As an anime fan, it’s almost a prerequisite to watch one Gundam series. There’s literally over a dozen, they make a new one every other year—there were two this year and that doesn’t even count the film—there’s never any shortage of them. Plus they have a habit of constantly setting their shows in new universes, which means it’s approachable for pretty much anyone to just jump in.
But what about those who managed to finish most Gundam series and are looking for something else? Well, this article is for you, as it delves into some of the best series to get into if you’re already in love with Sunrise’s classic mecha series.
10 STAR DRIVER
First off, the lead character is referred to as the “Galactic Pretty Boy”. Who can say no to that? Star Driver begins when Takuto (the Galactic Pretty Boy himself) washes onto the shore of Southern Cross Isle and gets plunged into a battle with the Glittering Crux Brigade. The Brigade wants control over Cybodies, giants that exist beneath the island who can be controlled by humans in a dimension known as Zero Time.
Using one of the Cybodies, Takuto protects humanity from the Crux Brigade’s goal. Everything about this series is completely absurd, but it’ll appeal to anyone who has a love for the beautiful animation studio BONES is known for, and people who enjoy the more over the top elements of later Gundam series.
9 KNIGHTS AND MAGIC
On the one hand, this is easily the furthest from Gundam of any series on this list. It’s an isekai series that’s about the wish fulfillment of Ernesti Echevalier, a young man who was a mecha geek and programmer in the “real” world who crosses over to a world of magic and giant robots. There, his special talent with programming and natural ability as a mage allow him to design robots the likes no one in the realm has ever seen.
What will speak to Gundam fans is just how much Knights and Magic focuses on the mecha building. A short series, each arc can be broken down into Eru identifying new ways to improve on his designs to create superior robots. There are few fans of mecha that won’t be able to appreciate the character, or fall in love with the rhythm of the show and how it naturally introduces new designs.
8 MAJESTIC PRINCE
In the year 2110, humanity has grown enough to engineer improved versions of themselves, known as Evolved Children. These children are necessary to battle against the Wulgaru, an alien race looking to forcibly add new genetic material to their own to make themselves stronger, while wiping out any race they “harvest”.
Majestic Prince focuses on six children in particular—the group part of Team Rabbits, a dysfunctional team which is nonetheless capable of piloting a series of specially designed giant robots that run the Juria System, a special technology that makes the pilot more effective based on their survival instincts. Slightly more comedic than any Gundam most are used to, this is still a solid space opera war series.
7 ZOIDS
Chaotic Century Zero is the pre-cursor to Gundam Build Fighters. Though the battles waged in that series are very real, they still occur in a way which feels very commercialized. Judges drop down from the sky out of nowhere—there are specific rules that must be upheld, and the characters constantly talk about the “feelings” of their Zoids the same way characters in Build Fighters speak about the feelings of their Gunpla models.
For GBF fans, this series is worth it just for the mecha fights alone.
6 GARGANTIA ON THE VERDUROUS PLANET
In the far future, humanity is at war with a strange alien people known as the Hideauze. Ledo, a teenaged boy trained since birth to fight makes an attempt to wipe out the Hideauze’s home planet, but after his plan is foiled he winds up going through a wormhole and landing on Earth, a planet humanity now believes is only a myth. There, Ledo must learn an entirely new way of survival.
A series created by the legendary Gen “Urobutcher” Urobuchi, Gargantia is a well-written series exploring how war can affect a society, no matter how advanced it is.
5 GURREN LAGANN
In the future, humanity is ruled over by the Spiral King, who has forced all humans to live under the Earth in tiny villages separated from one another. But the Spiral King’s rule is challenged when Simon and his best friend Kamina discover a Core Drill which allows them control over a mecha named Lagann.
This series is about as Super Robot as it gets, which is pretty far from most Gundam series, but for those who are fans of a certain martial artist with a burning red hand, this show is a must-watch.
4 ARMED TROOPER VOTOMS
A few years removed from Mobile Suit Gundam, we wind up with Armored Trooper VOTOMS, a series that walks even further in the direction of hard science mixed with giant robots. Set in a universe where two galactic nations have been at war for a century, it follows Chirico, a special forces troop who winds up betrayed by his own military and left to discover how to survive on his own.
What follows is a massive conspiracy that lasts for over fifty episodes. Another series created by Gundam studio Sunrise, VOTOMS even has designs from legendary Gundam designer Kunio Okawara, who worked on mobile suits in everything from the original series all the way up to Gundam 00.
3 PATLABOR
Patlabor is basically if you took the cast of 08th MS Team away from the guerilla warfare of the One Year War and made them police officers in near-future Tokyo. It’s just characters focused on living their lives, who happen to also pilot giant robots for a living. These robots, known as “Labors”, were developed for construction work, but when they’re used for crime or terrorism, it falls to people like the Tokyo MPD’s Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2, to handle the case.
Patlabor eschews the usual tricks like fantastical character designs to make the subtle personality quirks stand out, creating one of the most realistic and likable casts in anime.
2 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION
The original Mobile Suit Gundam delved into what it would really be like to have a teenager suddenly have it thrust upon them that they’d have to pilot a giant robot and fight for his life every day. Certainly in the films, there’s parts where Amuro locks himself in his room having gone full fetal position. If scenes like that were appealing, Neon Genesis Evangelion is definitely something to try out.
Though it becomes something of a meme to ask the lead to “shut up and get in the robot”, Evangelion places more focus on the psychological trauma that comes with being asked to pilot a giant death machine.
1 MACROSS
Gundam single-handedly created the “Real Robot” sub-genre of mecha anime, and Macross took that to a different level. Where Gundam suggested the military had largely left traditional vehicles behind in “serious” combat, Macross introduced a military which combined fighter jets with giant robots. Though Real Robot usually sees a battle between two otherwise human sides, Macross introduces an alien race that we learn eventually has more in common with us than we might have thought.
If there’s any major difference, it’s that Macross seems to be decidedly less bleak than Gundam, having a far happier ending than any of the Universal Century television shows. Well, that and all the space idols.