Kidou Senshi Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam is the principal predecessor to evangleion by a long shot. It's all about the WWII relevance, the pilot's tale, and the walls of our hearts. Though I consider eva to be the masterwork of modern anime. Mobile suit gundam and in fact all of the Universal Century gundam franchise is what made my childhood meaningful. 

Both NGE and MSG explore not just the basics of mecha combat but branch off into the psyches of the protagonists as they learn to come to grips with not only the situation they are in but also the actions they have taken. This avoids the average caricature of them needlessly blasting their way through the series mercilessly (Which they do anyway) but develops them as characters throughout the series due to the events as any teenager in their situations would.  

It is clear that Mobile Suit Gundam was a powerful influence on Evangelion. Both were ahead of their time and set a standard for future mecha in their respective eras, Gundam with a more realistic take on warfare rather than super robots, and Evangelion with more character focused drama. Both main characters are one of the few remaining people who can pilot said series' mech, but are young and not mentally prepared for war and death, so they go through a struggle of handling it psychologically. A must watch especially if you care about what made mecha in to what it is today, as they are landmark pieces of their specific time periods.  read more 

Gundam is one of the main inspirations behind Evangelion, and as such, both anime share many similarities. Both anime focus on teenagers forced to pilot robots and fight in a war, as well as the mental strain this puts on them. Loss, grief and depression are key themes treated in both anime. 

If you have started to see mecha animes by Evangelion and like it, I recommend that you see the first Mobile Suit Gundam (or the 3 films that compile the story). Through the MSG you will see many fundamental pillars for the mecha anime that came later, especially Evangelion (This you will understand in the final stretch of MGS) 

Yoshiyuki Tomino and Ryosuke Takahashi are two of the greatest exponents of the realistic robotic genre. It changes the conception of the mecha, no longer a divine machine but normal combat machines used by men. It also loses the concept of antagonist in favor of a more complex definition of war that overwhelms people forced to kill for institutional duty. More mature themes are introduced. 

Classic Sunrise mecha anime and prime examples of the real robot subgenre. Both anime deal with more mature aspects of war, and have somewhat similar transhumanist ideas (Newtypes & Perfect Soldiers). 

Both anime are set in a far future in which humanity has colonized space, and both focus on an intergalactic war between two sides with opposing ideologies. Apart from plot similarities, there's also a huge similarity between two of the main characters in both anime, Char Aznable and Reinhard von Lohengramm, as they both have similar personalities, backgrounds, and motivations. 

Both anime are centered on intergalactic warfare. When humanity has travelled out to space and explored and civilized space, humanity suddenly splits. Republicans vs an Empire. When both fractions meet in space the soldiers realize that they are fighting for the same values but both live in a different fraction and have to overcome their ideals that strive them and need to fight to protect the people they love. Love, war and politics are the themes of both anime. These are the Star Wars of anime. 

There are several similarities between Mobile Suit Gundam and Fang of the Sun Dougram. Both series are set during a war between Earth and its colonies, where one side is fighting for control and the other independence; both have an extremely likable cast; and both involve a prototype mech that's more advance than its predecessors. However, Dougram focuses more on politics and battle tactics than Mobile Suit Gundam, and it also follows a small group of rebels fighting for independence, rather than members of Earth military. Both are essential viewing for any mecha fan. 

The original Mobile Suit Gundam created the "real robot" genre and the first to follow this movement was Fang of the Sun Dougram. It's the most underrated Gundam-like but one of the best written. It's one of the most extreme definition of "real robot" thanks to a very realistic worldbuilding. If you like the realism and politics of Gundam you'll like Dougram. It's as good as Gundam if it's not best.  

A supposed democracy fights against a space dictatorship with horrible atrocities such as colony drops occurring in the process. 

Aldnoah copies so much from Gundam that it may as well be Gundam. Humanity has been broken up into two factions: one on Earth (and colonies, in Gundam), the other in space (and Mars, in Aldnoah). The half of humanity living in space consider themselves superior to the 'inferior' Earthlings to the extent they think of them as a subspecies. They're basically space Nazis fond of red uniforms. War starts as a temporary peace gets shattered and a young male / school kid finds himself in the middle of it from the get-go. Through a set of circumstances, the respective leads end up fighting for their lives whilst on the run from pursuers aboard a military vessel; trying to get to safety. ...see what I mean about the 'similarities'? The main difference is that there's no Gundam in Aldnoah... yet. In Gundam series there's always some new, EDGE OF TECHNOLOGY robot that an inexperienced-heroic lead finds himself piloting. In Aldnoah the lead is a Gary Stu: always knowing what to do and how to do it; defeating veteran enemy commanders in an inferior training robot when no-one else can / everyone else dies. Only the space Nazis have super robots. Going for intelligence over an overpowered machine is fine... just not when there's no way a school kid should know or be able to do so much. THE MILITARY HAS YET TO DESTROY ONE ENEMY! A tad unfair for a war... The biggest problem Aldnoah has is its length. 12 episodes only leaves room for lots of action. The space Nazis may as well just be EVIL cackling villains, with a 1ep u-turn 'stop the war... no, on second thought, kill them all!' leader. There's no time for their development. Its a 'mecha battle of the week' series, with little in the way of anything else and utterly derivative... until the predictably twisty late twist. read more 

Absolute masterpieces of the mecha genre. Of course they both have so much more to offer, but if you enjoy giant fighting robots, these would be a good watch. 

Code Geass is one of those animes that struggles to find anything of similar quality to it simply because of how good it is. This is where Mobile Suit Gundam 00 comes in. Both shows have- -A strong protaganist who seeks to eradicate war and create a safe world -A broken and warring world in the future which will lead to its own destruction -More than one main antagonist often up to 3 or 4 all of whom you will despise -A strong questioning of ethics and what is right and wrong -Almost no filler episodes -Antagonists who may change sides to help the protagonists -A huge amount of emotion between characters and the losses they endure -A story that involves a massive amount of emotion, twists and turns, and character development in a very short amount of time -An incredible song that forms the very basis of each protagonists troubles and goals "Tomorrow-Marina Ismail and the children singing" and "Yuukyou Seishunka-Ali Project(The first ending song)"  read more 

Light-hearted analog of Mobile Suit Gundam made by Takeuki Kanda. Years later he'd made first part of Mobile Suit Gundam 8th MS Team. 

In one, you have a group of former army goons trying to live a casual life, and in the other, you have a group of untrained civilians struggling to defend themselves against the enemy. However, the chemistry and makeup of the crew members on the Gekko are very similar to the crew on White Base. The growth of Amuro Ray's character in Gundam left a legacy for the mecha genre, and this influence can be seen in the actions and growth of Renton's character throughout Eureka Seven. Fans of Eureka Seven should definitely check out Gundam 0079, and vice versa! 

Both animes are from the same creator, and because of that alot of the themes in MSG are present in Ideon as well. There are a few major diferentiations, but both shows are representing the mindset of large crew when facing against insurmountable obstacles, and also these shows are very good representation of the inhumane and uselessly cruel nature of the humankind, when being in a state of war. 

The directors of both shows had worked together on many projects up until this point (Heidi, Haha wo, Akage no Anne). Gundam was created almost as a reaction to Conan, mimicking it in many respects, while still having much to say of it's own. Both shows have a worldview strongly influenced by their directors, on account of both directors storyboarding almost the entirety of their respective shows. Both shows also have remarkably high quality animation, having some of the best animators of their times push themselves to their absolute limits with uncommon production methods (layouts). Similar core themes of humanity's self destructive nature, and questioning if that human nature is set in stone, but hugely different approaches. Both are absolute must-watches for anyone interested in Anime's history. read more 

At the beginning of the 1980's, the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Macross anime aired with their iconic transforming mechs and old-school space battles. They're pretty dated now, but their hand-drawn animation and catchy music keeps them relevant. The main characters are part of crew aboard a giant military space ship, and the protagonist pilots his mech so they can live another day. 

If you're into mecha and you want to dvelve into the history of the genre, you definitely shouldn't miss these two series who both played huge part in setting the tropes of the genre. Mazinger Z being the first piloted mecha while Gundam being the fist mecha aiming for more realistic portrayal of the technology.