Kidou Senshi Gundam (Mobile Suit Gundam)

It is year 0079 of the Universal Century. Mankind has moved to space, living in colony clusters known as "Sides." One of these Sides declares itself the "Principality of Zeon" and declares war on the Earth Federation, the governmental body currently ruling Earth. Using powerful humanoid robots known as "mobile suits," Zeon quickly gains the upper hand.

Nine months into the conflict, the Earth Federation has developed its own powerful mobile suit called the Gundam. When Zeon launches an attack on the colony holding the Gundam, a 15-year-old civilian named Amuro Ray suddenly finds himself thrown into a conflict that will take him all across Earth and space, pitting him against the enemy's ace pilot, Char Aznable.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Kidou Senshi Gundam was not popular when it first aired, and came close to being cancelled. The series was originally set to run for 52 episodes but was cut down to 39 by the show's sponsors, but the staff was able to negotiate an extension to end the series with 43 episodes. When Bandai bought the copyrights to build plastic models for the show's mecha things changed and the show became popular.

It revolutionized the genre by portraying mecha as piloted military weaponry with real-world scientific basis instead of superheroes' giant robots. Often referred to as the 'real robot' genre, it became the norm for mecha anime in the following years after its release.

The series was the first winner of the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, in 1979 and the first half of 1980.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Kidou Senshi Gundam 0079, Kidou Senshi Gundam, Kidou Senshi Gundam, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Hybrid 4-Koma Daisensen
Side story:	Kidou Senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS Shoutai, Kidou Senshi Gundam MS IGLOO: 1-nen Sensou Hiroku, Gundam Evolve, Gundam: Mission to the Rise, Ring of Gundam, Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt
Sequel:	Kidou Senshi Gundam 0080: Pocket no Naka no Sensou, Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam
Spin-off:	Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing, Kidou Shinseiki Gundam X, Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED, Turn A Gundam, Kidou Butouden G Gundam, SD Gundam Force, Kidou Senshi Gundam 00, SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors, Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Tekketsu no Orphans, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo
Summary:	Kidou Senshi Gundam I, Kidou Senshi Gundam II: Ai Senshi-hen, Kidou Senshi Gundam III: Meguriai Sora-hen, Akai Shouzou: Char, Soshite Frontal e, Zeonic Front: Kidou Senshi Gundam 0079 - Zeon no Hifun, Kidou Senshi Gundam Unicorn: Episode EX - Hyakunen no Kodoku, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Hikaru Inochi Chronicle U.C.
Other:	SD Gundam Gaiden, Kidou Senshi SD Gundam Mk-I, All That Gundam, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Uchuu Seiki Yowa, 30th Gundam Perfect Mission, Mokei Senshi Gunpla Builders Beginning G, Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Special, Kidou Senshi Gundam Senki: Avant Title, The Impression of First Gundam, Gundam: G no Reconguista, Kidou Senshi Gundam-san, Nihon Animator Mihonichi, Gundam vs Hello Kitty, Kidou Senshi Gundam G40, Gundam Breaker: Battlogue
Character:	Defend Love
Alternative version:	Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin, Kidou Senshi Gundam: Cucuruz Doan no Shima

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Aznable, Char

Main

Ikeda, Shuuichi
Japanese

Ray, Amuro

Main

Furuya, Toru
Japanese

Noa, Bright

Supporting

Suzuoki, Hirotaka
Japanese

Haro

Supporting

Inoue, You
Japanese

Mass, Sayla

Supporting

Inoue, You
Japanese

Ral, Ramba

Supporting

Hirose, Masashi
Japanese

Zabi, Mineva Lao

Supporting

Zabi, Garma

Supporting

Mori, Katsuji
Japanese

Shiden, Kai

Supporting

Furukawa, Toshio
Japanese

Sune, Lalah

Supporting

Han, Keiko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Yatate, Hajime

Producer

Tomino, Yoshiyuki

Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Key Animation, Original Creator

Sekita, Osamu

Director

Matsuura, Noriyoshi

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"Tobe! Gundam (Fly! Gundam)" by Koh Ikeda

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Ending Theme

"Eien Ni Amuro (Forever Amuro)" by Koh Ikeda

Reviews

Feb 8, 2024

Relag

Recommended

Mobile Suit Gundam is and enormous work. Much like having seen any movie since 1950 is to know Citizen Kane, it is impossible not to know of Gundam if you have even a passing interest in the mecha genre. However, that is not the same as "Experiencing" Gundam. While subsequent shows exhibit the same plot beats, the same stylings, the same characterizations as Gundam; there is no substituting the keen understanding of the violence and the status quo that Tomino and team brought to this seminal work.

Having been cruelly cast out into space, the newfound Spacenoid humans struggle for independence from the Earth government. A ... beautiful dream for the future is turned into supremacist ideology as this movement is co-opted by fascists. The ensuing conflict results in the deaths, the murders, of more than 5 billion human beings. This is the start of Gundam.

To combat the Spacenoids, the Earth Federation enlists Tem Ray of the supposedly neutral space colony 6, an O'Neil Cylinder suspended in space, to create a weapon to eclipse all others. This mechanical being in human's own image is known as the Gundam. Because of this, the colony and its inhabitants are attacked by Spacenoid forces. In addition to the thousands of civilian lives lost, most of the military personnel are killed in the attack. Thus, events conspire such that Tem's son Amuro must pilot his surrogate brother/father/parental sin/power fantasy mech on behalf of the Earth Federation hegemony.

Again, if you have an understanding of Mecha anime then you have a surface level understanding of Gundam. Characters grow and relapse, they struggle and overcome, they forge new bonds and break old ones. Amuro and the Gundam dispatch numerous foes as begins to both resent and tie his self validation to his ability to pilot the Gundam. However, this is only surface level.

It's quickly revealed that Amuro Ray is and esper of supernatural ability, referred to in series as a Newtype. With these newfound powers, Amuro exceeds the abilities of his rival Char Aznable, the abilities of his commanding officers, even the abilities of the Gundam itself. However, despite his mechanical surrogate struggling to keep up with him, Amuro is unable to escape the crushing weight of history.

Director Yoshiyuki Tomino is on record as saying that his ideas are entirely derived from history. I won't argue with the man on this, but his ability to cut through immediate politics to depict the underlying conflicts and ideologies is wholly his own in the mecha anime space. As influential as Gundam is, it rarely exhibits clichés of the genre, past or present. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no indomitable human spirit, there is no breaking the yolk of the system to establish a third way; instead, its characters fall back on play-acting the roles assigned to them at birth: they are slowly broken into their pre-assigned constructs for the benefit of the empire. Individuals, even those endowed with supernatural abilities, are mere speedbumps compared to the overwhelming force of societal constructs.

And this is what separates Gundam from other media. Once Newtypes are known, they are Known. Governments bend and construct these superhumans to their own ends, ideologues implement them into their philosophies for validation, and individuals struggle in vain to become them in search of meaning. It's a lesson all opportunists know well: there's more power in exploitation than erasure. To know Gundam is to watch the fantastical unrealized potential of mankind be twisted into an experimental program to create supersoldiers.

I could speak further on the various tragedies that befall our protagonists, the supporting characters that enact their tragedies in miniature, the antagonists that reflect their struggles like a mirror; but ultimately they all amount to the same thing. Every moving piece is an attempt to birth a new world that fails.

This may be on me: I went in to Gundam knowing there were decades of content succeeding it. At the end of the series, once all opponents had been vanquished, once the treaty papers had been signed; I couldn't help but notice that Amuro went back to the military that had exploited him. He has no family, no friends, nothing except his colleagues in a war machine that used him for it's own gain. At the end of it all, I believe Gundam remains a deeply pessimistic show. It wants to believes in an inherent good in humanity, wants to believes in an individual's ability to surpass their past self, but knows that social constructs won't let them achieve these things.

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Nov 2, 2023

bboy_OatsnRice

Recommended

Not to sound like a deranged six year old but if you like planet sized robots with guns, bazookas, lightsabers, canons, jet packs, lasers, that can also fight in hand to hand combat then screw this review and pick this up. Forget the fact that it’s made in 1979, because this cinematic masterpiece holds up to this day. This has it all: mecha, love, characters, weird acid trips, family drama, Char, and military tactics that anyone could desire in a Gundam show. I’m talking scenes filled with so much war and space jargon that you’ll be fluent in the language of Spacenoid by the end ... of it. But is this series all sunshine and roses? Ahem, time for a most dubious synopsis.

In short, we begin with an expedition dump saying how Earth has split in two. One half is the Earth Federation that wants to preserve life on Earth as we explore the new frontier(space) and the Zeon who want independence from the Earth Federation, and later want to eliminate all Earth’s inhabitants, believing that they, the Zeon, are superior. The two sides have been at a stalemate for awhile, until one dumbass decides that he can neuter one of the EF’s best assets (an area called slide 7) on his own. Which ends up destroying a military base and killing thousands of innocent civilians. It’s here we follow our protagonist Amuro as he accidentally stumbles into a Gundam, a giant humanoid battle mech. And from here our story between good and evil (with a moral gray area) begins.

And that’s the briefest synopsis I can give about the story. More about what I found most intrinsically enjoyable about the story and the writing later on, for now I’d want to turn my attention to the visual spectacle of it all. For a series that was made in 1979, I must say that the action sequences hold up extremely well. I don’t understand this ongoing contingency that it’s too outdated or sluggish for modern viewing. As someone who watched this for the first time in the year 2022, I was jawstricken by the sheer magnitude of both the battles themselves and the scope of the narrative. Between this and the fights in LOGH, both convinced me that space war isn’t much different than real war, and also getting your ship blasted by a laser offers anything but a quick and easy death. No, as if the explosions weren’t enough to demonstrate how violent these battles are, it’s only increased tenfold when a Gundam uses its saber-beam to slice or impale the cockpit. This is where the pilot lies, and you are explicitly shown the horror the pilot faces as the cockpit has been obliterated.

Not to linger on the action much longer, but each movement of the mechs have real weight to them. Same goes for any movement that occurs in a spot with zero gravity. Where even the faintest of flicks on a forehead can send someone flying in the other direction. There may not be much blood, or any instance of gore that I can immediately recall, but this is by no means a non-violent show. The only aspect that might be more grotesque than the violence is all the drama and romance. Because by god, is this show filled to the brim with it.

Throughout this huge war, the war over who gets Amuro’s heart wages on in the background. Which is a component of this show that I initially scoffed off, but I’ve grown more fond of it in retrospect. I recall initially thinking that the romance was a waste of Amuro’s energy, since throughout the series it’s shown that Amuro struggles to keep it in his pants, and that despite his loyal to a fault like nature, his stints with being romantic towards others felt like unnecessary bumps in the road that deviated from his main mission. However after revisiting this series after watching subsequent gundam shows, I must say that I ended up admiring the emphasis this show in particular puts on romance, intimacy, and relationships in general. Because honestly, how can you make a compelling space-war saga without love playing a crucial role? I now enjoy that it’s this series that introduces us to a “love-triangle” of sorts that ends up putting the fate of humanity on Earth at stake at some point in the future. It also humanizes all players involved in this conflict despite its huge scope, and that just makes each casualty of war felt that just more.

Whether that be through a spy pretending to love a soldier to squander information out of them, love interests changing over the course of war, or two-players caught in a love triangle trying to pin whether they love the girl as a girlfriend or as like a mother, this Gundam is not only the catalyst for establishing romance as a crucial aspect to this series, but also cementing that in order to have lost, you had to have loved. And this series does not let up on snipping away the emotional strings you have to certain characters throughout the story.

No matter the era, when it comes to story-telling, genres such as romance are timeless. However, an aspect of a story that can age closer to that of milk than of wine are its visuals. Which is a crucial component when it comes to animation, especially that of which from a series that came out in 1979. So how does this series stand up visually? Aside from some animation errors and stiltyness, I honestly did not see much wrong with how the series looked, contrary to everything I’ve heard up till finally watching this for myself. Sure it can be a little stiff and the characters can make odd faces at times, not to mention the movements of the Gundam itself can be quite frozen at times, but otherwise it’s phenomenal in the visual department and has its own unique charm and whimsy. We’re also constantly given a variety of settings, since we’re traveling across the globe and galaxy that is. The show does a wonderful job capturing the distinct aura each location emits. From more desert heavy lands, to a panicking space shuttle, the swampy boonies, this show doesn’t let down on its immersion.

Speaking of immersion, (see what I did there?) the immersion I have into the Gundam universe is only bolstered by its soundtrack. Feeling grand and epic during a battle, and building tension during moments of suspense. However there’s a moment in Slide 6, where Amuro is on his way to meet his dad and in the background it’s playing this incredibly jammy funk song. And that’s the way I’d describe the soundtrack, it’s this space-opera orchestral masterpiece with blurbs of random funk and synth songs that not only throw you for a loop but also manage to stick with you.

The dialogue and banter between characters are both fun to watch play out and immersive. I am always captivated by Char’s raw charisma and charming demeanor each time he’s on screen, and I found Amuro’s growth and struggles throughout the series to be harrowing and thought provoking. In that, I’d often ask myself if I’d rise up to the situation in a similar way he does in a situation. Whether that be seeing his loved ones meet a miserable fate, avenging his comrades, or developing a relationship with a being who possesses other-worldly powers, I can confidently say that Amuro is the most-level headed Gundam protagonist of the UC trilogy and comes across as the most human. That being said, he’s not my favorite, but I appreciate him much more now than I had in the past.

Much like how humane Amuro is in comparison to future gundam protagonists, he also works solidly as his own character but also not being too extreme of personality that he’s able to not lose the ability to act as an audience surrogate. And much like war, Amuro isn’t perfect and not everything is sunshine and roses, but is that the case with this series as a whole? Does this series hold up today? Gundam: 0079 is a series that I cherish with all my heart. It’s a series that started out as a mere toy-commercial that became an outstanding commentary on politics and war that sadly still holds up to this day. However, it’s with this series and its successors that we can apply its morals and messages to our own lives and truly make the change that series wants us to make in our society. Only truly then, can I say that I’m as cool as Char Aznable.

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Mar 9, 2024

kekekeKaj

Mixed Feelings

For a long time I'd thought the importance of the original Gundam anime Mobile Suit Gundam was mainly due to its founding of the Real Robot genre as well the huge, sprawling Gundam franchise that's still going strong today. Having actually sat down and watched the show though, I realised that I seriously underestimated the influence of this seminal series: not only did it make its mark in anime history, many of its ideas remain relevant to this day.

It always seemed a little strange to me how Gundam series often recycle the same elements over and over. What became obvious once I started Mobile Suit ...

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