The Gundam Series (ガンダムシリーズ Gandamu
Shirīzu)
is a metaseries of anime
created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots
(or "mecha")
called "Mobile Suits" (MS); usually the protagonist's MS will carry the
name Gundam.
The metaseries started on April 7, 1979, as a serial TV show called Mobile Suit Gundam. That first TV series has since
spawned a franchise that has come to include works released in numerous
media. Titles have appeared in the form of multiple television series
and OVAs, movies, manga,
novels and video games, among other modes. The story from the original
1979 series has been considerably extended with sequels, prequels, side
stories and alternate timelines. As a result, the title Gundam
has become a collective term for the seven distinct but related
timelines that can be pieced together from the stories that appear in
the Gundam franchise. Generally speaking, the timelines do not
intersect, but they do contain a few common elements such as the titular
war machines called Gundam. However, all Gundam timelines
and worlds, long after their own anime series, do eventually intersect
and combine in the series Turn
A Gundam.
The original timeline for the Gundam series was the Universal Century (UC) series, which included Mobile
Suit Gundam (1979) and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985).
Since the 1990s, alternative timelines have been produced and developed,
including the Future Century, After Colony, After War, Correct
Century, Cosmic Era, Anno Domini and Advanced Generation timelines.
As of January 21, 2008, the Gundam franchise is a 50 billion yen
trademark.
A year 2000 press release stated that retail sales of Gundam items had
totaled $5 billion.
In the 2008 ranking of average sales figures for anime copies sold in
Japan (1970-2008 total sales figures averaged by episode), Gundam
series were in four of the top five places: Mobile Suit Gundam
ranked second, with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
third, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED fourth,
and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam fifth. Also, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing ranked
18th and Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ ranked
20th.
Gunpla's (Gundam Plastic model) holds 90% of the
Japan character plastic model market.
Academics in Japan have also viewed the series as inspiration, with
the International Gundam Society being the first academic
institution based on an animated TV series
