jae

original Mobile Suit Gundam still holds up and is the entry point to the "Universal Century" timeline that a lot of series take place in.

my personal favorite is Turn A Gundam, which is (mostly) unrelated to other series

I can't speak to anything relating to Gwitch but if you wanna see gundam cast off it's psuedo-military psuedo-realism and go full on SUPER ROBOT FIGHT, G Gundam is nothing but stupid, silly, Robot of the Week fun start to finish.

I dunno about the best starting point but 0080: War in the Pocket is a 6 episode OVA that I think captures a lot of what's best about earlier Gundam shows. If you like it, great, if you don't like it, it's only 6 episodes.

I'd send an ask to @My-Name-is-Grant, I'm sure he'd love to get into it.

what elements of gwitch did you enjoy the most? the least? i think that's a good starting point for a question like this. — alphy

honestly the original is the best starting point imo. it's a solid show and even if you don't end up vibing with the military sci-fi of Universal Century stuff watching the original show gives you a good baseline for understanding what the other continuity shows are going for

The way I’ve done it, for if you like listening to podcasts: start from the beginning and do release order alongside The Great Gundam Project.

Gundam Wing was the starting point for most US fans, since it was the first one to air on Toonami back in the day. It's a good one, but has very fast and confusing pacing at times.

G Gundam is probably the closest, tonally, and is also a ton of fun. Lots of wuxia and super robot influences, but it maintains a lot of the core Gundam ideas as well.

If you want to dip your toes into the UC, the "main" Gundam timeline, start with the original show! Mobile Suit Gundam! It's very charming, and still holds up in a lot of ways.

Thunderbolt Gundam has two movies. They can be watched without context. A good chunk of the first movie is mobile suit sniper battles while freeform jazz plays. You can basically only find them from pirate sites for some reason.

Most of the OVAs are good. 08th MS Team, War in the Pocket, Stardust Memories. Even Endless Waltz.

G Gundam is like a super-mecha show, so lots of yelling and red hot passion.

The Gundam Build series are fun and goofy shows based on the idea of people fighting with Gunpla model kits.

If you want to watch the original MSG, there are 3 compilation movies that are decent. The pacing is wonky but it's watchable. The first and third movies are the best.

I would (personally) avoid Wing Gundam, Victory Gundam, G no Reconguista, and Gundam AGE. People recommend Zeta Gundam heavily, but it takes about a dozen episodes to find its footing, so you might want to watch the compilation movie instead.

if you're down for something with a much longer continuity and want to start seeing where a lot of Gundam's archetypes came from, you can start with the universal century via the Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies and then go on to Zeta + ZZ.

Seed's plot points are...hotly contested, but it is also similarly on the scale of the universal century but without as many interlocking series as what the UC has.

for series that require less investment in the long continuity category, but still very Gundam: turn a, 00, wing.

G Gundam is also low-commitment and still carries some of the core messages of Gundam but also gets way looser with the tone and style of how it presents the characters up until it doesn't.

Turn A Gundam is not only good but in the OP the guy who says the title kinda sounds like H Jon Benjamin so, that one.

If you specifically want to be emotionally devastated, War in the Pocket

Seconding the person that suggested War in the Pocket because it's great and short, but the OG MSG is still a good introduction to the Universal Century in general.

I would also recommend MS08th team. It does have a little bit of weirdness on account of a director Died halfway through production and they had to make do but it's still overall a really good watch. Eleven episodes, and it really commits to "The Mobile Suit as a War Vehicle."

Well, there IS an episode 12, but as far as I'm concerned the story ends at episode 11, episode 12 is weird, doesn't play well with the rest of the series and episode 11 is satisfying enough as a conclusion anyway.

seconding Turn A Gundam, War in the Pocket, and the origina Mobile Suit Gundam - all three are excellent.

as a super fan of After War Gundam X i would be remiss to not also recommend it? it plays on a lot of tropes of the original MSG that have popped up in the bulk of future outings since, so i always think it's better as a second Gundam show than as a first one. also it's kind of got... saturday morning cartoon vibes? something about it. it and turn a gundam are different takes on post-post-apocalypse gundam and i love them both dearly

If you want a quick taste of what the main UC timeline is all about, I'd suggest War In The Pocket or the first Thunderbolt movie. They're pretty good tone-setters.

If we're talking AU, then I'd suggest Gundam 00 or Iron Blooded Orphans. Or Mobile Fighter G Gundam if you want to have a lighter time.

Just jump into original 79 Gundam. Both the sub and dub are good for different reasons. It's easily accessible nowadays too. Don't watch the movie versions first. Just check out the first 10 or so episodes and see what you think.

Then if you like what you saw there's tons more out there. Turn A is probably the best Gundam related thing ever made. But you might want a little more context before jumping in.

The only Gundam thing you should avoid is Seed/Seed Destiny. They are not worth your time. They're not even fun bad. It's just awful.

a bunch of people already said “start with the first one” but i’m also saying it anyways, partially because it kicks ass and partially because even the ones that are disconnected to it are often in conversation with themes introduced at the very beginning. also following release order at least through CCA means you’ll get to see ZZ, the second half of which fuckin Rules Hard

having watched the first one, war in the pocket, and starting on zeta gundam: start with the first one

i recommend Iron-Blooded Orphans (IBO), i've attempted to watch multiple Gundam series over the years before IBO, but IBO was the only one that really grabbed me and made me feel VERY STRONG EMOTIONS and thus remains the only one that i've ever actually finished. i felt like it was a great balance of character exploration, action and political drama. took me several episodes to really "get" the politics/history (just comes with paying attention to what's going on for once, as i didn't even try with the previous series i attempted to watch) but the important thing is that the character exploration was good enough to keep me hooked and by the end i was sobbing every other episode lol

depends on what you liked about it

i think Turn A Gundam has a lot of similarities to the stuff that made G-Witch stand out from the rest of Gundam, with a less traditional protagonist, an unusual setting, and a focus on the next generation trying to avoid getting dragged into the whims of older and more ambitious warmongers

Gundam 0080 and Gundam 08th MS Team are popular for keeping things relatively focused on the "tragedy of war" and "the plight of the frontline soldier" aspects of things

if you just want to see prettyboys make ultra high-tech robots do cool stuff with pew-pew lasers, it's hard to beat Gundam 00