Okay, so, you’ve decided to dive into the wide-ranging, decades-spanning, newly-accessible Gundam franchise. Now, how to get started?
The franchise is now in its 35th year, and a lot of anime can be produced within that time, even if it hasn’t been running continuously in Doraemon-esque fashion. Due to various factors, both creative and corporate, the Gundam anime franchise is not a unified set of contiguous chapters in a single story, but is instead a long list of sequels, spinoffs, side stories, retellings and reimaginings.
The plan is for Sunrise and Right Stuf to release the various installments in order of original release, so one could actually just buy everything in that order. However, that still doesn’t necessarily explain what is connected to what, or allow for keeping things separate. So here is a quick rundown of how things work out.
The Universal Century (U.C.)
As established by Yoshiyuki Tomino in the original television series, Mobile Suit Gundam and its direct sequels and side stories are set in the fictional Universal Century timeline, a designation which came into existence following a worldwide calendar change enacted upon humanity’s first significant expansion into outer space.
The U.C., as it is known in shorthand, is always specified in a four-digit format as shown, and pronounced in English. For example, the year during which the original series takes place, U.C. 0079, would always include the leading zeroes, and be read out as “U.C. double-oh seventy-nine.”
The Universal Century and the installments contained therein are typically looked upon favorably by fans, due to being the first established timeline that originated many of the franchise concepts, as well as including what are considered to be some of the best franchise stories and characters, and because of the nostalgia factor.
U.C. Installments
The franchise installments that take place in the U.C. are as follows:
- 0079: Mobile Suit Gundam (TV)/Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (film)
- 0087-0088: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV)/Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam movie trilogy (film)
- 0088-0089: Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (TV)
- 0093: Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (film)
- 0096: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (OVA)
- 0123: Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (film)
- 0153: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (TV)
- 0223: G-Saviour (live-action film)
- The side stories that take place in the U.C. are as follows:
- 0079: Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (OVA)/Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team – Miller’s Report (film)
- 0079-0080: Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (OVA)
- 0083: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (OVA)/Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Last Blitz of Zeon (film)
The Core U.C. Story
Even though paring down the Gundam franchise to the original and most inclusive timeline helps simplify things, we can go one step further and pare down the U.C. to what is considered to be the core storyline.
As Gundam Unicorn has been released on Blu-ray and DVD worldwide over the past few years, it has repeatedly prompted the question among fandom of which U.C. timeline installments might be necessary viewing. The OVA, which is of course not-so-subtly named after the U.C. itself in its abbreviated title and logo designation of “Gundam UC,” immediately makes clear that it is closely linked to a number of prior U.C. installments, while also telling a story that is meant to get to the heart of the U.C. itself.
The important installments to view are as follows:
- Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy (film)
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (TV)
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (TV)
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (film)
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (OVA)
This is a straightforward list, in order of both broadcast dates and in-universe chronology, which comprises the core U.C. storyline. These five installments carry through them a continuation of events, as well as characters, and can be considered a complete saga of sorts.
The Rest of the U.C.
The installments that come after Unicorn chronologically (F91, Victory, G-Saviour) are each very self-contained, and deal with different events and characters. It’s almost difficult to truly identify them as U.C. installments at all, when viewing them. But for completeness’ sake, one can still certainly continue on with them.
The side stories are not crucial to the core U.C. story, but are helpful in examining different perspectives and events surrounding the original series/film trilogy. They can be watched at any time, and also arguably on their own in the absence of any viewing of, or familiarity with, any other U.C. installments. But for adequate context, one should at least view the original movie trilogy. And because 0083: Stardust Memory was created as something of a bridge between the original series/movies and Zeta Gundam, at least some basic familiarity with Zeta Gundam’s setting and introductory scenario is also helpful for getting the full impact of that OVA.
Canonicity
Thanks to the existence of two compilation movie trilogies and two compilation OVA films, there is a question of canonicity to be addressed.
The original movie trilogy is a retelling of the events of the original TV series, using a combination of reused TV footage and brand-new animation. While the events told are largely the same, some changes are made as a result of Tomino’s desire to eliminate certain elements and modify others. Consequently, Zeta Gundam and all subsequent U.C. installments make reference to the updated movie trilogy details, and as a result, the movie trilogy is actually what is considered canon in the U.C. timeline, with the original TV series effectively being banished to its own alternate timeline.
The Zeta Gundam movie trilogy is a retelling of the events of the Zeta Gundam TV series, also using a combination of reused TV footage and brand-new animation. While the Zeta movie trilogy assumes the original movie trilogy as its starting point, just as the Zeta TV series does, there are changes made to the story (again under Tomino’s direction) which prevent the movie trilogy from being simply an alternate perspective of the events of the TV series, and thus exclude it from the canon U.C. timeline.
Miller’s Report, the 08th MS Team film, is primarily a compilation/recap film with new scenes to bookend the film as well as others located in the middle. The reused OVA footage is unaltered, and the bookends are meant to clearly establish the “present” events of the film as actually taking place within the OVA series, and thus the film exists as canon in the U.C.
Last Blitz of Zeon, the 0083: Stardust Memory film, is a straightforward compilation film utilizing resused footage from the OVA, with a grand total of one new cut of animation towards the end of the film which does not compromise or contradict the original OVA, thus the film exists as canon in the U.C., as simply an alternate presentation of events.
Also of note is the controversial live-action G-Saviour movie. Despite many reasons of preference (or rather, the lack thereof) by everyone from fans to Tomino himself, the movie is technically considered to be a part of the canon U.C. timeline, and thus is included here.
