Mobile Suit Gundam

I used to be really big into Anime. I have faded away from it over the years, but there is still one show that I absolutely love. The original Mobile Suit Gundam. This anime came out in Japan in the late 70s, and it revolutionized their industry. This was also the first mainstream anime to feature a "robot" that wasn't super powerful, and it helped to launch the "Real Robot" genre of anime. Up until this point in time, Japan's anime with "robots" was generally considered to be part of the "Super Robot" genre. This genre featured robots that were unstoppable, had crazy powers, and they seemed to border on the edge of fantasy. Gundam, and the "real robot" genre, features robots (in the case of Gundam they are humanoid weapons that are controled by pilots) that are the opposite of the "Super Robot" Genre. The "robots" in Mobile Suit Gundam are called "Mobile Suits." Mobile suits were made for warfare, are piloted by humans, and are not indestructible like the robots in the other genre.

Ok with that out of the way, let's talk about Mobile Suit Gundam. The animation is garbage compared to today's standards. However, when watching this anime you need to put that aside. Mobile Suit Gundam is about the story, and action. It takes place in the year 0079 of the Universal Century (UC). AD was replaced with the UC timeline when outer space became colonized. According to the anime, more than half of mankind live in the space colonies orbiting Earth. The focus of the show is the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. The Zeon, who reside in the space colonies farthest from the Earth, launch a war of independance against the Earth Federation. They believe that the colonies shouldn't be controlled by a government based on Earth. The story of Mobile Suit Gundam begins years after the war started. The Zeon are winning, and half of Earth's population have been killed. The Zeon are winning the war not by numbers of soldiers they have (which is small compared to the Earth Federation), but by the technology they use. The Zeon have developed large human-like Mobile Suits called Zakus that are piloted by their soldiers. The Zeon's Zaku is the reason why they are winning the war.

The show starts on a shot of a large white space cruiser docking in a colony's space port. It is the White Base. Basically, it is a topic secret ship that is docking in a colony to pick up prototype Mobile Suits developed by the Earth Federation. However, the White Base was followed by a Zeon space cruiser. To make a long story short, the Zeon launch a sneak attack on the colony with their Zakus. They destroy most of the prototype mobile suits that the Earth Federation have built. The civilians living on the colony are evacuated to the White Base. One of the civillians, Amuro Ray, manages to climb aboard a prototype Mobile Suit.... The Gundam. The Gundam's power and armor is far superior to the Zakus, and it can easily destroy them.

Amuro manages to help the White Base escape from the colony, and over time becomes a member of the Earth Federation. Many of the civillians are forced to help man the White Base until it can return to Jaburo, the Earth Federation's HQ in South America. However, by this point they all have forged a strong bond with the ship. Many of them stay to fight in the war.

The show focuses on the White Base and their fight to survive. The Zeon know about the ship, and repeatedly attack it in an attempt to stop the Gundam. Later on in the series the Earth Federation gives the White Base new orders, and designates them as a decoy ship. They do this, because they know the Zeon try to attack the ship at every chance they get. They plan to use this to their advantage, so they can occupy the Zeons while they amass their forces in space.


The show doesn't sound like much while typing this, but it has an amazing story. The writing is amazing, and evolves over the course of the show. For example, the Zeon first start off as just some generic "bad guys." The home colony of the Zeon is revealed about halfway through the series, as well as their leaders. The Zeon are lead by a man named Duke Degwin Zabi. He is the father to four children who are all rivals with each other when it comes to who will be the successor to his throne. Eventually the his eldest son, Gihren Zabi, assassinates him and turns the Zeon into an all-out dictatorship.

Mobile Suit Gundam is my favorite Anime of all time followed by its sequel, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Zeta Gundam takes place years after the Zeon war for independence, and flips the idea of good vs. bad around. This time the Earth Federation are seen as the bad guys who are fighting the good guys of the Anti-Earth Union Group. Zeta Gundam brings back a lot of the characters from first series. The main character of Mobile Suit Gundam even teams up with his former rival in this series.

The story of Gundam finally ends in a movie released in 1988. However, there have been a number of spin-offs since then. Many of them take place between the events of Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. The more recent Gundam series (such as Gundam Wing, Gundam SEED, and Gundam 00) take place in an alternate universe where the UC timeline doesn't exist.

Anyways, I probably wrote too much about... but I just love this show. If you like Anime, I highly recommend you check it out. You may also be able to guess where my internet nickname, J_Zabi, comes from. I use this name for everything from website screen names, to the nicknames in video games.