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Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

> A friend recently asked how to get started watching Gundam

So what is good order to watch Gundam in 2025? What should be skipped?

Are mangas/novels worth it or is it better just to watch anime?

Gundam is several universes that are unrelated except they have giant robots colored in primary colors. The main universe is called Universal Century (UC), and started with the original Mobile Suit Gundam show in 1979. It's retroactively called 0079 ("double-oh seventy nine") after its in-universe date. It's good but has significant lumps, like the haphazard animation and villain of the week fillers. I'd recommend starting with one of the 90s OVAs: War in the Pocket (0080), Stardust Memory (0083), or 08th MS Team, as they're fairly short, self contained, and have fantastic animation. Alternatively a modern UC show is Unicorn, but there's a lot of references in it you won't get unless you've seen some of the older shows. Another option is the latest Gundam series, The Witch from Mercury. It's set in a new universe unconnected from UC so there's no prior knowledge necessary.

Witch from Mercury isn't the latest show, FYI. The latest is Gundam GQuuuuuuX (yes, really, that's the name). But I wouldn't recommend it as a first entry. Despite being set in its own universe, it's supposed to be a sort of alternate version of UC and assumes viewers are already familiar with the original.

I started with some series from the alternate universes and I fully recommend them:

- Gundam 00: Gundam as a terrorist - Iron Blooded Orphans: Gundam as a (child) mercenary

After this I you want to watch the original universe (Universal Century) you can start with the 3 movies that summarize the OG series. They are legally on YouTube (search for gundaminfo)

Does it make sense to start with the movies?

If you want to go full on the Universal Century (UC) timeline, go for it.

But they are from the 70s, so don't expect top notch animation and scripts (it's a product of its time).

After that you can go Char's Counterattack and Gundam The Origin (this is a recent series, so more polished animation). Later maybe try watching Zeta.

As another comment mentioned you also some shorter UC side-stories like War in the Pocket, The 08th MS Team and Stardust Memory.

> Iron Blooded Orphans: Gundam as a (child) mercenary

I know what you're saying, but except for Hathaway, child mercenaries are in every Gundam installment?

I love those alternate universes, but those are so different to other gundams (UC and Seed?) both are very "what ever is cool now, but with gundams"

if in doubt watch it in release order but here's a good overview of the in-universe timelines (https://imgur.com/a/v5FNHoq) for a bit of orientation.

The shows outside of the UC timeline are their own thing, a lot of folks outside of Japan saw Wing first, those you can watch in whatever order you like. I'd say start with the universal timeline in order, it's the backbone of the Gundam universe. The shows between Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta are side stories during the events of the original show but don't skip them (except for IGLOO) because they're straight up some of the best shows in the Gundam universe.

The "core" of Gundam is the original show, Zeta, ZZ and Char's Counterattack. Those in particular are one story and Zeta is widely considered (one of the) strongest Gundam shows.

The original 0079 and then on (Zeta, ZZ, CCA) is the strongest and best way to understand Gundam, its themes, and its legacy. I'd also argue that Unicorn is a strong entry and puts a nice cap on that era of UC but typically people don't group it with the original 4.

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