Gundam's Universal Century Timeline

There's a ton of media in Gundam's Universal Century. The Gundam wiki gives the "canon" list per Sunrise, which seems to only require animation and not overbearingly conflicting plot to qualify. (That's a positive: No more fetishizing canon!) Here is the list reproduced:

• Early Universal Century¹
  • UC0068 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (?)
  • UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam
  • UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (?)
  • UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
  • UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
  • UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (?)
  • UC0080 Mobile Suit Gundam: War in the Pocket
  • UC0083 Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memory
  • UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
  • UC0088 Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
  • UC0093 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
  • UC0096 Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
  • UC0096 Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight AXIS
  • UC0097 Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative
  • UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
  • UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Witch Circe
• Late Universal Century²
  • UC0123 Mobile Suit Gundam F91
  • UC0153 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
• Regild Century³
  • RC1014 Gundam Reconguista in G
• Alternate Universal Century⁴
  • UC0085 Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX

Out of this list, there is the main storyline beginning with the 1979 release of Gundam and its side stories. The main storyline comes from (in order):

• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam
• UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
• UC0088 Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
• UC0093 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack

These are the series creator's original work, so these (presumably) form the core of the Universal Century. These works are expanded upon with The Origin, a miniseries that fleshes out the primary antagonist's backstory, Cucuruz Doan's Island, a film that expands on a now cut episode from the original series, Stardust Memory, a miniseries that fleshes out the time period between Gundam and Zeta Gundam, and Hathaway, a (soon to be) miniseries that picks up well after Char's Counterattack, but most directly from it. So the expanded storyline looks like this, though The Origin and Cucuruz Doan's Island are actually weird fits here (more on that below):

• UC0068 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin - Advent of the Red Comet⁵
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam & Cucuruz Doan's Island
• UC0083 Mobile Suit Gundam: Stardust Memory
• UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
• UC0088 Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
• UC0093 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
• UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
• UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Witch Circe

MS IGLOO, The 08th MS Team, Thunderbolt, War in the Pocket, Unicorn, Twilight AXIS, and Narrative are side stories. MS IGLOO is a computer generated miniseries with poorly aged animations, The 08th MS Team is a full season and well loved, War in the Pocket is a beloved miniseries, Unicorn is credited with rebooting the Universal Century and focuses on developing the concept of Newtypes in the Universal Century, Twilight AXIS is a short web series that is apparently forgettable, and Narrative is the ill-favored final chapter of Unicorn.

Let me pause here to address the (?) aside The Origin, Cucuruz Doan's Island, and Thunderbolt. They seem to contradict some details established in, particularly, Gundam, so many people do not consider them canon. As I mentioned about Sunrise, they're not particularly stringent on canon...so you shouldn't be either! Additionally because I must now address the compilation films.

The compilation films of series are usually ignored because they recut the preceding full or mini-series into a feature length film. Many people seem not to prefer the compilation films because you lose story details, characterizations, or plot beats. Perhaps! There is a a unique consideration with the Gundam series, however, which is that the original series creator directed and edited the compilation films for his series. To me, this makes them as authoritative as the original series. There are compilation films for Gundam and Zeta Gundam and the revisions to Zeta Gundam are extensive. So extensive, in fact, that the Zeta Gundam compilation films render Gundam ZZ, Zeta Gundam's direct sequel, out of the continuity of the Universal Century timeline! But this is the series creator's own doing, not a later revision by some other hand. If we take the compilation films, the main storyline instead looks like this (where The Origin and Cucuruz Doan's Island fit much better):

• UC0068 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin I - Blue-Eyed Casval
• UC0071 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin II - Artesia's Sorrow
• UC0074 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III - Dawn of Rebellion
• UC0077 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin IV - Eve of Destiny
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin V - Clash at Loum
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin VI - Rise of the Red Comet
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam I
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow
• UC0079 Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space
• UC0083 Mobile Suit Gundam: Afterglow of Zeon⁶
• UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - A New Translation I: Heirs to the Stars
• UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - A New Translation II: Lovers
• UC0087 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - A New Translation III: Love Is the Pulse of the Stars
• UC0093 Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack
• UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway
• UC0105 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Witch Circe

(And of course, you could substitute the compilation films for the original, series arc: Gundam I-III, Zeta Gundam: A New Translation I-III, and Char's Counterattack.)

Long story short, if you want to get into Gundam, you can start with any series.⁷ They're all doing something different with the core thesis of "war is bad." If you want to get into Universal Century, I'd say work through the four original animations: Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Char's Counterattack (or the compilation films). Regardless of canonicity, everything flows from these works, so you can jump around the other Universal Timeline series and films as you'd like. I'm partial to the compilation films!

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Footnotes

1. There are some extra additions to this list that I have removed, namely amusement park rides and short animations only available within a gacha game. ↩

2. I've taken out the live action Gundam film, G-Saviour, as it is apparently so bad that not even Sunrise acknowledges it. The "early" and "late" designations separate out the early timeline's focus on the One-Year War and its effects and the late timeline's reboot, moving on from the One-Year War. ↩

3. Reconguista in G is set in the Regild Century, which takes place 1,000 years or something after the end of the Universal Century...so same setting/continuity, but obviously not the Universal Century. ↩

4. Exactly what it sounds like: An alternate Universal Century. GQuuuuuuX is great, though you should watch Mobile Suit Gundam (or its compilation films) first! Only the original series is important for GQuuuuuuX. ↩

5. Advent of the Red Comet is a recompilation for TV broadcast. ↩

6. Afterglow of Zeon is the compilation film version of Stardust Memory. ↩

7. Except for Turn-A Gundam because Turn-A is doing some metanarrative stuff across every Gundam timeline. ↩