Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin

In the year 0068 of the Universal Century, Casval Rem Deikun's life is thrown into chaotic disarray after the assassination of his father, a prolific figure in the crusade towards civil rights for people who live away from the Earth's surface. Casval and his sister Artesia receive aid from soldiers who were loyal to their father, and the siblings are whisked away from their home, separated, and thrown into a twisted fate that sees them come into their own as soldiers and adults.

Years before stealing the name Char Aznable or his "Red Comet" moniker, Casval must contend with the rise of a militarized version of his father's ideology and his own vengeful nature as intergalactic war molds him into a legendary mobile suit pilot.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aznable, Char Main

Tanaka, Mayumi Japanese

Mass, Sayla Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Ray, Amuro Supporting

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Noa, Bright Supporting

Narita, Ken Japanese

Haro Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Ral, Ramba Supporting

Kiyama, Shigeo Japanese

Zabi, Mineva Lao Supporting

Zabi, Garma Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Shiden, Kai Supporting

Furukawa, Toshio Japanese

Sune, Lalah Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Taniguchi, Osamu Producer

Yasuhiko, Yoshikazu Director, Storyboard, Original Creator, Character Design

Imanishi, Takashi Director, Storyboard

Fujino, Sadayoshi Sound Director

Reviews

Mar 14, 2026

curryage

Recommended

Hands down, the best Universal Century series ever told! While it is true that you can watch this without any prior Gundam knowledge, you will surely be missing a lot of nuances. Watching previous series, namely 0079, Z, ZZ, Char's, 0080 and 0083, is indeed needed to maximize the immersion. Highly advisable to watch all UC series that I have mentioned.

The Origin achieved writing an epic Gundam story without Gundam in action. The pacing is great, the story is consistent, characters are complex. Everything that frustrates me on previous UC series was fixed here and even improved. The hand drawn animation + 3DGI combination was ... well executed. We can understand the scale of this vast war in space by visually telling how many fleets and mobile suites are on the battlefield. This kind of details were overlooked in the past.

Definitely one of the best anti-war ever told in anime, at least in my books. It doesn't preach you that war is bad, it shows and will let you feel the terror.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 17, 2025

Heliosphan95

Mixed Feelings

Gundam the origin is complete and total fanfiction written by people who want to convince you that Char is a lot cooler, colder and cunning than he actually is. Its this Light Yagamification of Char that gives people the wrong impression of who he is as a character and often makes no sense. The cold cunning psychopath portrayed in this OVA which gets innocent people killed is not the same Char who mourns the loss of his men numerous times in 079 or the more gentle guiding figure to Kamille in Zeta. This show wants to make Char more like Light Yagami or Johan than ... any version of himself. On top of this the OVA also takes the chance to fellate his abilities at every opportunity. They make Char good at literally everything naturally. I mean of course why wouldn't he be able to pilot a guntank at age 11? Why wouldn't he be the best athletically and intellectually at school and master marksmanr. He isn't human. He has no flaws and is basically Jesus Christ.

This is also fanfiction in other ways like the timeline not making sense. The Federation should not have mobile suits in UC 68. Another example of this being fanfiction is characters from the white base grazing shoulders constantly despite having no real reason to ever meet. No I don't buy that Sayla stumbled into Amuro on earth before the war. I also don't buy that Char and Sayla happened to immigrate to the colony of Texas before 079. The show is full of these fanfiction elements that grind my gears.

For these reasons I think if you want to get into UC Gundam this is not the place to start. Watch the original and then watch this at a later date as a fun oddity rather than a serious piece of UC lore or canon.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 8, 2024

N_Erwann

Not Recommended

This serie is useless. As a Gundam fan, I can say it's useless.
Every Gundam series try to tell something, in the original trilogy, it's about the responsibilities of the first aggressor, the oppression of the new generation, the feeling of vengence, etc. In SEED it's about what's a human and that the most important are the feelings inside, in IBO it'll be about a life of battle that is better than a life of salvery, etc, etc.
What tells us THE ORIGIN? "Well, this is this guy and he is kinda crazy" Wow, awesome and you had nothing more? In this rich universe that is UC, ... there was nothing more? And this is the serie that is recommended by all these people to start the saga? Bullshit, you better use your time to watch the original serie or any other Gundam show that looks cool for you because this one is useless.
Plus, what is the point in making a modern looking serie for people who already don't want to watch old-style animation? Nah, just watch a modern Gundam, there's already plenty of them.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Episode 6 Discussion Led_Wayline - Aug 8, 2018	35 replies	by nando3d1 »» Mar 20, 5:49 AM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Tokoya - Sep 27, 2017	52 replies	by curryage »» Mar 13, 8:39 PM
	Poll: Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Episode 4 Discussion Boltz - Nov 19, 2016	43 replies	by curryage »» Mar 13, 8:18 PM
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