Ultimate guide to Gundam

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
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With Beez reigniting Gundam mania in the UK, you wouldn't be alone in having trouble deciphering the complex chronologies of Mobile Suit Gundam and its alternate universe.

It's great then that Andy Glass (originally posted via his web-blog) has allowed us to publish his Ultimate Guide to Gundam, a lengthy article that explains the complex worlds of Gundam and the various series they comprise of. Everything from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam to Turn A Gundam has been explained, so if you're curious about the famous Gundam franchise but unsure where to start; this article is an essential read.
 
Nicely written. Have to say - ever the optimist - I actually rate Turn-A Gundam's chance of release in Movie form as quite high. I doubt the potential for a full series release, but beez does seem to be relatively keen on compilations. Oh and G-Saviour is a, certain, definate No for UK release. It's officially been ousted, discontinued and is no longer even considered cannon.

And as an appendix to the article, just because I have it on my HDD:

Chronological (In terms of RL release)

* Mobile Suit Gundam - a.k.a. "First Gundam" / "Gundam 0079" (TV: 1979; compilation movies: 1981–1982)
* Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV: 1985; compilation movies: 2005)
* Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta (TV: 1986)
* Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (movie: 1988)
* Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVAs: 1989)
* Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (movie: 1991)
* Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVAs: 1991; compilation movie: 1992)
* Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (TV: 1993)
* Mobile Fighter G Gundam (TV: 1994)
* New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (TV: 1995, compilation OVAs: 1996)
* Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OVAs: 1996)
* After War Gundam X (TV: 1996)
* New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (OVAs: 1997, compilation movie: 1998)
* ^A^ Gundam: Called Turn 'A' Gundam (TV: 1999, compilation movies: 2002)
* G-Saviour (live action movie: 2000)
* Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (TV: 2002, compilation specials - 2004)
* Superior Defender Gundam Force (TV: 2003-2004)
* Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War (movies: 2004)
* Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (TV: 2004)
 
Great stuff. I could be a pedant and mention a couple of episode count errors, but thats all. Very concise and well written. Good work!
 
A useful article. I plan to use it as a checklist in deciding which series to watch next. Well done to Andy Glass, and thanks to him for allowing this to be published here.
 
Thanks for all the kind words. I've updated the version on my blog with a few minor corrections and additions, so thanks for reminding me about them. Paul has been made aware, should he chose to update this one too.

As for Turn A, while I'd love to see a local release of the movies, I think Beez has more important titles to release than such a relatively obscure and unpopular Gundam title. It'll probably be the last Gundam to get a US release, and I can't see it coming out for a few years - meaning we won't see it for much longer, if at all. :(
 
I found this article a good read and open my eyes to alot of gundam serie i didnt even know about, which nnow i want to see. Ive only very seen the new gundam serie like wing and seed but i would like to see some of the older stuff as i enjoyed seed alot (not wing found it boring).
 
Sir Haggis said:
I think Beez has more important titles to release than such a relatively obscure and unpopular Gundam title.
Click to expand...
As I see it, the obscurity and popularity of a title in Japan doesn't really matter for much. Turn-A was abandoned by Japan because of a market dynamic, rather than quality: People were just completely disinterested by Gundam at this time.

Because so little of the Gundam that fatigued the Japanese market has been released outiside of Japan, the market dynamic isn't the same. Gundam Wing was hardly astronomically successful in Japan (about half as popular as the big Gundam series, about twice as popular as Turn-A), yet it solely kicked of western interest in Gundam, and is probably still the most widely watched series of all.
 
I'll agree to a lot of that. If Turn-A was marketed with the same intensity as SEED, I wonder if things would have turned out differently...

At the same time, when I said Turn-A was obscure and unpopular, I meant in the US specifically. Many western Gundam fans will have never seen it (until recently at least), and those that have, have divided opinions. Even with Bandai pushing the Gundam franchise as they are stateside, they're unlikely to want to take the financial risk and produce something that will only appeal to a small portion of an already limited number of fans.

The Zeta box set sold well and surprised Bandai, because they were unsure if there was the demand for it - but because it's been around the block a bit longer, more people had the chance to see it. Turn-A doesn't have the same level of popularity as Zeta, so it's understandable they don't want to take the risk just yet. The Turn-A movies may well provide a way of gauging numbers, but I don't think we'll see them in the US until Bandai really starts running out of stuff, much less here - Beez only release stuff here after all the work's been done, and are being very cautious with their Gundam releases. The current market slowdown is hardly going to help matters, either.

Of course, I'm no expert or market analyst. You'd really have to ask someone at Beez or BEI. Can't stop me from hoping though.
 
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