Natalie

Nat! which gundam are you eating right now?

"ive heard of it", i say, buried under well over a thousand dollars worth of funny plastic,

Many gundam series (including Witch from Mercury) are set in their own universes without having any continuity with the original, so while going back to watch the original is extremely a fun idea because it's a great series, it's not necessary for following Witch from Mercury

(Long-time Gundam fan.) You're not missing anything in terms of setting or characters - Witch from Mercury (aka G-Witch) is in an independent timeline from all previous shows.

What watching older shows will give you is a broader view on the way that different iterations approach similar themes. It will also highlight some of the shared 'cultural' motifs. Just like every Final Fantasy game manages to work Cid, chocobos, and crystals in there somewhere, lots of Gundam shows tend to feature (for example) a masked antagonist/demi-protagonist with ambiguous motives.

There are lots of places to start watching Gundam. This one is self-contained so I don't think you'll regret starting here, necessarily. Personally, my first one was Turn A Gundam and I really liked it, but I've also watched 00 and Unicorn. They're each very different.

If you're looking for more Gundam I can definitely recommend Turn A whole-heartedly. It's a different sort of thing but it has a ton to offer, there aren't many shows like it.

I've still been putting off watching the original Gundam myself... I hear it's good

I am currently 24 episodes into Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) because I liked The Witch from Mercury so much, and I think it's a good choice. I'm enjoying discovering themes in it and seeing how they're being reflected in modern, completely-unrelated Gundam.

(And then pretending that the reference is being made in the impossible direction.)

the original one, Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), is really good & basically creates a lot of archetypes that many of the other shows are iterating/remixing, so if you see it you'll be most of the way there. the other series that G-Witch are kinda pulling from are the direct sequels to the original one (Zeta & ZZ), Iron-Blooded Orphans, & 00. otoh, the 2 biggest influences for G-Witch are so far Revolutionary Girl Utena & Shakespeare's Tempest so those will probably be more relevant than other Gundam shows lol

Universal Century is the only contiguous timeline of any considerable length. Other than that I'd just go off of what people seem to like. G Gundam is bad, but it's martial arts gundams. Seed should be avoided at all cost, it's a crime. Wing is good, and then bad. The rest I haven't watched enough of, but people seem to like Turn A.

UC's al lot because you kinda can't pick it up and fully understand what's happening, but if you're interested generally they breakdown like this:

MS Gundam is very Saturday Morning Cartoon in structure, and 70s casual in its misogyny and non-war violence, but has some interesting stuff going on and it's cool looking 70s animation.

Zeta Gundam is a bit up and down IMO, with a more focused story but the same content problems. This is where a lot of the shows most iconic villains show up, and where it tries to start saying more stuff.

Gundam ZZ (Double Zeta) picked up immediately on the heels of Zeta, like literally started airing close to directly after it. It's a huge tone shift up front, but it's generally better in terms of being shitty about women and kids. Still has some veeerrry sketch moments, but I think it tells the most coherent story with the strongest, most focused statements about the world of Gundam. Lots of people hated it because of the tonal shift early on, and as a result its dub was abandoned to a storage room somewhere, but those people are wrong.

Char's Counterattack looks nice because it's a movie, but I'm not on team Quess Has Ideology (which you'll only understand if you watch), so I think it's bad. Generally I think it's regarded as at best nice looking but disappointing. This is the end of the initial run of the UC timeline.

F91 does more interesting stuff than CC trying to pick up 30 years (timeline wise) after it, but it's also very strange, and is series creator Tomino just taking a show he wasn't allowed to actually make and compressing it into a movie, so it doesn't look as nice as CC. It's interesting if you want more Gundam, but considering they never did anything with it, not essential.

Stardust Memory is the first OVA, iirc, and looks pretty nice, but is bad and like F91, unessential. The first episode's combat looks really good though. The rest of the UC OVAs vary from "it's fine" to "this is my favorite Gundam" depending on your tastes. But they're all pretty easy to watch.

Gundam Victory is set something like 60-70 years in the future and currently the latest point in the animated shows' chronology so you can skip it without missing anything. It also looks like a butt early on because Tomino was made to reorder bits of it early on with no notice. This show is basically the Gremlins 2 of Gundam, where Tomino is asked to make a more kid friendly show and pitches a series with a younger protagonist, while simultaneously making it more violent and sexualized than he had in the past. Which, um, does not always work. Most people haven't watched it, and you really don't need to.

I love Gundam, but I'm holding off from watching the new one until it's finished so I can binge it, which isn't normally how I handle shows, but I can't imagine not binging a Gundam series.

If you're looking for recommendations for other Gundam series...

Mobile Suit Gundam: The original, establishes a lot of the conventions for mech anime and is heavily referenced by other series. Also, really holds up pretty well today. Was re-released as a series of three movie compilations that are pretty darn solid.

Gundam Wing: The first to air on TV in the US, and many westerners introductions to Gundam. particularly noteworthy for having a major theme being questioning the practicality and morality of autonomous drones in combat.

Gundam 00: Solid story, though kinda grim. I really didn't like the movie sequel to it, though.

Gundam X: Post apocalyptic Gundam. The war in the backstory heavily mirrors the one in the original series, this is a little like a "what if" for if that war had nearly ended humanity.

Gundam Seed: Start out as almost a remake of the original before going its own way later. Centered largely around two childhood friends who end up on opposite sides of the war. Cons: includes one of the most frustrating and blatant fridge-stuffings I've ever seen late in the series.

Turn-A Gundam: pretty silly at times, but very well done. Strongly recommend watching a few other series first though, for reasons.

G Gundam: Ludicrous over the top cheesy nonsense. Absolutely delightful.

This might be what you watched but there is an episode 0 prologue for witch from mercury that I accidentally skipped at first haha, it’s very important!!! Also first gundam is very good

I'm like 20 eps deep into the OG show Gundam 0079 for this very reason and it's not really giving me additional context too much I don't think. at least yet. but it does own severely so there's that