"That white Mobile Suit...!"

[Wolf Kanno]

I do want to see Turn A Gundam and Gundam X (A Pirate Gundam?!)

You may be confusing Gundam X with Crossbone Gundam, the manga sequel to Gundam F91 that deals alot with pirate themes. The title Gundam also has an X-looking apparatus.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I've only seen vague pictures of it in magazines. So I take it that the series is set in the U.C. timeline then?

Sadly, I'm not a huge fan of Gundam. I still prefer Macross and Robotech

STAGE LIGHTS FLASHING. THE FEELING SMAAAASHING. [/quote]

*Shudders* I prefer...

LIFE IS ONLY WHAT WE CHOOSE TO MAKE IT...
.... *something something forget the rest of it...*
WE WILL WIN!!!

STAGE LIGHTS FLASHING. THE FEELING SMAAAASHING.

Arrrrrrghhhh, Robotech Minmei song reference.

Ookami SMASH!

I'm actually a fan of Mari Iijima, the J-Pop starlet that played Minmei in Macross. And a Macross (Original, Plus, and Zero) fan. That said having seen those Robotech went from something Pretty good, to something that is merely tolerable at times.

Robotech was the first anime series I ever saw and I watched it as a child. To me it will always hold a special place in my heart... Besides that, I prefer the original Macross as well.

Though Macross II is a bit of an abomination as my innate fear of watching Macross 7 (a Valkyrie fighter that shoots missles that become music speakers? So you can charm them with your beautiful voice? I may need a few more pints before I agree to watch this...).

But Macross: Do You Remember Love? is one of my favorite anime movies of all time and I feel it's quintessential that all anime fans watch it.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

The fact that Heero is apparently invincible amuses me.

Especially after he gets shot, rolls down a cliff, is blown off his Gundam, etc. This is usually what turns people off of Wing. Characters that just won't die. Only one major character in Wing dies after all is said and done.

Pfft. I've been watching freakin' Hayate no Gotoku. Characters not dying means nothing to me.

I've known about Gundam for several years but my only access to it currently is my friend who only owns Gundam Wing which is, as she maintains, the only Gundam series worth watching.

I've been marginally interested in checking out the others, but I hear a lot of bad reviews from various friends so I'm decidedly leery, and am definitely not willing to spend money on a huge maybe.

[Ishin Ookami]

The fact that Heero is apparently invincible amuses me.

Especially after he gets shot, rolls down a cliff, is blown off his Gundam, etc. This is usually what turns people off of Wing. Characters that just won't die. Only one major character in Wing dies after all is said and done.

Pfft. I've been watching freakin' Hayate no Gotoku. Characters not dying means nothing to me.

I've known about Gundam for several years but my only access to it currently is my friend who only owns Gundam Wing which is, as she maintains, the only Gundam series worth watching.

I've been marginally interested in checking out the others, but I hear a lot of bad reviews from various friends so I'm decidedly leery, and am definitely not willing to spend money on a huge maybe.

Wing is fairly popular with the ladies, for its angsty bishonen content. I think as a piece of gundam lore, it's pretty middle of the road. It has it's moments, but it also relies a little too heavily on the agnsty bishie factor for the majority of it's run. Typically the best gundam series are the ones Tomino (also known as kill-em-all-Tomino) produced himself. The original Mobile Suit, Zeta, and Turn-A to my knowledge. Eighth MS team, and 0080 also work very well, and all of the aforementioned series (save for wing) are all part of the Universal Century Timeline. In otherwords are all one big continuity. G-Gundam is a good series so long as you don't take it too seriously, and 0083 Stardust Memory is a series that has it's high points and it's place in the universal Century lore (its more a prelude to Zeta), but far too many contrivances and WTF moments for it to be considered a classic.

Other Spin offs like Seed, Seed Destiny, G-Gundam, G-Savior are also their own universe. Most of the opinions on these series are fairly mixed, but most agree that most of the recent gundam spinoffs have been pretty mediocre. And the designs from what I've seen of Model Kits, have really gone to hell.

But for real gundam crap fests, ZZ (AKA double Zeta) and SD (superior defender) gundam are the suck.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

How do the plots tend to go with Gundam? I've never had anyone properly describe that to me.

[escobert]

How do the plots tend to go with Gundam? I've never had anyone properly describe that to me.

Depends on the story as they are all different and potraying different sides of battles and wars.

and Wing/Endless Waltz are the best series imo. Lt. Zechs Marquise/Milliardo Peacecraft/Preventer Wind is such a tragic yet deep character imo and just bring it to a different level. Duo is also kick ass.

Zechs: This is Preventer Wind.
Dekim: Zechs Merquise? I thought you were dead.
Zechs: That's right, I was; but I find that I cannot quietly sleep in my grave while Treize's spirit is still roaming among us.

[JKTrix]

Wing is definitely the most popular, mainly because of its run on Cartoon Network around the same time as DBZ. I can't remember if it came on directly before or directly after DBZ did (in terms of time schedule), but either way the proximity of DBZ was prime for getting Wing out there.

That said, Wing is the only one I've seen any substantial amount of. I have seen the recent Zeta movies, and they were quite entertaining. I do need to check out the movies for the original and Char's Counterattack.

I actually have 'Gundam Musou' for PS3, which is coming out in english for the 360 as well later this year. The story mode in there seems to skim over the main plot events of whatever series is represented, so you could look out for that when it comes out (or any of the English PS2 Gundam games that have come out).

Though I've known about Gundam for a while, I'm still quite the neophyte. My good friend Saku though (registered user here! give him a PM) is a true expert on all things Gundam-and-other-super-robot-shows. He can discuss things at length.

[Wolf Kanno]

Speaking of Tomino... Isn't it funny that the person who probably hates Gundam (and anime in general) the most is the creator of the series himself?

[Ishin Ookami]

How do the plots tend to go with Gundam? I've never had anyone properly describe that to me.

Depends on the story as they are all different and potraying different sides of battles and wars.

and Wing/Endless Waltz are the best series imo. Lt. Zechs Marquise/Milliardo Peacecraft/Preventer Wind is such a tragic yet deep character imo and just bring it to a different level. Duo is also kick ass.

Zechs: This is Preventer Wind.
Dekim: Zechs Merquise? I thought you were dead.
Zechs: That's right, I was; but I find that I cannot quietly sleep in my grave while Treize's spirit is still roaming among us.

Meh, that line is more or less why I consider gundam wing mediocre. It had the same themes as the universal centry timelines, war is hell, but whereas most series set in the universal century timeline actually go out of thier way to show you war is hell, complete with depressing endings and beloved main characters dying at the drop of the hat at anytime. Gundam expressed the same principle with only a few main characters dying, and other deaths throughout the show were minor villains and/or redshirts. It also didn't help that most of the drama was communicated through cheesy angsty dialouge and contrived events.

Gundam Wing does have it's good points though, the Epiyon gundam was an interesting design and concept. A gundam that focused on hand to hand combat weaponry and had no real range weapons and focused on the skill of the pilot to bring out the full potential of that mech. The zero system was also an interesting concept that eventually got watered down. Initially only the truly gifted could truly use the system without suffering a mental collapse, but towards the end everyone was using the Zero system in some form.

As for main themes. Well most of the Universal Century series are war epics, that explore war as a tradgedy. It also features a star trek level of technical jargon and sci fi themes, such as the development of Nu Types (human telepaths) and the and bigotry between humans born on earth and humans raised in space. Then there are the atypical top gun style battles as ace pilots clash for pride and glory, Most notorious is the rivalry that started in the original Mobile Suit Series between Amuro and Char.

[Lynx]

i was mostly into gundam wing and G gundam.

gunadam wings story was interesting to me. 5 kids trained as assasins to bring down an evil orginization. one so powerful that they can completely manipulate the whole earth alliance. but these 5 mysterious kids who have no knowledge of ecahother go to earth to fight. only to befriend eachother and a few others and fight together. and its cool how 5 kida eventually become the enimes to everyone earth and colonies but they never give up. OZ on earth and White Fang in space they run out of a place where they can call home. they still fight the greatest pilots in the earth and space and come out on top.

as for G gundam umm ok kinda cheezy story i mostly loved the battles more intense and one that brings every country together to fight against one enemy. also when domon fights people outside of his suit is just plain awesome.

[Goldenboko]

Only Gundam Wing, the rest all fail in comparison.

[Freya]

I have the two box sets of gundam wing, so i've seen them all, so I OWN all of that series, well besides endless waltz. I've only seen so many of 0083 but i liked it. I saw most of G Gundam but missed some of the more important episodes so i got a little lost. And I watched all of seed. I hated SD, I thought it was the stupiest one ever. But Wing has to be my all time fav.