Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)

[daveblackeye15]

I was lucky enough to finally come across this again and see the full series.

Back in the day when Cartoon Network was quite Godly, they got Gundam Wing, a pretty cool series about an alternate universe where an overpopulated earth created Space Colonies called Sides. In pretty much all Gundam Universes the main military forces are giant robots with Gundams tending to be more powerful types.

Yes giant robots but nothing like Voltron or Getter Robo, these kind of robots are like vehicles where they run out of ammo, need repairs, can be common, and even get destroyed.

Mobile Suit Gundam was pretty much THE series that created this all new genre of Real Robots and eventually would be a smash franchise. Though this first series has a few touches of Super Robots (pilot falls into the cockpit, some mechas are too unbelievable or too weird weapons), its very entertaining but most importantly is had something else that most robot series never had: character development. We meet most of them in the first episode and as the series goes on some people closer, further, some hate each other, some live and some die, its satisfying to say that I look back and see that the characters are different from when they started. And damn does it have a slamming two part finale!

Surprisingly a lot of these Gundam series' are quite merchandise driven, but like G.I.Joe, Transformers, and He-Man (no hate against you guys but...) the writers and directors really seemed to do their damnest to give a quality and thought provoking, and action packed, show and they seem to succeed very often.

It was drag, but back in 2001, when Cartoon Network aired MSG, there were only about five episodes left when 9/11 occurred and the series was promptly pulled. Sheesh, in a time of fear (I was only 13-14 then) I really could have used that cool mecha cartoon to cheer me up. So eight years I finally see those episodes and boy they had quite the whammys in them.

Point is: Mobile Suit Gundam is a classic, though it starts a bit slow you'll love it in the long run. Recommended for any  giant robot fan. Zeta Gundam, the sequel is also superb but darker.

[akiratubo]

I hate Amuro.

[InformationGeek]

As strange as this sounds coming from an anime fan, I am not a fan of Mobile Suit Gundam or any of its spin offs.  I just never got into the big Gundam suits kind of shows.  The first two I ever gave a chance were Code Geass and Gurren Lagann.  Since watching those two, I now have a depressed and sad feeling about watching anything revoling mechsuits.  Damn those heart tearing ending and gut wrenching twists from those shows.