Why is Gundam possibly the only mecha series today that survived extinction?

Short answer: money.

Long answer: Gundam survives because Bandai is heavily backing it financially through sales of Gunpla which is rarely the case with any other mecha series with the exception of Evangelion because of extensive brand licensing by Hideaki Anno and Studio Khara and Transformers (not anime) because of Hasbro's backing from toys and movie and cartoon sales.



No that's wrong, Gundam is alive because of Bandai making and selling toys and because Sunrise (a major anime studio) is fully dedicated to it, as a subsidiary of Bandai Namco. History could have chosen any other mecha anime to be the dominant one like Votoms or Macross, but history and economy (mainly) chose Gundam.

I often wish Dunbine had become the dominant mecha. Though I personally prefer L-Gaim, Dunbine is more deserving.

I often wish Dunbine had become the dominant mecha. Though I personally prefer L-Gaim, Dunbine is more deserving.

I don't understand why so many people in the west have this backwards mindset. Dragon Ball isn't popular because it's getting new content. It keeps getting new content because it's popular. Toriyama had tried several times to end the story and move on from it, but fan demand even forced him out of retirement. I am hoping the world would finally move on and DB is only remembered as a classic instead of something that needs to keep going. But that's false hope because it's just too profitable.


Toriyama pioneered the genre, there was no battle shounen before.

@Lucifrost I'm watching the og dunbine and loving it. mostly.
why is cham in l-gaim btw? are they related entries?

Akira Toriyama perfected and popularized the genre, he did NOT start it or pioneer it Osamu Tezuka did, he was just incredibly good and talented at it.

No battle shounen before Dragonball ? No, there was Tiger Mask, Ashita no Joe, Hokuto no Ken and Kinnikuman, all pre-dating dragon ball by few years.

@tchitchouan
I see you have modified your comment, and I am not saying that's a bad thing here.

1. You made a comment without thinking
2. You went out and did some research
3. You came back and modified the message to better make your point

You should have skipped the first step. You don't need to immediately answer on forums. And editing your comment might be taken the wrong way.

And as for what you said, you are confusing a few things here. There were gaint robots before Gundam yet it is considered the pioneer of Mecha genre, while other giant robots before it are retrospectively called mechas. Pioneering a genre and being retrospectively attached to it aren't the same thing. Earlier works like Hokuto no Ken are now retrospectively considered battle shounen because of similarities but it wasn't originally. Other examples like Kinnikuman has always been a wrestling parody, and Ashita no Joe is a classic sports manga not a battle shounen. The earliest true battle shounen I know of is the Astro Boy story "Greatest Robot on Earth". It's no suprise that Toriyama directly took inspiration from Astro Boy.

@tchitchouan
I see you have modified your comment, and I am not saying that's a bad thing here.

1. You made a comment without thinking
2. You went out and did some research
3. You came back and modified the message to better make your point

You should have skipped the first step. You don't need to immediately answer on forums. And editing your comment might be taken the wrong way.

And as for what you said, you are confusing a few things here. There were gaint robots before Gundam yet it is considered the pioneer of Mecha genre, while other giant robots before it are retrospectively called mechas. Pioneering a genre and being retrospectively attached to it aren't the same thing. Earlier works like Hokuto no Ken are now retrospectively considered battle shounen because of similarities but it wasn't originally. Other examples like Kinnikuman has always been a wrestling parody, and Ashita no Joe is a classic sports manga not a battle shounen. The earliest true battle shounen I know of is the Astro Boy story "Greatest Robot on Earth". It's no suprise that Toriyama directly took inspiration from Astro Boy.

... ... ... ... ... ...
Try googling this バトル漫画

I often wish Dunbine had become the dominant mecha. Though I personally prefer L-Gaim, Dunbine is more deserving.

Pioneering a genre doesn't exactly mean being the first in the race and you are missing several nuisances. I already mentioned giant robots before Gundam, but let's take another example. Godzilla pioneered the kaiju genre. That doesn't mean it was the first story about giant monsters as such stories go all the way back to mythologies and folklore. But such stories would only retrospectively called "kaiju". If you keep pointing at older things with similarities the logic will break quickly; as one can go all the way back and point at classic novels like "Journey to the West"(another inspiration behind DB) as the first battle shounen.

It's still fair to say Tezuka pioneered the genre. But considering everything, I personally think it was Toriyama because DB established "battle between characters" as a central genre.


バトル is the English loanword "battle" written in katakana, 漫画 is the kanji for "manga". Yes, it's quite literally called "battle manga" in Japan as well.

@Captain-577
I found a list of top 50 バトル漫画 with Initial D, Future Diary, and Gantz. As far as I can tell, バトル漫画 simply means "action."
https://myanimelist.net/manga/genre/1/Action

@geberim I'm a big Dragon Ball fan, but you truly think that before DB there was no Battle Shounen to speak of? really? it's a genre that has been around at least since the 70's if not before. Your beliefs make no sense. Hell, for all I know even friggin' Attakku No. 1 might be considered a battle shounen, as volley spokons are just Battle Shounens masquerading as shoujos and the way the volley matches in there were presented is the same of HNK of DBZ. Very dramatic in due time. The main protagonist also is treated like Son Goku in DBZ, in some sense.

@tchitchouan I bet all my chips it's the bilibilbilibili Joe Chip guy again. I don't understand what's the point of wasting time for nothing in this way.

@Lucifrost It is different, it needs to be a battle (1v1, 1vM, MvM, does not matter). So Initial D races and Shokugeki no souma/oishinbou food contests count for example. But Conan jumping buildings with a car to another building is not.

I wouldn't call the Gundam franchise "alive".

Gundam anime are still made, but does anyone care? I don't know, it's been ages since I've heard anyone talking about it, even just derisively.
Did they make some good Gundam anime in the past ten years? Anything worth recommending if you never watched a Gundam before or as in my case, don't remember any of them?


The franchise has always been a bit weird. There's awful Gundam anime and there's great, but ultimately forgettable Gundam anime. And there's so many of them that it's hard to keep track. Watching one always has you wonder if you miss out on anything because you don't know the other 300 Gundam titles by heart.

@TransferUser
The only Gundam series you really need to watch is the original 1979 series. Everything else is either a continuation of it or a completely new project that takes influence from it. Even then you can watch things like G, Wing, or Seed with no prior knowledge because they exist within their own timelines with no connection to the original setting. Also we just got GQuuuuuuX this year so it's definitely alive.

In regards to popularity, like people have said gunpla is a big reason, and you can't forget pachinko where Unicorn AKA UNICOOOORRRNNN is an iconic mainstay, but Gundam is also just a legendary anime. It's like asking why Star Wars is still around. The same applies to Evangelion, which is massively beloved in Japan and gets tons of new merch.

@MattyMcDuck

I've seen Kidou Senshi Gundam (the movies), ZZ, 0080, G, W, Dai 08 MS Shoutai, X, Endless Waltz, Miller's Report, SEED, 00, 00 S2, Unicorn, Tekketsu no Orphans, December Sky and Tekketsu no Orphans 2.


I just don't particularly remember any of them. Things kinda blend together in my memory. Also, apparently I haven't even seen a third of all Gundam anime. Anything from the past ten years you can recommend? I think the next Gundam I'll watch is Suisei no Majo.

From what I've seen, SEED was the most enjoyable and SEED also kinda was a disappointment due to its ending. But maybe that's just because SEED was my first Gundam that I watched 20 years ago and was also one of the first anime I saw.


"Alive" is relative. There was a time when you couldn't escape Gundam discussions as an anime fan. These days I don't really hear anyone talking about Gundam and that is despite there seemingly being a constant supply of new Gundam anime.

@tchitchouan
I see you have modified your comment, and I am not saying that's a bad thing here.

1. You made a comment without thinking
2. You went out and did some research
3. You came back and modified the message to better make your point

You should have skipped the first step. You don't need to immediately answer on forums. And editing your comment might be taken the wrong way.

And as for what you said, you are confusing a few things here. There were gaint robots before Gundam yet it is considered the pioneer of Mecha genre, while other giant robots before it are retrospectively called mechas. Pioneering a genre and being retrospectively attached to it aren't the same thing. Earlier works like Hokuto no Ken are now retrospectively considered battle shounen because of similarities but it wasn't originally. Other examples like Kinnikuman has always been a wrestling parody, and Ashita no Joe is a classic sports manga not a battle shounen. The earliest true battle shounen I know of is the Astro Boy story "Greatest Robot on Earth". It's no suprise that Toriyama directly took inspiration from Astro Boy.

You're only half right. Mazinger pioneered some aspects that would later on become staples in the real robot subgenre like pilotable mech but Mazinger itself is still a Super Robot anime and not a Real Robot anime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z

I wouldn't call the Gundam franchise "alive".

Gundam anime are still made, but does anyone care? I don't know, it's been ages since I've heard anyone talking about it, even just derisively.
Did they make some good Gundam anime in the past ten years? Anything worth recommending if you never watched a Gundam before or as in my case, don't remember any of them?


The franchise has always been a bit weird. There's awful Gundam anime and there's great, but ultimately forgettable Gundam anime. And there's so many of them that it's hard to keep track. Watching one always has you wonder if you miss out on anything because you don't know the other 300 Gundam titles by heart.

@TransferUser
The only Gundam series you really need to watch is the original 1979 series. Everything else is either a continuation of it or a completely new project that takes influence from it. Even then you can watch things like G, Wing, or Seed with no prior knowledge because they exist within their own timelines with no connection to the original setting. Also we just got GQuuuuuuX this year so it's definitely alive.

In regards to popularity, like people have said gunpla is a big reason, and you can't forget pachinko where Unicorn AKA UNICOOOORRRNNN is an iconic mainstay, but Gundam is also just a legendary anime. It's like asking why Star Wars is still around. The same applies to Evangelion, which is massively beloved in Japan and gets tons of new merch.

@MattyMcDuck

I've seen Kidou Senshi Gundam (the movies), ZZ, 0080, G, W, Dai 08 MS Shoutai, X, Endless Waltz, Miller's Report, SEED, 00, 00 S2, Unicorn, Tekketsu no Orphans, December Sky and Tekketsu no Orphans 2.


I just don't particularly remember any of them. Things kinda blend together in my memory. Also, apparently I haven't even seen a third of all Gundam anime. Anything from the past ten years you can recommend? I think the next Gundam I'll watch is Suisei no Majo.

From what I've seen, SEED was the most enjoyable and SEED also kinda was a disappointment due to its ending. But maybe that's just because SEED was my first Gundam that I watched 20 years ago and was also one of the first anime I saw.


"Alive" is relative. There was a time when you couldn't escape Gundam discussions as an anime fan. These days I don't really hear anyone talking about Gundam and that is despite there seemingly being a constant supply of new Gundam anime.