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Back in 1979 japanese anime producer Sunrise gave birth to an animated serie that was highly original both in storyline and in visuals. "Kido Senshi Gundam" (Mobile Suit Gundam) was going to completely change the way robots/SF anime series were intended.
Gundam was very different from its predecessors, with its squared design and realistic mechanics being far from Go-Nagai's rounded robots, but that wasn't the most important difference between Gundam and previous robotic series: Sunrise already had a long tradition in hard edged mecha designs, having produced robotic series from "Yusha Raideen" (1975) to "Muteki Koin Daitarn Three" (1978) together with the batch of composable robots including "Chodenji Robot Combattler V" (1976), "Chodenji Mashin Voltus V" (1977) and the funny "Mirai Robot Daltanious", almost contemporary to Gundam.
The difference between these Robots and Gundam is in the way the machine is presented: Gundam is not an heavy-metal superhero with almost infinite power, it's just a super-evoluted war machine, with weapons that sometimes run out of ammunitions and a pilot that's an ordinary soldier who risks his own life in every mobile suit duel.
A lot of series followed the original KSG, all of them focused on good mecha and complicated storylines, where robots are just means used to develop a story based on human interactions. Here follows a small list of Gundam series covering the years from U.C.0079 to U.C.0093 (so no F-91 or V-Gundam are present).
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Kido Senshi Gundam
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1979 - TV Serie
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About:
This is the first Gundam serie to appear on TV, telling the story of a civil war between the Earth Federation and the Duchy of Zeon.
The One Year War took place in U.C.0079-0080
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- Director:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Screenplay:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Character Design:
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Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- Mecha Design:
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Kunio Okawara
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Kido Senshi Z Gundam
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1985 - TV Serie (50ep)
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About:
Sunrise was long in doubt whether to produce a sequel to Gundam or a complete new story, and five years after the first serie they made KSZG. The story spans U.C.0087-0088 and is really gloomy, the nihilism of Tomino being well depicted both in the plot and characters. A lot of young and talented mecha designer worked on this anime.
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- Director:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Screenplay:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Character Design:
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Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- Mecha Design:
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Kunio Okawara
Kazumi Fujita
Mamoru Nagano
Makoto Kobayashi
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Kido Senshi Gundam ZZ
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1986 - TV Serie (47ep)
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About:
Double Zeta started just some months after the end of Zeta and was made by the same staff except that we have Kitazume instead of Yasuhiko as character designer. This serie (U.C.0088-0089) is much lighthearted than KSZG, being aimed to the younger audience of sub-13 children. The result is an anime which to many extent betrays the original idea of realistic robot war presented by KSG and KSZG, with little appeal for long date fans.
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- Director:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Screenwriter:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Character Design:
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Hiroyuki Kitazume
- Mecha Design:
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Kunio Okawara
Kazumi Fujita
Mamoru Nagano
Mika Akitaka
Makoto Kobayashi
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K.S.G - Gyakushu no Char
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1988 - Theatrical Movie
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About:
After the bad results of Gundam ZZ Sunrise put all its hope for a rebirth of the gundam universe into this movie. Made by a broadly revised staff, Char's Counterattack switched back to the original "serious" branch of Gundam series and resolved in an open ending the long battle between Char Aznable and Amuro Rei. The fandom showed a renewed interest in Gundam, this opening the way for future high level series like Gundam 0080 and Gundam 0083.
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- Director:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Screenplay:
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Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Character Design:
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Hiroyuki Kitazume
- Mecha Design:
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Yutaka Izubuchi
Yoshinory Sayama
Gainax
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K.S.G. 0080 - Pocket no naka no senso
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1989 - OAV Serie (6 ep)
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About:
After "Gyakushu no Char" the original storyline of Gundam reached an end, so it was decided to enrich that storyline with a serie of side-stories, settled during the One Year War or during the period not covered by other TV series. Gundam 0080 focuses on the effects of war on common people, investigating the nature of a civil conflict through the eyes of a child. It's an interesting serie also because the staff is completely new, with Mikimoto (Macross, Orguss, Megazone23) as character designer and Izubuchi as mecha designer. Izubuchy redesigned almost any of the original KSG mobile suits with an enriched look.
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- Director:
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Fumihiko Takayama
- Screenplay:
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Hiroyuki Yamaga
- Character Design:
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Haruhiko Mikimoto
- Mecha Design:
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Yutaka Izubuchi
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Kido Senshi Gundam 0083
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1991 - OAV Serie (13 ep)
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About:
Gundam 0083 is considered one of the best Gundam serie around, its high quality provided by the skills of many different staff teams that worked on it. None of the original KSG creators worked on this OAVs, yet the story is crucial in filling the gaps between KSG and KSZG, explaining the birth of the Titans and connecting the end of the One Year War to the new series. Hajime Katoki will become the lead Gundam mecha designer for future series, and actually designed almost all of the mecha presented in 0083. Kawamori, mecha designer of Macross and Dangaio, designed the RX-78 GP01 providing an innovative interpretation of the original RX-78 design.
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- Director:
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Takashi Imanishi
Mitsuko Kase
- Screenplay:
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Fuyushi Gobu
Akinori Endo
Asahide Okuma
Ryosuke Takahashi
- Character Design:
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Toshihiro Kawamoto
- Mecha Design:
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Hajime Katoki
Shoji Kawamori
Mika Akitaka
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KSG Dai 08 MS shotai
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1996 - OAV Serie (11 ep)
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About:
This is the latest in Gundam side-stories, settled in U.C.0079, so almost contemporary to the original KSG. "The 8th MS team" takes inspiration from recent warfare in Kosovo and mid-east scenarios, adding to the intrinsic realism of KSG with smart ideas like shortage of spare parts, logistic problems and so on. In this serie Katoki provided a full redesign of many old classic mobile suits, and it's interesting to compare his work with what Izubuchi did in KSG 0080, two different "ways" to Gundam design.
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- Director:
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Takeyuki Kanda
Umanosuke Iida
- Character Design:
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Toshihiro Kawamoto
- Mecha Design:
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Hajime Katoki
Kunio Okawara
Kimitoshi Yamane
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