Ranking Gundam Part 4

At last, we’ve come to the cream of the crop, the top of the mountain, the Antena on a Gundam’s head. These are the titles that have scored a 9/10 or higher.  Funny enough and Spoiler Alert: There are no 10/10 title winners, weird.  It’s not that I don’t think Gundam is capable of it, there just always seems to be one slight thing off that keeps me from giving them a perfect score.  These though, there as close to near perfect Gundam experiences as you can get.  Let’s close out this month long special with my highest ranked Gundam features in the past 10 years at the Gundam Anime Corner.

 
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (9/10)

As the big climax to the story that began in 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam, Char’s Counterattack goes for broke and pulls out all the stops, delivering an epic finale deserving of the franchises first theatrical feature.  Sure some characters are noticeably absent and others are a giant pain to endure.  At the heart of this event are two men whose 14 year long duel gets the conclusion it deserves.  This is rightfully Char Aznable and Amuro Ray’s throwdown, everyone else is just along for the ride like the rest of the audience.
 

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (9/10)

A chance was taken moving the Gundam franchise into new worlds but G Gundam proved to audiences these worlds could still be Gundam at heart but with a bit more unapologetic fun.  I mean you cant really go wrong with Kung Fu fighting Gundams or a Gundam that looks like a Mummy, a Windmill or a Bull.  Throw in a loveable and very fleshed out cast of characters and a series long tournament arc premise that might as well make G Gundam a Shonen Anime and you’ve got Gundam at its arguably most fun.
 

Gundam Build Fighters (9/10)

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a kids centric Gunpla focused entry but man, it’s just a magical experience.  Looking past the Yu-Gi-Oh esque style of having Gunpla duke it out, Build Fighters is an absolute love letter to the Gundam franchise and meant to appeal to not just kids but fans who started out with Gundam as kids like I did.  All the Easter Eggs and cameos are fun to look out for and the story isnt bad either.  It’s also a world where Gunpla and Gundam are the coolest things on the planet. How can you say no to a paradise like that?
 

Mobile Suit Gundam (9/10)

The one that started it all and it still holds up surprisingly well.  Mobile Suit Gundam changed the Mecha game forever by having Humans fight each other in Giant Robots instead of repelling Alien Invaders.  The story is as timeless as the imagery that is even entries today are still paying homage to.  The cast is so strong and iconic that their character types are also still being used in current entries (Char Clones anyone?).  For a show that didn’t succeed on its first go, Gundam has gone on to become something truly amazing and everlasting all thanks to the chances this revolutionary 1979 title took and it’s still reaping the praise and awards today.
 

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie 3-Encounters in Space (9/10)

While it doesn’t quite reach the impressive heights of its predecessor, Encounters in Space is still Mobile Suit Gundam theatricality at its finest.  Moreso than Soldiers of Sorrow, Tomino is able to breathe new life into the final act of the One Year War with brand new (at the time) 80s animation that makes the late 70s classic look crisp, clean and just plain gorgeous.  Best of all, the characters are still front and center and everyone still gets their proper conclusion.  It’s all the heartbreak, action packed awesomeness and Giant Robot mayhem Gundam changed the game with, only somehow better.
 

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (9/10)

08^th MS Team is unique in that it’s one of the few Universal Century offerings to have next to nothing to do with Space Combat or Newtypes.  Instead, we get a gritty and down to Earth war story about a rag tag group of pilots with Gundams cobbled together from spare parts fighting to weed out a Zeon operation in Southeast Asia.  The combat is brutal and exciting and animated to damn near perfection.  Add in a solid cast of likeable characters (mostly) and showing us what pilots without psychic abilities can do with a Gundam, you’ve got yourself an entry that can appeal to not just Gundam fans but fans of Mecha and War stories in general.
 
 
Turn A Gundam (9/10)

After a six year break from the franchise after Victory Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino returned to helm Gundam’s 20^th Anniversary project and it is, by far his magnum opus.  From the gorgeously stunning animation to Yoko Kanno’s score to the War of the Worlds inspired aesthetic, honestly the list of things Turn A Gundam gets right is pretty long. Suffice to say, this story about two worlds colliding feels like the Gundam tale Tomino has always wanted to tell and feels like his most hopeful entry, emphasized by the eternally optimistic Loran Cehak, one of the franchises best lead characters.
 

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (9/10)

If you’re a lifelong Gundam fan like myself, even one who wasn’t born to watch the original series back in 1979, The Origin is a special gift we always kind of wanted but never knew how we’d feel when we got it.  The Universal Century history books are opened like never before and the rise of Char Aznable, the Zabis and the march towards the One Year War are thrilling, engrossing and hard to look away from.  The character designs invoke their late 70’s origins (no pun intended) while the CG Animation makes helps emphasize just how big of a game changer Mobile Suit combat became for mankind.  Every saga has a beginning but few are as legendary as Gundam: The Origin.  Now…when are we getting our full Anime Series treatment of the Origin Manga? (this OVA only covers the Char Origin Arc).

 
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Movie 2-Soldiers of Sorrow (9.5/10)

The middle part of a trilogy can be the toughest entry.  Not only do you have to continue a story and set up the finale, you also have to make it stand just fine on its own.  Soldiers of Sorrow not only does both of those just fine, it somehow surpasses its source material.  With new animated sequences, events being moved around or all around changed, the movie still carries all of the emotional impacts of the White Base crews trials and tribulations across Planet Earth.  Plus this is where a lot of the new animation Tomino could use post 1979 really came in handy when it comes to making all of the mecha and action live up to their potential.  It goes without saying, this movie is incredible and the strongest chapter of the Gundam Compilation Trilogy.
 

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (9.5/10)

Gundam 0080 does in six short episodes what most TV Anime can barely do in 13-26 episode runs.  The characters, the tragedy, the messages of war and loss, the action, the Ghibli style animation, the music, this is Gundam at its most damn near perfect.  It’s also got one of the coolest, most underrated Gundams  (the Alex) and pilots in the franchise (God I love Christina Mackenzie).  The only thing holding it back from a perfect 10 is the inclusion of the villain with the silliest name (Colonel Killing, seriously?).  By the time you reach the end credits, you’ll be bawling your eyes out and cheering the OVAs successes, not bad for Gundam’s first OVA to mark it’s 10^th Anniversary.
 
And that’s all of the Gundam I’ve covered thus far at the Gundam Anime Corner.  But we’re far from done with it.  While I have my fingers crossed I’ll be able to review Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom at some point this year (Late Summer 2024 I hope), we have more immediate title incoming to kick off Year 11.  Where might it fall on this long list of rankings?  The answer to that question kicks off on April 1^st as we get to my long awaited review of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.  Suit up.