What is Gundam?

I just finished watching the old and original Mobile Suit Gundam (from 1979) and I can say that this series became the turning point in the world "mecha" anime.

RX-78-2 Gundam

I tried to do a little research on how this so called "Gundam" fever started. Interestingly, here's what I found.

Introduction to the epic sci-fi saga.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam was an animated science-fiction series which debuted on Japanese television in 1979.

In this groundbreaking series, the traditional giant robots of Japanese anime were for the first time portrayed as realistic war machines instead of invincible superheroes. The people who used these machines to fight in a futuristic space war were complex characters whose motivations and beliefs didn't break down into simple good and evil, and the story encompassed human drama and social commentary as well as thrilling robot battles.

Mobile Suit Gundam's popularity led to a series of sequels and followups - first a three-part movie compilation, then a succession of new television serials, original videos, and theatrical films. After more than two decades, this Gundam saga has expanded to include nine television series, four video series, ten movies, and countless novels, comics, and original video game adventures. This saga encompasses six different worlds, each with its own unique history and society, and showcases the work of the most celebrated talents of the anime industry.

Although this saga's stories encompass centuries of future history and span several alternate worlds, they all share a single unifying element - the legendary line of fighting machines which bear the name of Gundam. From the prototype RX-78 Gundam featured in the original series, to the unique and colorful machines which star in later stories like G Gundam and Gundam Wing, all these stories recount the adventures of heroic Gundams and their brave pilots.

The Gundam saga made its North American debut in 1998, and in the following years Bandai Entertainment has continued to release new chapters of this epic saga. Meanwhile, Bandai America has produced a wide range of merchandise for Gundam fans young and old, including fully poseable action figures and a selection of the astonishing model kits for which Gundam is justly famous. As you explore this Web site, we hope you'll enjoy learning about this fascinating and ever-evolving saga.

Source: GO

Concept


Mobile Suit Gundam was principally developed by renowned animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, along with a changing group of Sunrise creators who went under the collective pseudonym of "Hajime Yatate".
During its conceptual phase, the series was titled Freedom Fighter Gunboy, or simply Gunboy for the gun the robot was armed with, and the primary target demographic were shōnen (boys). In the early production stages, there were numerous references to the word "freedom": the White Base was originally "Freedom's Fortress", the Core Fighter was the "Freedom Wing", and the Gunperry was the "Freedom Cruiser". The Yatate team combined the English word "gun" with the last syllable of the word "freedom" to form the name Gundom. Tomino then changed it to the current title, suggesting that Gundam signified a powerful unit wielding a gun powerful enough to hold back enemies, like a hydroelectric dam holding back floods.

Most Gundams are large, bipedal vehicles controlled from cockpits by a human pilot. The majority of these "mobile suits" have a cockpit in the "torso" of the machine, with a camera built into the "head" to transmit images to the cockpit (with the exception of the head-mounted cockpits in Psyco Gundam) and are non-sentient machines, with the exceptions of the artificial intelligence A.L.I.C.E. in the side-story Gundam Sentinel and four mobile suits built with the EXAM System and sharing a Newtype human soul in The Blue Destiny.

Source: W

Another interesting feature of the Gundam anime series is it's realistic scientific setting and presentation. Gundam machines were designed in an almost realistic way - running out of fuel/energy, ammunition, breaking and repair of parts. Plus, unlike other mecha-anime (where the episode starts with a usual day, "bad" guys suddenly appears, unleashes a giant  bad monster, destroys a couple of places, "good" guys became aware and summons their good giant mecha to the scene, exhibits the use of its weaponry, defeats the bad giant, bad guys resent and curses the good guys that some day they will win-and never happens), Gundam was presented with a deep story line (each episode continues to the next) and character development. Less on the concept of "Good" vs "Bad", each side was explained on different and unbiased point of view.

For coolness sake and tribute to the original Gundam - 1979, I assembled this 2 famous kits: RX-78-2 and Char's Zaku.

Long Live Gundam!