Gundam
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Gundam is a popular Japanese anime involving giant robots.
Gundam is the collective term for the Universal Century (UC) series like Mobile Suit Gundam and series in alternative timelines, such as Gundam Wing, made by Sunrise Inc. Gundam is one of the longest running meta-series of anime featuring giant robots in Japan.
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Overview
Concept
Mobile Suit Gundam was developed principally by Yoshiyuki Tomino, along with a changing group of Sunrise creators who went under the collective psuedonym "Hajime Yadate".
The series was originally titled Freedom Fighter Gunboy or simply Gunboy, because the title robot was armed with a gun and the target demographic was young boys. In the early stages of production, there were numerous references to the word freedom, such as the White Base being originally named Freedom's Fortress, the Core Fighter as the Freedom Wing, and the Gunperry named the Freedom Cruiser. The collective Yadate team combined the English word "Gun" with last syllable of the word "Freedom", "Dom", to form the word "Gundom". Tomino then changed the name to the current title "Gundam", suggesting that the name Gundam signifies a power wielding a gun that is strong enough to hold back enemies like a dam holds back floods.
Innovation
Gundam is a turning point in the history of anime and manga, as it is credited for inspiring the Real Robot genre. Real Robots (popularly known in English as mecha, a re-borrowing of the Japanese abbreviation for the English word "mechanical") differ from their Super Robot forebearers on a few stylistic and thematic points such as attempts at realism in robot design and the thematic and ethical role of the robots. Zambot-3 was an earlier program by Tomino which helped develop these ideas.
The main theme of all the various Gundam series is always the harsh depiction of the atrocities of war. All the machines, including the Gundams, are always depicted realistically as machines, they run out of energy and ammunition, they break and malfunction like all machines eventually do. The technology, at least that of the Universal Century, is practical and derived from true science, including Lagrange points in space, the O'Neill cylinder as a living environment, and energy production from helium-3 (Minovsky Physics).
The narration is always revolving around the emotions of the characters, usually thrown into conflict without much choice and faced with death, destruction and dehumanization. With few exceptions, there is no absolute good guys and bad guys, all have their motives. Politics of war are always lurking in the background, as it is in real wars. Gundam features also true to life issues and clear political ideas. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam can even be seen as a futuristic Gundam-style interpretation of George Orwell's classic 1984, with the Titans standing as the Party.
Gundam timelines
Most early Gundam works take place in the Universal Century timeline, which is considered the most developed. Later series take place in alternate calendard or timelines, which are mostly completely unrelated to the original Universal Century timeline.
- New Mobile Report Gundam Wing takes place in the After Colony calendar system; "After Colony" refers to the years after the foundation of the first space colony
- After War Gundam X takes place in the After War calendar system; "After War" refers to the years after the conclusion of the 7th Space War, in which the Earth was devastated by massive colony drops
- ∀ Gundam takes place in the CC (Seireki) calendar system; director Yoshiyuki Tomino intended as the distant future of all previous calendar systems
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny take place in the Cosmic Era calendar; ""Cosmic Era" refers to the years after the foundation of the first space colonies
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam takes place in the Future Century calendar system
- Super Deformed Gundam is a series of super deformed parodies of the Gundam metaseries.
English-speaking fans have interpreted "Seireki" (a wordplay homonym of the Japanese term for the A.D. Western calendar) to mean "Correct Century," but Sunrise itself has not established an English translation for "Seireki" or the English abbreviation expansion for "CC". Bandai and Japanese-speaking fans unofficially refer to projects not directly related to the first Gundam series or its staffers (such as Gundam Sentinel and G Gundam) as "Another Gundam" stories, and to projects made after 1989 as "Heisei Gundam" stories. English-speaking fans have used "Alternative Universe" or "AU" as a nickname for the stories that do not take place in the Universal Century, but this unofficial nickname is not used in Japan.
Distinctive characteristics
Gundam is the name or nickname of several mobile suits or mobile fighters, although some works such as G-Saviour and Mobile Suit Gundam: MS IGLOO do not have units named Gundams.
In the Cosmic Era works, all the units have official designations without the word 'Gundam'; the name Gundam is used sparingly only as a nickname from their operating system's acronym. The name is used widely outside the animation in the merchandising of Cosmic Era toys and models.
The different series have had different ways of maintaining the tradition, and the only unique feature that all Gundams have in common is the name. The following characteristics are distinctive (but not unique) to many Gundams:
- Humanoid form
- Exceptions: MSA-0011[Bst] S Gundam Booster Unit Type, GF13-044NNP Mandala Gundam
- Face with two human-like eyes
- V-fin on the head
- Exceptions: LM312V06 Victory Gundam Hexa, RX-79[G]Ez-8 Gundam Ez8, Turn A Gundam's fin is placed on the chin
- Superior performance, in comparison to other mobile suits/fighters
- Exceptions: RX-178 Gundam Mk-II, the Gundams in Mobile Fighter G Gundam
The Gundam franchise
Animated/live-action series and movies (in order of release)
- Mobile Suit Gundam - a.k.a. "First Gundam" (the nickname applied by Japanese fans once sequels appeared which used the whole phrase in their titles) a.k.a. "Gundam 0079" (a nickname derived from spinoff games and manga and primarily used by English-speaking fans) (TV: 1979; compilation movies: 1981–1982)
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV: 1985; compilation movies: 2005)
- Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta (TV: 1986)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack (movie: 1988)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVAs: 1989)
- Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (movie: 1991)
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVAs: 1991; compilation movie: 1992)
- Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (TV: 1993)
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam (TV: 1994)
- New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (TV: 1995, compilation OVAs: 1996)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OVAs: 1996)
- After War Gundam X (TV: 1996)
- New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (OVAs: 1997, compilation movie: 1998)
- ∀ Gundam: Called Turn 'A' Gundam (TV: 1999, compilation movies: 2002)
- G-Saviour (live action TV movie: 2000)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (TV: 2002, compilation specials - 2004)
- Superior Defender Gundam Force (TV: 2003-2004)
- Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War (movies: 2004)
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (TV: 2004)
For the listing of the series on chronological order of the depicted events, see the individual timelines' pages.
Original Design series/Variations
Due to the sheer popularity of the Gundam franchise, especially the Mobile Suit design, several Original Design series were published. These series are drawings and precise specifications for additional Mobile suit units not found in the original animated material.
- Mobile Suit Variations (1983) - a.k.a. MSV, the variations from the One-Year War, considered to be official and canonical
- Mobile Suit X (1984) - a.ka. MSX, new models for a proposed but never produced new animation series, considered to be official and canonical
- Z-MSV - variations from the Zeta Gundam series
- ZZ-MSV - variations from the Double Zeta Gundam series
- CCA-MSV - variations from the Char's Counterattack movie
- Kunio Okawara's MS Collection (M-MSV) - Kunio Okawara's personal reinterpretations
- F91-MSV - variations from the F-91 movie
- V-MSV - variations from the Victory series
- SEED-MSV - variations from the SEED series
- SEED Destiny MSV - variations from the SEED Destiny series
Manga and novels
See main article Gundam Manga and Novels.
The manga narration of the original series is published in English in North America by a variety of companies, such as Viz Communications, Del Rey Manga, and TokyoPop, among others. Gundam manga is also published in English in Singapore by Chuang Yi.
Video games
Following the popularity of Gundam, various video games feature original characters previously not found in other media. Some video games have been converted into comics or novels.
| Games | Book title | book type |
| Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story | Gundam Blue Destiny (http://www.tokyopop.com/dbpage.php?page=product&productid=1116) | comic |
| Gundam Side Story: Rise from the Ashes | 機動戦士ガンダム外伝―コロニーの落ちた地で…〈上〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232016/qid=1114479244/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_2_4/249-0406390-7061933) 機動戦士ガンダム外伝―コロニーの落ちた地で…〈下〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232016/qid=1114479244/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_2_4/249-0406390-7061933) | Novel |
| Mobile Suit Gundam Lost War Chronicles | 機動戦士ガンダム戦記―Lost War Chronicles〈1〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232059/qid=1114479320/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/249-0406390-7061933) 機動戦士ガンダム戦記―Lost War Chronicles〈2〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232067/qid=1114479702/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_10_2/249-0406390-7061933) | Novel |
| Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front | ZEONIC FRONT―機動戦士ガンダム0079〈1〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232032/qid=1114479702/sr=1-6/ref=sr_1_10_6/249-0406390-7061933) ZEONIC FRONT―機動戦士ガンダム0079〈2〉角川スニーカー文庫 (http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4044232040/qid=1114479702/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_10_3/249-0406390-7061933) | Novel |
Series based on Gundam models
Although not directly related to Gundam, these series incorporate Gundam models as part of the stories:
- Plamo-kyo Shiro (http://members.tripod.com/plamo/pm.html)
- Plamo-Wars (http://books.yahoo.co.jp/bin/detail?id=07868496)
- Sgt. Frog
Merchandise
Bandai, the primary licensee of the Gundam trademark, makes a variety of products for the Gundam fan. Other companies produce unofficial toys, models, t-shirts, etc.
Categories of products include the Mobile Suit In Action or MSiA action figures, and Gundam Models in several scales and complexity levels. Generally, each series listed above will have its own set of products, although the MSiA and Gundam Models lines, such as High Grade Universal Century may extend across series.
External links
- Gundam Official (http://www.gundamofficial.com/) - Official website for Gundam in the United States
- Mecha Anime HQ (http://www.mahq.net/) - Contains a vast encyclopedia of Mobile Suits used in all the Gundam series, plus mecha from other anime series.
- The Gundam Encyclopedia (http://www.escaflowneonline.com/gundam/) - Has archives of characters, mobile suits, and different terms for different series.
- Gundam Comics catalog (http://rightman.net/comics_gundam.html) (Chinese) - Contains a long list of published Gundam books.
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Categories: Gundam | Gundam universes | Anime | Manga | Space Opera