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is a televised anime series written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino and made up of 43 episodes aired in 1979.

The series was later re-edited for theatrical release and split into three movies in 1981. The idea of Mobile Suit came from the powered suit of Starship Troopers, although the story otherwise bears little resemblance to that novel. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko did the character designs and Kunio Okawara was responsible for the mechanical designs, including the titular giant robot, the RX-78-2 Gundam.

Synopsis

Universal Century 0079: The Principality of Zeon has declared its independence from the Earth Federation, and subsequently launched a massive war of independence, a war which has raged in every continent on earth and in nearly every space colony and lunar settlement. The Zeon have the upper hand through their use of a revolutionary new type of weapon, their humaniod like mobile suits. When a Zeon recon team disobey mission orders and begin attacking Side 7 its citizens stumble across the Federations latest weapon: the Gundam. With the aid of Earth Federation soldiers stationed aboard the MS carrier White Base the newly formed crew of refugees set out to change the course of the One Year War — or die trying.

Background

The series was not popular when it first aired, and was in fact cancelled before the series was intended to end. The series was originally set to run for 52 episodes and was cut down to 39 by the show's sponsors, which included the original toymakers for the series. Luckily, the staff was able to negotiate a one month extension to end the series with 43 episodes.

When Bandai received the licensing to the show's mecha, however, things changed completely. With the introduction of their line of Gundam models, the popularity of the show began to soar. The models sold very well, and the show began to do very well in reruns and even better in its theatrical compilation. Audiences were expecting another giant robot show, and instead found MS Gundam, the first work of anime in an entirely new genre, the mecha drama or the 'real robot' genre as opposed to the 'super robot' genre. Much like the original Star Trek, the original Gundam was not appreciated by its initial audience, and also like Star Trek, proceeded to spawn a massive sci-fi franchise, spawning numerous sequels, model kits, and videogames up to the present day.

Mobile Suit Gundam premiered on Monday, July 23, 2001 on Cartoon Network's Toonami in the US, but didn't do so well. Following the pattern of its initial airing in Japan, it was later cancelled before the entire series was shown. When the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred, the series was almost over. Immediately following the attacks Cartoon Network, and many other stations, began pulling war-themed content and violent programming as well. Although Cowboy Bebop came back before too long, Mobile Suit Gundam did not. Perhaps it had not been earning high enough ratings to justify returning the series for so few remaining episodes. However, the last episode was shown as part of Toonami's "New Year's Eve-il" special on December 31, 2001. It is sometimes stated that MSG was cancelled "because" of the September 11, 2001 attacks. While this is likely why it was taken off initially, it is not sufficient to explain why the show didn't return. Aside from fan speculation, the source of this meme seems to be an anonymous report which appeared on the fansite gundam.com on September 14, purporting to summarize an internal Cartoon Network memo. This report can be seen in The Internet Wayback Machine.

On Saturday, June 8, 2002 the series was given another chance by Cartoon Network in their late-night Adult Swim block, but it was again pulled before completing its run.

In both American TV showings, and on the American DVD release, Episode 15: Cucuruz Doan's Island was cut out. It was felt, even by Tomino, that this episode was not up to par with the rest of the series and so it was never dubbed, making it into a "lost episode" of sorts.

Episodes

See also: Mobile Suit Gundam Episode Guide

NOTE: These episodes do not use the American episode numberings, which excludes the original Episode 15.

  1. Gundam Rising
  2. Destroy Gundam!
  3. Vote to Attack
  4. Escape from Luna II
  5. Re-entry to Earth
  6. Garma Strikes
  7. The Core Fighter's Escape
  8. Winds of War
  9. Fly, Gundam!
  10. Garma's Fate
  11. Icelina - Love's Remains
  12. The Threat of Zeon
  13. Coming Home
  14. Time, Be Still
  15. Cucuruz Doan's Island
  16. Sayla's Agony
  17. Amuro Deserts
  18. Zeon's Secret Mine
  19. Ramba Ral's Attack
  20. Hand-To-Hand Combat
  21. Sorrow and Hatred
  22. The Trap of M'Quve
  23. Matilda's Rescue
  24. Black Tri-Star
  25. The Battle of Odessa
  26. Char Returns
  27. A Spy on Board
  28. Across the Atlantic Ocean
  29. Tragedy in Jaburo
  30. A Wish of War Orphans
  31. A Decoy in Space
  32. Breakthrough
  33. Farewell in Side Six
  34. A Fateful Encounter
  35. The Glory of Solomon
  36. Big Zam's Last Stand
  37. The Duel in Texas
  38. Char and Sayla
  39. The Newtype: Challia Bull
  40. Lalah's Dilemma
  41. Cosmic Glow
  42. Space Fortress: A Baoa Qu
  43. Escape

Novel

In 1979, before the end of the anime, Yoshiyuki Tomino himself created the first novelizations of the original Gundam anime series. The novels, issued as a series of three books, allowed him to depict his story in a more sophisticated, adult, and detailed fashion. The biggest difference between the anime series and the novels is that in the latter Amuro Ray is killed in the final attack against the Zeonic stronghold of A Baoa Qu by a stray shot of bazooka from a Rick Dom. Char Aznable and the crew of Pegasus II (White Base), along with handpicked men under Kycilia Zabi's command, make a deep penetrating attack against the Side 3 and together kill Gihren Zabi, after which Kycilia is killed by Char. Tomino later lamented that had he known that anime ending would be different and that another series would be made, he would not have killed off Amuro in the novels. Because of such significant deviations from the animated series, movies, and subsequent sequals the novels themselves are not considered cannonical, however, the detailed account of past events leading up to the introduction of the mobile suit and early skirmishes of the OYW are more or less accepted in the continuity. Nonetheless, they are often enjoyed by fans because they provide a great deal of detail and help explain the philosophical underpinnings of the Gundam series.

The three novels were translated into English by Frederik Schodt and published by Del Rey Books in September, 1990. At the time, there were no officially recognized romanizations of character and mecha names, and a variety of different spellings were being used in the English-language fan community. In the original three novels, therefore, Mr. Schodt wrote the name "Char" as "Sha." "Sha" is a transliteration of the Japanese pronunciation, although Mr. Tomino later publicly confirmed at Anime Expo New York 2002 that the name was originally based on the French name Charles Aznavour, a 1970s lounge singer. (Interestingly, the 2004 edition of the English translation revealed that Schodt felt that the "Char" rendering "seemed too close" to Aznavour's name.) He also rendered "Zaku" as "Zak," and (after consulting with Mr. Tomino) "Jion" as "Zeon," instead of "Zion," which was in use in some circles. Some North American fans, already attached to particular spellings, took great umbrage at Schodt's renditions, forgetting that in the original Japanese most character and mecha names are in a phonetic script known as katakana, and that there were, therefore, no "official spellings." Many years later, when the Gundam series was finally licensed in North America, the rights holders did come up with a unified list of "official spellings" for English-language material, and some of these spellings include Schodt's renditions, as well as the renditions to which certain North American fans were attached.

In 2004, Frederik Schodt revised his original translation of the books, which had been out of print for nearly a decade. What had been a three volume set in the 1990 Del Rey edition was rereleased by Stone Bridge Press as one single volume of 476 pages (with a vastly improved cover design), titled Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation. Since the rights holders in Japan by this time had created a unified (although still evolving) list of romanized character and mecha names, Schodt was able to use it, and Amuro's rival in the novel thus became "Char" and not "Sha"; the popular Zeon Mobile Suit, similarly, became "Zaku," and not "Zak". Frederik L. Schodt

Compilation Movies

Following the success of the Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, Yoshiyuki Tomino returned in 1981 and reworked the footage into three separate compilation movies. The first two movies, Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam: Soldiers of Sorrow, were released in 1981. The third movie, Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space, was released in 1982.

Each of the three movies are largely composed of old footage from the TV series, however Tomino felt that some things could be changed for the better. Tomino removed several aspects of the show which he felt were still too super robot-esque for the real robot series he intended Gundam to be, such as the Gundam Hammer weapon. The G-Armor upgrade parts were also completely removed and replaced in the narative by the more realistic Core Booster support fighters, and Hayato receives a Guncannon at Jaburo to replace the disadvantaged Guntank. The third movie also includes a substantial amount of new footage expanding on the battles of Solomon and A Baoa Qu.

The three compilation movies were released originally dubbed in English in the late 1990's to the early 2000's, with a different vocal cast than the English TV show dub, direct to VHS. They then were released again both separately and in a DVD box set in America on May 7, 2002. However, the DVD is only available in Japanese audio with English subtitles. This DVD boxset is identical to the 20th anniversary release of the movie compilation DVDs. The original voice cast members rerecorded their lines with the exception of those who were deceased. The 20th anniversary release is digitally remastered but many of the sound effects are replaced, most notably the futuristic gun sounds being replaced by louder machine gun sound effects. Also, the music soundtrack, while not remixed is rearranged and in some cases removed from some scenes. The vocal songs are rearranged also, especially in the closing credits of the second and third movies. These changes, which were supervised by Tomino, have been critisiced by fans.

Manga

Mobile Suit Gundam manga, namely Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 and Gundam:The Origin are published in English by Viz Communications.

Characters

Earth Federation

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Mobile Suit Gundam".

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