You Should (Almost) Always Start With The Prequel 

Yeah I pretty much had the same journey, except I unsuccessfully tried to watch the original Gundam series twice, only getting a couple eps in each time, before switching to the Origin which was SO much better as a gateway

It’s definitely, a hill of all time to die on 😅

@@Viseak please do a video essay on samurai champloo and Ace combat 7 on PS4 🎮🎮🤤🎮🤤🎮🎮🏞️🌳🌲🪴🦖🦖🦖🦖

No I get what you mean about the 80’s animation, it definitely has this grittiness to it you can really appreciate, and I felt that so much more in Zeta and ZZ compared to 79. 79 just felt unpolished by comparison, not to say it’s bad or that people shouldn’t watch it, but just that leap between 79 and Zeta is so huge (to me at least) that it really makes 79 a jarring watch. Zeta is definitely a much easier pill to swallow, but would be a weird starting point for anyone getting into UC Gundam. Hope you enjoy the Zeta video! I recently uploaded a ZZ video too if you’re interested 👀

Right? Both Halo Reach and The Origin are fantastic intros to their respective series and do a far better job at getting their audience invested than the originals ever could. I think a lot of that comes down to the time difference too, both Reach and The Origin are far newer than their respective originals (although this argument could be said for Star Wars too) and are far more easily digestible because of that. There’s so much more that goes into a good prequel though and it’s a shame they’re hated a lot of the time mainly cause of the stigma around Star Wars prequels, and you’re right there’s a lot more that could be said but that’d probably need a whole other video in and of itself 😅

So this... is the power... of autism... Kidding aside, bro, I have no idea about any of that. I started with Origin, and I'm up to ZZ at this point. No one cares about shit like that except incredible die hard fans. It literally didn't impact my enjoyment or understanding of the lore then, and it's not going to now. Chill.

The Origin is a separate continuity. It isn't even a prequel.

Average people don't get bothered by that shit 😂. It's like Star Wars fans who have the some films and shows ruined for them cuz they fuck up the continuity of ship-models. I like that shit too but it really doesn't matter in the big picture.

The only issue is none of those are really good starting points into Gundam, at least not in my eyes, bar MAYBE Iron Blooded Orphans (but I haven’t finished it so I can’t say that with certainty), and obviously none of those will introduce anyone to the UC timeline which is also (imo) the best and most interesting timeline Gundams got. I honestly can’t think of a single Gundam spinoff or AU that holds a candle to what the origin delivered, it’s literally the epitome of EVERYTHING Gundam is, it’s atmosphere, political drama and awesome giant mecha fights wrapped up in a neat little package, with some gorgeous animation to boot. I mean personally I like other entries like War In the Pocket more, but as a starting point to get your toes wet in everything Gundam it’s perfect. No snark man I genuinely wanna know which series you think does a better job at that than the origin and why/how? One thing I gotta agree with you on is dramatic irony. I did say starting with prequels has its consequences and that’s definitely a big one of them, there’s a bunch of things that’d get lost on a first time viewer in the origin and even games like Yakuza 0, but even still, I think that drawback is worth it considering all the positives I mentioned. And you’re right, the movie trilogy was a massive step forward in getting people into Gundam, cutting out all that fluff from 0079, but even then the movies are still pretty damn rough to get through. The Origin is really just the path of least resistance compared to anything else, and covertly I’ve seen way more people give up on the 0079 movie trilogy than The Origin as it’s just a much bigger hurdle to overcome.

@@Viseak If G-Witch stays at its current quality or higher, it will probably be my new starting point for people. With the caveat of starting with the Prologue Episode and not Episode 1, as the prologue is much more serious and political than the first few episodes. The staff have even talked about purposefully using modern anime sensibilities and tropes to aim the show at non-Gundam fans. It also helps that Utena and Gundam fans somehow don't have as much overlap as you'd think, and the writer for G-Witch literally did the Utena novelizations and is taking strong influence from it, and now tons of people are getting into Gundam just from that connection alone. As for other AUs, it depends on the person and accounting for tastes. My general top two picks for beginners are either After War Gundam X or Gundam 00. Gundam X if the person is more into adventure and character interactions, and 00 if they're more into flashy fights and politics. I sometimes also occasionally recommend Mobile Fighter G Gundam, SEED, or Iron Blooded Orphans in certain contexts. They might not be my favorite, but they all have a secondary non-Gundam appeal that works wonders for getting non-Gundam fans to give it a chance for certain other niches. I'd also say newcomers might have a better time with Turn A Gundam or even Build Fighters than Origin OVA. While all three are reference heavy, the other two don't require knowing references to understand basic plot points. Origin OVA just throws so much at newcomers that I've found non-fans to be more confused than interested.

@@RayOfTruth I haven’t started G-Witch yet so I can’t comment on it, but I’m happy to hear it’s going well! If that’s the case it could turn into a really solid option, I’ve already seen the memes about people realising Gundam relies heavily on war themes and politics not just big robots re-surfacing so it’s definitely hitting the right mark on newcomers. After War Gundam X is another I haven’t seen and can’t comment on, but it looks right up my alley, at a glance/from what you’ve described it seems like it could be closer to Zoids CC which is cool. 00 tho….. Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate it, it just felt very exceedingly average and doesn’t explore any of the political/war themes as well as something like The Origin did, and on a personal level I just didn’t really like the mobile suit designs. But that’s just me. Turn A’s an interesting choice but I still don’t think it puts Gundams best foot forward, and neither does Build Fighters, to me that’s a whole different thing entirely.

​@@Viseak g witch is sort the odd one out. It very modernises gundam.

IBO is also shit. Just watch the original or 00. That’s the most Gundam like modern Gundam

It’s pretty damn great, hope you enjoy it!

Haha I wouldn’t say 0079 is under appreciated though, it gets a fraction of the hate something like ZZ does. I do believe 0079 has aged the worst out of any Gundam though, and like that’s fair, it is the oldest after all. But there was such a BIG jump of quality in characters, storytelling, action, animation, sound design and soundtrack in Zeta it’s insane, AND it still keeps that classic Gundam feel. The thing is it’d be weird to START your Gundam watch with Zeta, which is why I recommend The Origin. It’s got everything that makes Gundam great and your trade off is that classic feel and replace it with insanely good mecha action and animation. Oh and of course it’s not technically canon to the standard UC timeline but I don’t think that’s near as big a deal as people make it out to be. Overall you get a much easier and more palatable Gundam for newcomers to get into, that is the earliest chronological entry in the UC timeline (even tho technically not canon) AND centres around a prominent UC character like Char they’ll recognise. Then after that, so long as their interest is piqued, they’d be far more likely to sit through and maybe even enjoy 0079. But to start someone with 0079 is just a detriment to their potential enjoyment of Gundam in my eyes, and starting with an AU isn’t a supplement for UC Gundam. (Sure that could be kinda a contradiction as The Origin, again, isn’t TECHNICALLY canon UC Gundam, but it’s UC Gundam and god damn close enough.) Obviously it won’t be same the case for everyone but it’s hard to argue The Origin isn’t more palatable for a mainstream audience. (With all of that being said 0079 is a crucial watch and shouldn’t ever be skipped or anything, it has its merit)

@Viseak I can mostly agree but only if they're picky with animation. I'm the type that could always enjoy something for what it is and appreciate where things came from(same reason I can get down on alot of old music and movies too, always been that way lol) so it doesn't bother me, but that's where your argument for charm comes in, may be charm to some but to others who are more picky it wouldn't be charm so I do get that. But I think they still tell a really good story, the characters are solid and the music is good, so I honestly might start someone with a spin off/alt timeline series and then really try and push 79 or at least the movies for their proper intro to UC stuff because orgin is great but there are pay offs that are more satisfying if you've seen 79/the movies first, and yes Zeta is hands down my favorite(still need to see victory and f91) but it would for sure be hard to start someone there so can't disagree, hell even me, as someone who started with 79(this go round at 33 lol wing was my first when it was on toonami and I hated 79 back then because I didn't know the whole timeline thing I was confused lol) I got like 6 episodes in and decided I should do stardust memory at first just to kind of fill that 7 year gap and make sense of the titans because it was kind of confusing at first with all the faction mixing and mobile suits but damn zeta is a gem 🖤 love your channel for real. Can't wait for more gundam stuff.

@Viseak the one that I enjoy but don't understand all the love for was CCA, I was a little let down by chars motivations, and while there are thing si like about them poofing into newtype dust at the end 🤣🤌 it'd of been nice to have them around for the later uc series as side characters(kamille too) but to be fair that's easier to say in hindsight, tomino didn't know their be a unicorn etc 20 plus years later lol

Agreed, 79 is peak and it's not nostalgia. I watched it like 2-3 years ago. My first series was Wing like 10 years ago and while I liked it I didn't see the Gundam hype, move on to SEED and droped it because I didn't liked it. It was after I learned about the different continuities (UC and AU) that I decided to give the UC series a try, specially because a friend told me that the original Gundam (and Ideon) was a main source of inspiration for Evangelion so that caught my eye and while the animation has definitely aged the story has not. Is top tier material to the point it has ruined Wing for me (because it's story is literally just a lesser version of the One Year War).

I'm interested in the story behind where and how you were playing Halo 2 in the back of a Humvee lmao

Yeah exactly, 343 tried to do that with Halo Infinite and well, it didn’t exactly turn out great… A game like Yakuza 0 on the other hand did it perfectly and brought a whole new life into the franchise

Oh yeah I love the Star Wars prequels too, only reason I didn’t mention them is cause I grew up with em so I’m really biased towards them 😅 Always start a rewatch of Star Wars with episode 1

I couldn’t disagree more man 😅 Origin is a gorgeous OVA that perfectly sets up the world of Gundam and it’s political drama. It may not be the BEST representation of Gundams characters (as it’s technically an alt universe) but it goes above and beyond to set the scene, and get new viewers excited for what’s to come. 0079 on the other hand… It’s just a snooze fest and that’s putting it lightly. But it’s like, the only true snooze fest in the whole UC timeline. Zeta, ZZ, WITP, 08th MS Team, Thunderbolt, Unicorn they’re all leagues and miles better than 0079, and Zeta + WITP would probably be two of my top 3 Gundam series. So I dunno why you feel the need to gatekeep and tell people if they don’t enjoy 0079 they won’t enjoy ‘good Gundam’, cause a lot of people definitely will, and The Origin is a much easier pill to swallow to get newcomers started.

It’s crazy when a prequel can have that effect, it really doesn’t happen often but when it does it’s awesome

Hahaha that’s fair, it’s a weird hill for me to die on for sure

@@Viseak I think you make sense! And I even practice it with my friends (I would push folks to the spin-offs more than mainline UC) but a part of me always thinks engaging with old art can be useful . And it tugs at me in both ways.

@@TheWolvesDen 100% agree, I never think old art should be written off entirely, it’s just that hurdle of getting people to actually watch/play/enjoy and appreciate it can be difficult, and that’s why I reckon starting with prequels is the best way to go. My favourite Gundam story is easily War In The Pocket and I NEVER would’ve gotten that far if I didn’t start with The Origin and get invested

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Nah