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Context YMMV / Gundam

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2!!The following have their own pages:
3[[index]]
4* [[Monster/{{Gundam}} Complete Monster]]
5* [[DracoInLeatherPants/{{Gundam}} Draco In Leather Pants]]
6* [[MagnificentBastard/{{Gundam}} Magnificent Bastard]]
7* [[Memes/{{Gundam}} Memetic Mutation]]
8* [[NeverLiveItDown/{{Gundam}} Never Live It Down]]
9* [[Woobie/{{Gundam}} The Woobie]]
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11[[/index]]
12!!Other examples:
13* AccidentalAesop: One could interpret the message of the Universal Century shows to be "don't follow leaders who are [[TheCaligula clearly crazy]]." Most of the conflicts in the era are the result of someone who's either a [[TheSociopath complete sociopath]] ([[Anime/MobileSuitGundam Gihren Zabi]], [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Bask Om]]) or has serious mental health issues ([[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Haman Karn]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char Aznable]]) coming into [[TheDictatorship absolute power]].
14* BrokenBase:
15** The fandom is generally grouped roughly based on which series brought you into the fandom, though this has died way down since Gundam's heyday in the early 2000s. The original split was between UC purists and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wingers]], with a smaller faction of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Seedlings]] arising later. ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' was divisive due to its much more SuperRobot-styled Gundams and the FirstContact plot of the movie given that AbsentAliens has long been a hallmark of the franchise. A later series, ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'', has caused some disagreements over its "kiddie" styling (to say nothing of the writing gaffes it suffered in its last two arcs).
16** The presence of TechnicalPacifist characters has generated this. Some fans find it groan-worthy on the grounds that it takes the WarIsHell message to {{Anvilicious}} levels and that it is [[{{Wangst}} grating]] to watch characters participating in a war have qualms about killing people. Other fans feel that adding extra content to the anti-war message isn't a bad thing and that it is reasonable for a character to have qualms about killing people instead of [[AngstWhatAngst showing no remorse about killing others]].
17** "Space magic" elements not grounded in MinovskyPhysics such as Newtypes and Psychoframes. Some fans accept them for being around as early as the first installment and find them to be part of the enjoyment of the franchise. Other fans feel that a RealRobot show should not have such elements and instead focus on grounded realism (at least as much realism as a HumongousMecha show can have). Some have come to view it as something of a FranchiseOriginalSin due to its presence leading to similar things being implemented in other series.
18** Which Mobile Suit in the series is the most powerful? There is a lot to argue over and it is perhaps one of the most common arguments in the fandom. And while a lot of people have their own take, most of the time it becomes a battle between [[Anime/TurnAGundam Dark History Turn A]], [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn Crystallized Unicorn]] and [[Anime/Gundam00AWakeningOfTheTrailblazer ELS Quanta]].
19** The release of any OVA set in the Universal Century centering the narrative on the Principality of Zeon or giving them significant focus tend to be very contentious, especially in recent years with more awareness of persistence of far-right and historical negationist attitudes within Japanese politics surrounding the Second World War and various other pieces of popular Japanese media being accused of peddling ultranationalist sentiments. One group of fans accuse these sorts of OVA of both whitewashing Zeon and overtly demonizing the Federation by providing [[GreyingMorality unnecessary moral ambiguity]] to the One Year War at best, and providing a mouthpiece for [[AuthorTract far-right Japanese nationalist tracts]] using Gundam as a cover at worst. These detractors would also note that despite the WarIsHell and BlackAndGreyMorality themes of the Universal Century, Tomino was himself very critical of Japan's wartime atrocities and made Zeon an allegory for Imperial Japan. Another group of fans feel said perspective to be premature and unnuanced, pointing out that Tomino has himself written the Federation as horrifically corrupt and [[Anime/ZetaGundam elements of it as outright villainous at times]]. They also believe that the detractors tend to overlook or downplay how said Zeon-centric [=OVAs=] do criticize Zeon's ideology and war conduct in their own way while having a fair number of sympathetic Federation characters.
20* ContinuityLockOut: The main reason for the shift from the UC timeline to alternate universes.
21* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: Most of the series have a strong anti-war theme, while simultaneously making sure every episode has awesome giant robot battles in it.
22* EpilepticTrees: A common joke among fans is for everyone to guess if potential model kits will be released for general retail or as webshop exclusives (specifically Premium Bandai).
23* FandomEnragingMisconception:
24** Go ahead and call the Mobile Suits "Franchise/{{Transformers}}", we dare you. [[note]]It barely helped that Shōji Kawamori, the designer of the pre-Transformers Diaclone toyline, also designed Gundam-type Mobile Suits.[[/note]]
25** Be sure to learn that not all Mobile Suits are Gundams before getting into a discussion with fans, or risk ticking them off by calling suits like Zakus or [=BuCUEs=] Gundams.
26* FanficFuel: Even the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' made it clear that what was shown on screen was simply one small part of a large war. The UC timeline spans over two centuries, and then there are the AlternateUniverse series, and that's not even considering fans making their own Gundam AU. There's also less of an aversion to fans making up all-new casts due to the practice of introducing a new lead character for every anime, manga and video game.
27* {{Fanon}}: The fandom is quite good at creating it, given how many AlternateContinuity versions and contradictory source materials there are.
28* FanonDiscontinuity:
29** Contrary to popular belief, there is no official words removing ''G-Saviour'' from Universal Century. However, its existence is generally ignored by both the fans and the creators.
30** Some fans really want to believe that the ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' remake movies have shunted the less-popular ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'' out of canon, but that's not the case.
31* FranchiseOriginalSin:
32** The shift from a GreyAndGreyMorality in the original work to a BlackAndWhiteMorality in the sequel complete with the antagonist faction that is LoveToHate, which often leans to TooBleakStoppedCaring. Now, this is often considered the moment the work in question will [[SeasonalRot go downhill]], as evidenced with ''Anime/GundamSeedDestiny'' and the second season of ''Anime/Gundam00'' being {{Contested Sequel}}s. This trend started when ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' transitioned to ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', the latter being generally considered an EvenBetterSequel. The reason ''Zeta'' (mostly) got away with the morality shift was because its overall improvements with better writing, action and animation compared to the original overshadowed any complaints about the villains being LoveToHate. Meanwhile, later entries usually didn't improve their other aspects when shifting the morality or have a similar reception due to a more perceptive and hard to please audience thanks to the internet.
33** The "Space Magic" element is often a contentious topic with some feeling like it takes away from the [[RealRobotGenre Real Robot]] feel in many series. This is something that was first introduced in the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam very first show]] and subsequently escalated in the following series. The idea of Newtypes were considered groundbreaking at that time and the powers provided usually don't result in fantastical elements and/or {{Deus Ex Machina}}s that would make the audience feel like that they are watching a different show altogether, which allowed Newtypes to be mostly immune to the criticism later versions would suffer from. Not to mention, "Space Magic" was also used more often as time went on to justify plot holes and physics-defying feats, turning it into a writing crutch.
34* FriendlyFandoms: With both fans of the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' and ''Franchise/KamenRider'', resulting in a fandom overlap intertwining between franchises and leading to various comparisons and jokes for multiple installments, due to a lot of surprisingly plot-specific similarities, as well as those 3 franchises appeared in the ''Compati Hero'' crossover video game series.
35* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
36** Proportionally speaking, the Master Grade line of model kits sells incredibly well in most foreign countries like Australia and the US. This was very likely due to the line's plethora of gimmicks, which consists of of inner frames (If you don't count even older ones), poseable fingers, excellent color separation (current kits), the usage of clear parts etc.
37** As a mecha franchise, Gundam was definitely a top show in Japan. However, it is basically the quintessential Japanese mecha anime in the eyes of the Western world. Think of 'Japanese mecha anime' and most English-speaking fandom would default to 'Gundam', whereas while respected in Japan, there is another anime that didn't fly that well in the Western market, but the Japanese still considered it more influential than Gundam when it comes to mecha anime: ''Anime/MazingerZ''.
38* IAmNotShazam: At least you can find one of the franchise's (inexperienced) fandom referring the other non-Gundam-type Mobile Suits as the said titular name.
39* JustHereForGodzilla: Why some fans enjoy the franchise despite finding the plots boring and the characters irritating. It's still got giant robots blowing each other up!
40* MisaimedFandom:
41** Yes, the Federation has corrupt leaders. Yes, Zeon has many good, moral people who serve it. Yes, the Titans are bad. That being said, it's a little scary how many fans will knee-jerk a SIEG ZEON for a regime that murdered ''billions'' of people and continued to wipe out metropolitan centers every few years "for freedom".
42** There is a portion of the fanbase that misses the point of the WarIsHell message and complain about the characters discussing morals instead of [[JustHereForGodzilla focusing on the giant robot battles]]. Given the [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing sheer spectacle the shows tend to have, it's hard to blame them for missing the message]], but it's still odd to see fans wish for the characters to stop angsting about the deaths and destruction they've witnessed when ''the deaths and destruction are supposed to be hammered in as bad''.
43* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: The 30th anniversary short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2M53lQ3bEE "Gundam Perfect Mission"]], where the protagonist Gundams from every anime up through ''Unicorn'' work together to get the Core Fighter into space, where it forms into the original Gundam, the whole thing ending with a YeahShot.
44* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgbURB7-Ymc Newtype flash]].
45* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: Some fans dismiss any Gundam series not set in the UC continuity or made by Tomino regardless of their actual quality.
46* PopCultureHoliday: There are three main holidays for the franchise: Gundam Day (7/8), chosen to mimic the model number of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'''s RX-78-2, Zaku Day (3/9), chosen as a GoroawaseNumber pun, and Nu Gundam Day (9/3), chosen to mimic the model number (RX-93) of its namesake Gundam from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack''.
47* RootingForTheEmpire: ''By the truckloads''. 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 FlameWar over who was really the bad guy. Ditto, though to a lesser extent, for ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00''. The same debate over whether Vagan or the Earth Federal Forces is worse in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge Gundam AGE]]'' is getting ugly as well. The same goes through ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans]]'' where you got Tekkadan vs. Gjallarhorn (particularly in Season 2) debate.
48* StarTrekMovieCurse: For Gundam, it's the "sequel series curse", where sequels to a series other than the original MSG tend to be poorly received in comparison: ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny'', and to an extent the second seasons of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'', ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamIronBloodedOrphans Iron-Blooded Orphans]]'' and ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury The Witch from Mercury]]''.
49* ToughActToFollow: Many fans view Tomino's work as this, with anything set in an Alternate Universe very rarely holding up to Tomino's standard. Shows set in Tomino's Universal Century have fared much better, with all of the [=OVAs=] (none of which had any input or involvement from Tomino) being highly rated by both fans and Tomino himself.
50* {{Wangst}}: Happens when the protagonist takes angst too far, which is depressingly frequent for people who just want to watch [[RuleOfCool giant robots fighting]].
51* WinBackTheCrowd: After numerous failings, Gundam was completely pulled from US markets. However, the success of Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin and Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn overseas, combined with high ratings on official ''Anime/GundamBuildFighters'' streams led to the franchise being picked up by Creator/NozomiEntertainment, with a dub of the anime version of The Origin on the way. Gunpla has also been showing up at select Barnes and Noble retailers, and Bluefin opened up a Tamashii Web Shop in the US, with hopes for a Gunpla Shop. And as if to say "sorry" for leaving before Anime/TurnAGundam could be released during Bandai Entertainment's run, it will be one of the ''first'' series to be released by Nozomi. Things are looking for a grand return...

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