Yesterday, April 7th, marked the 45th anniversary of the venerable Mobile Suit Gundam anime series. Let’s take a look at the long history of Japan’s most influential giant robot anime, and explore how it touched all of our lives!
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Mobile Suit Gundam’s 45th Anniversary Arrives!
Bandai marked the 45th anniversary of the venerable Gundam franchise with a live stream on YouTube. The one-hour show features famed voice actor Tooru Furuya, the voice of Amuro Ray, plus G Gundam’s Domon Kasshu voice Kazutomo Seki and Kana Ichinose, who voiced Suletta Mercury. It was interesting to see the three voice actors give their thoughts on what it was like to play leading roles in such important Gundam series.
How Did Mobile Suit Gundam Change The World?
Before Gundam, mecha anime were much simpler things. They were basically stories about young boys who had acquired a giant robot friend that only they could control, which would come to their rescue whenever called upon. But with Gundam, director Yoshiyuki Tomino created what would come to be called the “Real Robot” genre. This new genre was filled with darker themes including politics and the possibility of defeat and death of major characters.
However, Gundam was not a hit at first, and the original series had its number of episodes reduced due to poor ratings. Tomino and the animators at Sunrise were sure they had a failure on their hands, and were depressed. Then they heard that fans had created not just a Gundam fan club, but a “federation” of connected fan clubs all around Japan. With the financial success of the three Gundam compilation films, which allowed the animators to fix some of the quality issues with the series, Gundam had become a cornerstone of Japanese pop culture.
An Amazing Achievement For Yoshiyuki Tomino
It was a huge achievement for director Yoshiyuki Tomino, who has been working in the industry since 1962. Tomino started out as a storyboard artist working with Tezuka Osamu on Astro Boy and with Hayao Miyazaki on Heidi, Girl of the Alps. He did some storyboard work on the original Space Battleship Yamato but got in trouble for adding his own flair to some of the storyboards for episode 4, which he was forced to correct. His main desire for creating Mobile Suit Gundam was due to this negative experience. “I had only one goal in creating Gundam. I wanted to destroy Yamato!”
What about me? I became a Gundam fan back in the 1980s, back when everyone watched anime on 5th-generation VHS copies a friend lent you. There were never any English subtitles, ever, and we just watched and tried to follow the story. I started with Zeta Gundam, which featured a super complex story with Char and Amuro Ray fighting on the same side for some reason. It made me want to study Japanese even harder so I could understand the story.
What Era of Gundam Fan Are You?
Having been around for 45 years, the world of Mobile Suit Gundam is ridiculously complex. Let’s go over some of the major eras of the various series in the franchise!
The Universal Century Era
The OG Gundam universe is centered around the One Year War, which takes place in U.C. 0079. The charismatic Zabi family leads the spacenoids (humans living in orbiting space colonies) in a revolt against the rule of the Earth Federation. Fans loved watching the battles and memorizing every detail of each type of mecha. But they also loved following the “space politics” that make any good Gundam show fun to watch. They got goosebumps anytime the word “Newtype” was mentioned.
The downside of having 45 years of story canon is that it can be a challenge for new fans to find a point to jump in without being overwhelmed. I think the best place is the OAV series Gundam 0083, which is 13 episodes long and tells the story of one of the major turning points in the wider war between Earth and the spacenoids in a tightly scripted and dramatic way.
Which series stole your “Gundam virginity”? Read my blog post from a decade ago here!
The Gundam Wing Era
Gundam Wing was an extremely important series for several reasons. Like G Gundam, it was set in an alternative universe (the After Colony timeline), so it didn’t have to conform to the events of the U.C. timeline. It was the first series to become a hit internationally thanks to Toonami, bringing in lots of fans. Gundam Wing focused on BL-esque themes that became a major doorway for female fans into anime.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
This series is based on the Cosmic Era (C.E.) alternate universe. This was the first Gundam to be animated with full digital coloring and no painted cels. This sometimes showed through in the animation quality.
The Gundam 00 Era
This reimagining of the Gundam universe is similar to our world, set in the year 2307. The world is dominated by three economic blocs. These roughly represent the United States and Japan, China and Oceania, and Europe. Humanity has used up all fossil fuels on the planet, leading to the creation of huge solar power systems in orbit, one controlled by each of the three economic blocs. The inequality between the powerful nations and less fortunate regions leads to endless warfare.
The Post Disaster Era
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans takes place 300 years after the great “Calamy War.” The story is set around a conflict on a terraformed Mars.
I ranked Japan’s most influential creators in a blog post. Is your favorite name on the list? Read it here!
The Ad Stella Era
The world in which Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury is set is one dominated by interplanetary corporations after the colonization of Mercury. The anime thrilled fans with its yuri themes and tomato jokes.
Gundam Build Fighters
The only Gundam series set in “our” universe, this is one of my favorites. In the future, not only will Gundam fans be able to assemble their favorite mecha in plastic model form, but they’ll be able to pilot them inside a V.R. simulation. I can’t recommend this fun series enough!
Do you love Gundam figures, doujins and more? Naturally J-List stocks all the best Gundam anime figures, magazines and doujinshi for you. Browse our newst stock here!
Thanks for reading this blog post about the immensely popular Mobile Suit Gundam universe, and the huge influence it has on fans all over the world. What series made you fall in love with real robots? Tell us in the comments below!
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