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The franchise bearing the name Gundam can be considered the anime equivalent of Star Trek. In 1979, a planned 52-episode series got cut down to 43 due to low ratings, Mobile Suit Gundam ( Kidou Senshi Gundam in Japanese) became easily one of the two most well-known and long-running series of the Humongous Mecha genre (the other most well-known being Macross) Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it's a veritable merchandising empire encompassing manga and video game tie-ins, plastic models and toys, ( theme park rides and race team sponsorships). The comparisons to Star Trek line up in the rousing success of reruns, movies and the sequel series Zeta Gundam, which solidified its status as a franchise.
Gundam effectively invented the Real Robot genre, depicting mobile suits as mass-produced machines of war similar to planes or tanks, rather than unique creations solely responsible for defending against enemies. Of course, its Super Robot roots remain in the Gundams themselves — unique mobile suits (typically Super Prototypes or Ace Custom units) piloted by the main character(s) and the focus of much of the show.
One of the most noticeable quirks of the Gundam metaseries is its prolific use of Alternate Universes; to date, there are seven different Gundam universes, each identified by the name of the calendar they use:
- Universal Century (UC), the original, consists of
- Mobile Suit Gundam TV series (1979) and three compilation movies (1981 and 1982): Set in U.C. 0079, it depicted a conflict later known as the "One Year War" between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. What set this series apart as Real Robot was the large scale military use of mecha, the in-depth technical specifications of the future technology and the depiction that both the Federation and Zeon had good and bad people fighting for them, rather than one side of heroes and one side of faceless evil mooks.
- Zeta Gundam TV series (1985): Set in UC 0087, eight years after the original series ended. It featured a mix of new and returning characters against the vicious Titans group, and later Axis Zeon, making it essentially one long Melee A Trois series. Comparable to Star Trek The Next Generation in expanding the mythology of the saga.
- Gundam ZZ TV series (1986), has yet to be released in English: Deals with the war against Neo Zeon, who (as Axis Zeon) came out on top at the end of Zeta Gundam.
- Char's Counterattack theatrical release (1988): It gives a conclusion for the principle characters that have been a part of Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ in UC 0093.
- Gundam F 91 theatrical release (1991): It was intended to be a full length television series, but the first 13 or so episodes were turned into this movie. While good, it's incomplete and no substitute for the series' storyline. It's set in UC 0123.
- Crossbone Gundam: A manga continuation of the F91 story written by Tomino himself; the main characters of F91 have taken control of the Crossbone Vanguard & become Space Pirates pillaging the outer solar system & plotting the downfall of the sinister "Jupiter Empire". Contains much foreshadowing of events to come in Victory.
- Victory Gundam TV Series (1993), has yet to be released in English: Set in UC 0153, the story outlines a new conflict and is famous for the Downer Ending. Yoshiyuki Tomino admitted going through a battle with depression while writing this series.
- G-Saviour in 2000, originally intended for a "Twenty Years of Gundam" celebration in 1999. A Live Action Adaptation but having little to do with the classic Gundam storyline besides being set in UC 0218 and being of relatively poor production quality, the movie is generally ignored.
- Future Century (FC)
- G Gundam (1994): A shamelessly Super Robot series, intentional for a break after the dark Victory Gundam. In this universe, war is subverted by establishing Gundam Fights, championship battles that determine the country that leads the human race. The fight that occurs this year is rendered unique in that it deals with a Government Conspiracy and the demonic Devil Gundam. Notable in being the first Alternate Universe series and that Yoshiyuki Tomino set aside the directors duties and allowed someone else to work on a Gundam series.
- After Colony (AC)
- Gundam Wing TV Series (1995): Five Gundams are sent from the space colonies to fight for independence from the Earth Sphere Alliance. Sides change frequently even among the Gundam pilots as the politics and manipulations grow more complicated. Notable for being the first English released Gundam series and was a megahit on Cartoon Network, helping to bring the other franchise members into English adaptations. The uncut version shown late night also helped inspire the Adult Swim programming block.
- Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz 3-episode OVA (1997): Takes place a year after the end of Gundam Wing, when the Gundam pilots try something completely different against a new enemy. Features completely redesigned Gundams, even in flashbacks, despite them being nominally the same machines.
- After War (AW)
- Gundam X (1996), has not been released in English: It deals with an After The End setting in a dystopia future. It was canceled shortly like the original series, but that was attributed to poor scheduling rather then lack of quality.
- Correct Century (CC)
- Turn A Gundam (1999), with compilation movies (2002): The unique plot peripherally suggests all Gundam series actually take place in the same universe, simply separated by huge amounts of time. It has also not been released in English. Yoshiyuki Tomino returns to direct and fans regard it as one of the best in the franchise, notably avoiding the Downer Ending "Kill Em All" Tomino was famous for.
- Cosmic Era (CE), an attempt at making a Universal Century style timeline for a new generation of fans, is the only timeline besides the original UC to have more than one full-length series:
- Gundam SEED (2002): It tells the familiar story of the various Gundam series, to the point of virtually mirroring the original Mobile Suit Gundam until roughly the halfway point of the series.
- Gundam SEED Destiny (2003): Considered the Zeta Gundam to Gundam SEED's Mobile Suit Gundam, it also features a combination of new and returning characters in a second round of the same basic conflict.
- Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer a 3-episodes OVA set in same timeframe with Gundam SEED Destiny, notable for its initial release being online rather than TV or DVD.
- A movie intended to conclude the Cosmic Era timeline was announced in 2005 following the end of SEED Destiny, but real life complications such as the head writer taking ill have pushed it into Development Hell.
- Anno Domini (AD), (2008) aka the "real world", is the timeline for Gundam 00, the newest Gundam series. Two seasons 25 episodes each with 6 months break between them, with a movie coming out in 2010.
At its core, each Gundam series tells the story of a war between Earth and the space colonies that orbit it; it is this Earth vs. Space theme that is consistent throughout the entire Gundam metaseries. Among other things that are to be expected in the various series include:
No overview of Gundam could be complete without mentioning Kunio Okawara, who created the original mecha designs for the first Gundam universe, and who has continued to create designs for every Gundam show since. Hajime Katoki, who began as a model customizer, is also a key Gundam designer, often creating more "realistic" versions of Okawara's designs. Other important mechanical designers include Kazumi Fujita, Junya Ishigaki, Mamoru Nagano, and others. The Gundams themselves generally share visual characteristics from generation to generation due to his influence. The design is easily distinguishable by the yellow 'V' shaped crown or some variation, and the primary "Hero" Gundam will be mostly white and blue with some red accents.
The origin of the name Gundam varies from series to series, in the first show it was simply the title given to the mobile suit. Later series in the same continuity uses the name as a direct reference to that first mobile suit. In other continuities it can stand as an acronym or as a reference to some new technology that the mobile suit pioneers, like a super armor named "Gundarium."
The Gundam metaseries, particularly the original Universal Century timeline, is also notable for the remarkably consistent fictional technology; in UC, this is based on the original Minovsky Particle. Also notable is the presence of Newtypes, who are essentially psychics, and can be accurately described as " Jedi in giant robots". Newtypes, or something similar, appear in most Gundam shows.
Gundam also has a large number of Video Games associated with it, notables including the Super Robot Wars series, the G Generation series of Turn Based Strategy games, the Gundam Vs Series, and Dynasty Warriors Gundam. And for Something Completely Different, there's SD Gundam, both in the form of a series of omake-style parody shorts, and a full-blown series called SD Gundam Force.
Gundam apparently doesn't fall under the purview of the Japanese Agriculture Ministry. Except when it does.
This series provides examples of the following tropes. Note that these are present in the metaseries as a whole; for individual shows, please use individual series' pages.
- The Abridged Series: There are quite a few Gundam Abridged
- Aerith And Bob: There are some very strangely named characters in Gundam, there are also a scattering of people with completely mundane names.
- Alternate Continuity: TV series, movie trilogies, manga, video games, and novels all retell the same stories... and all slightly differently.
- Alternate Universe: As explained above.
- Alternative Calendar: Used for every series but Gundam00, largely to avoid having to set a definitive "X years in the future" setting. Amusingly, the first few series simply filed the serial numbers off by setting them in the year "UC 00XX", where XX was the year in the 20th century that the show was released. Mobile Suit Gundam, for example, was released in 1979 and set in UC 0079.
- Anyone Can Die: The series was, after all, created by a man who was nicknamed Kill Em All.
- As Long As It Sounds Foreign: People's names in Gundam series, while not always like this, can tend towards being WEIRD. In not a few cases, it overlaps with Gratuitous English.
- Awesome Mc Coolname: Every series has at least a few cases of this.
- The Battlestar: Most warships have impressive firepower in addition to their mobile suit payload.
- Bittersweet Ending: No Gundam series to date has a flat-out "happily ever after" ending, though some are more depressing than others.
- Colony Drop: Trope Namer; Gundam series are extremely fond of dropping large objects onto targets from orbit.
- Combining Mecha: The original Gundam had the ability to separate and recombine; this was downplayed later. The CE timeline has this in spades, as the titular mecha combine with 'packs' that seem expressly designed to ship more plastic models of the mecha.
- Complete Monster: Every shows needs at least one super bastard with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, from M'Quve to Ali. The most popular is undoubtedly Yazan.
- Continuity Lock Out:
One of The main reason for the shift from the UC timeline to alternate universes.
- Cool Ship: The main character usually has a ship to haul his Cool Mecha around.
- Crack Is Cheaper: Between the TV series, the OVAs, and the movies, that's a lot of cash for DVDs.
- And that's without even getting into the manga, the video games, or the model kits.
- Crapsack World: As a consequence of constantly ongoing wars in almost every continuity.
- Cyber Cyclops: The "bad guy" mobile suits tend to have a single, glowing camera; they're typically referred to as "mono-eyes".
- Doomed Hometown: The main character's hometown, frequently a Space Colony, is usually wrecked early in the series. Sometimes directly leads to Falling Into The Cockpit.
- Energy Weapons: Frickin Laser Beams, Wave Motion Guns, Laser Blades, and everything in between.
- Executive Meddling: Part of the reason the franchise failed overseas. Sunrise chose to follow the successes of Gundam Wing and G Gundam with the 1979 original and its sidestories, and pushing the merchandise and marketing for those despite the obvious lack of interest on the part of the target audience. As a result, when Gundam SEED came to the West, it was shoved into a Friday Night Death Slot despite the fact that, a year or so before, it probably could have helped maintain the momentum Wing and G started. Many fans hold the opinion that, had Sunrise exported Gundam X rather than the One Year War series, Gundam might have actually hung on longer.
- Expy: To say the franchise is addicted to this trope is an understatement. There's a Char in every single series.
- Falling Into The Cockpit: A popular way to select new crack Gundam pilots.
- Fanon: The fandom is quite good at creating it, given how many Alternate Continuity versions and contradictory source materials there are.
- Fantastic Racism: While ethnic and religious conflict is notably absent in most Gundam universes (Gundam00 being the exception), there are major divides between those who live on Earth and those who live in Space in almost every series. The conflict between Puny Earthling Naturals and genetically engineered Born Winner Coordinators in the CE timeline is a much more direct example.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Zeeks" and "Feddies" in UC; in CE Naturals have been seen to call Coordinators "space monsters" on occasion.
- The Federation: The Earth government is usually one.
- Five Man Band: The Universal Century was slightly more dynamic, but it came into full swing in G Gundam and Gundam Wing.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Bright Noa, the Team Dad of the UC timeline, is the king of this trope. So much so that it was originally called the Bright Slap.
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives
- Gundamjack: Trope Namer. Good way to kick off the events of a given series.
- Heroic Sacrifice: From both throwaway and major characters; a side effect of Anyone Can Die.
- Humongous Mecha: Obviously.
- A Mech By Any Other Name: They're called "mobile suits" in general, though different timelines have variations like "mobile fighters", "mobile dolls", and "mobile bits". Non-humanoid versions are usually called "mobile armors".
- I Sense A Disturbance In The Force
- Iconic Characters: Char Aznable has been oft-imitated, both in the Gundam franchise itself and in other shows.
- Latex Space Suit: For use by both males and females, though only pilots; other crew get bulkier, more conventional space suits.
- Long Runner: 30 years and counting. Big Name Fan Burke Rukes once pointed out on his old website that if one were to watch all of Gundam from MSG to Turn A, it would take about a week, and that was without counting work, sleep, and bathroom/meal breaks. And mind you, this was long before SEED and 00 came out.
- Made Of Indestructium: Gunamium appears to be this. Though is quite rare.
- Mask Power: The Rival and/or Char Expy usually wear one.
- Milestone Celebration: Happens regularly at the 10 year marks.
- Minovsky Particle: Trope Namer, in the UC Timeline, but implemented in really every timeline more or less.
- Merchandise Driven: Much, much more money is made on Gundam modeling kits than the anime itself.
- Novelization: All of anime series except Gundam X has at least one. Beltochika's Children is rather amusing case, it was originally Tomino's rejected plot of Char's Counterattack which, in turn, is adaption of Tomino's novel Hi-Streamer. In other word, it's novelization of The Film Of The Book, with all three by same author!
- Psychic Powers: Newtypes.
- Real Robot: Frequently said to have invented the genre, though in reality it's stuck somewhere between Real Robot and Super Robot, to the point where the most recent incarnation, Gundam00, was described as Real Robot vs Super Robot. One guess which the Gundams were.
- The Remnant: Zeon has a lot of these that pop up in later series, but also Oz and ZAFT to a lesser extent.
- Ret Con: Between all the Alternate Continuity versions and OV As, they're inevitable. They're usually not too bad, but exceptions (such as Gundam0083's Colony Drop) do occur.
- Rooting For The Empire: For UC, Zeon has far more vocal fans than the Earth Federation. In CE, just mentioning it in reference to the Earth Alliance or ZAFT is likely to cause a Flame War over who was really the bad guy. Ditto, though to a lesser extent, for Gundam00.
- Series Franchise
- Sliding Scale Of Gender Equality: Tends to hover between "Male Superiority" and "Men are More Equal". In this troper's opinion, series made by Tomino tend to do a better job with gender equality.
- So Last Season: The Mid-Series Upgrade has been a staple since Zeta Gundam, and even Mobile Suit Gundam had a limited version of it.
- Stock Footage: And plenty of it. More of a problem for some series than others (the CE timeline was particularly infamous for indulging in it), and generally less of an issues in the movies and OV As.
- The Smurfette Principle: Partially subverted. Every series has female pilots, but they're almost always outnumbered by male ones, and (with the exception of the manga Ecole Du Ciel), they're never the main character. Well, it is Shonen, after all...
- Super Prototype: Just about anything with the word "Gundam" in its name, and a lot without it.
- Super Robot Wars: Pick a game. You'll find at least half a dozen Gundams in it.
- Superweapon Surprise: In the UC timeline, and the CE that mirrors it, mobile suits are these, with the subversion that they're used to attack instead of defend. The first Gundams in both universes are this again, in that they're Bigger Stick mobile suits that catch the other side by surprise too!
- Sword Fight: Only with Humongous Mecha and Laser Blades!
- Take Off Every Zig: Pretty much everyone announces their name and which mecha they're using before launching from the Cool Ship.
- Transforming Mecha: Varies between series, with some series chock-full of such mecha, and others devoid of them. Zeta Gundam springs to mind as the Gundam series with the most Transforming Mecha, which includes the title mech.
- True Art Is Angsty: Zeta Gundam, while having one of the bleakest endings in all Gundam, is generally considered to be one of the best of them all. Gundam0080 is similarly dark, and similarly exalted.
- On the other hand, Turn A Gundam is also considered to be among the best, and it's arguably the happiest Gundam series.
- Wangst: Happens when the protagonist takes True Art Is Angsty too far, which is depressingly frequent for people who just want to watch giant robots fighting.
- Warrior Therapist: The Rival tends to be one, resulting in philosophical debates during running mecha battles.
- Well Intentioned Extremist: The Big Bad of a series is usually — or at least can be argued to be — this.
- White Haired Pretty Boy: Char and Expys, for the most part.
- Year Zero: A different one for each of its Alternate Universes, though they were invented by the creators rather than the fans. Interestingly, each series takes place decades after its timeline's Year Zero, and only rarely is the Year Zero explicitly tied to a specific event.
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