Joined Jul 2004
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Bmount
I've completely skipped out on watching anything Gundam related. It wasn't really a conscience effort, just one of those things that happen for no apparent reason.

With that being said I'd like to start watching I'm just at a loss at what series to start at and what if any to avoid.

I read a few recommendations online but every person seemed to have a different opinion but generalizing the stuff set in the UC time period was the best and watch in order of release (less because of the story and more because the animation quality gets progressively better and many believe viewed out of order the drop in animation quality detracts from the story).

In watching Dragon Ball Z before Dragon Ball I experienced similar so most certainly I'll watch the older stuff first but has anyone seen all / some / most of the Gundam IPs? Are any skippable?

I'll most likely watch all the stuff set in the U.C. time period (Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, etc) but there's a few others that follow other time lines and from what I can tell they don't relate all that much. Any thoughts?
 
I have a movie somewhere in the tons of DVDs we own that is Gundam Wing. I liked it and thought it was very good. I have had intentions of starting to watch some of the series, but failed to get around to it. Looking at your post, I didn't know it had that many different time lines, or whatever. It sounds like they did the same with this as they did with Transformers. I thought Gundam was Gundam.

I have video games for PS3, Swancrystal, PS2, SNES, N64 that are Gundam. All very good games. So I am somewhat familiar with some of the characters, just not sure what part of the series they are from.

targetrasp said:
I've completely skipped out on watching anything Gundam related. It wasn't really a conscience effort, just one of those things that happen for no apparent reason.

Me too.
 
I really had no idea either until I started reading wikis. I also didn't realize there were so many iterations.

Heck, I've yet to make it through all of Robotech and there's only 3 and a couple of movies. I bought the complete collection in an amazon daily deal early this year and have barely gotten into the second series.

I like Macross, Gode Geass, Eureka 7, Raxephon, knights of Sidonia, etc. so I'm sure I'll dig Gundam. I was just looking at a lot of top XX mecha anime lists and gundam ips make up for most of the first 20 on virtually all of the lists. I was a bit shocked that Neon Genesis Evangelon and Gurren Lagen were in a lot of the top threes (I really couldn't get into either)
 
Definitely watch the U.C. Stuff in order of release, they're all pretty good standalone but yeah animation wise that would be best. The first series definitely has some "quality" moments with it's animation.

Outside of that the other are pretty self contained. G Gundam is just G Gundam, Gundam Wing is the series plus the OVA/Endless Waltz and Gundam Seed is Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny, and Gundam Seed Astray (which may have only been a manga).

Personally my favorite series is the MS 08th Team OVA, it may sound weird but it's more of a realistic take where Gundams are mass produced and their soldiers aren't gifted pilots but just like military grunts, it has a certain grittyness to it. It's an OVA so quality is definitely higher on the animation side and it's pretty much another side story in the U.C.
After that my second favorite is probably G Gundam but that one is the opposite where everything is over the top and is pretty much turned into a fighting tournament.

But yeah you pretty much got it right. Best to watch the stuff in order of when they were released. I'd say keep an open mind to all the series, some are love it or hate it. Although I can't speak for anything really after Seed. I kind of stopped watching there.

There's also a Novel that's a pretty good read, It was made/completed before they new they were going to be able to continue the anime so there are a lot of liberties.
 
I guess from what I read and your affirmations each time period (UC, AD, etc.) is it's own cannon and there's some movies and ovas that some relate to the cannon while others are just stories in their own right?

Maybe when summer hits and prime time tv goes to crap (like it does every summer) I'll pick up some of the series and start watching them.