Goddam Gundam

Having never, ever, read any Gundams I'm lost about all the different series.  Which series is which, are they in a timeline?    Which would you reccommend reading first?

watch

gundam
gundam z
gundam zz

done

don't forget gundamball z...

Don't bother with Zeta or Double Zeta, they're both shit.
Gundam-tards will tell you Zeta is greatest thing since sliced bread, but really it's pretty terrible.  Nothing about it is new or original, and the "newtype powers" toward the end are ridiculously lame.

>>4
No!

Anyone wanna know why GSD sucked so bad?  Because it was loosely based on Zeta Gundam.  Kamille was a little bitch for half the series.  Shin was a little bitch too, though he remained so for the entire series.

I'm the goddamn gundam!

Captain Quattro, he is a CHAR

1. MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM. The very first. Either the compilation movies or the series
2. ZETA(Z) GUNDAM. Set 7yrs after MSG. Don't bother with the movies, they suck worse than a 4Kids dub. But the series is itself quite good. Not my favorite though
3. DOUBLE ZETA(ZZ) Gundam. Immediately follows Z Gundam. Pretty decent, but the first half is lousy.
4. CHAR'S COUNTERATTACK. Set about six years after ZZ, goes back to the original two main characters. Great movie, crappy ending.
5. GUNDAM F91. Set several decades after CHAR'S COUNTERATTACK. Short, and a bit of a cliffhanger, but great stuff.
6. VICTORY GUNDAM. Bloodiest Gundam show ever. Otherwise fairly lackluster, but good.
7. G GUNDAM. The most whacked-out Gundam show out there, it's probably closer to Super Robot Wars than Gundam. Pretty fun to watch, if you can stand the mountains of cliches.
8. GUNDAM WING. Decent show, overall. Not one of the best, but most people's first. I like it.
9. GUNDAM X. The second most optimistic Gundam show, and IMO significantly better than GUNDAM WING. It's a fun show to watch, I'd recommend it.
10. TURN-A GUNDAM. THIS, IMO, is the single BEST Gundam show EVER. Most people disagree, but they're morons who, for the most part, haven't even seen the show yet. WATCH IT.
11. GUNDAM SEED. Basically, it's MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, with extra bling and GUNDAM-WING style overpoweredness. Not that great, really, but still fair enough.
12. GUNDAM SEED DESTINY. Started off great, but what killed it was that Fukuda decided to rewrite it for no reason halfway through into a rehash of SEED, wasted almost a quarter of the show in recaps, and failed to properly develop ANY of the characters. The first two-thirds is pretty good. From 35 onwards, if you've seen SEED, don't bother - it's the same, but crappy.

G-SAVIOUR. A pretty decent low-budget Canadian production made for Gundam's 20th anniversary, but retconned because Yoshiyuki Tomino didn't like it. It's about on par with SciFi Channel stuff like Stargate. Not enough mech combat, but the CG ain't bad.

I actually forgot three of them, my bad.
GUNDAM 0080: A Side-story to the original MS GUNDAM that more closely shows how the war affects civilians. An excellent 12-episode series.
GUNDAM 0083: A short series that leads into ZETA GUNDAM. Great stuff, and features one of the only Gundams to pack a nuke.
08TH MS TEAM: IMO the second best Gundam show, it shows a less glossed-over view of the same war told about in the original GUNDAM

To conclude, I would recommend the following:

08TH MS TEAM
0080
0083
GUNDAM F91
GUNDAM X
TURN-A GUNDAM