Kidô Senshi Gundam

After almost ten years of giant toys ruling anime, 1979 was the Year of the Gundam. Although 25 years old by now, and cheaply produced at the time, this anime is still very enjoyable and deep. Many are the reasons of its success... some here below:

• No aliens coming to rule the Earth. This is a war for independence. Men against men. Same blood color;

• No good guys vs bad guys. Here everyone fights to survive, it doesn't matter if they agree with war reasons or not. It's everyman fight.

• No giant samurai robot vs. monsters from outer space. Robots in "Gundam" are conventional mass produced weapons as good as tanks or choppers, for both sides. They need energy, fuel, ammo, maintenance, logistic, recover, repair, spare parts. Al these goods are often unavailable in the middle of the battlefield;

• No heroes. Just ordinary people, youths throwed in the middle of a war they didn't want and still can't understand. And, in some of them, Fear will ignite boys' growth to become men;

• no fairy tales. In Gundam people, lots of main characters, dies. Often in ungloryous ways. Often in second rank battles. But they always die for what they think is right. Sacrifice to protect a friend, not to win a battle;

Even being closer to war movie than to Sci-Fi, Gundam is still known as one of the most important and revolutionary examples of Science Fiction. I often ask myself why a good expansive Hollywood adaptation of first Gundam series hasn't still be made...

I was quite surprised after watching this cartoon. This is not a usual 20 minutes long toy commercial. In fact, the gundam itself doesn't appear too much in every episode. The plot is more focused on the characters. It's not repetitive, there are no reused animations for battle scenes or any scenes and the place actions are constantly changing from space to Earth, from air to water, and of course, orbital stations. Hell, it even has a side-story! In other words, this anime is way before its time.

It's a story about war and how cruel and pointless one can get. People are dying all the time. Every now and then we get to know some new characters and at the exactly same point we start to like them they get killed. This anime is not for kids. It's for all ages. Its influence on some other cartoons is huge (Transformers, Macross, Neon Genesis Evangellion,...). You should definitely check this one out.

Until this story came out, animated story was considered one for kids. This story talked about a war for the very first time. There were no good guy or bad guy who would confront each other. There were two different justices for both sides and not only just simple purpose as "justice", but also there were intrigues, doubts, treacheries, and personal grudges in both sides. Since this story talked about a war, it also covered for civilian casualities which lead to an uncountable number of orphans, refugees, minors who were forced to fight, and painful separations of such minors and their families.

After this, story like simple confrontation of good and evil is considered one for really small kids.

Many people pass up the Mobile Suit Gundam TV for the Movie trilogy and you would be making a big mistake to pass up the TV series. Why? Because it was the first Gundam series ever. This was originally supposed to be a 52 episode TV series but had to get cut down to 39. Then Tomino, the director and creator, asked for 4 more episodes and he got them to make the count 43 and created the greatest ending to gundam. Though, and I'm not going to spoil anything but the final battle is much more epic in the movie trilogy than the TV series only because the show was getting canceled and things had to be rushed but whatever was rushed in the TV series was fixed or slowed down in the movies. Theanimation, though from 1979 and 1980 looks really good. I've seen anime from the mid-late 80's and in every gundam series animation, character and mecha designs are all high quality and have the power to stand up to newer anime, but if you were born into watching your anime bright and digital, circa. 1997, then you may be put off by it's animation style however that's your problem for missing something so great because of the animation. I highly, highly, recommend that you see the TV series first but only until episode 38 then watch the movie trilogy because it will be well worth it.

Macross, Evangellion, and Patlabor. All of these series pale in comparison to the original mecha piloted by a young man with a competitive spirit.

Young protagonist Amuro Ray is pulled out of his everyday monotonous life and is thrown headfirst into adventure and war just by pushing a button or two. Amuro must pilot the Gundam to save his friends. Rivals are made, obstacles are presented, and battles are fought, and Amuro through it all becomes a man and a great pilot, but that's only half of this war story. The other half is about the man in red, Char Aznable, the mysterious masked man who is an ace pilot for the fascist Zeon army, who always pilots red mechs, his signature color, hence his nickname "the Red Comet". No one knows where he came from or what his true objectives are, and this is what draws you in to him. His rivalry with Amuro takes center stage in much of the series, and it keeps you on your toes. Just when you think you got it figured out the battle situation changes.

If you are thinking this show is the campy "good guy always prevails over bad guy" cliché, you're in for a rude awakening. The plot and character's features are a staple for future Gundam series, such as Gundam Wing and more recently Gundam Seed. The formula is the same, the main character is a young man thrown into war and finds a bitter enemy in an enigmatic blond masked man. The formula is interpreted differently in both these shows, but Amuro and Char set the standard for an enjoyable plot that can be imitated in many different ways. Always imitated but never duplicated.

Old men tell me War and Peace is something everyone should read, and I tell them Mobile Suit Gundam is something everyone should see. Sure it has giant robots killing each other but behind the machines there are elements of war that are all around the world today. The pitfalls and the possibilities, the consequences of battle and the reason to fight. I rank Mobile Suit Gundam up there with Platoon and Full Metal Jacket since it shows how violent and horrid war can really be.

The definitive anime for 20+ years, Mobile Suit Gundam. Who will survive?