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Yeah.

Start with a self contained series like 08th. It's free on the Internet Archive (if you don't mind copied from a shifty VHS tape quality).

There's some other series that I can recommend that are shorter and don't require an encyclopedic knowledge of the Gundam universe to get some joy out-of.

Do not watch G-Saviour. It's a live action Gundam movie that looks like it was filmed in an afternoon by some extras who were bored between takes on SeaQuest DSV.

Hathaway is tough because it's a deep cut. The main character is a side character in the sequel series to the original series that's the son of characters from that series. A lot of the Universal Century stuff is very "war history nerd" coded, and while that's definitely part of the charm, it means starting with it without seeing the original series is very tough.

I'll second 08th MS Team though. That is both one of the best stories in the franchise, part of the Universal Century, and one of the few that isn't dependent on seeing the original show.

Umm.... I think Netflix used to have the original three so maybe start there?

I'm sure it's all out of order, but my son absolutely loved Gquuux, and came at it without much background.

He found the modern animation more approachable than most of the older ones. Unicorn worked quite well too, and is certainly more true to Gundam's usual feel than Iron Blooded Orphans.

Although he has come away thinking that Zeon are the good guys.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


However UK Netflix has Requiem for Vengence and Hathaway.

Are they any good? Will I get a fair impression of the property from those two?

Neither are good entries to the franchise. Requiem is kind of bad, and Hathaway would only make sense if you'd seen Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Char's Counterattack.

The best entry points are the alt-timelines because they don't have baggage and all of them are self-contained stories.

-Mobile Report Gundam Wing
-Mobile Suit Gundam Seed and it's sequel series Seed Destiny
-Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (00 is very approachable for anyone who lived through the 00s given the show is very very based in that period of history)
-Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
-Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

There are several good series based in prior shows that stand well on their own because they don't hinge on prior knowledge of the franchise

-Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
-Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
-Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

And then if you want to be really wacky;

-Mobile Fighter G Gundam the Gundam series made on crack cocaine and meth


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
Although he has come away thinking that Zeon are the good guys.

Unfortunately even Japan has habitually struggled to remember Zeon are a Nazi Germany analogue. Zeon has frequently become the subject of 'Imperial Japan did nothing wrong.'