I've never watched it and I'd figure I might as well start now. Which version is the best?

 

I'd say Gundam 00.

Some rate Gundam Seed as the best series of the franchise, but you have to know a lot about the background of the Gundam universe to not get confused.

Most series are based on the same background: a conflict and open war between the Earth and it's former colonies. A random or not so random boy accidentally stumbles over a new super mecha, called Gundam, and of course he is the only one who is able to fly it.

Gundam 00 takes place when the Earth is about to start colonizing space. The Earth isn't united yet, and different blocks are fighting for dominance. Then an organisation called Celestial Being appears - its goal is to force the different political blocks to unite.

Thus it happens before everything else in the Gundam universe and you don't need to know anything about the franchise and its background. The animation is ok, the design is geared to nowadays anime characters, while the others, even the new Gundam Unicorn, look more like 1980s characters.

 

Nostalgia forces me to say Gundam Wing.

 

I'm not much of a Gundam fan (though I did watch a bit of Gundam Wing when it was on Cartoon Network about... ten years ago or so), but I'm pretty sure that some take place in alternate universes. I don't know the specifics, though, you'll probably have to look into that.

 

Gundam Wing , Gundam 00 and then Gundam Seed. These three are the best of the bunch, with great plots, animation and characters. I also recommend checking out the Zeta Gundam series. Though Zeta Gundam's pretty old, its story served as a plot model for later Gundam franchises.

Gundam Wing is the best in my opinion. It has the best designs of the robots, great antagonists, music, and pilots.

Gundam 00 is an intriguing series, since it is very different from the other gundam series who have their own timelines or alternate universes. Gundam 00 though is written with today's world governments and politics in mind, and predicts what will happen to our planet in the future when we finally run out of fossil fuels.

Gundam Seed has superb fighting scenes and robot designs, and this is the first series that closely included battleships into what was usually mechs vs mechs fight. Before the space ships in the gundam universes were only used as transports for the robots, and occasionally fired long range shots. This is also different from the other series, since here the creators of the series decided that robots can run out of ammunition, power and fuel, making the fights realistic and logical. I recommend you watch Gundam Seed first.

 

The one with Amuro Ray.

 

Best to start at the beginning, if you don't mind the 1980s art and animation.

If you need brand new, shinny animation, then start with the newest series, 00.

 

Y'all are a bunch of faggots. G Gundam FOREVA!

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Trump dat, hoes.

 

Man, I totally watched a ton of Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network back in the day. That's the only one I've seen, but I truly loved it. Although, as a note, that was like a decade ago.

 

Definitely going to have to go with Gundam Seed.

I hated Gundam 00. I know, you have to take all things in anime with a grain of salt, but there was simply too much ridiculous shit. From the entire purpose of Celestial Being to teenage girls who have no idea how to govern being elected to save a failing country.

It's probably my most hated Gundam series of all time. :fire

 

Gundam has always been filled with preachy, whining anti-war teens that are (for some reason) given access to multibillion dollar war machines.

Gundam Seed is whinier than the rest of them, it's only real competition being Gundam Wing.

If you absolutely must watch one of the series, Gundam 0080 is probably the best. It's got a grittier tone, and from what I remember, was actually nearly decent.

 

Which Gundam is best....

I have Gundam Seed, Gundam 8th MS Team, Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket, Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory, Char's Counterattack, and Gundam F91.

Out of all of them, Stardust Memory stands out as the best. The animation quality was top notch, away from bland 80s style into detailed very late 80s-90s quality work. The story, for what it was, as with Gundam and anime in general you gave to have a large suspension of disbelief and rule of cool, was quite good and mature. It was long anough to have some meat, but not too long to be crazy.

Gundam Seed was supposed to be a retelling/reimagining of the original MS Gundam and it shows. The quality is good, but Stardust Memory really was the sweet spot.

 

I would definitely go with Gundam Wing, Gundam Seed and Gundam 00 (and its sequel). You should definitely start with Gundam Wing though because it was an earlier release and was a great series all round for me despite the old animation. I would then watch the rest as the animation quality improves and I find it hard to go back and watch poorer quality animation afterwards.

 

I would start with the original Mobile Suit Gundam and all of the sequel/side stories involved in that universe. 00 was good, but Seed was, in my opinion, worse than the original. Sure, they have the same over-arching story, but the characters in Seed were assholes and many of them lacked depth.

@aaltwal: In the original series the White Base (Trojan Horse) was pretty closely involved in most of the battles throughout. On occasion the mobile suits might get separated from their carrier vessel, but many of the combat plots involved destroying or defending their ship.


tl;dr: All of the Gundam series are worth watching, but I recommend watching from the beginning and working your way to the present.

 

I was thinking of the mechanics of the robots and the ships in Gundam Seed, including design, limitations and capabilities. But if I were to include the pilots, then Seed, with Kira and Athrun, utterly pale in comparison to, say Heero Yuy and Zeks.

 

Which is why Gundam Wing is where anyone should start. And maybe finish.

 

That looks really old now and slightly gay tbh

Also Gundam Wing is the only one you need to watch.

 

Most of the older Gundam shows (pre-Wing) are more gritty, and have higher body counts in terms of important characters. However, I prefer the animation and design of the newer shows.

One thing you should know about Seed, however, is that the main character by the end is ridiculously overpowered, to the point that he essentially takes out entire fleets, without killing anyone He is the closest thing the Gundam series has to a God.

I think you'd prefer Wing.

 

Well there's a loaded question if I ever saw one.

Anyway, I'd suggest starting with the original Gundam compilation movie trilogy (which are much better than the original series), then check out Char's Counterattack (the "end" of the main universe), and then the recent Gundam Unicorn series (which is set after Counterattack). Past that, Gundam 0080 Stardust Memory is a really good character story, but lacks a lot of robot battles which turns off some people. Zeta Gundam is widely considered to be the pinnacle of the "real robot" genre. Mobile Fighter G Gundam is awesome, but it is more a super-robot anime than a Gundam one in terms of theme, characters, and story. Gundam Seed is a good updated, reimagining of the original Gundam series, but do not watch any of its sequels or follow-ups as they all suck.

Despite what some have said, DO NOT watch Gundam Wing first. That series has not held up very well over the years, and it really requires a knowledge and understanding of the main universe of Gundam to understand what the hell is going on at times. If you watch some of the stuff i mentioned earlier first, then I would suggest checking out Gundam Wing.

 

I agree with Tenhauser in that it's probably not a good idea to watch Gundam Wing first. Original is the best to start off on and after that, I personally recommend watching Wing then Zeta before ending off in 00. I'm not a particular fan of SEED and never watched its sequel but I guess if you can stomach the main protagonist turning into a one-man-army later on, then go for it.