Kidou Senshi Victory Gundam

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.

Just the phenomenal Gundam series arranged according to release order.

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 2G, for Game Boy. This is an enhanced remake of Super Robot Wars 2, featuring a slightly larger roster.

These are the anime that appear in Shin Super Robot Wars, for the PlayStation.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars Alpha for PlayStation and Dreamcast.

These are the anime that appeared in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden for PlayStation.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars D for Game Boy Advance.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars 30 for PS4, Switch, and Steam on PC.

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars X-Omega Second period inclusions Roster For İOS and Android

These are the anime that appear in Super Robot Wars X-Ω, a mobile phone game that is now defunct.
It's being split into multiple parts because there are so many.

These are all of the anime on which the great mad genius Yoshiyuki Tomino served as lead director.

1979 - 2005

These anime have strong & dark depictions of suffering, mental illness, trauma violence, sex and various sociopolitical and economic problems in a grounded way and without sugarcoating it, although in fiction it is often impossible to completely avoid the distorting lense of epicness or melodrama when portraying reality.

When I say that these shows portray reality, I don't mean to say that they are necessarily based in material reality, as some are sci-fi or fantasy. What I mean, is that these shows portray the bleak and harrowing aspects of human condition without pulling any punches, and without romanticizing it (to some extent).

These shows often have a positive and hopeful overall message and/or ending sometimes, so I wouldn't call this a list of "depressing" shows. However, they have in common that they revolve around brutal and mature depictions of psychological, physical and spiritual pain of individuals and society, while also having a haunting and opressive feel to them.