The History of Gundam Part 1

Hey there everyone.  Wow, I cant believe that in all the years ive been working on this blog, ive never thought to do this.  Since I think of myself as a Gundam officianado and we’re already one week into what im calling Gundam Month Mark III (the first one was in 2014 when I reviewed Endless Waltz, Char’s Counterattack and F91 back to back; and the second was in 2017 when I reviewed 0080 and 0083 in the same month), I’m going the extra mile.  Besides reviews of Mobile Suit Gundam on Mondays and Fridays and Gundam themed Top 5 Wednesdays, for the month of April I’m doing a special 4 part look at the Gundam franchise from it’s humble beginning til now.  It wont be encyclopedic but just a simple breakdown of the last 4 decades of Gundam Mania, one decade per week.  If you know a lot about Gundam already, feel free to chime in and correct me if im off about a few details.  If you’re new, well this will hopefully be a fun history lesson and might even help you decide where you might want to start your Gundam experience.  And now, without further ado…THE HISTORY OF GUNDAM…(yeah for lack of a better title I’m adding clever subtitles to each part to compensate.  Enjoy everyone.)

Part 1-Gundam Rising (1979-1989)

The saga began in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam. Directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, this series changed a major trope of the Giant Robot genre.  Rather than having humanity battle aliens using giant robots, Gundam looked at a human civil war utilizing giant mechanical war machines called Mobile Suits.  At the forefront of a devastating conflict known as The One Year War, was Amuro Ray, a young man with special intuition, who finds himself thrust into the role of pilot of the titular Mobile Suit.  The series introduced many elements which would recur throughout the franchises existence: a young protagonist who is reluctant to fight, a mask wearing bad ass rival (in this case the King of those bad asses, Char Aznable), as well as the existence of a higher level, slightly psychic human being known as a Newtype.  Originally the series was planned to run for 50-52 episodes.  However, bad ratings saw the show ending earlier than intended.  However, Tomino was given enough advance notice in order to write a conclusion to the story, the 43rd episode.

There are many who compare the production legacy of Gundam to Star Trek and theyre not wrong.  Much like Star Trek: The Original Series, which saw a similar cancellation three years into a five year story, Mobile Suit Gundam gained popularity through re runs, a successful trilogy of compilation films, and the extremely popular Gundam Model Kits, which would later be known as Gunpla.  The continued popularity would lead to the resurrection of the Gundam legacy in 1985 with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.  Once again directed by Tomino, Zeta Gundam took the story in a much darker direction, forcing former enemies to work together against a corrupt peacekeeping force within the Earth Federation known as the Titans.  The show helped capitalize on Tomino’s nickname, “Kill Em All Tomino” as Zeta Gundam had a rather high body count by series end. 

Perhaps because of this, Tomino sought to lighten things up with the 1986 follow up series, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Double Zeta)…which didn’t fly well with just about anyone.  After all, you had the struggle for mankind which had a pretty hefty kill count replaced with Looney Tunes level villains and children who were more irritating than truly memorable.  Oh and a chicken kept futzing with the head of Gundam Captain Bright Noa.  Granted, Tomino did get the message and things returned to Zeta Gundam levels of dramatic by the second half of the series but it hardly helped salvage Double Zeta’s reputation.  However, Gundam has never always been about the super serious.  While Double Zeta wasn’t the best test bed for something funny, a sense of humor was essential for the SD Gundam mini film series that began in 1988.  Shrinking down your Mobile Suits and giving them cute giant heads wasn’t such a bad move as SD Gundam continues to appear in various incarnations today (there was even an SD Gunpla in a major role in Gundam Build Fighters Try and Gundam Build Divers).

The first decade of Gundam closed with two major projects.  The first was Tomino’s grand conclusion to the story he began in 1979 with 1988’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack.  Here, the legendary rivalry between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable concluded with the fate of planet Earth caught in the middle.  Though the end of the original story, this wasn’t Gundam’s end.  A year later, to mark the 10th Anniversary of the franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket was released.  Telling a short story set before the end of the One Year War, Gundam 0080 was a great success thanks to a short but emotionally packed story that ranks among many fans as one of Gundams finest hours.  The success of this OVA would pave the way for many more to come.  For as the second age of Gundam got ready to kick off, many had no idea just how much of a splash Gundam was about to make once again.