I watched all of Gundam
Over the past 14 months I watched every TV episode, OVA, and movie in the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise in production order. I've seen plenty of mecha anime before, but this was the first time I had seen anything from the biggest real robot franchise in the world. And I have to say I was quite impressed. Gundam has its reputation for a reason, with incredible mechanical designs, compelling characters and classic stories that hold up to this day.
Some of it is certainly better than others. In general the main storyline (termed "Universal Century", or UC) and original creator (writer and director Yoshiyuki Tomino) produce the best works, but many of the spinoffs are worth watching too.
Here's my subjective ranking of each entry. It doesn't feel right to compare TV shows with movies and OVAs when their budgets, structure, and audiences are so different, so I've ranked each format separately. Likewise the Build series of gunpla-focused spinoffs are so different from the standard Gundam formula that I've ranked these separately as well.
TV series
- ∀
- Reconguista in G
- Victory
- Zeta
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- G Gundam
- SEED
- 00
- ZZ
- SEED Destiny
- Iron-Blooded Orphans
- Wing
- X
- AGE
OVAs/ONAs
- Unicorn
- War in the Pocket
- 08th MS Team
- Thunderbolt
- The Origin
- Stardust Memory
- SEED Stargazer
- MS IGLOO
- Wing: Endless Waltz
- Twilight AXIS
- Gundam-san
Movies
- Char's Counterattack
- F91
- Hathaway's Flash
- Cucuruz Doan's Island
- 00: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
- Narrative
- G-Saviour
Build series
- Build Fighters
- Build Fighters Try
- Build Divers Re:Rise
- Build Divers
And now for some miscellaneous favorites:
Best protagonist: Uso Ewin
Best antagonist: Char Aznable in 0079
Best Char clone: Harry Ord
Best Gundam: LM312V04 Victory Gundam
Best grunt mobile suit: MS-09 Dom
Best princess: Dianna Soreil
Best opening song: Zeta - Toki wo Koete
Best ship: Ra Cailum
Best romance: Domon/Rain
Worst protagonist: Kio Asuno
Worst Gundam: RX-104FF Penelope