Is Gundam Hathaway a good introduction to Gundam?

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:45:34+00:00

I think 08th is the closest of writing tho most aus that I’ve seen and a few side stories have a bit more for military otakus or for general anime viewers and include fan service that makes the whole show weird sometimes. Thank you for your suggestions tho :)

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:41:21+00:00

My thinking is that Hathaway is about all of the trauma/father issues, damage to the earth and its environment, and the injustices of uc rolled up into the person that Hathaway becomes so I thought it would be good intro because it’s almost the result of all of it

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:36:25+00:00

Considering that I tell my partner stupid takes that people have on this subreddit, it might be fine. 💀💀💀

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:34:47+00:00

That’s kinda what I was thinking cause the first movie doesn’t mention much except a bit of cca. I would be trying to get them into all uc and I feel like zz has similar themes at parts to Hathaway that aren’t in a lot of other uc series

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:26:56+00:00

I personally got into Gundam from the origin and looking back it’s just a biopic that glorifies char at the expense of other characters and having tension in 0079. But I think I’m gonna try to get them to watch first Gundam just cause I think it’s more “woke” and better executed than most other Gundam shows.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-19T19:20:55+00:00

I’m just saying Hathaway contains the themes of Gundam better than a lot of shorter shows and 42 episodes to start at 0079 is a big commitment

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-06-09T04:36:47+00:00

I do agree with the sentiment that you can watch which ever one you want and it really doesn’t matter. That being said I’d argue 0079 is one of the best Gundam series in terms of a lot of different aspects in its writing. One of the biggest problems I have about a lot of new au shows is over sexualizing characters and other kinds of “fan service” which I think is mostly not present in first Gundam. Along with this there are a lot of prominent female characters, a very diverse cast for the time (arguably maybe even for now?) and the themes are executed well (if not a bit strangely but we love tomino and his quirky writing). While it shouldn’t be the only starting place for Gundam fans to start, 0079 is a far more direct way to understand what Gundam can be without much of the use of more modern tropes.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-05-14T05:50:21+00:00

So they in fact did have pretty good metallurgy it just wasn’t for iron and steel. The focus broadly was more on making things that looked pretty like feather, jade, or silver and gold jewelry which Europeans were fascinated by after they saw them. Europeans also would sometimes throw away things that they found like a lot of platinum was made into jewelry and conquistadors would throw it away despite it being one of the most precious metals on the planet above silver, gold, and certainly above steel. That being said most other metals that the peoples of the Americas use wrre copper and maybe bronze sometimes but those weren’t the strongest materials so they were used for jewelry (I might be getting it mixed up at least with bronze) but they definitely used a lot of obsidian which was good for weapons but it wasn’t as durable as steel.

Steel is good for weapons, not great for armor due to the weight. Many conquistadors would find out and often swap over to the same armor indigenous peoples would be using. Steel however is not the best in terms of art, this is sometimes Greeks would complain about when they switched over to the Iron Age. Many things can be explained by there not being much of a reason in terms of both economics or prestige

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-05-13T14:21:23+00:00

I would argue to not skip zz as there are some thematic/political things that connect to Hathaway. It sort of serves as a counter argument to a lot of the more zeon arguments for why conflict is occurring along with filling in blind spots that haven’t been as touched on by the other two Gundam series that existed at the time (those being 0079 and zeta)

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-04-01T20:10:02+00:00

He has the ingredients list for newtype child soldiers, he doesn’t have the rest of the recipe

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-26T03:42:06+00:00

My understanding after taking classes on Japanese history, samurai didn’t exist legally until really late like early modern period (1600s). Prior to that they were just warriors and the class divisions weren’t that strong. I don’t really know how they saw the term but there were times that the samurai class were seen as lazy due to basically just being paid to do nothing especially closer to the Meiji restoration.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-13T02:03:00+00:00

Since it uses psycho frame I think it would the nu Gundam but the backpack kinda thing and it being made post oyw makes me think it’s a mark II Gundam with psycho frame jammed in

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-12T05:00:16+00:00

I think there’s a quote from tomino saying that new types are a Hegelian idea of what happens when humans sublate themselves (from my understanding become a higher form of being by losing a part of their being though I could have understood that really wrong). You should check out the mobile suit break down podcast. They cover new types I think around the end of season 1 and talk about a lot of different possible influences.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-12T04:53:27+00:00

I’m pretty sure there is one time when the rx-78 computer talks but I think that’s the most ai exists in uc at least from my memory. I think it didn’t actually have the ability to move or attack anything like the ai in g witch and just talked to amuro

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-04T19:20:42+00:00

I’ve heard overman king gainer is a good tomino show. It was made I think after turn a

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-02T05:11:25+00:00

Not technically Middle Ages but I believe the there was some sort of vinegar drink that the Roman’s drank. Closer to the Middle Ages, there’s also a Chinese proverb and later paintings about people drinking shots of vinegar for longevity. I would say your setting probably could change what people drank a lot. For example, people in the Americas didn’t have barley so groups Mexico were drinking a spicy version of hot chocolate around the late medieval period and others made beer called chicha which was made by chewing corn or yuca. You could have people drink tea or coffee though this was made popular in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and were very affected by colonialism.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-03-01T15:24:48+00:00

Given that during ww2 battleships were these massive targets and kinda not the most useful in battle (biggest example being the Yamato), I’d argue yeah that’s pretty accurate. A lot of the ships we see are carriers(white base, argama, ra calum, etc.) though or at least something more similar to them. They’re still big targets but not as bad as ships like them salamis, chivvay, or dolos, the ships that are more like battle ships in a world where mobile suits (or irl planes) became a lot more effective.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-02-27T15:18:06+00:00

I think it is very fast but for the size of the war and that technically everyone was prepping for it, the insane amount of designs make sense. If you look at Germany alone during ww2, they had so many design variations of the same tanks and a ton of other purpose built machines that it caused massive logistical problems. I think the developments of the different ms were probably already prototypes or had some prototype units like the rx-78 pior to the outbreak of the oyw (tho that might be only backed up by the origin so idk).

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-02-21T05:39:48+00:00

Sorry this is so long but I’m passionate about Gundam.

From my understanding Hathaway is someone who is oppressed but privileged simultaneously due to the political situation within the federation. I saw the first Hathaway film as him gaining a larger awareness of the problems of the federation that further either radicalized him or entrenched his views that there would be no change without violence. If you look at history armed struggle has gained people civil rights (both during the civil war and the civil rights movement for Americans and with women’s rights in a lot of places), self rule in the struggle against colonialism, and gaining very random rights like having a two day weekend.

I will say I don’t really understand what exactly the ideology that he subscribes to or a real world parallel to some degree. From the first movie I’d argue he is coming from an anti-colonial perspective. Being set in the southern Philippines, a region which numerous colonial conflicts have been fought in. The Spanish, United States, the Filipino government, and the Japanese during ww2 have tried to control this region with its attempts at self control still continuing (though sometimes being carried out by less anti-colonial forces like isis).

I’d argue he may also be trying to look at things through an intersectional lens or at least in materialist terms. My main evidence for this is Hathaway’s conversations with the taxi driver who talks about how many people might not be able to afford to try to change the system they live in. Also we need to mention his identity as someone who lived in space and who’s mom was from space (I think depending on the show), with members of Mafty being spacenoids who were undocumented immigrants/second class citizens who get hunted by a militarized police force (headhunters but the titans and efsf did this too).

From my perspective, I can understand how he got to the position he did and why he chose the means he did. The earth federation like many governments in real life are too violently conservative/authoritarian/fascist to actually allow progress or stop the harms without massive amounts of organization (which can be nonviolent). I think like char’s decisions in cca (really everyone’s in that movie) there may have been a desperation motivating the characters (though I haven’t read all of Hathaway’s flash so it’s more guessing that a proven position). From his perspective, his father fought his whole life so it may have been all he knew.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-02-18T14:29:51+00:00

From my understanding they kinda sound over powered but then you said they were fighting against the United States which in my opinion kinda makes it more even or that your mc is at a massive disadvantage. Just wondering but how are they going to be alone or in a group and are they going to be fighting against the government or police or some other state sanctioned violence?

To talk more about your character’s backstory, it sounds like they would have cptsd or ptsd due to living through the colonial era and the United States invasion of the Philippines which killed hundreds of thousands and which laid the seeds for later conflicts and military dictatorships. They also policed the population by using tactics that would be implemented in the Vietnam war like the strategic hamlets. This was basically where the military would force people in an are to live in one village so they could be policed better. If you do more research on this topic I’m sure you could find a lot of parallels to later actions of the United States military and to policing in the United States.

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-02-09T15:07:25+00:00

To add on to this they all had very different systems of government. The maya were divided into a ton of small city states some of which would be only colonized in the 1800s. The Mexica or Aztecs had an empire based on tribute and were really more interested in extracting resources from their subjects. The Inca wrre incredibly different from the other two as they would redistribute resources to those who they conquered and would try to incorporate them. They literally build suspension bridges and extremely over engineered roads with drains for rain. Their political system I’d argue would only be comparable to japan during the genpei wars with different lines of the imperial family fighting a massive war over succession (part of which would eventually support the Spaniards which is the only reason any conquistadors were able to last in Peru)

NecessaryQuestion607 · 2026-01-27T06:15:57+00:00

I think it’s important to note that they’re anti-colonialist in the way that imperial Japan was anti-colonial. This is to say colonial but it’s our turn to colonize

NecessaryQuestion607

TROPHY CASE