Alternative TitlesEnglish: Mobile Suit Gundam Synonyms: Kidou Senshi Gundam, First Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam: 0079 Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 43
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 7, 1979 to Jan 26, 1980
Duration:
25 min. per episode Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.941 (scored by 3997 users)
Ranked: #3892
Popularity: #630
Members: 7,797
Favorites: 171 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action drama mecha sci-fi |
SynopsisIn the year Universial Century 0079, humanity lives in space colonies called Sides. Side 3, the Principality of Zeon, has declared war on the Earth Federation. After the intial fighting, an 8-month stalemate occured. However that stalemate breaks when Amuro Ray stumbles into the Gundam, the Earth Federation's secret weapon. Now Amuro and the crew of White Base must stand up to Zeon in order to end the war. (Source: ANN)
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Related AnimeAdaptation: Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam
Side story: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War
Sequel: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
Spin-off: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, After War Gundam X, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Turn A Gundam, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam 00
Summary: Mobile Suit Gundam I, Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow, Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space
Other: 30th Gundam Perfect Mission
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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Monkey_D_Luffy
21 of 28 people found this review helpful
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43 of 43 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Mobile Suit Gundam, a title every anime fan has surely heard. Some of us love and praise the franchise spawned by this original series, and for some of us it just didn't quite do the job. Regardless, there is no denying it is a revolutionary title that has advanced anime as a whole. It's truly a classic series that has left its impact, or rather, is still making an impact on anime. As you can see by my high rating of 9, I'm one of the fans that adored this series. So now let's see why this is an outstanding series.
The central plot of Mobile Suit Gundam is fairly simple, laying out a brutal war between two sides: the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. Amuro Ray, our main character, gets involved in the conflict by boarding the Federation's great weapon, Gundam (I'm not gonna explain details because then it defeats the purpose of watching for yourself.) Long story short, he becomes the Gundam's pilot and a valuable member of the Federation crew that works aboard White Base (a war spaceship.) Now what makes this great is the fact that everybody aboard White Base, from the Commander of it to Amuro, is a total novice with little to no experience. Over the course of the series we get to see their development together as well as individuals. The tale is filled with elements of stuff like death, killing, family, friendships, etc., all building up to a spectacular finale. Our story of course focuses primarily on the White Base gang and their adventure, but it does a good job at also centering in on the opposing side at the right times and giving insight to their side of the battle. Also, just to add, the pacing is exceptionally good.
The series is from 1979, so do not expect top-notch animation by today's standards. I'm sure it was five star art in its time, but I simply rated it a 6 by today's standards. Don't let that turn you off though. The sound is obviously old as well, so the sound effects have that old recording sound that really doesn't stand up to today's sound quality, so again the 8 is by today's standards. But again, give it a chance because it's actually pretty cool. As for the opening and ending themes, they're just kinda fun songs that, as you'll see, are for the purpose of Mobile Suit Gundam alone. The background music actually consists of some pretty interesting and catchy tunes that couldn't fit the show better. They're different than a lot of the stuff you hear in today's anime.
Now for Characters. As I've said, they're all amateurs. A lot of the characters aboard White Base go through tragedies that bring out great development. Some of them have hidden secrets and relations, some of them fall in battle, some of them leave White Base, and many other things. There's plenty for you to discover about our crew as you go through the series.
Enjoyment is definitely at its best. The father of mecha, Mobile Suit Gundam, sure doesn't lack in its action. We have a nice variety of different Mobile Suits on both warring sides to switch things up, and the Gundam itself is very entertaining to watch because it has a large array of weaponry. Also, a battle takes place in just about every place you could think of: space, land, sky, underwater, underground, and even inside White Base itself. The enjoyment factor does not disappoint, and always entertains your eyes with superb military brawls between mechas, and even hand-to-hand combat.
Obviously there's some contrasting opinions on this series and its status concerning its rating. However, I truly feel it is worth a shot from any anime fan, just because it is a classic title that has had such influence on anime and the mecha genre especially. read more
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Red_Zealot
17 of 23 people found this review helpful
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43 of 43 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
10 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Mobile Suit Gundam: the series that sparked a genre. Being a pioneer at something is a tough thing to do and while there are some flaws with the original mecha powerhouse that is Mobile Suit Gundam, I can't help but love almost every minute of it.
Mobile Suit Gundam chronicles the adventures of the White Base crew and the enemies that are in a close proximity to them over the course of the series. The main crew consists of about ten characters with the famous Amuro Ray at the centre of it all. The story follows the White Base as it tries to evade the Zeon and complete its objectives. As a side plot to the main story of the White Base is the ongoing duel between Char Aznable and Amuro. As they both fight in the brave new world of Universal Century 0079/80. They have to deal with ever evolving mobile suits and the emergence of the Newtype.
As far as the art is concerned I went into the series with no expectations. This was made after all in 1979. I was pleasantly surprised to find fluid animations and a style that fit the series perfectly. While it is small potatoes compared to the crappiest animation by todays standards it was quite the achievement for animators back then. Being all hand drawn a series of this magnitude is quite the undertaking and it doesn't disappoint. The story is just too good to worry about the quality of the animation.
From the corny opening I gathered that the music would be horrid, but It didn't hold true to my prediction... luckily. Featuring various scores from an orchestra to a sort of 80's techno/pop feeling the music is definitely dated, but that only adds to the charm of the series. The voice acting by the English cast is fairly well done. Nothing to call home about, but they get the job done. Char's voice actor is definitely the standout for me from the series. The other characters fall into the mid-talent range.
The characters of Gundam are what make the show great. Gundam is predominantly a character driven drama and the characters are all given well written dialogue save for some of the minor characters. This only stands for the main characters though as the supporting cast is generally acknowledged as being there, but rarely gets any screen time or meaningful lines. Amuro is your typical mobile suit pilot, he is always miserable and has a very selfish "me first" attitude. He accepts his role better later in the series, but definitely makes himself unpopular with the rest of the crew. Char on the other hand is always charismatic and willing to do whatever it takes to fulfil his goals. On a side note the inclusion of the children was a horrible idea and they are always in the way and very annoying. They single handedly brought the character score down one point.
Overall Gundam was very entertaining, but it is not without its quirks. As I've already gone into what I liked about the series, I'll now focus on what prevented this series from going down as truly great. First of all the Zeon are basically a hybrid version of the Nazis of WWII fame and the Empire from Star wars. The cross overs are all over the place. At one point a Zeon Admiral is described as Hitler-esque. Point is, the Zeon are not a very original enemy and steal a lot of their traits from other sources. Even their uniforms are definitely very Nazi. Another quirk,(I call them quirks because they are not really bad, but things I definitely noticed) the amount of time they spend on things related to food is just uncanny. Almost every episode has a segment where Amuro is being berated for not eating or being reminded to eat. It just comes off as an annoyance after 30 episodes. Finally, they call it a military and they are always trying to do military activities, yet they have children on the bridge, people are routinely stealing mobile suits and for anyone that knows anything about the military it will seem very fictional in regards to the military activities.
Throughout the series I only had a few major problems, but overall it is a must watch for anyone that considers themselves an Anime fan. read more
Recommendations
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For Gundam fans: If you've ever wanted a comedy anime that shamelessly panders to fans of Gundam, especially U.C. Gundam series, Keroro is the series for you. From Keroro cosplaying as Char to Keroro piloting a 1:1 scale RX-78-2 Gunpla in the third movie, there are plenty of amusing references to the franchise throughout the series.
For Keroro fans: If you've ever wondered why it is that Keroro is so obsessed with Gundam, viewing either the original Mobile Suit Gundam series or movie trilogy is a great way to find out. After all, what kind of Keroro fan doesn't know the difference between a Zaku and a GM?
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Fang of the Sun Dougram has a handful of parallels to the original Mobile Suit Gundam series but in return, it's execution and storytelling is tighter, more detailed, and more mature. Not to say Gundam is bad! But if you want a real Gundam for adults? Dougram is it.
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Opening Theme"Tobe! Gundam (Fly! Gundam)" by Koh Ikeda
Ending Theme"Eien Ni Amuro (Forever Amuro)" by Koh Ikeda
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