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marurun wrote:The Patlabor TV stuff is also more humor than serious, and is much less mech-y than one might expect given the prominence of the mechs in the artwork. It's mostly a comedy/drama about an unconventional misfit police force.

The way I always like to introduce Patlabor is, "come for the police robots, stay for the police officers."

SV2 is such a lovable troop of numbskulls.

Gasaraki is cool but it's not for everyone. One of my friends jokes about having to stand up to watch it so he wouldn't fall asleep. It is by the same director as Votoms, but his stuff after the 80's is really different. I think he also created Blue Gender, but didn't actually direct this one. Still a cool darker mecha show as well though, it's basically Starship Troopers. There is actually a Starship Troopers OVA, but it's not that special.

Nadesico is incredible.

Found a nice free streaming site. kissanime.ru

Thanks! Patlabor and Gasaraki sound good. Also where would I even begin for a Gundam show? There is a million of them.

Well you made it sound like you wanted legit official channels, but yes kissanime has a lot haha. But I think it's just user uploads, so the quality might vary and might not be up to par with the best current releases and all. But yeah that opens up your options a ton. Personally I still download, but I think BakaBT just went private so it might be hard to get in.

For Gundam, you can watch the original movie trilogy if you want for a quicker dissection of it and the pacing is still great. Most fans agree it's not a bad way to go. Or just watch the original 0079 series itself. Just remember, this is ancient Sunrise with some budget constraints, so it does look humorously bad sometimes, but oh well haha.

From there, I actually would not recommend the Zeta trilogy movies, because they have new scenes made in 2005 mixed in, weird musical changes and cuts, etc. It's a choppy bad version.

The Universal Century timeline is the main verse. Check out the Order of Release list here:
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Universal_Century

Release date order is always my recommendation for anime! If you want kind of the main storyline from the creator and director Tomino himself, you want to watch:

0079
Zeta
ZZ
Char's Counterrattack

That fully concludes the main arc for the most part. And I think Gundam Unicorn is the next real step after that one.

Granted, some people like the stand alone UC OVA's like 0080 War in the Pocket, 8th MS Team, or 0083. But I think you'd maybe get more out of them if you at least watch 0079 first to get a backdrop of the world.

From there, if you want some stand alone shows, I think Gundam X, G Gundam, and Turn A are pretty good.

I don't really care for Wing, SEED, or 00. They retread all the plotlines you get in the UC stuff, but are just worse in every department. Some people like them. Your mileage will vary. I absolutely love a big chunk for of the Gundam franchise and hate another chunk of it, lol. There's no middle ground for me...

Hope that's not overwhelming.

Xeogred wrote:For Gundam, you can watch the original movie trilogy if you want for a quicker dissection of it and the pacing is still great. Most fans agree it's not a bad way to go. Or just watch the original 0079 series itself. Just remember, this is ancient Sunrise with some budget constraints, so it does look humorously bad sometimes, but oh well haha.

From there, I actually would not recommend the Zeta trilogy movies, because they have new scenes made in 2005 mixed in, weird musical changes and cuts, etc. It's a choppy bad version.

The Universal Century timeline is the main verse. Check out the Order of Release list here:
http://gundam.wikia.com/wiki/Universal_Century

Release date order is always my recommendation for anime! If you want kind of the main storyline from the creator and director Tomino himself, you want to watch:

0079
Zeta
ZZ
Char's Counterrattack

That fully concludes the main arc for the most part. And I think Gundam Unicorn is the next real step after that one.

Granted, some people like the stand alone UC OVA's like 0080 War in the Pocket, 8th MS Team, or 0083. But I think you'd maybe get more out of them if you at least watch 0079 first to get a backdrop of the world.

Allow me to concur heartily, though I would recommend you not consider the 0079 TV series. It really does look old and slow. The 3-movie summary/re-cut skips all the filler and still gives you all the essential world, character, and plot information you need. I think Zeta and ZZ (Double Zeta) are both great, but I think I would recommend 0080, 0083, 8th MS Team, and Char's Counterattack first, because they're easier to get through and tied up very closely in the 0079 content. And then, once you are hopelessly hooked on the universe, you can dive into Zeta and ZZ and learn why the creator is called Kill 'Em All Tomino (hint: he's supposedly a bit bi-polar and his works vacillate between hyper-optimistic and deadly-depressed to match his mood).

Nobody's mentioned it, so I'll say it

Gun × sword

No clue if it's on Netflix, though.

Edit: it's not 80’s -90’s but it does fill that mecha quota you may be looking for.

flojocabron wrote:Nobody's mentioned it, so I'll say it

Gun × sword

No clue if it's on Netflix, though.

Edit: it's not 80’s -90’s but it does fill that mecha quota you may be looking for.

I love that show. For some reason tho I always forget the name of it. I may just watch it for a 3rd time. I just loved it.

I like 0079 TV way more than the movie trilogy but I'm also very forgiving of 70's anime (personally I think it's a better paced, more entertaining show than Zeta). The movies do get the job done and allow you to move on quicker.

I do completely agree on not watching the Zeta movie trilogy. It's a really badly compressed version that retcons a lot of stuff for no good reason.

I suggest the UC OVAs at some point but don't watch them first or you won't know what's going on. Watch 0080: War in the Pocket between 0079 and Zeta. It's a very short and in my opinion very beautiful and tragic story. You can watch 0083: Stardust Memories either before or after Zeta and it makes no difference, it has the origin of one of the major factions of Zeta in it but that knowledge isn't very important. I like 0083 but I always felt it was more style over substance. It's beautifully animated though.

You can also get away with watching 08th MS Team after 0079. It's basically a Vietnam-esque war story that occurs at the same time as the original series.

The only thing I really disagree with Mar on is I think at least Zeta Gundam is required before Char's Counterattack to see how the universe has developed up to that point. I also think you'd feel a little spoilered knowing where some of the main characters from 0079 end up. It technically takes place after ZZ Gundam but what happens there isn't quite as relevant, in my opinion at least.

Though the simplest answer is production order.

Yeah, production order is best order...

I'm glad you guys aren't hard on ZZ. Yeah, it's a super hard turn into a goofier weirder direction and the first half does have some bad episodes or characters, but I still think it's a pretty good series. Judua himself is one of the most tolerable leads of them all. Ultimately it is a bit pointless in the grand scheme of things and basically just concludes the arc with Haman Karn, but it's some fun light hearted Gundam if you want more. It's like an expansion pack to Zeta, since the art/animation is the same (amazing!) and they even recycle a lot of music, but that's not a bad thing.

I like Char's Counterattack, but I do think it would have been a lot more interesting with both Kamille and Haman still involved.

Oh, whoops, yeah, Char's Counterattack does occur after ZZ, doesn't it...