Kidou Senshi Gundam G40

The franchise of Mobile Suit Gundam, and specifically it's Universal Century timeline (UC), is one of monumental value for the anime medium as a whole, since it is one of the first animated media that features the human tragedies and the fragility of the human psyche in wartimes, the basis of which are the production cast's memories from their childhood, as kids who had to grew up in the aftermath of World War 2, which you can definitely feel as undertones throughout the franchise's origins.

The series and episode count could seem daunting and tad overwhelming as count, hence why at the start of this list a few "hooks" of a shows will be included, which are fairly standalone by themselves, with shorter episode count, but still having the titular Gundam thematic hallmarks as a series. If you were doubtful about whether this show is for you, they are very good indicator whether you'll enjoy your time with the Universal Century timelines, which is dubbed the "main" timeline for a very good reason.

This is a canonical watch order that is geared towards a first time viewer of Gundam. I myself experienced the series in this order, which preserves the canonical order, but mends it slightly to preserve watching experience and prevent burnout. Included will be double-ups of series, which means the TV and Compilation movie versions and/or OVAs. Most of those "rewatches" will come after a period of time, slid into the timeline in a way that prevents serious burn-out. Realistically you can swap around any of them for their relative compilation, but first will always come the "preferred" version.

There is nothing in this list I would call spoilers, but I do give some slight generalized opinions which may lead, or alter your own experiences. If you want to go in blind, just look at the show. The blurbs are there to decide if you aren't sure when you want to watch something, not to give you anything before you watch.

I will also be forced to keep a side list since the max number of items in a single list is 50. Until more Gundam content is released, it mostly has small 5-10 minute things that don't really add to the canon in anyway. However, Gundam is approaching a point where if 2-3 more series release this list will get tight. Here is a link to that list: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/12271

I want to clarify that I am not some super Gundam fan, and I began making this list from the beginning of my watching experience. It thus offers a glimpse into what watching Gundam in 2022 should be like for the open-minded, anime history inclined weeb. If you know nothing (or very little) about Gundam this is the perfect place to start in order to grind out the main Universal Century timeline.

If you have any questions (or suggestions to improve since I'm not a hardcore Gundam fan) please feel free to message me.

2016 - present

Mecha OVAs that are shorter than 15 minutes.