Mobile Suit Gundam, a mecha meta-series and a staple ofJapanese Culture spanning across anime, manga, novels, games, theme parks andso much more. Beginning in 1979 with the first series known as ‘Mobile SuitGundam’, the Gundam franchise has continued to expand and become a giantmulti-verse that can be somewhat daunting to people who don’t know where tobegin.
The main source of confusion for newcomers is that there are 8 distinct timelines each with their own series and storyline, the good thingabout this though is that they’re all unrelated to each other. This essentiallymakes your choice of what to watch come down to the timelines rather than theshows themselves, but with most timelines only containing one series plus anOVA or movie its quite simple to choose.
The timeline that will confuse people most is the very firstone the Universal Century (U.C) timeline, this contains multiple series, OVA’sand movies and can be difficult to understand what order to watch things in. Toconfuse things even further only the series and some movies where created inchronological order, other OVA’s and movies may have been created recently butset during or before other series in the timeline.
This is the chronological order of the U.C timeline:
| U.C. 0079 | Mobile Suit Gundam | Series | 43 Episodes (42 English version) | 1979 |
| U.C. 0079 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team | OVA | 12 Episodes | 1996 |
| U.C. 0079 | Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War | OVA | 3 Episodes | 2004 |
| U.C. 0079 | Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 | OVA | 3 Episodes | 2006 |
| U.C. 0079 | Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Gravity Front | OVA | 3 Episodes | 2009 |
| U.C. 0080 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket | OVA | 6 Episodes | 1989 |
| U.C. 0083 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory | OVA | 13 Episodes | 1991 |
| U.C. 0087 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam | Series | 50 Episodes | 1985 |
| U.C. 0088 | Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ | Series | 47 Episodes | 1986 |
| U.C. 0093 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | Movie | 1988 | |
| U.C. 0096 | Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn | OVA | 7 Episodes | 2010-14 |
| U.C. 0123 | Mobile Suit Gundam F91 | Movie | 1991 | |
| U.C. 0153 | Mobile Suit Victory Gundam | Series | 51 Episodes | 1993 |
While the U.C timeline does include a range of manga andnovels which are mostly adaptations and some with new stories, they have not beenincluded in the list so to avoid confusion and with many of them not receiving officialreleases outside of Japan it just makes sense not to included them. Compilationmovies have also been left out as they are just retelling’s of series inmovie format.
The other timelines are a lot easier to understand andfollow given that most only include one series with an accompanying OVA ormovie:
Future Century –
| F.C. 60 | Mobile Fighter G Gundam | Series | 49 Episodes | 1994 |
After Colony –
| A.C.195 | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing | Series | 49 Episodes | 1995 |
| A.C.196 | Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz | OVA | 3 Episodes | 1997 |
After War –
| A.W. 0015 | After War Gundam X | Series | 39 Episodes | 1996 |
Correct Century –
| C.C. 2345 | Turn A Gundam | Series | 50 Episodes | 1999 |
Cosmic Era –
| C.E.71 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED | Series | 50 Episodes | 2002 |
| C.E.73 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny | Series | 50 Episodes | 2004 |
| C.E.73 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer | OVA | 3 Episodes | 2006 |
Anno Domini –
| 2307-2312 AD | Mobile Suit Gundam 00 | Series | 50 Episodes | 2007-09 |
| 2314 AD | Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A wakening of the Trailblazer | Movie | 2010 |
Advanced Generation –
| A.G. 115, 140-142, 164, 201 | Mobile Suit Gundam AGE | Series | 49 Episodes | 2011 |
Misc –
Super Deformed Gundam (Various Series,OVA’s, Movies)
Gundam Evolve (OVA 15 Eps, 2001-07)
Superior Defender Gundam Force (Series 52 Eps, 2003)
SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors (Series 51 Eps,2010)
Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G (OVA 3 Eps, 2010)
Gundam Build Fighters (Series 25 Eps, 2013)
Co-Written by Kurunandan Jain
Hopefully this has been useful to those looking for a wayinto the Gundam meta-series, feel free to ask us any questions about ourfavourite series and timelines or even what can of style each timeline has, allquestions are welcome.
*This article has been written with the anime series in mindand all manga and novels have been omitted, bare this in mind when reading anduse as a guide on what order to watch the anime in and not an entire guide toeverything Gundam.