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It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century. A half-century has passed since Earth began moving its burgeoning population into gigantic orbiting space colonies. A new home for mankind, where people are born and raised.
And die.
The original Gundam show, started in 1979 as a planned 52-episode series but cut down to 43 due to the show pulling in horrible ratings. However, the merchandise for the TV show sold rather well, allowing the series to go straight into syndication, where it found its audience. A three film clip-show compilaton trilogy later and Mobile Suit Gundam eventually spawned a massive franchise. Though there are now a large number of sequels, spinoffs, and Alternate Continuities, the original Mobile Suit Gundam remains the most popular show of the franchise.
The series follows Ordinary High School Student Amuro Ray, opening in the midst of a stalemate in the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. Though the Earth Federation has (or, rather, had) superior numbers and resources, the Zeon military has annihilated much of the Federation's population with chemical weapons, decimated their fleet with their new mobile suit technology, nearly ended the war in a stroke with a Colony Drop, and follow up by invading Earth.
While fighting a losing battle on Earth, the Federation stepped up its R&D program to develop its own mobile suits, resulting in the Super Prototype "Gundam". While doing final tests on the Gundam in a remote space colony, they are attacked by a small Zeon force led by Char Aznable. Amuro ends up Falling Into The Cockpit in order to save the colony, and from there is pulled into the war between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. But, of course, things aren't as simple as they appear to be...
The original Real Robot series, Mobile Suit Gundam literally created a genre, and eventually spawned numerous sequels and side stories. Its direct sequel is Zeta Gundam, and there are also a trio of OVAs set in the same time period as Mobile Suit Gundam: The08th MS Team, Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket and MS IGLOO.
This program provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation (Many fans consider the Compilation Movies to be better than the original TV series)
- All Your Base Are Belong To Us (Twice during the series; Ranba Ral's assault on the White Base, and the Zeon's attack on Jaburo.)
- Aloof Big Brother (Char, most famously. Bright also shows some traits before he gets his Character Development)
- Alternative Calendar (The Universal Century)
- A Nazi By Any Other Name (SIEG ZEON! HAIL ZEON!)
- Anti Villain (Just about every Zeon character except Cassilia, M'Quve and Giren - notably Ramba Ral, the Zeon soldiers in the episode "Time Be Still," and the three Zeon soldiers who at one point help some of the White Base refugees.)
- Anyone Can Die (The series was, after all, created by a man who was nicknamed Kill Em All)
- Big Brother Mentor (Ryu Jose, to a degree Bright)
- Big Damn Heroes (General Revil escaping from captivity to give his "Zeon is exhausted!" speech)
- Big Screwed Up Family (The Zabi family; the Deikuns aren't far behind.)
- Bittersweet Ending ( Amuro defeats Char, but is about to let himself die until he hears his friends' voices and is able to reunite with his adoptive family. Char survives, finishes his "revenge" by killing Princess Kycilia and escapes, but is separated from his beloved sister Sayla forever)
- Bridge Bunnies: Mirai as White Base's pilot, Sayla as Communications Officer Later Fraw Bow, plus two male navigators who play no role in the plot outside of navigating.
- Character Development: What set it aside from several other Humongous Mecha shows of its time, aside of the Real Robot aspect.
- Combining Mecha (The Gundam is formed from three separate parts; later in the series, even more optional parts are added.)
- Compilation Movie: Three of them
- Crowning Moment Of Funny:
Zeon Soldier: Lieutenant! It's a new Feddie weapon!
Ramba Ral: Don't panic! It's called lightning!
- Justifying Edit: To be perfectly fair, the Zeon soldier had presumably never been on Earth before, and logically would have no knowledge of weather.
- Cyber Cyclops (The ZAKU series of mobile suits.)
- Darwinist/Nietzsche Wannabe (Gihren, who takes being compared to Hitler as a compliment)
- Dead Person Impersonation ("Char Aznable" wasn't just an alias. (This only occurs in the manga Gundam: The Origin, though))
- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: General Revil's "Zeon is exhausted!" speech.
- Doomed Hometown (Side 7)
- Downer Ending: In the novelization of the series, Amuro is actually KILLED by a random beam bazooka blast from behind during the Battle of A Baoa Qu. The novelization differs in several other points (such as actual use of the G3 Gundam), but this is the most shocking change.
- Energy Weapons
- Falling Into The Cockpit (Amuro, even when his dad was the one who built the Gundam itself. To a lesser extent, the entire White Base crew; at age 19, Bright was the most junior officer of the White Base's original crew until the Zeon attack left him acting captain.)
- Fanon
- The Federation (Some are evil, some are good)
- Full Name Basis (Everyone calls him "Ramba Ral". Nobody calls him just "Ramba" or "Ral". It's always "Ramba Ral". Also Challia Bull, and often, but not always, Fraw Bow.)
- Genius Bruiser (Prince Dozle Zabi is 7' feet of pure Zabi muscle and leads his troops in person heroically in the Battle of Solomon. Might be a bit of a Gentle Giant, since he truly cared for his family (namely his little brother Garma, his wife Zenna and his daughter Minerva. )
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man (Now THIS is where the infamous Bright Slap comes from. We also have Sleggar and Ryu mastering this technique)
- The Gwen Stacy {Lalah)
- Heroic Sacrifice (From both throwaway and major characters. Poor Matilda, poor Ryu, poor Michelle, poor Woody, poor Lalah...)
- Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Dozle Zabi and his wife Zenna. Zenna appears normal size, but Dozle is gigantically tall at 210cm coupled with a very muscular build.
- Humongous Mecha
- Iconic Characters (Char Aznable has been oft-imitated, both in the Gundam franchise itself and in other shows)
- Insult Backfire (Giren takes it as a compliment when his father compares his world view with that of Adolf Hitler.)
- Though he'd never heard of Hitler before Degwin made the comparison onscreen, and Gihren didn't hear very much detail about Hitler. In this sense it's almost an Insult Backfire Backfire.
- Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: (Kai Shiden, who starts as a Dirty Coward)
- Lady Of War (Princess Kycilia)
- Latex Space Suit (Pilot suits)
- Mask Power (Char, of course. Also, Kycilia)
- Meaningful Name (Zaku comes from the Japanese word for Mooks, zako, which, incidentally was what they were actually called in SD Gundam Force.)
- Memetic Mutation (Besides the whole red thing, there's the infamous line Once the Big Zam in mass produced)
- Mid Season Upgrade (Averted in the anime, played straight in the novels with the Gundam getting destroyed and replaced with the G-3 Gundam)
- Minovsky Particle (Trope Namer)
- Merchandise Driven
- Mukokuseki (Mostly averted: Mirai Yashima, the one with more direct Asian heritage, looks noticeably more Asian than the rest. Amuro is an aversion, since he's But Not Too Foreign (his mother is either American, Canadian or Mexican, depending on the canon you follow))
- One of the games gives Amuro's birthplace as Prince Rupert in northern BC, Canada.
- That would be "Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2".
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo (Averted: when about to lose, M'Quve tries to drop a nuke on the advancing Federation forces.)
- And Nuclear weapons were employed in large numbers during the 1st week of the war, resulting in World War III level casualties on both sides.
- The Ojou (Iserina Eschenbach is a very tragic version of the trope. Mirai is technically one, but she tries her best to not let her family connections interfere)
- Psychic Powers (Newtypes)
- Real Robot (Trope Maker)
- Self Made Orphan (Gihren kills his father via Solar Beam, and then his younger sister offs him)
- The novelization has Kycillia forming an alliance with the White Base, and Gihren getting shot in the crotch with a beam rifle, causing him to explode. Kycillia orders Char to lift her up so she can proclaim herself Zeon's leader...at which point he flips his Rick Dom's hand, causing her to go splat. Kai Shiden, the only survivor of the White Base test pilots at that point, realizes he REALLY hates Char.
- Series Franchise
- Shoot The Sky (the Gundam's "Last Shooting" in the final episode)
- Snipe Hunt (The Federation forces trick Zeon into thinking the White Base and the Gundam is a greater threat than it really is by requiring it to get back to Jaburo as soon as possible. Thanks to that, Zeon forces along with many of their aces are pulled away from important battles, they lose a tremendous amount of resources, and in the end this was all just to buy time so the GM can turn the tides via Zerg Rush)
- Stock Footage (Mostly involving the Gundam launching or combining with its various parts.)
- Super Prototype (The Gundam)
- Super Robot Wars (as it is the original Gundam series it does appear in quite a few of the games)
- Superweapon Surprise (More than one, and used by both sides.)
- Sword Fight (With mobile suits, and between Char and Amuro in person during the final episodes!)
- Tank Goodness (Guntanks)
- Team Dad (Bright Noah, after his Character Development)
- Team Mom (Mirai. She's even referred to in canon as "the mother of the White Base" and marries the Team Dad)
- Telepathic Spacemen (Newtypes)
- Understatement (In the novels, Tomino mentions that Japan "technically" lost World War Two.)
- Like Hirohito said, the war situation developed "not necessarily to Japan's advantage."
- If you consider that Japan's economy received a massive boost from World War Two due to US influence, Tomino is actually dead on; they lost and won at the same time.
- Tell that to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- Waif Fu (Lalah Sune is waifish and soft-spoken, but is also a fearsome pilot. Too bad she got caught in one really screwed up love triangle with her savior and her soulmate)
- Wangst (Amuro can get pretty whiny at times. He has his reasons, of course, but even so.)
- And it should be noted that he stops his petulant whining about two-thirds of the way through the series.
- Still, that's two whole thirds of the dang series full of whining.
- Warrior Therapist (Char and Amuro tend to talk a lot while they're fighting)
- Weak But Skilled (Initially the reason that Char can keep up with Amuro. Later on it's the reason Amuro can keep up with Char.)
- What Happened To The Mouse (More like Amuro's dad, who never actually got a death scene even though he did die at Side 6)
- Only in the series; the Compilation Movie adds a scene where he falls down some stairs and breaks his neck. The whole thing comes off as rather arbitrary, really.
- World Half Empty
- You Are In Command Now (This is the setup for the series.)
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