In 1979, a revolutionary new anime series named Mobile Suit
Gundam from creator Yoshiyuki Tomino began airing on Japanese television.
Unlike the other robot series such as Mazinger Z or Steel 28, Gundam
was more like an advanced war drama movie, except it is in Anime form. The story
involves a character, Amuro Rei, who is the pilot of the mobile suit called Gundam.
In UC 0079, the colonies declare their independence against the Earth and start
a war against a war between the Federation and Zeon, with their fearsome mobile
suits. Being an enduring sci-fi Anime that ever made, Tomino brilliantly
directed this Anime while he carefully developed each character's insights. Especially
Amuro, he shows his honest feeling of his hatred of the war as the series goes
on. Unlike other "perfect human being" heroes in other Anime series,
Amuro was a normal kid with a complicated personality who is always depressed,
but he starts to lift hope and fights for his life and his friends as the story
reaches to the end. It is very interesting how Gundam changes the mood
of the story from joy and hope-ness to sadness and depression. Despite the outdated
animation, it was well visualized in the fighting scenes and the background for
time being. The show was very creative in designing the mobile suits in realistic
way as possible if they were really existed in real life. This series was true
epic and considers being one of the classic Anime series ever. Tomino tried
to show the audiences the morale of the story that how war could affect the people
and lose their loved ones. After a great impact of this classic TV-series, many
other series are started to influenced by it, such as Evangelion and RahXephon.
The January issue of Newtype magazine from 2001 announced that Mobile
Suit Gundam was ranked #1 in Best Anime of the Century.
