Kidou Senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS Shoutai

The franchise of Mobile Suit Gundam, and specifically it's Universal Century timeline (UC), is one of monumental value for the anime medium as a whole, since it is one of the first animated media that features the human tragedies and the fragility of the human psyche in wartimes, the basis of which are the production cast's memories from their childhood, as kids who had to grew up in the aftermath of World War 2, which you can definitely feel as undertones throughout the franchise's origins.

The series and episode count could seem daunting and tad overwhelming as count, hence why at the start of this list a few "hooks" of a shows will be included, which are fairly standalone by themselves, with shorter episode count, but still having the titular Gundam thematic hallmarks as a series. If you were doubtful about whether this show is for you, they are very good indicator whether you'll enjoy your time with the Universal Century timelines, which is dubbed the "main" timeline for a very good reason.

List of series featured in SRW1 - SRWAlpha

Mobile Suit Gundam is probably the most influential anime franchise ever, and contrary to common opinion, it is no a meathead action kids' show full of repetitive robot fights. Gundam is a very flawed but very meaningful work of art, full of thought provoking sociopolitical commentary on war as well as interesting supernatural conceptualization.

The Universal Century Timeline is the original Gundam "universe" conceived by Yoshiyuki Tomino, as well as the best Gundam timeline, but sadly it has a bad reputation for being extremely inaccesible due to the myriads of installments it has and the watch order that tends to confuse many with many remakes, alternative versions and branching spin-offs. The series is however easy to watch if you just have a clear order, and this interest stack is an attempt at offering a concise and simple list of the of the most important and best installments so you can watch the best stuff without having to plow through the admittedly abundant trash.

I will include all essential works and add a few ones that are not essential but still highly recommended for either high quality or thematic significance, but I'll make it clear when an installment is not *really* essential and just recommended. My criteria for essential is most of the time being crucial to the timeline or simply so high in quality that it makes no sense to skip it.

If you want a COMPLETE watch order including every installment and go deep down the rabbit hole I recommend the interest stack called "Mobile Suit Gundam: Universal Century Timeline Watchorder" by user giffica, as I found it to be a very thorough and well put together list.

Real robots are a subgenre of the mecha genre, in which the mechas are depicted as realistic warmachines as opposed to the superheroistic depiction of the super robot subgenre. It was started in 1979 by Mobile Suit Gundam.

Mecha? Super robot? Real robot? Androids? Cyborgs? Mechanical suits? All of them, fuck it. All have their merits and should be appreciated by all. Only really recommending stuff I have seen or have general enough knowledge of! (i'm pretty new to this sorry)

The romance as a genre in it's typical sense, is a hit or miss for most of us, and this is understandable. Each of us has different outlook on life, our experience had shaped our personalities by particular ways and the way we comprehend the fragile and gentle feelings of affection within ourselves is something very personal.

But then again some stories, despite not having entirely romantic focus, can portray relationships in dynamic sense and with appropriate narrative depth. Series like these rarely gets the spotlight for this reason and are oftenly skipped by people who're usually interested solely in the romance aspect of the plots, which is one of the reasons this collection was made - as a showcase of various well written and emotionally expressive bonds of love.

The mentioned works are with broad range of genres, themes and moods, but in each of them one can find a well handled hint of, if not well explored, romance. As well as that, some romances that are breaking the mold of the usual adaptations are included, since they're rarely well explored within the medium and deserve our attention.

Anime made by the first generation of anime fans.

I’m coining the term Anime New Wave in reference to the French New Wave and the Japanese New Wave in film canon. Like both of these movements, the first generation of creatives to achieve any kind of mainstream success were establishing the medium themselves and were drawing inspiration from outside their art form, such as how Osamu Tezuka was inspired by the work of Fritz Lang or how Hayao Miyazaki’s adaptation of Lupin III was deeply entrenched in film noir and Golden Age Hollywood aesthetics. With the rise of an otaku culture punctuated by the first doujin anime and the development of Studio Gainax, anime began to have its ideas and themes codified into a replicable series of cinematic references. Dezaki’s beautiful use of intense lighting and postcard memories, Tomino’s frantic paneling and action set pieces, Takahata’s evocative pastoral landscapes and slow takes, the language of anime was being written one word at a time. In the late 80s we saw the rise of talented creators who speak that language as their first tongue, and the results were inimitable and immediate.

Some directors I am considering under the term include Hideaki Anno, Shinichiro Watanabe, Kunihiko Ikuhara, and Satoshi Kon, just so there’s a point of reference here. I’m trying not to include directors who are usually lumped in with others on this list but were actively working as primary creatives in the studio system in the 80s, such as Mamoru Oshii. Lastly, I’m trying to keep the list centered on the initial wave of anime created even though plenty of these creatives have gone on to work on other things, just so I don’t have it be too confusing to look at. Arbitrary, I know.

Feel free to post comments on my page if you have any suggestions.

This is a part of a series of stacks that are about artistic tendencies in anime (and that border the fine line between sophisticated and pretentious).

This stack is a work in progress.

Bibliography:
Clements, Jonathan. "The Brown Screen: Trended change in Japanese animation 1966–83." Anime: A History. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 154-155.
Condry, Ian. "When Anime Robots became real." The Soul of Anime. Duke University Press, 2013. 117-119, 122-127.
Hack, Brett Anthony. "Screens, Clichés, and Revolutions: Code Geass and the Mediated Imagination of Change." Anime and Social Imagination: Media Fictions in Japan’s Age of Neoliberalism. 2021. Nagoya University, PhD thesis. 160-162.

This is a canonical watch order that is geared towards a first time viewer of Gundam. I myself experienced the series in this order, which preserves the canonical order, but mends it slightly to preserve watching experience and prevent burnout. Included will be double-ups of series, which means the TV and Compilation movie versions and/or OVAs. Most of those "rewatches" will come after a period of time, slid into the timeline in a way that prevents serious burn-out. Realistically you can swap around any of them for their relative compilation, but first will always come the "preferred" version.

There is nothing in this list I would call spoilers, but I do give some slight generalized opinions which may lead, or alter your own experiences. If you want to go in blind, just look at the show. The blurbs are there to decide if you aren't sure when you want to watch something, not to give you anything before you watch.

I will also be forced to keep a side list since the max number of items in a single list is 50. Until more Gundam content is released, it mostly has small 5-10 minute things that don't really add to the canon in anyway. However, Gundam is approaching a point where if 2-3 more series release this list will get tight. Here is a link to that list: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/12271

I want to clarify that I am not some super Gundam fan, and I began making this list from the beginning of my watching experience. It thus offers a glimpse into what watching Gundam in 2022 should be like for the open-minded, anime history inclined weeb. If you know nothing (or very little) about Gundam this is the perfect place to start in order to grind out the main Universal Century timeline.

If you have any questions (or suggestions to improve since I'm not a hardcore Gundam fan) please feel free to message me.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars 64, for the Nintendo 64.
It also serves as a roster for Super Robot Wars Link Battler for the Game Boy Colour, since they share a roster (deliberately so).

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars Compact 2 Part 1: Earth Crisis for the WonderSwan.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars Compact 2 Part 3: Galaxy Showdown for WonderSwan.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars A for Game Boy Advance, and its remake, Super Robot Wars A Portable for PSP.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars Impact for PlayStation 2.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars Scramble Commander for PlayStation 2.