31 Years Ago, Gundam Ended Its Best Series (& It Still Needs a Revival)

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It’s meant that some Gundam anime releases end up being much more memorable that some of the others, and some versions of the series are unfortunately not as given as much attention as others. Mobile Fighter G Gundam ended 31 years ago on March 31, 1995 in Japan, and unfortunately has never really returned with any new anime sequels, revivals or other projects despite how much fans have wanted that to happen. After all this time, it would definitely shake things up with a proper comeback.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam Ended 31 Years Ago Today

Courtesy of Sunrise

Mobile Fighter G Gundam was only the fifth iteration of the long running Gundam franchise, but made some drastic changes to the formula. Much like the change to its core title suggests, G Gundam was set in a different timeline compared to every other anime release that had come before or since. Instead of an ongoing war, the various space colonies representing different countries spread out through the solar system instead chose a representative to enter into a special tournament every few years known as “Gundam Fight.” This tournament had its own special rules too.

To win a fight, Gundam pilots would need to destroy the head of their opponents mech suit and there would be fights until only one winner remained. The country that won the tournament would then get the right to govern the other countries for the next few years until the next tournament took place. But with the 13th tournament, main hero Domon Kasshu enters the tournament for Neo Japan in search of his missing brother. Using the Shining Gundam, it’s soon made clear that there’s a much darker conspiracy afoot with his master, a Dark Gundam and much more.

For all intents and purposes, G Gundam was a reboot meant to make up for the waning popularity for the Gundam anime at the time. With its new timeline, the series also dove completely into more “Super Robot” inspirations that borrow from martial arts and other ideas. For example, Shining Gundam essentially had its own “Super Saiyan” like transformation that gave Domon a huge boost for the second half of the series, and it was more about hand to hand, close up combat compared to the long range, war based tactics seen in the others. It was less about brains, and more about pure fighting spirit.

G Gundam Still Needs a Revival or Sequel

Courtesy of Sunrise

While Mobile Fighter G Gundam has returned for a special anime revival short and sequel short story, it’s far from the kind of revival that fans had been hoping to see. G Gundam might have been a full reboot that introduced the franchise to a new Shonen anime audience, it was also negatively received by fans at the time. It was too different from what the core fans were used to, but has aged a lot more gracefully than some of the other shows released since. The franchise never really returned to this idea, unfortunately.

Though there has been some interest from those who worked on G Gundam for a potential new project, unfortunately nothing has ever really gained traction. The beauty of the Gundam franchise overall is that it’s still on the table. We’ve seen classic Gundam anime making their returns with new projects in recent years, and all sorts of feature film releases, sequels, and more for arguably less successful iterations of the franchise. While it might have been too different before, Gundam has changed so much that it’s not the case anymore.

There’s room for a new version of Mobile Fighter G Gundam to exist alongside other ongoing Gundam anime releases. This series literally blew open the doors of possibilities for the franchise. It’s part of why it has gone on for over 40 decades at this point as the spirit of reinvention has helped it to reboot itself for each new generation of fans. Even with all of that said, there’s something about its fighting spirit that can’t be beat. You won’t really see a Mexican cactus Gundam in anything else (especially these days), and that’s a shame.

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