Where to Start with Gundam
— the Movie Trilogy or The Witch from Mercury

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If you are new to Gundam, start with the first film of the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy, and aim to reach the third. The three films were re-edited from the 43-episode TV series, each runs a little over two hours, and together they take you through the whole main story. You do not need to plan on watching every series.

The number of titles is not the only thing that makes Gundam confusing. The first series began airing in Japan on April 7, 1979, and by May 2026, Japanese news reports counted more than 90 works. The works are split across different worlds, and the same story has been told separately as a film, a TV series and a manga. Some later works are set before older ones. This guide sorts out broadcast order and in-story order first, and then covers which versions to look for.

The best places to start

Pick the starting point that matches your mood. You do not have to follow everything in order.

If you cannot decide, go with the movie trilogy. The three films finish the story of the first series and show you the course of the war that the Universal Century works take for granted. The films are from 1981 and 1982, so if older animation bothers you, try The Witch from Mercury, and if you prefer reading, try The Origin.

Broadcast order or in-story order?

For first-time viewers, we recommend broadcast order. In-story order works better for a second time through, after you have seen the main works. In-story order only means something for works that share the same timeline, though, so let’s look at how the worlds are divided first.

The works fall into two main worlds

Gundam works are mainly grouped into the Universal Century series, the Alternative series, SD Gundam, and everything else. To begin with, you only need to know the first two.

The name “Alternative” was announced in a special program broadcast in Japan in February 2024. Some Japanese articles call these works “Another Gundam” (アナザーガンダム). Turn A Gundam and Gundam Reconguista in G have moved between groups. The program placed them in the Alternative series, but later official projects and books have treated them as part of the Universal Century series. Neither needs to be your first choice.

The Universal Century works in in-story order

“In-story year” is the calendar inside the story, not the year a work came out. Universal Century 0079 means the 79th year of the Universal Century. Only the main works are listed here.

Why we recommend broadcast order

1. Later works assume you know the earlier ones. 0083 was made to fill the gap between the first series and Zeta Gundam, which had already aired. Unicorn is set three years after Char’s Counterattack, and Narrative follows Unicorn. In in-story order, you get the background before the story it belongs to.
2. The work at the start of the timeline tells the past of the first series’ characters. The anime of The Origin begins in the years before the first series. Watching the first series first saves the pleasure of learning that past.
3. The animation jumps between eras. Read the table above from the first series down and the release years go 1979, 1989, 1996, 1991, 1985. In broadcast order, you can watch the way the works are made change little by little.

An order for the Universal Century

1. Mobile Suit Gundam (the movie trilogy or the TV series)
2. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and Char’s Counterattack. The story centered on Amuro Ray and Char Aznable reaches a stopping point here
3. 0080, 0083 and The 08th MS Team. These are side stories around the first series, so watch them whenever you like after it
4. F91, the manga Crossbone Gundam and Victory Gundam
5. Unicorn, Narrative and Hathaway

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is a 12-episode TV anime that aired in Japan from April to June 2025. In the official description, Amate Yuzuriha, a high school girl living in a space colony, gets drawn into an illegal mobile suit dueling competition. With so few episodes it is tempting as a first pick, but its connection to the first series is part of the premise, so we recommend watching it after the first series.

Choose Alternative works one at a time

The following works are not part of the Universal Century timeline, so you can start them without having seen the first series. Only when a world has a continuation do you watch those works in order.

Telling apart versions with the same title

The easiest mistake to make with Gundam is picking up a different version of the same story. Without going into the content, here is how to tell them apart.

From the original: the three films cover the first series

Mobile Suit Gundam is a 43-episode TV anime broadcast in Japan from April 7, 1979, to January 26, 1980. At the planning stage it was meant to run 52 episodes. It is set in Universal Century 0079. Side 3, the space colony farthest from Earth, has named itself the Principality of Zeon and is fighting a war of independence against the Earth Federation. About eight months into a war that has reached a stalemate, Amuro Ray, a civilian boy caught up in fighting at Side 7, climbs into a new mobile suit, the Gundam.

If the first film does not work for you, feel free to switch to another starting point. Once you reach the third film, the story of the first series is over. The TV series has episodes that the films left out, so if you enjoyed it, the TV series or The Origin manga lets you spend longer with the same war.

How far to go after the first series

If you want to keep going, follow the order in the table below. You can stop at any step. If the first series was enough for you, there is no need to push on.

If you want a short side story in between, 0080: War in the Pocket has 6 episodes. Near the end of the war, Al, an elementary school boy living in a neutral colony, meets Bernie, a Zeon soldier. The 08th MS Team is an 11-episode side story set at about the same time as the first series, and it follows the rawness of the battlefield more closely than other works. Both are easier to get into once the first series has given you the background of the war.

With modern animation: The Witch from Mercury up to episode 12

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is a TV anime made as a new Gundam outside the Universal Century. It was the first TV series to have a female protagonist. It is set in Ad Stella 122, an era when many companies have moved out into space. Suletta Mercury transfers from remote Mercury to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the largest company in the mobile suit industry.

Watch the prequel “PROLOGUE” first, then the 12 episodes of Season 1 and the 12 episodes of Season 2. Season 1 aired from October 2, 2022, to January 8, 2023, and Season 2 from April 9 to July 2, 2023. There was a gap between them in the original broadcast too, so we suggest watching through episode 12 of Season 1 before deciding whether it suits you. The story is resolved in Season 2. The spin-off manga is covered in a later section.

For a long saga: the three SEED works in a row

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED is described on its official website as the first Gundam TV series produced in the 21st century. In Cosmic Era 71, as Coordinators, humans who have been genetically adjusted, fight Naturals, ordinary humans, the series follows the struggles and growth of Kira Yamato, a Coordinator, and his childhood friend Athrun Zala.

Destiny is set two years after the first series, and Freedom is a film set later, in Cosmic Era 75. The relationships between the characters are hard to follow if you watch only the film, so go in this order. A prequel film, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Zero, is scheduled to open in Japan on January 15, 2027.

Without worrying about a timeline: season 1 of Iron-Blooded Orphans

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is set in a different world from the Universal Century. Sunrise, the studio that made it, stressed that it was a Gundam you could enjoy without any background knowledge. It is set in P.D. 323, about 300 years after the end of a great war. On Mars, orphans work in harsh conditions amid discrimination and poverty. The protagonist, Mikazuki Augus, is a child soldier.

Season 1 aired from October 4, 2015, to March 27, 2016, and season 2 from October 2, 2016, to April 2, 2017, with 25 episodes each. Episode 25 of season 1 is a natural break. Child soldiers and human trafficking are the foundation of the story, so if you do not like heavy stories, choose another starting point. A related work in the same world is the special edition Urdr-Hunt.

To try a single film: F91, with its continuation in manga

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 is a film released in Japan on March 16, 1991, with a running time of 115 minutes. The complete edition runs 120 minutes. It is set in Universal Century 0123, more than 40 years after the One Year War, and none of the earlier series’ characters appear. It was planned to launch the series with a new era and new characters, so you can start with it without having seen the first series.

One caution: this film turns the opening part of a story planned as a TV series, about one cour (a three-month block of episodes), into a film. The TV series that would have continued it was never made, and the story was later told to some extent in the manga Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam. It is a work whose continuation you can read in manga.

Gundam in manga

Manga can be a way into Gundam, or a continuation of what you watched. If you are reading first, start with The Origin. If you are reading after watching, choose based on what you saw.

“Not confirmed” means we could not find an English publisher for that manga in the sources listed at the end of this article. It does not mean that no English edition exists.

Read The Origin in number order, from volume 1

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin is by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, who was the character designer and animation director of the TV series. It ran in Gundam Ace from the magazine’s first issue to its August 2011 issue. The broad story and characters are the same as the TV series, but some settings are changed and new characters are added.

What is a little unusual is that the story goes back in time partway through. In the Japanese edition, volume 1 starts at the beginning of the first series, volume 9 goes back to the past, and volume 15 returns to the story of the first series. This past section is the part that became The Origin anime. Vertical’s English hardcovers follow the 12 volumes of the Japanese collector’s edition, so in English the same turns come at volumes 5 and 8. Vertical also released the collector’s edition as six double-length “deluxe” volumes from August 12, 2025, to June 9, 2026; the table below uses the 12-volume numbering.

Crossbone Gundam has sequels, including The Steel Seven, Ghost and Dust. We recommend reading the 6 volumes through to the end first and moving on if you liked it. Hajime Yatate, a name you will see in the credits, is a shared pen name used by Sunrise’s planning department, not a specific person. The chief director of the first series was credited as Yoshiyuki Tomino (富野喜幸) when it aired, and has used the name Yoshiyuki Tomino (富野由悠季) since 1982.

Reading and watching in English

Here are the English editions we could confirm, or that have been announced, for the books in this guide. Video releases vary in region code, subtitles and dubs, so check the product page before you buy.

If you stream, the services that carry each work differ by country. Check the streaming information on each work’s official website.

Coming up

These are the main works with release or broadcast plans announced as of November 7, 2026. All are plans and may change.

Whichever way in you choose, you only need to watch one thing first. Tonight, try the first film of the Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy. In a little over two hours, a civilian boy climbs into the Gundam, and you will know whether you want to see more.

This guide is also available in Japanese: ガンダムはどれから見る？