN TRIED TO SEE OTHER UNIVERSES. LIKE DAVID, I GOT LOST.

OK, thanks all. I have the original series set up for delivery on my netflix account. It will be a few weeks before it get it (have some stuff for family viewing, and my wife has some shows coming first). I will watch it asap, and see if I like it.