Mobile Suit Gundam

Mobile Suit Gundam (機動戦士ガンダム) is a televised Anime that was written and directed by Tomino Yoshiyuki and is made up of 43 episodes that were aired in 1979. The series was later re-edited for theatrical release and split into three movies in 1981. Yasuhiko Yoshikazu did the character designs and Okawara Kunio was responsible for the mechanical designs, including the titular giant robot, the RX-78-2 Gundam.

Mobile Suit Gundam marked the maturation of the giant robot genre. Prior to Gundam, most giant robot shows were formulaic with archetypal characters. They were often monster of the week shows in which the teen hero would jump into the robot (typically an heirloom from his late scientist father) and defend earth against an alien organization who would try all manners of gimmiky methods to take over Earth only to be defeated each time by the giant robot's superweapon. These shows often seemed interchangeable and shared recognizable traits that are now parodied in anime today. Such as the teen hero shouting his robot attacks, weapons materializing out of thin air, and the lenghty robot transformation sequences. Westerners are mostly familiar with these through the Force Five and Voltron series. Gundam brought a sense of realism and feasability to the use of giant robots. In that sense, they were futuristic military hardware and not the almost magic superweapon of the "special" teen hero or just as often a Power-Rangers styled superteam. The robots of Gundam had limitaions such as running out of power or ammunition. And they were only as good as the pilot in their cockpit. And most importantly, they moved away from the 10 story tall robot samurai hero look and adopted a more utilitarian appearance.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam takes place during the One-Year War in the year Universal Century 0079 (U.C. 0079). During this time period humans live in orbiting space colonies called Sides. The ruler of Side 3 declares war against the earth for the independence of the colonies. It is about a crew of Earth Federation Space Forces on a space ship called White Base that fight against the Principality of Zeon using human shaped weapons called Mobile Suits. The crew of White Base fight Zeon using an advanced Mobile Suit called Gundam, that is more powerful than any weapon that Zeons have previously produced. The Gundam and the White Base are so important to the Federation, that the crew journeys to Jaburo, the Federation's main base located on the Amazon basin. In the process, the Gundam's pilot, Amuro Ray, and the other draftees are exposed to the harsh conditions of war, participate in many brutal battles, and experience the tragic trials and consequences of the conflict.

The series did not receive high ratings when it was first aired, and was in fact cancelled before the series was intended to end. Audiences were expecting another giant robot show, and instead found MS Gundam, the first work of anime in an entirely new genre, the mecha drama or the 'real robot' genre as opposed to the 'super robot' genre. The models from the show sold very well, however, and the show did very well in reruns and in it's theatrical compliation. Much like the original Star Trek, the original Gundam was not appreciated by its intial audience, and also like Star Trek, proceeded to spawn a massive sci-fi franchise, spawning numerous sequels, model kits, and videogames up to the present day.

Mobile Suit Gundam was released in the U.S. (dub only) in July 2001 on Cartoon Network but, following the pattern of its initial airing in Japan, it was later cancelled due to a combination of poor ratings and the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks before the entire series was shown. Subsequent U.S. reairings have failed to garner the ratings of the newer Gundam series.

Characters