Sunrise Academic Certification Course
Anime
The intent of this stack is to provide a complete history of Sunrise animation in a single course, meant to fit inside the framework of a 3 credit class with an expectation of 90 hours of out-of-class material over the period of a 15 week semester.
Adaptions of manga, or novels will be mostly excluded unless the creators themselves worked at Sunrise like in the case of Dunbine, or Arion. This means extremely notable, and historically important series, such as Cyborg 009, Ultraman, City Hunter, Inuyasha, Planetes, Sgt. Frog, and Gintama will all be excluded, despite the critical artistic contribution of this works on Sunrise's style. A truly dedicated academic would, at the minimum, watch some of the City Hunter, Inuyasha, Sgt Frog and Gintama side content since they were incredibly important on influencing Sunrise studio direction.
This course would ideally be taken alongside a thrice per week hour long lecture, breaking down the lineage of Sunrise's works, and how they influenced one another to build what we have today. As a result, there may be a series you feel is critical, or exceptionally great, but it will be excluded in favor of discussing the series role and relationship to the studio due to the limitations watching long form weekly series made for weekly broadcast. Sunrise is unique in that many of their major series have movies, or OVAs that summarize or recap the main franchise to give viewers a soft entry to understanding the work. However, there are of course serious works like Giant Gorg, Vifam, Pazer World Galient, Ronin Warriors, Jushin Liger, the entirety of the critically influencial Brave Series, most alternative Gundam series (which would be left to their own "Gundam" course), Garasaki, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Big O, Tiger & Bunny or even Love, Live! that would be discussed in class even if they aren't going to be watched.
This is a developing experiment, so please contact me if you have any suggestions, or questions.
Adaptions of manga, or novels will be mostly excluded unless the creators themselves worked at Sunrise like in the case of Dunbine, or Arion. This means extremely notable, and historically important series, such as Cyborg 009, Ultraman, City Hunter, Inuyasha, Planetes, Sgt. Frog, and Gintama will all be excluded, despite the critical artistic contribution of this works on Sunrise's style. A truly dedicated academic would, at the minimum, watch some of the City Hunter, Inuyasha, Sgt Frog and Gintama side content since they were incredibly important on influencing Sunrise studio direction.
This course would ideally be taken alongside a thrice per week hour long lecture, breaking down the lineage of Sunrise's works, and how they influenced one another to build what we have today. As a result, there may be a series you feel is critical, or exceptionally great, but it will be excluded in favor of discussing the series role and relationship to the studio due to the limitations watching long form weekly series made for weekly broadcast. Sunrise is unique in that many of their major series have movies, or OVAs that summarize or recap the main franchise to give viewers a soft entry to understanding the work. However, there are of course serious works like Giant Gorg, Vifam, Pazer World Galient, Ronin Warriors, Jushin Liger, the entirety of the critically influencial Brave Series, most alternative Gundam series (which would be left to their own "Gundam" course), Garasaki, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Big O, Tiger & Bunny or even Love, Live! that would be discussed in class even if they aren't going to be watched.
This is a developing experiment, so please contact me if you have any suggestions, or questions.
Kidou Senshi Gundam II: Ai Senshi-hen
Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow
Movie, 1981,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:8
Week 1 Class 2
Kidou Senshi Gundam III: Meguriai Sora-hen
Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space
Movie, 1982,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:8
Week 1 Class 3
Densetsu Kyojin Ideon: Sesshoku-hen
The Ideon: A Contact
Movie, 1982,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:7
Week 2 Class 1
Densetsu Kyojin Ideon: Hatsudou-hen
The Ideon: Be Invoked
Movie, 1982,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:7
Week 2 Class 2
Seisenshi Dunbine
Aura Battler Dunbine
TV, 1983,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:9
Week 2 Class 3 Watch if you have the time, but it adds +20% more, or about 20 hours. I might personally edit a recap. Extra Credit.
Special, 1988,
3 eps
Me:-
Author:-
This appears to be unavailable online, but should be watched as a quicker version of Dunbine.
Kidou Senshi Zeta Gundam
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
TV, 1985,
50 eps
Me:-
Author:10
Watch the full series, or the movies if you are lazy
Kidou Senshi Z Gundam I: Hoshi wo Tsugu Mono
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation - Heir to the Stars
Movie, 2005,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 4 Class 1
Kidou Senshi Z Gundam II: Koibito-tachi
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation II - Lovers
Movie, 2005,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 4 Class 2
Kidou Senshi Z Gundam III: Hoshi no Kodou wa Ai
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation III - Love Is the Pulse of the Stars
Movie, 2006,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 4 Class 3
Soukou Kihei Votoms Recaps
Armored Trooper Votoms Recaps
OVA, 1986,
4 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Week 5 Class 1+2
Soukou Kihei Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder
Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder
OVA, 1985,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 5 Class 3
Soukou Kihei Votoms: Big Battle
Armored Trooper Votoms: Big Battle
OVA, 1986,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 5 Class 3
OVA, 1987,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:2
Week 7 Class 1
Soukou Kihei Votoms: Red Shoulder Document - Yabou no Roots
Armored Trooper Votoms: Red Shoulder Document - Roots of Treachery
OVA, 1988,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 8 Class 3
Kidou Senshi Gundam 0080: Pocket no Naka no Sensou
Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket
OVA, 1989,
6 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Week 10 Class 1
Kidou Senshi Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
OVA, 1991,
13 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Series preferable, but the movie is for the lazy and essentially acceptable.
Kidou Senshi Gundam 0083: Zeon no Zankou
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: The Afterglow Of Zeon
Movie, 1992,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 10 Class 2
Soukou Kihei Votoms: Kakuyaku taru Itan
Armored Trooper Votoms: Brilliantly Shining Heresy
OVA, 1994,
5 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Week 10 Class 3
Kidou Butouden G Gundam
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
TV, 1994,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important (+20% longer, 20 hours) Extra Credit.
Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
TV, 1995,
49 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important, watch if you have the time (+20% longer, 20 hours) Extra Credit.
Shin Kidou Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Tokubetsu-hen
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Movie, 1998,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Optional and historically important, watch if you have the time. Extra Credit.
Kidou Senshi Gundam: Dai 08 MS Shoutai
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
OVA, 1996,
12 eps
Me:-
Author:7
Week 11 Class 1+2
Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star
Outlaw Star
TV, 1998,
24 eps
Me:-
Author:-
One of Sunrise's best series, and quite an important one, but takes about 10 hours extra to watch, or a week and a day worth of class time, so we will be forced to skip this one. Extra Credit.
TV, 1998,
26 eps
Me:-
Author:10
Week 11 Class 3, Week 12 Class 1+2 Lynchpin in Sunrise's animation history and arguably the most important directional shift in animation ever created. A culmination of decades of Sunrise's work that requires an entire week dedicated to watching.
Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Movie, 2001,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:10
Week 12 Class 3
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
TV, 2006,
25 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Another critical work in Sunrise's history, but an extremely long series. As a result, the OVA summary version will "technically" be placed here, but the full series is a much watch, and the extra time should be dedicated to watching.
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch Special Edition - Black Rebellion
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Special Edition - Black Rebellion
OVA, 2008,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 13 Class 1
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
TV, 2008,
25 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Realistically, in 30-50 years it is highly unlikely anyone has the time, or cares enough, to watch all 50 episodes, and thus the summaries are essentially sufficient to understand Sunrise even if they aren't the preferred way to consume Code Geass.
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 Special Edition - Zero Requiem
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Special Edition - Zero Requiem
OVA, 2009,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:-
Week 13 Class 2
Soukou Kihei Votoms: Pailsen Files
Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files
OVA, 2007,
12 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Yet again another series that is a tad to long to watch, but preferable to the summary movie. However, to save time the movie can be watched instead unless one particularly enjoys Votoms.
Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
OVA, 2015,
6 eps
Me:-
Author:10
Week 14 Class 1+2+3
Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
ONA, 2015,
4 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Week 15 Class 1
Kidou Senshi Gundam Thunderbolt 2nd Season
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 2nd Season
ONA, 2017,
4 eps
Me:-
Author:8
Week 15 Class 2
Kidou Senshi Gundam: Cucuruz Doan no Shima
Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island
Movie, 2022,
1 ep
Me:-
Author:8
Week 15 Class 3
Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
TV, 2022,
12 eps
Me:-
Author:-
Extra Credit, and the future of Sunrise.