With no precedents set for the realistic mecha genre, the foundational Mobile Suit Gundam does a surprisingly impressive job of telling a completely new story, setting up a strong foundation for the next 35 years and counting of both Gundam shows and mecha shows in general. Back in 1979, anime was still a medium in the works, but clear tropes had begun to emerge. There were fantasy works such as Doraemon and Astro Boy that blended science fiction elements with this same family structure to create futuristic worlds while still maintaining all the elements of the modern life, and then there were hard sci-fi shows, namely the super robot genre. These featured the all-powerful robot of the future, controlled by the protagonist and impervious to most damage. For 20 years this was the standard for all mecha shows, aimed mostly at kids for portraying the mechanical equivalent of superheroes who represented the forces of justice and absolute moral good. And suddenly, Gundam arrived, with robots on both sides of the fight, robots that could overheat and run out of ammunition, including the powerful Gundam that our protagonist unwillingly finds himself piloting to save his friends and to end a long and brutal war once and for all.
A lot of radically new ideas came into play with Gundam, even in the first few episodes. The premise is that a war has been going on for years (not quite centuries, but still a significant period of time) between the forces of the Earth Federation, who represent the government on Earth, and Zeon, an independent principality based in some of the space colonies that hold much of the human population. We have significant exposure with the Zeon characters, and while they are clearly not the force of good we want to respect, the introduction of Char Aznable, the ace pilot of the Zeon forces, represents both an iconic, enigmatic figure and a tragic character with his own motives, most of which are not easy to dismiss as typical villain fodder. Char’s character will be a trope pervading through the rest of the Gundam series’ to come, as do many of the other frameworks established. Ray Amuro, the protagonist, is a student with a strong sense of curiosity and mechanical prowess but with no training or interest in fighting in the war. However, with an attack from the Zeon on his colony, Amuro is thrust into the secret mobile suit known as Gundam in an effort to assist the evacuation. Once he joins, his natural aptitude shines, and soon he is locked into his role in the Gundam. This exact setup will be echoed many more times by the Gundam franchise before we reach the current day, and right at the beginning we get a good taste of why.
Another impressive feat of innovation is that there are few fantasy elements that cannot be explained with some science, politics, and enough time to let technology develop. The inner workings and unique power of the Gundam unit itself never quite appear in these first episodes, although eventually the unique power of Amuro will be explained for the sake of future seasons. Admittedly I have never been a fan of the system that allows the protagonists to get away with being the center of military focus and attention despite never having the training that their opponents and peers have had, especially because of how much it sticks out in a hard sci-fi like Gundam. And this extends to the protagonist here; Amuro is too self-righteous for my taste, and his ability to be better than everyone seems to indicate that the show justifies the things he says. However, Amuro is noticeably childish and arrogant at times, and when he is forced into the harsh new paradigm of fighting a war and having to kill in self-defense, he is forced to stop going around spouting ideologies, and this is a realistic and welcome way to introduce his archetype.
Ditto the mechas themselves. True to the idea of a realistic mecha, every mobile suit is costly and cumbersome for the side using them, and downright dangerous to the side against them. For a long time, even the powerful Gundam has to concentrate on each and every fight, with more experienced enemies easily landing more “victories”. This starts to slip as the show goes on, and eventually goes out the window entirely as Amuro approaches a godlike status near the end, to the point that antagonists with his same potential and similarly durable mobile suits serve a monster-of-the-week function at best.
There is a clear indication of the pressures it had to face to keep people watching from week to week. Few episodes go by without a major battle occurring, or the ship and characters being put in mortal danger, and so exposition tends to be simple enough to come out through the time in between battle scenes. Not to say that plot and character development are irrelevant; on the contrary, as the protagonists face the dangers that come with being on level footing with the enemy at best, we get an emotional depth that rarely appeared in the antiquated super robot genre. Gundam also kicks off the franchise-long message of the difficulties and horrors of war, and rather than force it with character monologues, the show does a good job of actually portraying the strain being put on the characters from fighting battle after battle after battle. Once again though, these messages come through much more clearly in the early episodes, and at a certain point the battles and dialogues become downright repetitive. Not bad, but certainly not the most entertaining use of time.
All in all, between introducing memorable characters that will appear throughout the franchise and serving as an entertaining landmark for anime, Gundam is definitely worthwhile for die-hard anime enthusiasts. There's a series of three movies that covers the entire canon story of Gundam, cutting out excess fat, revamping the artwork to a slightly more modern standard, and retconning a few select details. This may be a better option for viewers who are more interested in jumping straight into the more recent works such as the famous Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack or Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, although most works in the Gundam franchise serve the additional purpose of being able to be viewed as standalone. But they are certainly more enjoyable as a series, and in the case of Mobile Suit Gundam there would be much less payoff or satisfaction without the knowledge that there is endless more material to follow.