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Gundam

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Gundam is one of the longest running meta-series of anime featuring giant robots. Gundam is the collective term for the Universal Century (UC) series like Mobile Suit Gundam and series in alternative timelines, such as Gundam Wing, made by Sunrise Inc.. The name "Gundam" itself stems from a variety of theoretical sources, most commonly attributed to a need to conform with common giant robot naming conventions during the 1970s.

Overview

Concept

Mobile Suit Gundam was developed principally by Yoshiyuki Tomino, along with a changing group of Sunrise creators who went under the collective psuedonym "Hajime Yatate".

The celebrated series was originally titled Freedom Fighter Gunboy or simply Gunboy, because the title robot was armed with a gun and the target demographic was young boys. In the early stages of production, there were numerous references to the word freedom, such as the White Base being originally named Freedom's Fortress, the Core Fighter as the Freedom Wing, and the Gunperry named the Freedom Cruiser. The collective Yatate team combined the English word Gun with last syllable of the word Freedom, Dom, to form the word Gundom. Tomino then changed the name to the current title Gundam, suggesting that the name Gundam signifies a power wielding a gun that is strong enough to hold back enemies like a dam holds back floods.

Innovation

Gundam is a turning point in the history of anime and manga, as it is credited for inspiring the Real Robot genre. Real Robots (popularly known in English as mecha, a re-borrowing of the Japanese abbreviation for the English word "mechanical") differ from their Super Robot forebearers on a few stylistic and thematic points such as attempts at realism in robot design and the thematic and ethical role of the robots. Zambot 3 was an earlier program by Tomino which helped develop these ideas.

The main theme of all the various Gundam series is always the harsh depiction of the atrocities of war. All the machines, including the Gundams, are always depicted realistically as machines, they run out of energy and ammunition, they break and malfunction like all machines eventually do. The technology, at least that of the Universal Century, is practical and derived from true science, including Lagrange points in space, the O'Neill cylinder as a living environment, and energy production from helium-3 (Minovsky Physics).

The narration is always revolving around the emotions of the characters, usually thrown into conflict without much choice and faced with death, destruction and dehumanization. With few exceptions, there are no absolute good guys and bad guys; all have their motives. Politics of war are always lurking in the background, as it is in real wars. Gundam also features true to life issues and clear political ideas.

Finally, most of the stories are basically structured as coming-of-age dramas, where the main protagonist (and sometimes his main antagonist) and most of the cast personalities, points of view, and actions may (or may not) change dramatically as the events on the series unfold. This makes the plot more real: while on early Super Robot series, the hero and cast usually act in the same predictable manner on most episodes, in most of the Gundam series the characters' personalities and actions are transformed/developed by the turn of events surrounding them (the best example of this is how the personalities of longtime rivals Amuro Ray and Char Aznableare portrayed as they come of age through their different experiences in the Gundam saga).

Gundam calendar systems

Most early Gundam works take place in the Universal Century calendar system, which is considered the most developed. Later series take place in alternate calendars or timelines, which are mostly completely unrelated to the original Universal Century calendar system.

English-speaking fans have interpreted "Seireki" (a wordplay homonym of the Japanese term for the A.D. Western calendar) to mean "Correct Century" or "Correct Calendar," but Sunrise itself has not established an English translation for "Seireki" or the English abbreviation expansion for "CC". Bandai and Japanese-speaking fans unofficially refer to projects not directly related to the first Gundam series or its staffers (such as Gundam Sentinel and G Gundam) as "Another Gundam" stories, and to projects made after 1989 as "Heisei Gundam" stories. On the survey for the game that would become Gundam True Odyssey, the Cosmic Era series (including Astray) were collectively referred to as "21st Century Gundam". English-speaking fans have used "Alternate Universe" or "AU" as a nickname for the stories that do not take place within the Universal Century timeline, but this unofficial nickname is not used in Japan.

Distinctive characteristics

Gundam is the name or nickname of several mobile suits or mobile fighters, although some works such as G-Saviour and Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO do not have units named Gundams.

In the Universal Century timeline, Gundam is the name of the Earth Federation's first experimental general-purpose mobile suit, which is incredibly powerful compared to most of the mass-produced models eventually used by either side. Afterwards, many powerful mobile suits based off of the design of the Gundam also carry the name, such as the Gundam Mk. II, Zeta Gundam, Victory Gundam, etc. All Mobile Weapons have serial numbers, usually additions to previous Mobile Weapons in its lineage. For example, the Earth Federation in the Universal Century universe used "R" to designate mobile suits with "X" for experimental mobile suits, "GM" or "GC" for production mobile suits derived from the original V-Project suits and "MS" for production mobile suits derived from One Year War-era Zeon mobile suits.

In the After Colony timeline, the word Gundam refers to most mobile suit constructed out of a special alloy, called Gundanium, which can only be produced in space. This alloy gives the Gundams near invincibility. Every Gundam has a unique name that befits the nature of the suit and/or its origins, such as Wing Gundam, Gundam Heavyarms, Sandrock Gundam, Gundam Deathscythe, or Shenlong Gundam.

In the CC (Seireki) timeline, the name Gundam is given to the White Doll/Turn A mobile suit by Corin Nander. Corin Nander was an ace pilot who was placed under suspended animation as punishment and the color scheme of the Turn A mobile suit reminds him of the Gundam mobile suits from previous eras.

In the Cosmic Era works, the word Gundam is never used in an official sense. However, there are numerous mobile suits which share the properties of Gundams from other series. In an informal homage to other Gundam series, all of these unique mobilesuits use operating systems with complicated acronyms, and these acronyms always simplify to the word Gundam. Most characters simply refer to these units by their names, such as Duel, Buster, Blitz, Strike, or Aegis, but a select few characters refer to them as Gundams, a trend which started with Kira Yamato and spread to a few close friends, as well as the subordinates of Neo Lorrnoke, who subconsciously remembers the term despite a form of amnesia. The name is used widely outside the animation in the merchandising of Cosmic Era toys and models.

In the G-Saviour movie there is no allusions to 2Gundam" whatsoever, not even mentioning the word. Since the story takes place after the biggest time-gap in between continuities in the Universal Century, people probably forgot about the Gundams entirely. In both Gundam F91 and Victory Gundam there are hints of this as people referred to the F91 and the Victory Gundams as 'the super-machines from history', and dubbed them Gundams.

The different series have had different ways of maintaining the tradition, and the only unique feature that all Gundams have in common is the name. The following characteristics are distinctive (but not unique) to many Gundams:

  • Humanoid form
  • Face with two human-like eyes, which flash when the unit is activated
  • Ornament on head resembling a V-shape, sometimes units possess two V-shapes
Exceptions: some models from Victory Gundam; Turn A Gundam's fin is placed on the chin
  • Superior performance, in comparison to other mobile suits/fighters
Exceptions: The Gundams in Mobile Fighter G Gundam

The Gundam franchise

Animated/live-action series and movies (in order of release)

For the listing of the series on chronological order of the depicted events, see the individual timelines' pages.

Original Design series/Variations

Due to the sheer popularity of the Gundam franchise, especially the Mobile Suit design, several Original Design series were published. These series are drawings and precise specifications for additional Mobile suit units not found in the original animated material.

  • Mobile Suit Variations (1983) - a.k.a. MSV, the variations from the One-Year War, considered to be official and canonical
  • Mobile Suit X (1984) - a.ka. MSX, new models for a proposed but never produced new animation series, considered to be official and canonical
  • Z-MSV - variations from the Zeta Gundam series
  • ZZ-MSV - variations from the Double Zeta Gundam series
  • CCA-MSV - variations from the Char's Counterattack movie
  • Kunio Okawara's MS Collection (M-MSV) - Kunio Okawara's personal reinterpretations
  • F91-MSV - variations from the F-91 movie
  • V-MSV - variations from the Victory series
  • SEED-MSV - variations from the SEED series
  • SEED Destiny MSV - variations from the SEED Destiny series

Manga and novels

See main article Gundam Manga and Novels.

The manga narration of the original series is published in English in North America by a variety of companies, such as Viz Communications, Del Rey Manga, and TokyoPop, among others. Gundam manga is also published in English in Singapore by Chuang Yi.

Video games

Following the popularity of Gundam, various video games feature original characters previously not found in other media. Some video games have been converted into comics or novels.

GamesBook titlebook type
Mobile Suit Gundam Side StoryGundam Blue Destinycomic
Gundam Side Story: Rise from the Ashes機動戦士ガンダム外伝―コロニーの落ちた地で…〈上〉角川スニーカー文庫
機動戦士ガンダム外伝―コロニーの落ちた地で…〈下〉角川スニーカー文庫		Novel
Mobile Suit Gundam Lost War Chronicles機動戦士ガンダム戦記―Lost War Chronicles〈1〉角川スニーカー文庫
機動戦士ガンダム戦記―Lost War Chronicles〈2〉角川スニーカー文庫		Novel
Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic FrontZEONIC FRONT―機動戦士ガンダム0079〈1〉角川スニーカー文庫
ZEONIC FRONT―機動戦士ガンダム0079〈2〉角川スニーカー文庫		Novel

There is also a Half-Life 2 mod called Mech Assault Genesis, based on Gundams.

Super Robot Wars

The Gundam meta verse makes regular appearances in the Super Robot Wars series by Banpresto. In fact, there hasn't been a single game which hasn't featured at least one Gundam series and characters. Some series come and go however, but Amuro Ray, often in the RX-93 Nu Gundam, is a regular character and has actually never missed a single game. This changed in Super Robot Wars J for the Game Boy Advance. This title was the first in the series history to not have many of the standard characters that have appeared in every game to date such as Amuro. So far, almost every single major Gundam series and then some has made at least one appearance in the series.

The Mobile Suit units are considered the representing unit in the "Real Robot" type of mecha. The games units are often separated by being "Super Robots" (powerful mecha that often have infathomable powers and technology, but have a shorter range of movement), and "Real Robots" (mecha that are physically weak, but have a wide range of movement for the most part). There have been so many Mobile Suit units that its impossible to tell a distinct style, however generally Mobile Suits are extremely agile and have an enormous variety of different weapons.

Series based on Gundam models

Although not directly related to Gundam, these series incorporate Gundam models as part of the stories:

Merchandise

Bandai, the primary licensee of the Gundam trademark, makes a variety of products for the Gundam fan. Other companies produce unofficial toys, models, t-shirts, etc.

Categories of products include the Mobile Suit In Action or MSiA action figures, and Gundam Models in several scales and complexity levels. Generally, each series listed above will have its own set of products, although the MSiA and Gundam Models lines, such as High Grade Universal Century may extend across series.


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