is a Japanese Mecha military science fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino for Sunrise (now a division of Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, known as "Mobile Suits", typically including a prominent one carrying the name "Gundam". The franchise began with the premiere of the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam on April 7, 1979, which defined the "real robot" mecha anime genre by depicting giant robots (including the original titular mecha) within a militaristic setting.
The popularity of the series and its merchandise spawned a multimedia franchise that includes over 50 TV series, films, and original video animations (OVAs), as well as manga, novels, and video games, along with a multimillion industry of plastic model kits known as Gunpla, which accounts for 90 percent of the Japanese character plastic model market.Flow of the Japan toy industry (日本の玩具産業の動向), Japan Economics Department, Information section (日本経済情報課) Academics in Japan have also taken interest in the series; in 2008, the virtual Gundam Academy was planned as the first academic institution based on an animated TV series.
As of 2026, the Gundam franchise is fully owned by Bandai Namco Holdings through its anime production and distribution subsidiary Bandai Namco Filmworks (via Sunrise). The Gundam franchise had grossed over in retail sales by 2000. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 (April–June 2025), the Gundam franchise generated approximately ¥65.4 billion (approximately US$443 million) in IP-related revenue, making it Bandai Namco's highest-earning intellectual property during that period, driven by successes across streaming, model kits, theatrical releases, and experiential tourism initiatives.
Overview Concept
Mobile Suit Gundam was developed by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino alongside rotating members of Sunrise using the collective pseudonym Hajime Yatate.
The series' early working title was Freedom Fighter Gunboy, reflecting the robot-centric focus and adolescent target demographic. Conceptual elements like naming the White Base "Freedom's Fortress", the Core Fighter "Freedom Wing", and the Gunperry "Freedom Cruiser" underscored the theme of freedom. The name Gundam was eventually chosen—combining "gun" and "dam"—to evoke imagery of a powerful weapon acting like a dam to hold back enemies.
Gundams are portrayed as prototype or limited-production mobile suits with superior performance compared to mass-produced models. These suits typically feature humanoid designs, cockpit control in the torso, and head units functioning as visual sensors. Across the franchise's numerous series and media formats, each Gundam variant reflects unique aesthetics, capabilities, and pilots.
Innovations to the genre Mobile Suit Gundam is credited with pioneering the real robot subgenre of mecha anime, distancing itself from the fantastical "super robot" scene by introducing realistic mechanics, energy limitations, and equipment failures. The franchise integrates plausible science—such as Lagrange points, O'Neill cylinder colonies, and helium-3 energy—with speculative constructs like Minovsky physics to support its mechanics. Its sweeping narratives and political dimensions also align it with the space opera genre. A recurring theme includes genetically advanced humans known as , endowed with extrasensory perceptions that enhance piloting capabilities and interpersonal empathy.
Timelines The Gundam franchise is subdivided into "timelines" which act as their own self-contained continuities. The largest of these continuities is the Universal Century (UC), which began with the original show from 1979.
Alternate universes such as the Cosmic Era (e.g., Gundam SEED) and the Anno Domini era (e.g., Gundam 00) present standalone narratives. While they may take inspiration from each other, they ultimately represent their own chronology.
Spinoffs SD Gundam employs a comedic style with chibi characters, debuting in the mid-1980s. Later series such as Gundam Build Fighters and Gundam Build Divers explore modern-day settings where battles between Gunpla (model kits) serve as the central narrative device.
Media
TV series, films, and video Except for Mobile Suit Gundam 00, which follows the current calendar era albeit three centuries in the future, all Gundam series are set in a fictional era, with a new calendar adopted after a drastic event or chain of events and typically involving a major conflict involving Earth and space colonies (and in some cases the Moon and terraformed planets). An exception are the Gundam Build timelines, which are set in an alternate present time where all other Gundam installments are fictional.
Name Media Release date Timeline and year Mobile Suit Gundam TV series: 43 episodes 1979–1980 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Compilation movies: 3 1981–1982 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam TV series: 50 episodes 1985–1986 Universal Century (UC) 0087 Compilation movies: 3 2005–2006 Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ TV series: 47 episodes 1986–1987 Universal Century (UC) 0088 OVA: 2 episodes 2009 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack Movie 1988 Universal Century (UC) 0093 Mobile Suit SD Gundam Movies: 5 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993 OVA: 9 episodes 1989–1991 Compilation TV series: 8 episodes 1993 Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket OVA: 6 episodes 1989 Universal Century (UC) 0079–80 Mobile Suit Gundam F91 Movie 1991 Universal Century (UC) 0123 Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory OVA: 13 episodes 1991–1992 Universal Century (UC) 0083 Compilation movie 1992 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam TV series: 51 episodes 1993–1994 Universal Century (UC) 0153 Mobile Fighter G Gundam TV series: 49 episodes 1994–1995 Future Century (FC) 60 Mobile Suit Gundam Wing TV series: 49 episodes 1995–1996 After Colony (AC) 195 Compilation specials: 4 episodes 1996 Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team OVA: 12 episodes 1996–1999 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Compilation movie 1998 Special 2013 After War Gundam X TV series: 39 episodes 1996 After War (AW) 15 Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz OVA: 3 episodes 1997 After Colony (AC) 196 Compilation movie 1998 Gundam: Mission to the Rise Short film 1998 Turn A Gundam TV series: 50 episodes 1999–2000 Correct Century (CC) 2343–45 Compilation movies: 2 2002 G-Saviour Live-action TV movie 2000 Universal Century (UC) 0223 Gundam Neo Experience 0087: Green Diver Specialty format movie 2001 Universal Century (UC) 0087 Gundam Evolve OVA: 15 episodes 2001–2007 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED TV series: 50 episodes 2002–2003 Cosmic Era (CE) 71–72 Epilogue OVA short 2004 Compilation specials: 3 episodes 2004 Superior Defender Gundam Force TV series: 52 episodes 2003–2004 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED MSV Astray Promo OVA shorts: 2 episodes 2004 Cosmic Era (CE) 71 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War OVA: 3 episodes 2004 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny TV series: 50 episodes 2004–2005 Cosmic Era (CE) 73–74 TV special 2005 Compilation specials: 4 episodes 2006 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 OVA: 3 episodes 2006 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E. 73: Stargazer ONA: 3 episodes 2006 Cosmic Era (CE) 73 Compilation OVA: 1 2006 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 TV series: 50 episodes 2007–2009 Anno Domini (AD) 2307–08, 2312 Compilation OVA: 3 episodes 2009 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: Gravity Front OVA: 3 episodes 2008 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam Battlefield Record: Avant-Title OVA 2009 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Ring of Gundam Short film 2009 Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA: 7 episodes, 1 special episode 2010–2014 Universal Century (UC) 0096 Compilation TV series: 22 episodes 2016 SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors Movie 2010 TV series: 51 episodes Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer Movie 2010 Anno Domini (AD) 2314 Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G Specials: 3 episodes 2010 Our Century Mobile Suit Gundam AGE TV series: 49 episodes 2011–2012 Advanced Generation (AG) 115–164 Compilation OVA: 2 episodes 2013 Gundam Build Fighters TV series: 25 episodes 2013–2014 Our Century Specials: 3 episodes 2014 Mobile Suit Gundam-san TV series: 13 episodes 2014 Gundam Reconguista in G TV series: 26 episodes 2014–2015 Regild Century (RG) 1014 Compilation movies: 5 2019–2022 Gundam Build Fighters Try TV series: 25 episodes 2014–2015 Our Century OVA 2016 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA: 6 episodes 2015–2018 Universal Century (UC) 0068, 0071, 0074, 0077, 0078, 0079 Compilation TV series: 13 episodes 2019 Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans TV series: 50 episodes 2015–2017 Post Disaster (PD) 323, 325 Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt ONA: 8 episodes 2015–2017 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Compilation movies: 2 2016–2017 Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight AXIS ONA: 6 episodes 2017 Universal Century (UC) 0096 Compilation movie 2017 Gundam Build Fighters Battlogue ONA: 5 episodes 2017 Our Century Gundam Build Fighters: GM's Counterattack ONA 2017 Our Century Gundam Build Divers Prologue ONA 2018 Our Century TV series: 25 episodes Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative Movie 2018 Universal Century (UC) 0097 SD Gundam World Sangoku Soketsuden ONA: 10 episodes 2019–2021 Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise ONA: 26 episodes 2019–2020 Our Century Gundam Build Divers: Battlogue ONA 2020 Our Century Mobile Suit Gundam G40 ONA 2020 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Gundam Build Real Live-action net drama: 6 episodes 2021 Our Century SD Gundam World Heroes ONA: 24 episodes 2021 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway Movies: 3 2021, 2026, TBA Universal Century (UC) 0105 Gundam Breaker Battlogue ONA: 6 episodes 2021 Our Century Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island Movie 2022 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Prologue ONA 2022 Ad Stella (AS) 101 TV series: 24 episodes 2022–2023 Ad Stella (AS) 122 Gundam Build Metaverse ONA: 3 episodes 2023 Our CenturyMobile Suit Gundam SEED FreedomMovie 2024Cosmic Era (CE) 75 Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom VR movie 2024 Universal Century (UC) 0096 Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance ONA: 6 episodes 2024 Universal Century (UC) 0079 Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX Compilation movie 2025 Alternate version of Universal Century (UC) 0079, 0085 TV series: 12 episodesMobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Urdr-Hunt – Path of the Little Challenger Compilation movie 2025 Post Disaster (PD) 323Mobile Suit Gundam RG: XARX-ZERO TV series 2027 After Apocalypse (AA) 45Gundam Live-action movie 2027 TBAMobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Zero TBA TBA Cosmic Era (CE) 74
Manga and novels
Manga adaptations of the Gundam series have been published in English in North America by a number of companies, such as Viz Media, Del Rey Manga and Tokyopop, and in Singapore by Chuang Yi. Notable entries include Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, written and illustrated by original series character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. It is a retelling of the first series with additional flashbacks surrounding one of the series' main characters, Char Aznable.
Video games
Gundam has spawned over 80 video games for arcade, computer and console platforms, some with characters not found in other Gundam media. Some of the games, in turn, inspired spinoff novels and manga.
Gunpla