It is year 0079 of the Universal Century. Mankind has moved to space, living in colony clusters known as "Sides." One of these Sides declares itself the "Principality of Zeon" and declares war on the Earth Federation, the governmental body currently ruling Earth. Using powerful humanoid robots known as "mobile suits," Zeon quickly gains the upper hand.
Nine months into the conflict, the Earth Federation has developed its own powerful mobile suit called the Gundam. When Zeon launches an attack on the colony holding the Gundam, a 15-year-old civilian named Amuro Ray suddenly finds himself thrown into a conflict that will take him all across Earth and space, pitting him against the enemy's ace pilot, Char Aznable.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Monkey_D_Luffy
Mobile Suit Gundam, a title every anime fan has surely heard. Some of us love and praise the franchise spawned by this original series, and for some of us it just didn't quite do the job. Regardless, there is no denying it is a revolutionary title that has advanced anime as a whole. It's truly a classic series that has left its impact, or rather, is still making an impact on anime. As you can see by my high rating of 9, I'm one of the fans that adored this series. So now let's see why this is an outstanding series. The central plot of MobileSuit Gundam is fairly simple, laying out a brutal war between two sides: the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. Amuro Ray, our main character, gets involved in the conflict by boarding the Federation's great weapon, Gundam (I'm not gonna explain details because then it defeats the purpose of watching for yourself.) Long story short, he becomes the Gundam's pilot and a valuable member of the Federation crew that works aboard White Base (a war spaceship.) Now what makes this great is the fact that everybody aboard White Base, from the Commander of it to Amuro, is a total novice with little to no experience. Over the course of the series we get to see their development together as well as individuals. The tale is filled with elements of stuff like death, killing, family, friendships, etc., all building up to a spectacular finale. Our story of course focuses primarily on the White Base gang and their adventure, but it does a good job at also centering in on the opposing side at the right times and giving insight to their side of the battle. Also, just to add, the pacing is exceptionally good.
The series is from 1979, so do not expect top-notch animation by today's standards. I'm sure it was five star art in its time, but I simply rated it a 6 by today's standards. Don't let that turn you off though. The sound is obviously old as well, so the sound effects have that old recording sound that really doesn't stand up to today's sound quality, so again the 8 is by today's standards. But again, give it a chance because it's actually pretty cool. As for the opening and ending themes, they're just kinda fun songs that, as you'll see, are for the purpose of Mobile Suit Gundam alone. The background music actually consists of some pretty interesting and catchy tunes that couldn't fit the show better. They're different than a lot of the stuff you hear in today's anime.
Now for Characters. As I've said, they're all amateurs. A lot of the characters aboard White Base go through tragedies that bring out great development. Some of them have hidden secrets and relations, some of them fall in battle, some of them leave White Base, and many other things. There's plenty for you to discover about our crew as you go through the series.
Enjoyment is definitely at its best. The father of mecha, Mobile Suit Gundam, sure doesn't lack in its action. We have a nice variety of different Mobile Suits on both warring sides to switch things up, and the Gundam itself is very entertaining to watch because it has a large array of weaponry. Also, a battle takes place in just about every place you could think of: space, land, sky, underwater, underground, and even inside White Base itself. The enjoyment factor does not disappoint, and always entertains your eyes with superb military brawls between mechas, and even hand-to-hand combat.
Obviously there's some contrasting opinions on this series and its status concerning its rating. However, I truly feel it is worth a shot from any anime fan, just because it is a classic title that has had such influence on anime and the mecha genre especially.
jmoriarty84
This highly original and innovating anime offers so much in terms of being the original “realistic mech anime series.” It talks about the potential realities of war on both a battlefront and political scale. It’s a wonderful coming of age story for many of the characters that each develops for not only the good guys, but the bad guys as well. I’m not sure if relate to them is a right word, but you can sure bet sympathize and understand them is something you can certainly do. And it’s a story of trust and betrayal on both fronts as well. All I can say is,it’s the perfect story about everything you can possibly get on human nature in an anime. I feel that even if mankind can advance this far, sadly, there can never be any absolute peace, and the realities war can have on a person on all scales.
OK, granted this was animated nearly 30 years ago, so the colors, resolution, and movement are most certainly not as up to some people’s standards. But I feel for its time, I do have to give it some of the credit it does deserve. I feel in terms of design in both character and mechanical, it is excellent and innovative and can transcend into our current generation’s style of animation and makes it timeless, which has been proven in some of the animated cutscenes of the PS1 and PS2 games such as Federation vs Zeon or Journey to Jaburo and thus keeps it up to date. And the battles themselves are pretty intense and plays careful strategy into it. Afterall, in war, you always got to think two steps ahead of the game. Such as when Char and Amuro first fight, Amuro easily loses energy on the beam rifle because he relied on it too much. So such tactics in terms of both offense and defense in this anime are effectively applied.
For the voice acting, this is the anime that helped define the careers of Furuya Tohru, who plays Amuro, and would later play Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon, Seiya in Saint Seiya, and Yamucha in Dragon Ball. This also helped the career of the late Suzuoki Hirotaka, the voice of Captain Bright who is also famous as Kuno from Ranma, Kaifun in Macross, and Shiryu in Saint Seiya. And one more mention I want to make is Furukawa Yoshio as Kai which is quite a surprise because he plays bad ass characters like Shin from Fist of the North star and Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. And the cast list goes on. In addition to a great Japanese cast, the English dub of the TV series (don’t remember the movie dub too much) is also incredible. As much as I can’t stand Richard Cox as Inuyasha and Ranma, I thought he was dead perfect as Kai. I thought his voice matched the character well and I think his performance equals to that of Furukawa’s. I also enjoyed Brad Swale as Amuro. He portrays a character that is young, intelligent, and growing. But the problem I had with the dub was Char. I don’t remember who played him, but I felt he was not as charismatic as Ikeda Shuuichi. But overall, you’ll get an incredible experience watching it in either language though it is a pity that the TV series DVD set is only in English and the trilogy DVD set is exclusively in Japanese. But the DVD trilogy does have a new set of voice actors such as Dozle’s and Ma Kube’s voices were changed. Ma Kube’s original voice actor passed away while Dozle’s voice actor, Gouri Daisuke was busy with other stuff, I guess.
The music is also cheesy, but also catchy. If you think of the Ashita no Joe themes as true old school Japanese music, expect the same, but still represents a transition period to where Japanese popular music is now with beats but in a retro sense. The TV series music is of course a bit more campy, but sings about how the Gundam will rise and defeat their enemy and the ending theme is about Amuro being a man. But the trilogy soundtrack is much more mature and also maintains themes in relation to the series.
I understand that Gundam isn’t really a series that’s for everybody. Afterall, I grew up on Transformers and Voltron, and the concept of robots as a potential military weapon does have a lot of appeal to me. But when I got a first hand view of the series, I was later captured by the characters and intrigued by the story and that this just wasn’t some shallow action anime. Tomino truly made a revolution of this series that initially failed in the ratings, but would now become one of Japan’s biggest anime franchises. Despite the success Gundam continues to have, it is a pity it never caught on in the long run outside of Japan, but I still manage to always find myself back to sometimes watching either the TV series and/or movie.
slpless
Mobile Suit Gundam, the father of mecha anime, is without a doubt a revolutionary title. This is one of the titles that brought about more mature themes and stories to be animated. However, just because it was revolutionary doesn't mean the quality is up to par after 25 years. In addition, this review will compare MSG to the narrative standards of today and ignore the art and sound. The first few episodes of MSG were interesting, setting up what would seem to be an epic tale. Also, we are able to see the origins of manymecha themes and ideas. My only real complaint with the first few episodes was the way Amuro (zero experience) was able to go toe-to-toe with Char, a legendary pilot. A mecha convention that just has to be accepted, not a big deal I guess. After the initial episodes, one would expect the action to die down and start developing the story and the characters. However, in the next few episodes there was more fighting. A few more episodes passed and it started to feel tedious. In comparison, Gundam SEED had several episodes that were completely devoted to character development.
In between the fights far too little happens to develop the characters and the story. Yes, there is some development but that is clearly overshadowed by the shear number of battles. As for the story itself, it seems to follow a "monster of the week formula" with new mechs and mini-bosses. The transition between each mini-boss/arc was quite bad and broke the overall flow the series. While this was expected and bad enough there wasn't enough continuity between each episode. Every time an episode ends, it ends. Conflicts arise and the resolution all happens within the course of one episode (cliffhangers don't seem to exist in MSG). Essentially, there is an episodic feel most of the time and the flow was not seamless. Gundam 0079 followed this straightforward and monotonous path until the last 8 episodes. The last 8 episodes were pretty good and the story finally starts to get interesting, especially when they introduce the concept of 'Newtypes', finally! However, that does not make up for the 30 episodes you had to go through to get here.
As for the characters, let me start off with Char. Simply put, Char is the most interesting and most complex character in MSG, perhaps in the whole Gundam universe. However, this can only be said after watching MSG, Zeta Gundam, and Char’s Counterattack, nearly totaling 100 episodes. Unfortunately, I can’t really say he received too much development over the course of MSG. He’s already quite charismatic and admirable from the beginning and pretty much stayed this way through out. Amuro, well at least in MSG, is quite a brat and does what pleases him as well as whine. Not exactly the most likable of character. However, this is nowhere as near a bad as Camille in Zeta Gundam and he does change over time. While Amuro may have been a brat for the first half this was no where near as annoying as the actual children. Why where they allowed to roam as they please? Perhaps they were used as comic relief? Either way, they were quite annoying and hurt the overall character score. However, the only characters that stood out in MSG were Char and Amuro, the rest were flat and forgettable.
Although it seems that I'm being very harsh towards this title I actually enjoyed it somewhat. Perhaps its a bit unfair that I'm reviewing this title 25 years after it was first shown. I'm comparing it to some modern titles that does what Gundam 0079 does but better in every possible way and I'm not just talking about animation and music. (note: I do not imply that all new mecha anime is better. There's plenty of crap out there and far inferior to MSG) At the time Gundam 0079 can be considered innovative and new. MSG pretty much redefined the whole genre of mecha anime, from super robot era of the 70's to the real robot era of the 80's. Mecha lovers should watch this if only for historical reasons. Ok, on second though you should probably watch the movies…
Overall, Gundam 0079 focuses too much on fights and not enough on the development of the story and characters. It loosely follows a "monster of the week" formula with its mini arcs. Not only is the continuity overall bad, it also has bad continuity in-between episodes. It seems every time an episode ends, it ends. As for the characters, only Char and Amuro stood out and the rest were quite flat. Sadly they didn’t spend enough time on the characters. The depiction of war and the people involved are far beyond its time. The ‘enemies’ are not evil, but simply on different sides. If only Gundam 0079 didn't have those 30 some episodes in the middle.
Lindle
The original Mobile Suit Gundam - often known as Gundam 0079 to avoid confusion with later installments - is a clearly flawed work. However, it is a highly impressive and progressive work given its age, and we owe a lot of what makes anime great today to its existence. Of course, being highly influential doesn't excuse its flaws. The most obvious is its terrible animation, which isn't a case of it aging badly - it was made on a shoestring budget, and the animation was very bad even for its time. This is forgivable, as a great story doesn't necessarily need good animation to thrive (althoughthe mobile suit designs aren't as good as later Gundam titles). Its biggest problem, however, is one that it shares with every single Gundam TV series that I have seen so far: it is very badly paced. Gundam 0079 is 43 episodes long, but for all the events of substance in it, it could easily have been cut down to as little as 26 without losing anything important. As a result, there are several stretches of episodes that drag on tediously and can be a chore to get through.
In spite of these flaws, though, Gundam 0079 is still an impressive anime, one of the best installments of the Gundam franchise that I have seen so far, and has aged better than any other 70s anime I've seen.
The best thing about Gundam 0079 is how believable its conflict is. Rather than the cliché of good vs. evil, neither army can truly be argued to be either. The Earth Federation are the ones defending themselves against the invading Zeons, but with their constant injustices towards Spacenoids, they pretty much had it coming. However, the extremist actions of Zeon and the resulting immense body count can hardly be called "just", in spite of their good intentions (and the Titans of the subsequent Zeta Gundam only prove further how, despite our protagonists fighting on their side, The Earth Federation is not good).
Similarly, there is an impressive balance of respectable soldiers and complete assholes on either side - most of the Earth Federation are merely incompetent, or not in a position to help, rather than being malicious. On the flipside, most of the Zabi family are surprisingly believable antagonists, and save for Gihren every single one of them is shown to be a multi-dimensional character, even if few of them get a chance to explore that any further. That and Ramba Ral, perhaps the epitome of Gundam's frequent "friendly enemy" characters.
Our protagonists, the crew of the White Base, don't really fit into either category, as most of them are teenagers who, for reasons outside of their control, are forced to fight in a war that is beyond their control. As a result, they make a good neutral party who fight in the war on the side of the Earth Federation, but without representing the Federation's poor and/or amoral choices. Amongst them is our protagonist, Amuro Ray, whose frequent whining can be annoying - but given the circumstances, it's hard to blame him.
Of course, the standout character is the masked Char Aznable, Amuro's rival, a character so iconic that every single Gundam series since has either featured him, or had a character who is strikingly similar to one of his many iterations. As a parallel to Amuro, he isn't really on board with his army's goal either - while he is anti-Federation, Char has a number of secret objectives that he intends to carry out over the series. Figuring out just exactly who Char is and what it is he's trying to do is the most interesting part of the series' story.
The only particularly questionable part of the story itself is the introduction of Newtypes, the series' only supernatural element - essentially, minor ESP developed out of adaptation to being raised in an outer-space environment. It wasn't foreshadowed as much as it ought to have been, and feels out of place in an otherwise realistic series.
Nonetheless, it's impressive that a show from the 70s managed to feature a war without feeling the need to dumb it down for the viewers, and as such it is quite ahead of its time. It's unfortunate that some of the later installments felt the need to take the focus away from the war aspects and focus on godawful character drama instead.
Final Words: More "important" than it is "good", but it is good nonetheless.
Story/Plot: 7/10
Characters: 8/10
Animation/Art: 2/10
Music: 7/10
Acting (dub): 7/10
Overall: 7/10
For Fans Of: Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Eureka Seven
ElectricSlime
Mobile Suit Gundam: the series that sparked a genre. Being a pioneer at something is a tough thing to do and while there are some flaws with the original mecha powerhouse that is Mobile Suit Gundam, I can't help but love almost every minute of it. Mobile Suit Gundam chronicles the adventures of the White Base crew and the enemies that are in a close proximity to them over the course of the series. The main crew consists of about ten characters with the famous Amuro Ray at the centre of it all. The story follows the White Base as it tries to evade theZeon and complete its objectives. As a side plot to the main story of the White Base is the ongoing duel between Char Aznable and Amuro. As they both fight in the brave new world of Universal Century 0079/80. They have to deal with ever evolving mobile suits and the emergence of the Newtype.
As far as the art is concerned I went into the series with no expectations. This was made after all in 1979. I was pleasantly surprised to find fluid animations and a style that fit the series perfectly. While it is small potatoes compared to the crappiest animation by todays standards it was quite the achievement for animators back then. Being all hand drawn a series of this magnitude is quite the undertaking and it doesn't disappoint. The story is just too good to worry about the quality of the animation.
From the corny opening I gathered that the music would be horrid, but It didn't hold true to my prediction... luckily. Featuring various scores from an orchestra to a sort of 80's techno/pop feeling the music is definitely dated, but that only adds to the charm of the series. The voice acting by the English cast is fairly well done. Nothing to call home about, but they get the job done. Char's voice actor is definitely the standout for me from the series. The other characters fall into the mid-talent range.
The characters of Gundam are what make the show great. Gundam is predominantly a character driven drama and the characters are all given well written dialogue save for some of the minor characters. This only stands for the main characters though as the supporting cast is generally acknowledged as being there, but rarely gets any screen time or meaningful lines. Amuro is your typical mobile suit pilot, he is always miserable and has a very selfish "me first" attitude. He accepts his role better later in the series, but definitely makes himself unpopular with the rest of the crew. Char on the other hand is always charismatic and willing to do whatever it takes to fulfil his goals. On a side note the inclusion of the children was a horrible idea and they are always in the way and very annoying. They single handedly brought the character score down one point.
Overall Gundam was very entertaining, but it is not without its quirks. As I've already gone into what I liked about the series, I'll now focus on what prevented this series from going down as truly great. First of all the Zeon are basically a hybrid version of the Nazis of WWII fame and the Empire from Star wars. The cross overs are all over the place. At one point a Zeon Admiral is described as Hitler-esque. Point is, the Zeon are not a very original enemy and steal a lot of their traits from other sources. Even their uniforms are definitely very Nazi. Another quirk,(I call them quirks because they are not really bad, but things I definitely noticed) the amount of time they spend on things related to food is just uncanny. Almost every episode has a segment where Amuro is being berated for not eating or being reminded to eat. It just comes off as an annoyance after 30 episodes. Finally, they call it a military and they are always trying to do military activities, yet they have children on the bridge, people are routinely stealing mobile suits and for anyone that knows anything about the military it will seem very fictional in regards to the military activities.
Throughout the series I only had a few major problems, but overall it is a must watch for anyone that considers themselves an Anime fan.
OtakuFreak
What's more to say about one of the grand daddies of all Mecha? Mobile Suit Gundam thats what it is. First came out in 1979 by director and animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was able to make several animes during his time and still is. One of his most famous works is the Mobile Suit Gundam anthology, from the Original Mobile Suit Gundam to Turn A Gundam, Tomino was able to make most of all the Gundam Series. We are all to familiar with the story liine, a boy with problems looking for answers comes across a large macha and uses it to save his friends andallies from utter destruction. The name of the Samurai shaped robot is Gundam.
The story goes with young Amuro Ray, becomes facinated by his father's creation for the Earth Federation Army, the Gundam. He uses the giant Robot to save his friends and escape into space with the new mobile battle ship White Base. They encounter many enemies like the notorious Char Aznable (aka The Red Comet) who wants to test the Federation's new power.
If you are a true Gundam fan you'll let the old look past you. It doesn't matter how old it looks or sounds, if you respect Gundam then you respect the Original. Gundam is one of the most famous animes you'll hear, not just in the USA but in Japan entirely. Why do you think they have so many spin offs? So give the amazing series a try and then watch other Gundam series created by the father of all Gundam's Yoshiyuki Tomino.
Motokogummi
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. As a fan of cel shaded works with intricate love and passion works, I waited a long time to watch it and I couldn't be happier. This is a masterpiece of an art that is timeless. Gundam Gunpla and all of its fan base should be thankful for this fine art, the mecha genre took it flight off from here, this was the genesis point, journeying back to the 70s era of Anime from Japan surely is rewarded well. The plot and it's core revolves around Military drama. It doesn't flat our explain everything that is where it shines bright, each and everysingle episode is of high value in entertainment. The story is expository but do not think due to the age of the show the action won't be impressive, it's not at all the case at all, the action is very thoroughly done for it's age and still stand out pretty well but the foundation is every single character you see in the show plays a role that is the biggest core strength, they are very well fleshed out with deep emotional connections.
It revolves primarily around space colonies and a small crew in this big world just like us, the intricate balance of human emotion with the military tragedies wrap this show into a classic which we can relate it to ourselves. There are a few episodes which stand out very well on this character depth, Time be Still. A Spy on Board speak for themselves, there are more but it would require to put a bit of reveal which I would not suggest just go with an open mind and you will enjoy to fullest. As a bonus significant character on either of Zeon and Federation side gets their play and point of shine, that is a true achievement of staff hats off.
Art style is impeccable for it's age, watch it with all it's glorious grain preserved, the animations are not perfect always like in a few instances you might see backdrops being static on the aspect of the immersion you get a warm OP ED tracks rounded well by background score which switches with the scene dynamically and the feelings it portrays melded with the scene, it is simply stunning.
Oh the finale, you won't be expecting any of it, it comes so heavy yet powerful sequences, it's just a beautiful heart gripping narrative experience, perfect closure.
It is a must for every fan who values the old works of true art, hand drawn high quality work that will send ripples and of course mecha fans !!
Lulech23
"We'd done it. With a fraction of the resources, we'd done it." These words by animation director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko perfectly summarize both the development and story of Mobile Suit Gundam. Despite numerous production challenges limiting its scope of animation, Gundam managed to be a fresh take on the mecha genre for the late 1970's and still stands the test of time to this day. In fact, given that no 40 year-old anime has aged well by 2020 standards, it's perhaps easier to overlook the shortcomings of Gundam's animation now than when it aired. Yes, characters frequently go off-model, and yes, numerous shots are reused time andtime again, but it never gets in the way of the real star of the show: the story its creators were trying to tell.
Early episodes might seem easy to dismiss as the era's "badguy of the week" tropes bleed through. But Gundam was conceived to buck this very trend, and with time, it's clear there's more going on than meets the eye. Arcs that typically would have resolved quite quickly in other shows instead stretch out for several episodes, interspersed with combat that's just military enough to feel genuine without being too complicated to follow. Less important story beats rarely feel like filler, instead fleshing out the characters and world in a meaningful way even if the plot ultimately isn't driven forward.
And perhaps Gundam's greatest strength is how it manages to be fiercely character-driven despite juggling duties as a fun giant robot show for kids and serious war drama for teenagers and adults. The main protagonist, Amuro, may not himself be the strongest lead, but he's a very human one, at best transporting viewers into his shoes and at worst playing the perfect foil for more likeable cast members. It's easy to admire the commanding Mr. Bright for his perpetual cool or pilot Sayla for her secret noble background, but Amuro doesn't have either of these qualities. Even the advantages he does have (his father invented the Gundam and he himself is something of a tech whiz) are not pushed front and center until quite late in the series. Rather than fight for a particular honor or ideal, Amuro's philosophy is that he just does what he has to do—nevermind he's only 15 and not yet emotionally equipped for the task.
In this he is not alone, seeing as much of the cast bears a similarly young age (despite generally demonstrating more maturity). The found family and coming-of-age themes that result are obvious, but serve as more than merely a way to appeal to the show's target audience. Anyone can be faced with challenges larger than themselves, and more importantly, the characters' age frames the challenge—frames *war*—as the real villain of Mobile Suit Gundam. And critically, it is likewise humans—not giant robots—who are the heroes.
Gundam takes place in an age when humanity has expanded beyond earth into massive space stations known as "Sides". One such Side declares itself the independent nation of Zeon and rebels against the rest of humanity, aiming to subjugate the world to their leadership. While it would be easy to paint Zeon as a faceless evil empire, Gundam's Zeon is anything but. The show spends nearly as much time with Zeon as it does the Earth Federation, and while you'll never find yourself rooting for them, you'll often wish they wouldn't lose either. Nearly every antagonist is genuinely sympathetic, and few are purely evil. After all, they have families, comrades, and backstories too. They may be on the wrong side of history (in Gundam lore, Zeon's war wiped out half the human population), but so have been many redeemable people in the real world.
By contrast, Amuro and compatriots are initially victims of a Zeon attack forced to flee aboard a ship known as the White Base. Thanks to his quick thinking, they have the Gundam (plus a few other Mobile Suits) as backup, but they're not soldiers and have plenty of personal issues to work through besides. The injustice of the situation is palpable, but never the focus. Rather, it serves as a backdrop for personal growth, and that applies both to individual characters and their function as a team. Their failures have real consequences and their successes come at a cost, but each step along the journey grows them into people far greater than when they began.
As an aside, it was observing this process that made me fall in love with the Gundam's end credits song. It's simply perfect. But I didn't always think so. At first, it was downright awkward to listen to—a relic of a bygone era from a different culture than my own. But about halfway through the series, I realized it's not actually 1970's Japanese pop: it's a war ballad playing off the style soldiers may have enjoyed in World War II, and there's a potent lesson in its lyrics for those of us now distant from this period of history. We can't always choose the challenges we will face in life, but we *can* choose not to look back. It's useless to pine for old days that will never exist again. Instead, we must bear our burdens and march forward to create a better future.
On the one hand, the story of Gundam is little more than an unlikely band of survivors on the run, fighting for victory against the odds. But it's also so, so much more. Beneath the surface of rough animation, lackluster soundtrack, and dated theme songs lies a gem that shines just as brightly 40 years after its inception.
If you're worried about watching such an old anime, and contemplating skipping Mobile Suit Gundam for the much shorter movie compilation: don't. Set your fears aside and start here first. Such superficial flaws have no power to diminish what a splendidly charming experience the original TV show is, and it remains the definitive way to introduce yourself to all things Gundam—and anime history at large.
Cerberus_Zero
Mobile Suit Gundam is the very first Gundam anime ever made. Originally, I went into this anime deciding to get into Gundam with the first anime in 2013. I was worried because this was made all the way back in 1979 that the anime may have ended up cheesy. I couldn't have been more wrong though. Mobile Suit Gundam was a phenomenal anime that not only was incredibly far ahead of it's time when originally released, but it still holds up well today. First off, the writing is incredibly good. Throughout Mobile Suit Gundam we're introduced to the protagonist Amuro Ray and his allies and foes.Amuro undergoes a great deal of character development over the course of the story. He not only grows as a character, but is a interesting character and one that the viewer will feel they can relate to. In addition, Amuro has one of the most legendary rivalries in all of anime with his foe Char Aznable. Char like Amuro is a relatable character since he too is caught up in a petty war like Amuro and doesn't wish for the war to go on like Amuro. He's an incredibly awesome looking antagonist and the way he develops as the story goes on is incredible. The fights him and Amuro have are absolutely incredible and definitely among the most memorable of the show. Beyond that, the rest of Amuro's crew is well developed.
First, we have Bright Noa who commands the White Base the ship Amuro is a part of throughout the show. He is a interesting character who is very memorable and definitely has a personality to him. Furthermore, there's several other crew members who help Amuro and the White Base out and they all have their roles to play in the story as well. Not only are the characters great in Mobile Suit Gundam, but the truly exceptional thing to Gundam is the themes of it's story.
For a anime written in 1979 the story is incredibly ahead of it's time. Why? Since this anime avoids the incredibly boring and generic good vs evil story we've seen several times in books, video game stories and animes. Despite the Earth Federation being in a never ending war and battle with Zeon neither side is truly evil. Both sides have people who don't wish to have to kill others and who question the morality of war. Due to this, you'll often find yourself not only cheering for the central heroes, but also their antagonists since they too are fighting for a cause they are passionate about. The anime's themes of war, corruption, the value of human life and grayness of morality will also cause the viewer to reflect on morality as well. Another great aspect of the original Gundam is the fights.
Many of the fights the main character Amuro gets into are incredibly entertaining to watch. The stakes always feel very high in the fights and most of the time the fights are very close so it always feels like a character could die whether it be Amuro or a ally of his in the show. There's some really incredible scenes like Amuro using his saber to slice an entire enemy mobile suit in half while jumping through the air or having to fight in a dangerous situation against multiple foes. Most importantly, during the majority of fights in the anime there's a lot of tension and it helps to really invest the viewer in the anime. Mobile Suit Gundam's music while not incredible does fit the atmosphere of the show and much of the music helps to intensify the fights and get the viewer more invested in the outcome of these skirmishes characters get into throughout the show. Last, I would like to speak about the production values.
The production values is definitely dated. Even for it's time I don't believe this was incredibly good animation. However, despite that it's still perfectly watchable and the viewer is able to see everything that needs to be conveyed to the easily. Gundam has some really incredible character designs and the mobile suits such as Amuro's RX-78 and the Zeon's Zakus are some of the most memorable Gundam designs even to this day. As said before, the music isn't anything amazing, but it does fit the atmosphere of the show and helps to enhance said atmosphere. Fortunately, the voice acting in the english dub was quite good. I felt the voices very appropriately fitted the characters and I didn't have much of a problem with the dub. So overall how is Gundam?
Gundam is an incredibly good anime. The themes it's story tackles were very far ahead of it's time. Furthermore, the pacing of the anime is good and by the first 3 episodes you've already seen the first major fight of the anime and you'll find yourself quickly getting invested into this anime. Gundam's portrayal of war and the way the characters question the morality of war and the actions people do during war leaves a strong impression. Many of the characters are interesting and develop over the course of the story. Mobile Suit Gundam also has quite possibly the best anime rivalry of all time between Amuro and Char Aznable. I thank Gundam for showing me how incredible the mecha genre can be. Previously, before Gundam I had ignorantly thought mecha genre shows had weak characterization and the focus just all on the robots, but I could not have been more wrong. This anime truly goes above and beyond and is a titan in the world of anime that stands the test of time. It shows that mecha animes can have complex well written stories with great characters along with incredible fights. Do not pass this anime up!
alex264
When I first sat down to view this anime, I knew that I would be entering a franchise that has spawn from the very depths of the post funky town/ karaoke disco era of Late seventies Japan. that being said, I tried to keep a clear head in the midst of all the "Gundam is a timeless anime classic" reviews and die hard fans who seem to hold that the original is the first and therefore the easiest to appreciate. As the series progressed the clunkiness of the different era animation grew on me just for the fact that this was probably the best ofits time. Considering the idea that cartoon epics about battling in space were just launching due to space fever entering the world stage, Mobile Suit Gundam set a precedent for what animators could do with the potential a space setting had. It wasn't mind boggling to see fighting on a black backdrop, but at the same time, the fighting sequences weren't just floating structures and bullets. Amuro Ray and white base's exploits through space at first seemed repetitive and contrived, but in each fighting instance, a new seed seemed to be planted that further established the idea that war isn't necessitated for any universal purpose. It was succinct by the end of the series that there was no opposing difference between Zeon soldiers and federation soldiers, there were just the individual motivations that pushed them each to commit to battle. Considering Japanese history(imperial unity), the series did a great job of establishing the idea that individuality should often take authority over authority itself. Also, the establishing of character was for the most part well paced, if at all a little slow in some parts. I enjoyed not hearing absolute devotion on the part of all the crew to Amuro and was entrenched in the fact that Bright Noah seemed to continually be on his case regarding maturity. In an ironic twist, the writers address the fact that although individuality is what perpetuates motivations in war, it is authority that needs to be respected if individuality is to shine to its maximum potential. The sub plots regarding family ties seemed interesting but could have been expanded upon, as well as the romantic depth of the characters. At times, the show would stray from the idea of love and then at random, uncalled for times shove it down the viewers throat. The opening theme song was hooky enough for the language barrier and seemed to do a good job at establishing a sense of adventure, but it lacked any dramatic sense. Battle sounds were tip top and sound bytes played an important role in advancing the series "familiar" scenarios, making it more nostalgic. Mobile Suit Gundam's one greatest strength in my eyes, that sets it on the pinnacle of "anime" is its beautiful sense of simplicity in chaotic situations, The characters are all defined but flexible and the plot twists seem believable even in space. I get the feeling that the show set the bar for Anime's evolution into a more dramatic powerhouse, but that doesn't mean that this Gundam installment deserves any less of its respect. It is a classic show, without the glitz, but with the right core assets for one of its time.
IcehawkDown
Watching this show about 30 years after it was made, it can be easy to be a bit thrown off by Mobile Suit Gundam. It has some pretty old and kind of ugly animation by today's standards, there's still lots of corny dialogue like "WHY YOU!!!", and, each episode is basically the same thing over, and over. Build up to a fight, fight with Gundam, end episode. Yet, despite all this, for some reason I just loved this show, for several reasons. First off, this is a great coming of age story for the main character, Amaro. It's really exciting to watch Amaro go from rookiepilot to one of the best over the course of the show, it makes things quite rewarding. In fact, I'd say almost all the characters in the show grow a little, almost every main character on the White Base gets developed pretty well. And it is the same with the "bad guys", which obviously adds a lot to the show.
Speaking of the bad guys, I love how both sides of the war have both good and bad people, it's very realistic and avoids the somewhat corny trait a lot of shows have when they have pure evil vs. pure good (see: Hokuto No ken). Lots of the fighting and politics, and how the world ends up after space are all pretty plausible, which is another nice touch to get you immersed into Gundam's world.
Despite all the great stuff on the side, in the end, the show developers knew exactly what people wanted when they watched this show, and that was sweet Gundam fights. While it can get a little predictable, almost every episode features a fight with Gundam. All these fights are really well done, especially ones with Amaro's main rival, Char. They are pretty intense, and it's fun to watch Amaro get better and better.
In order to keep things from getting too stale, there are generally mini-arcs happening during all the fighting. For example, an important person might be injured/sick for a few episodes, and the rest of the crew has to adapt. These arcs aren't usually too complex, but they do a good job of developing everyone and keeping the fights a little fresh.
It should be noted that despite first airing in the 70s, the art isn't too bad. Explosions and such look kind of lame, but I still found myself excited during action scenes. The music is extremely awesome though, which was a huge surprise.
Overall, I just never imagined such an old show would really grab me like Gundam did. Despite being a bit formulaic, it executes everything
BowlingJD
Here it is... Tomino's animated directed love child, which is one of my favorite anime of all time. The very first Gundam series has spawned a revolution of countless spinoffs, sequels, video games and movies. Surprisingly enough this anime was not popular during its' initial airing and wasn't until later that this became more of cult following. Clearly while watching, the show takes a lot from Space Battleship Yamato by the characters, art, and overall plot development of the story. However, compared to Yamato which focuses on the ship, MSG focuses more on the characters. Our main hero/pilot called Amuro Ray actually changed the game in regardsto the man is tough and strives for battle to a male character exposing his feelings. This may not sound like much today for a male character, but up until this point, it just didn't happen. There are many mecha tropes that MSG introduced from the evolved human feelings (newtype) to the antagonist in the mask. It's the first series in which an invader from space wasn't alien, but instead humans. On and on it goes.
As a story, MSG can be extremely simple or deep depending on the viewer. It can be viewed as a teenager hopping into a mobile suit, going to war, and surviving the war. It can also be viewed as a message to mankind, human evolution, political influence, etc... just as a couple examples. All in all though, this is a story about war.
I really wish more people would go out and watch the original anime as the movie trilogy is regarded as "canon" now. Fans of mecha probably have already watched this. If you aren't a mecha fan, still watch this show. There wasn't a giant Gundam statue put up in Japan for nothing.
TRI_Mike
Oh wow. Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. The very first series in a franchise that has seen dozens of fantastic stories about people piloting giant robots and fighting on them. This series is the beginning of it all, telling the story of the White Base in the One-Year War between the Earth Federation and the Zeon Principality. The White Base is a Federation warship that escapes with an unexperienced crew from the space colony Side 7 after it's attacked by the Zeon. A boy named Amuro Ray manages to steal a Mobile Suit called the Gundam and through the story, he learns to control it tobecome a formidable fighter and Newtype (some sort of psychic humans) at the end.
The art, sound and story are excellent but several parts in the middle feel longer than the should be. The very first episodes are fantastic and the last ones will keep you at the edge of your seat. If you watch the series nowdays, you won't help but admire how they came up with all this way back in 1979. I honestly admire Sunrise for this.
I'm sure most people will probably ditch MSG79 for looking too oldschool but trust me, hidden among these 43 old episodes lies quite possibly one of the most important anime series ever created. I totally recommend it.
TakaCode
Mobile Suit Gundam Review. Hello everyone this is Shawn aka KurataTriggr and welcome to my month of Anime Limited project. For the first anime that I will be reviewing for this project will be Mobile Suit Gundam or Gundam 0079 for short. I will be reviewing the 43 episode TV series instead of the 0079 movie trilogy. Now with out of the way let's begin. Story. It is the year 0079 of the universal century an era of mankind can now live in space in artifical homes called space colony's. The printability of Zeon have declared independence from the earth federation and subsequently launches a war for independence withZeon having a upper hand thanks with the use of mobile suits giant palpable robots. Both side were end up with heavy casualties and they would enter a stalemate for eight months though all that changed during the attack on side seven when a young boy named Amuro Ray discovers a powerful new mobile suit developed by the earh federation called Gundam. After fighting off the Zeon forces in the new mobile weapon he along with several of his friends and civilians of side seven escape on board a new federation ship called white base. Scavenging any resources they can the white base must use utilise it's crew consisting of newly civilians and rookies with little military experience to survive the war while fending off the very best of Zeon has to offer.
The story for Gundam 0079 is pretty good for the most part. It's a really good war story that is straightforward and selp-explantory but it's definitely the best and most innovating aspect of Gundam 0079. It was a innovating show of how it portrayed mecha in a more realistic fashion compared to other mecha at the time while also showing us kind of effects war can have on people at any age.
From teenagers, adults to even children.
The story from the most part is well written that is well paced and despite being cut down to 43 episodes in its intinal run. Gundam 0079 explores the tooth of 2 sides in a manner that is interesting in depth and engaging and shows us that no side is black and white and that the both the earth federation and the Zeon will go to huge streams to accomplish they goals. In such
Gundam 0079 definitely shows to us that real war isn't an battle of good vs evil but rather a battle of ideologies and different views of how to world should work.
However Gundam 0079 has a few flaws.
For starters I feel the pacing for the middle portain of the show could have been a bit better as it be a bit draggy at times.
The other issue that I have with Gundam 0079 is the newtype subplot at the other as I thought it was introduced way too late of it's episode count. I wished the newtype subplot was introduced a bit earlier in the second half of the show. Instead the newtype subplot was rushed and it left quite of lot of unanswered questions. Lucky the Gundam shows after Gundam 0079 manages to answer a lot of questions about the newtype stuff.
Overall despite its flaws I thought the story to be pretty great as its very iconic, very engaging and innovative themes of how war can us as human beings for all age groups.
8/10
Characters.
The characters of Gundam 0079 are pretty great for most part as they likeable and relatable the eye.
Amuro Ray is a great gundam protagonist.
Sure he starts off as naive and a bit immature in the beginning but as the series progress he grows into a mature and badass pilot that has a lot depth.
Not to mention I really how he interacts with others characters in the series and how he changes is interactions with others as the series processes.
The rest of the white base members have to face with their own personal struggles as well which makes endearing and memorable. Of course the white base aren't the only ones to have this in depth view as Zeon forces also have quite a lot of screen time as well and most of them are just memorable while are portrayed as honor driven antagonists there are those you can sympathise with like Char Aznable
While Char seems to be loyal to Zeon he does have his own personal goals to accomplish.
The only character I wasn't a fan was Lalah as I thought she was just a walking plot device for the whole newtype subplot for the last few episodes. She also didn't developed that much due to her lack of screen time.
She had potential to be great if they introduced the newtype subplot a bit more early in the second half but instead she comes off as a wasted potential character and she is the weakest part of 0079 as a whole.
Overall besides from Lalah the characters of Gundam 0079 are pretty great and memorable.
9/10
Visuals.
Visually Gundam 0079 is a bit outdated in today's standards but it shouldn't really bother those that truly want to get into the series unless your one of those people who only care about style over substance. Sure the animation can be inconsistent at time as well of having a lot of stock footage but you must keep in mind that this show came out in the late 70s where a lot of anime during that time had this issue with especially super robot animes from the 70s. So for me the animation is acceptable. As for the character designs I thought they are pretty good that has aged quite a bit well today. They are very iconic as well as having that great old school charm that is still pleasing to the eye today. The battles are iconic that are still a treat to watch. Speaking of which Gundam was the first ever mech series that introduce mech in a more realistic scenario. Gundam was also the first mecha show to showcase many military strategies like gurellia warfare and stealth instead of brute force unlike all of the mecha shows in the 70s before Gundam 0079. Gundam 0079 will eventually lead up to create to lead up to create the real robot genre in the 1980s.
The mecha designs are iconic and memorable. The Gundam itself has great simple design that is still iconic to this day.
The Zeon suits are intimidating and only get stronger as the series progresses not to mention they are also well designed and iconic.
Overall I though the visuals were good that has the old school charm that I liked.
7/10
Sound.
The soundtrack of Gundam 0079 has it's wonderful charm that I loved.
The opening and ending themes while lighthearted for a show that has heavy war themes I still found them to be good and catchy despite not being very fitting for the show.
Now for Dub or Sub of Gudnam 0079.
Personally I thought both languages are pretty good what they were.
In short 0079 can be enjoyed in both languages.
9/10
Final Thoughts.
It's honestly amazing that Mobile Suit Gundam was a disaster in the ratings that ultimately got cancelled would go to be one of the most prolific anime of all time.
Whether you love or hate Gundam or mecha anime you cannot deny the influence that Gundam had on not just mecha shows and anime on Japan as a whole.
The story is really good, the characters were great and mostly well written the visuals while being dated its has that great old school charm and the soundtrack and voice acting for both languages were great. The only flaws that I have with Gundam 0079 were the pacing of the middle portain of the series and Lalah and the whole newtype subplot being kinda underdeveloped.
Despite that Gundam 0079 is a great classic anime that I highly recommend to people.
If your interested of getting into the Gundam franchise then this is the best place to start. You won't be disappointed.
I give Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 a 8.5/10
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 is currently been licensed by RightStuff in the US and Anime Limited in the UK.
It's available on DVD and Blu Ray in the US but only on Blu Ray in the UK but you can always buy the DVD version on Otaku.com for an affordable price if you dont have a blu ray player or if you on a tight budget such as myself.
Anyway this was Shawn aka KurataTrigger and I will see you guys next time.
Next Review Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.
09philj
The first and most important thing to say about Mobile Suit Gundam is that there are a great many sequences that use flashing images that could induce seizures in people who have photosensitive epilepsy. This is a series from a time when using strobe effects to represent explosions was still considered acceptable, and it is used liberally. The sequences that use this effect were unpleasant to watch for me, and it therefore seems likely they could have much worse effects on people with a sensitivity to such things. Despite showing its age in many ways, Mobile Suit Gundam’s better qualities shine through consistently. TV animein 1979 was primitive, to say the least. Every episode looks like it had a budget of about ¥23, but you can the direction pulling hard against those limitations to get the maximum possible value up on screen. Detailed mechanical design is a pipe dream, objects on screen often don’t rotate wherever possible, and the Gundam itself feels like it’s slightly off model a lot of the time. Despite that, there is a lot of striking shot composition, and careful use of the fairly limited score to build tension and excitement even though very often what you are watching is clearly a static animation cel being moved across a background. The depiction of the grim realities of warfare, and the ultimate inhumanity of death and destruction on such a scale are evoked very effectively despite the limitations of the animation, helped along by some excellent sound design. The technical design is also constantly wonderful to look at, there’s a very distinct and interesting aesthetic not just to the mobile suits but also all the technology, ships, and uniforms have a great look to them. A lot of it is a very 1970s vision of future aesthetics that doesn’t quite line up with modern sensibilities, but the Gundam itself is a design classic that has endured in our collective consciousness for a reason.
The writing side is a similar story in how it is in many obvious ways very flawed and yet clearly has something special about it at the same time. The central character, Amuro, has a mixture of neuroticism, fear, vanity, drive, and antisociality that feel right for a teenager thrust into a key position in a war, although it doesn’t always feel like those traits come to the fore organically or in the right order. The central antagonist Char Aznable, as an experienced and cunning soldier, is an ideal foil for him, and the scenes where the power of the Gundam is pitted against the experience and skills of Char are always exciting. They are surrounded by a good supporting cast, with the crew of the White Base believably developing from a rag-tag group of children armed with advanced military technology to a hardened fighting force. The series greatest flaw which drags it down more than anything else is that the plot is all over the place. The opening arc where the White Base is trying to escape to Earth is great, full of constant tension as they are pursued by Zeon’s forces. Once they get to Earth things start to get a bit wobbly. Char isn’t present for large stretches and none of the secondary antagonists introduced in the meantime can really fill the hole he leaves, and there are multiple short arcs that are a bit of a drag to sit through. Characters also repeatedly seem to change their motivations or relationships at random which leads to a lot of scenes feeling jarring. It might also just have been a deficiency of the subtitles I was using, but the motives of certain characters occasionally seemed opaque in a way that I don’t think was intentional. For example, I have no idea what Char was actually hoping to achieve in the last arc, which incidentally also takes a lurching left turn into being concerned with dealing with the implications of the emergence of Newtypes, humans with extrasensory perception. While the plotting is shambolic, the vibes do generally shine through; this is a crushing war of attrition, where characters can and will die, with moral compromise on both sides. Zeon’s nationalism and authoritarianism are the greater folly that initiated the war in the first place, but the Federation are not innocent of carrying out many of the same crimes. Likewise, although many combatants are dragged into the war against their will, they are not any less complicit in propagating it.
The practical upshot is that Mobile Suit Gundam is deeply messy and imperfect, but it is an imperfect mess that I have a lot of respect for, and contains much that is enjoyable. I wouldn’t recommend it on its own merits, but it’s Mobile Suit Gundam; we live in its world, and it doesn’t need to be brilliant to be worth watching. An enduring legacy of mecha anime started here, in the Universal Century continuity, the wider Gundam franchise itself, and beyond, and if you care about the history of the medium it's worth it for that reason alone.
RedSuisei
Mobile Suit Gundam. Every anime fans (even some who aren't anime fan) must've heard of this metaseries. Gundam is a metaseries that have one of the largest fanbase in Japan. Not that big outside, but still has a considerable size. This anime is the original which started off the metaseries, which will later become a popular culture in Japan. Many people feel that this is a very good anime, though unfortunately this just doesn't cut it for some others. Now I'm one of the former, and I'll try to review this series based on my opinions. Story: 8 The core of the plot is actually quitesimple: War between Earth Federation and Principality of Zeon. Pretty simple? But the whole story itself is not so simple. Throughout the series, you will learn more about the war, and it's not as simple as "good guys vs bad guys." The good guys aren't actually that good, and the bad guys aren't actually that bad. Both side have a solid reason for fighting, and this is the part that made the story interesting. Even each character has various reasons for fighting. Though there is a bit of disappointment in the middle, where there's a lot of filler episodes. This is probably due to the fact at that time, Gundam has a pretty low rating, so it got cut from 50 episodes to 26 episodes, then somehow got extended to 43 episodes. I think it will be better if it didn't got cut in the first place.
Art: 7
It's a 1979 anime, so the animation is pretty bad (though I believe it's pretty good for the time.) Even so, the mecha and character design, though old, is quite good. The mecha design is very distinguishable from each other, and is actually quite good despite being old. Even some of the enemy grunts have quite good designs, which is pretty widely known to this date, such as the Zaku. Character design is also good. Nowadays there's a lot of animes that have characters that look like each other, or characters that looks like a character from another anime. That's not the case here. I've never seen any other character that looks like Amuro Ray or Bright Noa in another anime. Also, I think it's just me, but somehow I find myself not noticing stock animation very often. They do exist, but somehow I notice them less often here than in recent anime works.
Sound: 9
Okay many people will disagree with me on this, but for me myself, the soundtracks are actually quite good. Gundam is one of the very few series that I watched without ever skipping the OP song, not to mention for a whole 43 episodes. Sure it's very old and sounds cheesy, but somehow it's pretty addictive for me. I can't get that "Moeagare x3 Gandamu!!" lyrics out of my head for a whole month after watching this. The soundtracks during the anime itself is also good. They build a good atmosphere for the scene, and some are also quite addictive.
Not only soundtracks, the SFX is also good. It's pretty classic that once you watch this, you will recognize the sound if it's played somewhere. I myself recognize many of the same SFX being used in Macross up to Macross 7.
Character: 8
Characters are quite good, though the very minor ones are not. Most characters have a good development throughout the stories, especially inside the White Base since they're just amateurs at the beginning. One thing noticeable is that each character has pretty solid ideals. Being on one side doesn't necessarily means they have the same ideals. This is why there's a lot of conflicts on board the White Base, and the reason for Char's actions throughout the series. Minus point is that the subject on romance pretty oddly carried, but romance really isn't the focus in Gundam.
Enjoyment: 9
I really enjoy this series, for reasons stated above. Especially the battles, although the animation is bad, but they're pretty interesting. Grunts actually put up some fight, unlike more recent works where numerous grunts got destroyed with 1 attack without putting up any fight. Also, as godly as the Gundam is, it still struggles in many battles, especially in the beginning when Amuro is still a rookie.
Miscellaneous things I took into considerations:
-IT"S MECHA! Yeah I'm a mecha maniac, which is why I love this series. This is also the the reason why some people disliked Gundam, since they hate mechas.
-Helps me to better understand the story in later series, like Zeta, ZZ, CCA, and Unicorn.
-No bishoujos/bishounens/overly moe characters. I really hate animes that only uses bishoujos/bishounens/overly moe characters as the selling point.
-Technologies in the series, although fictional, still seems plausible to some extent. It's still fictional, but much more realistic than many other mecha animes.
-After watching this I noticed a lot more parodies in animes/mangas. Yes Gundam is one of the most often parodied anime, like in Sgt Keroro, Hayate no Gotoku, Full Metal Panic, and even Ghost in the Shell.
Overall: 9
So yeah this is an old anime. My parents haven't even met each other when this anime is aired. Still, this is a pretty good anime, IMO even better than many of the recent animes. Though it's true that this anime is not for everyone, you should give it a try, unless you're a mecha hater, or if animation is very important to you, or if you seek romance. But if you're not, then by all means go ahead and give it a go. I am glad myself that I've watched this anime. One thing of advice, if you do watch this, you might want to look more info about this series in the internet, there are many interesting things that aren't covered in the anime.
VengefulAura
This series was so awesome.. the first of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise! The art style is dated and animations are dated but it's a classic. I think the show holds up pretty well especially from being from 1979. The dub was good in my opinion. The sound, music, OP and ED were nice as well, the opening is kinda happy, and the ending is kinda melancholic. White base is a bunch of civilians who were thrown into the war with no experience. They start off as weak, scared, not very good, but they develop into such a strong independent crew that no one candefeat. Bright Noa is an excellent commander. They all created such a tight bond between each other that they are all practically family at this point. They lost friends/teammates along the way, but it made them come back stronger. Gun Cannon, Gun Tank and Mobile Suit were the first lines of Defense. Amuro, Kai and Hayato worked together so well. Amuro starts off as a total whimp, then slowly develops into an amazing pilot who defeated basically everyone that crossed him. He even rivaled Char Aznable, the red comet. This show has nothing but excellent characters, battles, and has so much charm too it. Char is the most likable antagonist. I found myself not knowing who to side for.. Zeon or Federation. They both just want independence. Char is unique, charming, a perfect leader, very smart, doesnt back down, pilots the coolest gundam, and is the ACE pilot of Zeon. This show pioneered the mecha genre.
Werty800
*Slight spoilers ahead* The White Base steadily approaches its destination point. What the crew doesn't know, is that there's a trap laid down by the forces of Zeon right around the corner of the mountain. A sudden hit to the starboard puts everyone back on their feet. Bright quickly yells orders as Mirai turns the main ship towards the enemy. Sayla quickly informs Amuro, Kai, and Hayato and asks them to get into their respective machines and launch. As soon as they get out they're barraged by the enemy mobile suits. And so begins another battle, another day on board the White Base, and another episodeof a legend, that is Mobile Suit Gundam.
1. Teenage struggles portrayed through war experience
Mobile Suit Gundam is a tale of a bunch of survivors from a space colony that incidentally held a new ship and a new machine that were created by the scientists of the Earth Federation. In the first episode, the colony gets attacked by the forces of the Principality of Zeon. Amuro Ray, one of the main scientists' son, attempts to escape amidst the death and chaos that the Zeon soldiers created using their machines. He finds the very first Federation mobile suit - Gundam - and takes it upon himself to drive away the opposing forces. He's forced to retreat and escape his home alongside a few of his peers and some adults inside the White Base, a new, technologically advanced spaceship, with a plan to find help and safety.
The main theme for more than a half of the show is that those kids aren't real soldiers, they are inexperienced escapees, who have to learn how to properly adapt to their new roles while escaping from danger that follows them wherever they go. A few of them have military training, but most find themselves in a situation they've never been in before. As so, Noa Bright, the most experienced out of all the survivors, takes command of White Base and assigns people to certain roles: Sayla Mass communicates with the crew on the ship through the communication system, Mirai Yashima steers the spaceship, and so on. The most important role ends up being given to Amuro, who will pilot the Gundam, as he is the only one with any resemblance of experience in that regard. On the ship itself, we also find out that the White Base was storing two other mobile suits: The Guntank, which can be piloted by two people at once, and the Guncannon. They end up being piloted by Hayato Kobayashi, Ryu Jose, and Kai Shiden respectively. Out of those four pilots, the only adult one is Ryu, while the others are teenagers that didn't have the chance to overcome their rebellious phases in the peace and comfort of their daily lives, like most of us did.
A sudden and drastic change appears to have sped up the process, as both Kai and Amuro initially act like pompous brats that haven't experienced life before, but they aren't the only ones to act immaturely. Despite their age, most of the people aboard the White Base are pretty bad at what they're doing. I'm not saying that they aren't smart, far from it, but they have troubles utilizing their strengths and most importantly, can't quite overcome the obstacle of sudden adaptation to their new reality.
The further away they get from home, they begin to grow as both individuals and as companions. Despite numerous quarrels and severe casualties, the White Base is able to overcome each trap laid down by the Zeon forces, as well as their own negative mentalities. Bright, who starts off as a loud and thoughtless leader, becomes acquainted with the ways to handle his crew. Kai finds the strive to fight despite always being the most reluctant and skeptic towards the idea. Sayla comes to terms with her past and her future as she collects all the pieces that end up creating her true self.
With each character and the cast as whole overcoming different phases to uncover their true purpose, you can easily compare them to a teen who's undergoing puberty. The characterization is obviously skewed in a certain direction to properly underline that comparison, and the structure of the plot itself feels like it was put together with that thought in mind. The episodic nature of the show allows for a much clearer, short and direct messages, like "trust in your own abilities", "uncover the things that you're good at", "let people see your true talent", "don't hide your true thoughts", and many other moral lessons that could prove useful someone with a teenage-like mentality.
Another thing that's worth remembering, is that the cast is in a constant state of danger, right in the middle of an ongoing war. They are quite literally, at the turning point of history. They hold the strongest weapons of the Federation, their most talented, skilled and experienced mobile suit pilots, and they travel in the most innovative and powerful spaceship out there. It's not easy being in a center of attention of your allies, but it's the enemies that actually disrupt your sleep, and you can see that weight being put on them as time goes on.
Those people don't have time to rest, not with the constant array of death that they have to face. You could almost say that Death travels alongside them at all times, just so it won't have to move too far to collect each soul that they will unavoidably provide to it sooner or later.
So not only have they been thrust into a new reality without any warning, but they never have the time to properly collect themselves in the midst of what's been going on. They can't adapt appropriately to their current situation and each other's personalities. That's the thing that creates the chaos aboard the ship and the huge amount of misunderstandings and conflict among them, however, after all the fighting and madness, they're able to develop a bond and a stable relationship with each other, becoming a proper team, where everyone's considered a worthy comrade.
But why is all that actually important?
I'll tell you: because it creates a stable connection between the viewer and the cast despite massive barriers that divide them. If you look at the world of Mobile Suit Gundam, you'll realize that it is nothing like ours. Technological advancement far beyond our reach, political systems that we can't imagine coming back, and the sheer idea of traveling in space would normally create a huge disconnect between our world and the one that is presented to the viewer, but thanks to the show's ability to portray problems that all of us went through, without breaking the immersion or turning any characters into obvious mouthpieces, it's able to make the cast seem believable, realistic and worth following.
This is definitely one of the biggest strengths of original Gundam, but what's more, it is able to perfectly represent those ideals through its main character.
2. Amuro Ray is a perfect Gundam protagonist
Take all the ideas that I've presented before and mix them up into one person, and you will inevitably end up with Amuro Ray, and if you couldn't tell, that is really damn good.
Amuro, at the start, is an indecisive, impulsive, egoistic brat that perfectly represents the stereotypical puberty stage. Not to say that he's not smart, far from it, he is quite capable when it comes to robotics, Gundam repairs and adapting to the battlefield, so his biggest enemy often ends up being his own rebellious side, as seen when he's arguing with Bright; his feeling of undervaluation, especially noticeable when he's monologuing to himself about how a woman gives him orders or how he think Bright is an idiot; and sexual frustration, which you can spot on numerous occasions when he gets to be around mature women like Mirai or Matlida. All of it cumulates and explodes when he decides to leave the ship along with Gundam, eventually returning and deciding to fight out of his own volition. He decided on it after meeting a true man, Ramba Ral, and noticing his desire to become manlier and stronger.
And he does, as the series progresses, we see Amuro turn into a true warrior, who, instead of blindly charging into the battle blinded by the need for violence, calmly dissects each battle and trusts in his abilities to carry him to victory. He becomes more comfortable and each life experience appears to make him stronger and more reliable, which resonates with the rest of the crew as they begin to respect and value him.
Amuro's progress teaches the viewer, which I assume was intended to be around 15 while watching it, that simply working hard and not complaining will turn you into a great, respectable man. It's a tale that we all know but done well enough to not feel boring, especially since we see it being presented in such a manly setting. War is a place where true heroes and true men arise to present themselves onto the pages of history, and the show is all about it. Not to mention that there are some truly beautiful women around Amuro. All around, you can really see how a teenager like him could end up with his hormones almost bursting out.
*Ekhm*
Moving on.
But that's not the end of his story. Amuro is actually so much more than just a skilled teenager. He's actually a staple of the next generation of humanity, and in a way, you might not expect.
3. The new era of humanity
Normally, when someone writes about the idea of a "new generation of humanity" in fiction, they try to simplify it as just one generation going away, and a new one stepping in to change the flow things. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that, especially in something as grounded as, let's say, Legend of The Galactic Heroes, but watching Mobile Suit Gundam really opened up my eyes to possibilities of just going for that extra step, pushing the suspension of disbelief further to include a certain thing that would easily help the viewer with both the understanding of the topic and with the entertainment factor: evolution.
In the last arc of Mobile Suit Gundam, we find out that Amuro, as well as his main rival Char and a bunch of other people, are Newtypes. Newtypes are people that evolved an ability to adapt to living in space, which comes with higher mental awareness, as well as better perception, which naturally comes with better military potential. Now, you may say that such a turn completely undervalues the effort that all the characters underwent throughout the series, but I don't think that's true.
Despite the problems that the crew that worked behind Gundam had to face with the last episodes, I feel like they did a good enough job at setting down their stance on the topic. Despite having the same advantage, Amuro is better than Char at piloting Mobile Suits, despite Char's clear technological advantage. That's purely because Amuro is better at utilizing his potential, coming to terms with it and building off of it. Char has problems with coming to terms whether or not he is a Newtype and whether he has the same potential as others, while Amuro never cared about that. He just pushed on, learned in a lot of different ways and evolved not only as a human but also as an individual.
It's important to really understand how well crafted this storyline is, or perhaps how well thought out would be the better term, because the execution turned out to be very minimal due to the production issues. The idea that even if we can get on some sort of a higher plane of humanity, people who will worry about it will never catch up to people who continue striving even further to better themselves. It honestly boils down to "no matter how far we go, the humanity's problem will remain the same", which can also be said about the war that's been going on in the Gundam universe, but it's done within an already thematically complete show, as Amuro's story almost came to a halt at the point of introducing it. Not to mention how filled to the brim with awesome action scenes the show is, making it so that it rarely gets boring. Speaking of not being boring...
4. Old but gold: Gundam's visuals and music
You may be surprised when I say it, but one of Mobile Suit Gundam's strongest advantage is the visuals. The character designs are great, very distinguishable and surprisingly detailed with their faces, especially for the time. They all feel different due to their postures, face shapes or hair. There's clearly a lot of effort put into this area. Same goes for the Mobile Suits, which have become a staple for one of the most expensive and popular toys, especially in Japan. Such a nationwide phenomenon couldn't be achieved if not for their brilliant designs. The Gundam is white and easily reminiscent of a hero when stepping on the gloomy battlefield, the darker designs of the Zeon mobile suits that just scream "that's an enemy" from the first moment we see them, and those are only a few examples. They really get creative with some of them.
Another asset that it has in this area are the fights. The show has possibly some of the most systematically high-quality fight scripts in all of anime. There's a fight in pretty much every episode, but each one is truly different, the pilots pull off different moves and even if there are some reused shots, there's always a lot of variety that makes it fresh. Of course, a lot of it goes to the setup, where there are different enemies to fight and different terrain, but there are long stretches of time where those don't change, and yet the show can still feel refined in that area. It's a huge achievement that really won over my heart while watching.
That's not to say that the animation doesn't have its fair share of problems. I already mentioned the reused shots, which during fights can just be seen as using the same move again and that being somewhat of a trademark of the show, same can't be said about others that take place onboard the White Base, most notably Bright picking up his phone which is ingrained in my mind ever since I finished it. Even worse are the clearly repeated backgrounds. Imagine if backgrounds in anime were just an image on a conveyor belt, which restarted whenever the picture was shown in its entirety. It's really silly and embarrassing, but even that can't take out from the rest of the show's visual strengths.
As for the music, there's almost nothing more to say than that it's a classic. The wide range of emotions throughout the show is perfectly embodied in the variety of the tracks on the soundtrack. From the ambient, creepy ones, to the grandiose and louder ones, it keeps being consistent with the militaristic feel, the usage of trumpets and drums that are used in military bands bring it out especially well. While the soundtrack isn't large, it doesn't have to be. It makes it so each track becomes more recognizable and specific. You can understand what scene's about to go down when you hear it, like "Oh, it's time for Char to strike!", or "finally, the battle is over". With that, the repetition proves to be an asset, especially when the show is pretty episodic and it has a somewhat consistent outline.
I don't believe I need to mention how amazing the opening "Tobe! Gundam" is, or how majestic the ending "Eien Ni Amuro" is, but I'm just going to leave it here.
All in all, Mobile Suit Gundam, despite not aging particularly well, works because of the effort put into it even back then. There were some cut corners occasionally, but you can't dispute the sheer magic of watching Gundam. There are really very few things that can rival it in some of its areas even to this day.
5. The impact of Gundam
Last but not least, I feel it's only fair to talk about the impact that Gundam had on the industry, even though it was mostly the movies that truly got the ball rolling.
Mobile Suit Gundam is easily one of the most influential works for all of anime. It's considered to be a "father" of the "true mecha genre", without which we would never see the birth of shows such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Escaflowne or Code Geass. It is also one of the first anime ever to humanize villains, giving them a clear sense of morality, Char being the prime example of that. It was also innovative for its use of "Minovsky Physics", which rationalized the normally completely fictional systems of a world, helping it become even more grounded than it already was and creating a world that truly felt like it was just our future, where a next big step in technology occurred. It's something that series such as Legend of the Galactic Heroes used later to a similar effect.
In Japan, it spawned multiple sequels and sold thousands of toys, it became engraved in Japanese culture so much that there are numerous statues and other tributes to the show all around the country.
As for some trivia to see how much the people in Japan care about the show, the Japanese military's code name for their underdevelopment advanced personal combat equipment is "Gundam", the series’ robot designer Kunio Okawara has begun designing real-world electric cars, and there's even a project to build a real-life, functional Gundam with the budget being around a billion dollars, funded by the government. I think that last fact alone is enough to make people understand, but what I said here is just the bare-bones of all that it did, and if you're interested, you can surely find more if you do your own research.
6. Overall thoughts
Mobile Suit Gundam is a true classic, a must-watch for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the history of anime, but also a damn good watch as a piece of media. Perhaps on the outside, it didn't stand the test of the time as much as some would've liked, but on the inside, it can still be influential and its themes can be applied to any era of humanity. As we evolved and changed, as we fought and died, as we tried to understand everything around us and the passage of time only made it harder, humanity always remained the same on the outside. That's what Mobile Suit Gundam exemplifies, and does so through a really cool, action-packed, relatable, animated TV series. If you want to learn more, I can only implore you to check it out for yourself, be that either through this TV series or the movie trilogy. I know that after this I became a serious Gundam fan, and I will surely be checking out more, more of this legendary series that, to me, lived up to the status that it holds. All that it has done has been done better by the time I'm writing this review, it's storyline ends up becoming pretty basic and the forcefully rushed last stretch is easily visible, there's nothing that I can say to refute that. However, I wholeheartedly believe that any viewer will be able to look past that and truly enjoy it to the fullest if they truly want to, and an ability to make the show overlook mistakes is not something to be undervalued. So if you haven't checked out the original Gundam yet, you should. I'll leave it at that.
As always, this is purely my opinion. I recommend you to develop your own.
PoeticJustice
It is not often I make such a foray into the past as I have now. Undoubtedly, if you are a fan of anime, it is almost impossible that you have not heard the name ‘Gundam.' Gundam, the series that gave life to the childlike fantasies of men(and women not to be sexist). I mean who doesn’t love the idea of Giant robots trashing each other into oblivion? Who doesn’t love pilots screaming and crying inside their cockpits after killing 20 or 30 people? I know I do. Or that might just be my sociopathic tendencies. Whatever, on to the review. Mobile Suit Gundam takes placefar into the future, where humanity now lives in space colonies scattered across the galaxy. An opposing government, The Principality of Zeon, has declared war on the Earth Federation in a battle for superiority. During an eight-month break from the war, a young man named Amuro Ray stumbles upon a secret Earth Federation project named, “Gundam,” which is meant to turn the tide of war. In a cruel twist of fate, Amuro pilots the Gundam and lives him, and his friends become embroiled in the decade-long argument which cost the lives of millions.
First and foremost, Mobile Suit Gundam is an anti-war show. Although it does tend to glamorize war with the epic bouts between giant robots, giant robots and laser swords, the anime focuses on how war effects those involved. It doesn’t necessarily takes a psychological approach, but it does touch upon how war impacts both sides. Zeon, nor the Federation, is painted as good or evil. The show adds a broad stroke of ambiguity. There are despicable characters on both sides of the war, but they hardly represent the entirety of either movement. What I appreciate is the show never has to regurgitate trite lines like, “War is hell.” Or “War is bad” or something to that effect. It would much rather show how much destruction it brings to everything in its path. That works to its advantage.
Mobile Suit Gundam also has some layers of complexity to it as it delves into politics now and again. The most attractive side, have to be Zeon and its Monarchal structure. The show expands upon how the Zabi family came into power, who is involved, what roles do the family members serve in government and the corruption that comes along such as system. The show never dedicates a substantial amount of time to politics, but it always plays a role in every major plot occurrence.
I was surprised that the animation wasn’t that bad as I thought. Yes, it is ancient when you compare it to more recent anime, but I can see why people were amazed when it first aired. And, to my surprise, there weren’t that many reused battle scenes that I noticed(unlike Gundam SEED).
What I dislike about Gundam is how the episode structure becomes repetitive after a while. Most episodes have a strict formula: White base runs from Char, White base stops someone, they talk to locals, and then white base gets attacked. Not every episode is essential to moving the plot forward, nor does it necessarily develop or characterize the cast. At least, ten episodes amount to filler. Another issue I have is the introduction of a new story element near the end of the show. It comes from left field and to me, it feels as though it undermines individual characters. As opposed to being skilled through talent or experience, characters are skilled do to an almost supernatural ability. It doesn’t exactly ruin the show, but it did put a damper on my enjoyment.
The cast is nothing fantastic, but it does have a few characters that I did like. Amuro is a well-developed protagonist. Almost every combat experience added to his character in some way. Some events cause him to a breakdown in tears while others serve to strengthen his resolve. He also transitions from a whiny brat to an independent adult. His nemesis Char is an iconic character for a reason. He is suave, charismatic, witty and downright lovable. There aren’t many episodes dedicated to Char’s character, which is a shame. But nonetheless, I was enamored with him. The supporting cast is nothing to speak in-depth. Most of them remain static throughout the show
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Mobile Suit Gundam is a series that spawned an innumerable amount of spin-offs, games, and other merchandise. It has become one of the most cultural important anime of all time. While by no stretch would I call it a masterpiece, it is an enjoyable experience.
