T5W-Top 5 Gundam Entries

Welcome to Top 5 Wednesday’s (or T5W for short)

As the title might suggest, every Wednesday (as often as I can) I’ll be delivering Top 5 lists for anything from series to characters to weapons to mecha to movies to whatever else I can think of ranking (I kind of already did this with Otakon as a prototype/backdoor pilot).  And to kick it off, figured id start it off with another shout out to my Blog’s Namesake. 

 So here we go, my picks for the Top 5 Best Gundam Features. These are the shows and films I will always associate with the name and recommend to anyone who wants to get into it.  Note that these have all been released stateside and I haven’t seen much if at all of any of the unreleased shows (so Gundam ZZ, Gundam X, Gundam AGE and Gundam Build Fighters amongst others won’t be on this list)

 

 5. Mobile Suit Gundam

The legend starts here.  The war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, the trials and tribulations of Amuro Ray, the secret plotting of Char Aznable, the unforgettable journey of the young crew of the White Base and, of course, that legendary suit of robotic awesomeness that would spawn hundreds of new models and upgraded forms.  The series was best known for being the first Giant Robot show to feature humans fighting humans and the story excels at showing both sides of the conflict and the heroes and villains both can produce.  If you can handle the old school animation then this is definitely a show any Anime fan should see at least once all the way through.

 

4. Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team

Gundams in the Jungle.  It’s not just the name of the second episode, it’s what describes the series as a whole.  This is one of the few if not only Gundam series where the bulk of the action is Earth based and that leads to some of the most intense action of any Gundam show.  The mechs look like their pilots, worn and torn and ragged but still in the fight, on both sides.  But the big showcase of how good this show is when it comes to grand scale mecha action is the first part of The Shuttering Mountain, when elite Zeon pilot Norris Packard takes on the 08th MS Team single handidly and shows them that his suit is the least of their worries.  It’s the man piloting the suit who should scare them the most.  It all comes down to an almost out of options Shiro Amada using is Gundam’s broken arm as a weapon to stick it to the honorable warrior.  Few battles in the franchise have matched its ferocious combat and sheer enjoyment…and no spaceships in sight lol.

 

 3. Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Gundam 00 showed up at the right time for me.  Mobile Suit Gundam Seed did an admirable job updating the original story in a new universe if only it was just ok.  But it’s follow up, Seed Destiny, was abysmal, terrible, horrible, ridiculous…it was Gundam’s darkest hour.  Thankfully Gundam 00 came along to do its best to erase that atrocity from my mind (it will never be fully cleansed).  00 has some of the best characters, mechs and grand scale battles in Gundam in quite a while, following a terrorist organization, Celestial Being, and its Gundam Meisters mission to rid the world of war.  Every country pointing a gun at something is an enemy and when one fighting side thinks it’s ok when the Gundams show up and wipe out their enemies, they are horribly mistaken…they get taken down just as fast.  Throw in a cast filled with dark beyond dark pasts and you’ve an engaging tale of souls looking for redemption in a chaotic world who you want to find that perfect ending.  Plus it has the Gundam 00 Raiser, one of my main Gundams of choice in Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3, that thing is a monster.

 

 

 

2. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

When I first heard about Gundam Wing through a brief 15 second promo for a mysterious new show then called Gundam W on Toonami, my interest was peeked.  Then the show debuted with it’s regular title, Gundam Wing, in March 2000 and my world changed forever.  Wing was my first exposure to deep storytelling and more mature Anime than Dragon Ball Z (violent as it was), Pokemon and Digimon.  It rocked my world and I still love it dearly today.  This was the show that changed everything for me.  The Gundams, the characters, the twist and turns full story and while the animation hasn’t aged as well as it should it’s all those other elements that keep making this show a joy to watch every once in a while.  Plus it has Duo Maxwell, best Gundam pilot of all time with everyone’s favorite Gundam Deathsythe, how can you not love that guy?

 

1. Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack

For all my love of Wing, when it comes to going for broke epic action Gundam has never been finer than Char’s Counterattack.  Released in 1988, this was meant to, for some, close out the saga started in 1979.  Amuro Ray and Char Aznable are back at the forefront to settle a score going on for almost 15 years.  Armed with the ultimate Gundam (until the Unicorn), Amuro leads the Earth Federation into the final battle with Char and Zeon.  Asteroids collide, Mobile Suits throw down and the story hits all the right cords.  Who do you root for in this fight?  Who knows what’s best for humanity?  More importantly who is going to make it to the finish line and win the game?  If you’ve followed the story of Amuro and Char from the original Mobile Suit Gundam then this is an amazing payoff.  If you haven’t then this is the one Gundam feature to start with.  Because what this film did for the franchise has shown in other incarnations many years later.  What was meant to be the potential end of an epic story was just the end of an era and man has it been amazing ever since.

Fly Gundam! 35 Years and Going Strong!!!

 

New Top 5 List coming next Wednesday.  What shall it be?  That's a good question, you'll know it next week when I do lol.