My Top 5 Fandoms: 4 - Mobile Suit Gundam

Nearly as old as myself as it started airing in 1979, I always have been a fan of Gundam even before it got known in the western world due to Gundam Wing.

And with so many series and spin-offs, alternate timelines and whotnot's, this is a franchise that has something for everyone, from the politics of Zeta Gundam to the light hearted, Sword Art Online styled Gundam Build Fighters.

But first, let me get a small "sub questionaire" out of the way:

Favorite series: SEED Destiny, and even though I might be a minority that totally loves this series in the franchise, it also has my anime crush in it, Lunamaria Hawke.

Favorite suit: while I always root for the ranged suits like HeavyArms of Dynames, there will never be a more glorious suit then the Freedom from SEED / SEED Destiny for me.

Now, you have a lot of leeway in the various timelines of the franchise, and this makes that it caters for a lot of people.  Another benefit it that the various series aren`t required to be watched in order to pick it up, most have 2 or 3 seasons or in the case of the original Universal Century timeline (where the well known RX-78-2 hails from) a few different series linked together.

Often politics are the driving motivator for a series, with a good guy, a bad guy and then a lot of grey area in between, even though even the biggest vilains might be shady or switching over, as to take the Wing example, Zechs Marquise.  This makes it not always clear who to root for, as even the other way around is possible.  Or do we think the whole "good guys" take on things from Iron-Blooded Orphans is them being goodie-too-shoes.  No, our "heroes" are ruthless, ex-exploited, child soldiers... or the fact the extremely popular Gundam 00 the heroes would label as a terrorist organisation.

All that as such makes Gundam a very wide-spread franchise, and a lot of the series are placed against the spirit of the times of those years they where produced, not really shunning sensitive topics but with one constant factor, apart from which everything can go everywhere...

The Red / white / blue suit is the main one ;-)

This makes watching the various series so enjoyable, apart from giant robots fighting it out.  Every entry in the franchise brings something new and fresh to the table, allowing for a new viewer experience all the time.