Gundam

Gundam is one of the longest running meta-series of anime featuring giant robots. Gundam is the collective term for the Universal Century (UC) series like Mobile Suit Gundam and series in alternative timelines, such as Gundam Wing, made by Sunrise Inc.. G.U.N.D.A.M. stands for a variety of things, see the Mobile Suit Operation System page for details.

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Concept

Mobile Suit Gundam was developed principally by Yoshiyuki Tomino, along with a changing group of Sunrise creators who went under the collective psuedonym "Hajime Yatate".

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The celebrated series was originally titled Freedom Fighter Gunboy or simply Gunboy, because the title robot was armed with a gun and the target demographic was young boys. In the early stages of production, there were numerous references to the word freedom, such as the White Base being originally named Freedom's Fortress, the Core Fighter as the Freedom Wing, and the Gunperry named the Freedom Cruiser. The collective Yadate team combined the English word "Gun" with last syllable of the word "Freedom", "Dom", to form the word "Gundom". Tomino then changed the name to the current title "Gundam", suggesting that the name Gundam signifies a power wielding a gun that is strong enough to hold back enemies like a dam holds back floods.

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Innovation

Gundam is a turning point in the history of anime and manga, as it is credited for inspiring the Real Robot genre. Real Robots (popularly known in English as mecha, a re-borrowing of the Japanese abbreviation for the English word "mechanical") differ from their Super Robot forebearers on a few stylistic and thematic points such as attempts at realism in robot design and the thematic and ethical role of the robots. Zambot 3 was an earlier program by Tomino which helped develop these ideas.

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The main theme of all the various Gundam series is always the harsh depiction of the atrocities of war. All the machines, including the Gundams, are always depicted realistically as machines, they run out of energy and ammunition, they break and malfunction like all machines eventually do. The technology, at least that of the Universal Century, is practical and derived from true science, including Lagrange points in space, the O'Neill cylinder as a living environment, and energy production from helium-3 (Minovsky Physics).

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The narration is always revolving around the emotions of the characters, usually thrown into conflict without much choice and faced with death, destruction and dehumanization. With few exceptions, there are no absolute good guys and bad guys; all have their motives. Politics of war are always lurking in the background, as it is in real wars. Gundam also features true to life issues and clear political ideas.

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Finally, most of the stories are basically structured as coming-of-age dramas, where the main protagonist (and sometimes his main antagonist) and most of the cast personalities, points of view, and actions may (or may not) change dramatically as the events on the series unfold. This makes the plot more real: while on early Super Robot series, the hero and cast usually act the same on most episodes and have predictable actions, in most of the Gundam series the people involved in war are sometimes deeply affected emotionally by the events on their lives, and this affect how they behave and act throughout the series (the best example of this is how longtime rivals Amuro Ray and Char Aznable personalities are portrayed as they come of age through their different appearances in the Gundam saga).

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Anime: :This article is about Japanese animation. For the oleo-resin, see Anim? (oleo-resin)....

Robot: In practical usage, a robot is an autonomous or semi-autonomous device which performs its tasks either by direct human control, partial control with human supervision, or completely autonomously. Robots are typically used to do tasks that are too dull, dirty, or dangerous for humans. Industrial robo...

Universal Century: Universal Century (or UC for short) is one of the timelines of the Gundam anime metaseries....

Gundam related Images and Photos (experimental)

Gundam Wing - Hero	Gundam Cross Bone Gundam X-2 Action Figure	Gundam 00 Gundam Exia 1:144 Scale Model Kit	Gundam 00 Gundam Virtue 1:144 Scale Model Kit
Gundam 00 Gundam Nadlee 1:144 Scale Model Kit	Gundam 00 Gundam Kyrios 1:144 Scale Model Kit	Gundam 00 Gundam Dynames 1:144 Scale Model Kit	Gundam Seed Destiny Sword Impulse Gundam Model Kit
Gundam 00 Seravee Gundam 1:144 Scale Model Kit	Gundam 00 Seravee Gundam 1:100 Scale Model Kit	Gundam Seed Freedom Gundam Metal Build Action Figure	Gundam 00 1:144 Scale Model Kit