History Anime / MobileSuitGundam

** Only one Gundam. The Guncannon and Guntank are peripheral tech associated with the Gundam that better explains how it is a SuperPrototype, they had lesser prototypes leading into the Gundam. The Guntank especially is a humanoid body on tank treads, far different from the types of mobile suits seen in later installments.

* BoomHeadshot: For the most part, ''Gundam'' tends to avert this as mobile suit cockpits are actually placed in the machine's torso. The head usually only contains sensors and cameras so destroying it tends to only blind the mobile suit. Humourously however, the final episode both reverts and re-inverts this trope. Amuro manages to destroy the torso of Char's Zeong and thinks he scored a killshot...only to then see the Zeong's now detached head fly upward and attack him, and realize that for once, Zeon's engineers put the cockpit in the head this time. In turn, Char blasts the Gundam's head off (along with its left arm) to which Amuro retorts that Char only destroyed his main camera. And during the same episode we get two examples of this performed on humans. Kycilia blasts a neat little hole in Gihren's head as revenge for the latter killing their father Degwin. Not long after that though, as she's retreating from A' Baoa Qu, Kycilia ends up on the receiving end of one from Char. [[NoKillLikeOverkill With a rocket launcher. While Char is not in any sort of MS, free-floating in zero gravity,]] [[BeyondTheImpossible blasting said rocket from a considerable distance straight through the windscreen of Kycilia's warship, straight dead center into Kycilia's head, blowing it right off.]] Wow.

** Only one Gundam. Project V was responsible for creating three weapons, the Guntank, Guncannon and Gundam. The Guncannon and Guntank are peripheral tech associated with the Gundam that better explains how it is a SuperPrototype, as well as some lesser prototypes leading into the Gundam. The Guntank especially is a humanoid body on tank treads, far different from the types of mobile suits seen in later installments. While there were a handful of Guncannon and Guntank prototypes (though they got destroyed in the first episode leaving only one of each) they only built one Gundam.

* ImplausibleDeniability: After Kycilia [[spoiler: killed Gihren for murdering their father]] during the Battle of A Baoa Qu, one of her generals announced that [[spoiler: Gihren died in battle]] to the Zeon forces. Despite the fact that not only was Gihren in the safest room of the entire fortress, but orders were still being sent from ''that same room''. In Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory, Gihren loyalist Aiguille Delaz instantly figured out what was happening when he heard the news and pulled a ScrewThisImOuttaHere with his fleet, contributing to A Baoa Qu's fall.

** Only one Gundam. The Guncannon and Guntank are peripheral tech associated with the Gundam that better explains how it is a SuperPrototype, they had lesser prototypes leading into the Gundam. The Guntank especially is a humanoid body on tank treads, far different from the types of mobile suits seen in later installments.

* CharClone: The original, actually, from which all Char Clones derive.

* MascotVillain: Char Anzable, who is popular enough to show up in [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam the sequel series]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack a film]], as well as inspire [[CharClone a slew of copycats]].

* RedplicaBaron: Char is based partially on the RedBaron, nicknamed the Red Comet. Both are aces famous for their striking red vehicles. By extension, a character who's a CharClone is an expy of an expy of the Red Baron.

* InconsistentSpelling: Lots of 'em, including the Principality/Duchy/Archduchy/Grand Duchy of Zeon/Zion/Jion. Also Kycilia/Kishiria, Gihren/Ghiren/Giren, and Mineva/Minerva Zabi. Frau/Fraw. Bright's last name being Noah vs. Noa. Not helped by the official subtitles for the 1998 English movie trilogy dub having Kishiria, Giren, and Frau. Amuro's last name also frequently shows up as "Rei" instead of the official "Ray".
** Fun fact : Char Aznable is what happens when [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous your joke]] NomDeGuerre of Creator/CharlesAznavour becomes the BreakoutCharacter of the franchise. Since Aznavour more than likely existed in pre-UC history, it's probably also a CharacterNameAlias.

** The Char ShowerScene.

* ImageSong: Char gets his own song, "Char ga Kuru" albeit not sung by his respective voice actor.

* ISurrenderSuckers: At one point, White Base sets up a ceasefire with the Zeon forces to let the civilians off the ship, and uses the ceasefire to secretly plant the Gundam behind enemy lines before the fighting restarts.

* MerchandiseDriven: Like you would not believe. It's interesting to note that this was a necessity - since the show was pulling low viewership numbers, the only thing that kept it on air past a certain point was a strong toy line - the full story of which is chronicled in Manga/GundamSousei.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Lots of 'em, including the Principality/Duchy/Archduchy/Grand Duchy of Zeon/Zion/Jion. Also Kycilia/Kishiria, Gihren/Ghiren/Giren, and Mineva/Minerva Zabi. Frau/Fraw. Bright's last name being Noah vs. Noa. Not helped by the official subtitles for the 1998 English movie trilogy dub having Kishiria, Giren, and Frau. Amuro's last name also frequently shows up as "Rei" instead of the official "Ray".
** Fun fact : Char Aznable is what happens when [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous your joke]] NomDeGuerre of Creator/CharlesAznavour becomes the BreakoutCharacter of the franchise. Since Aznavour more than likely existed in pre-UC history, it's probably also a CharacterNameAlias.

* VanillaUnit: ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'': The humble [=GM=], the mass-produced version of the Gundam, is more than a match for their primary opposition the Zaku [=IIs=], Goufs and Doms. However, unlike the Gundam they're made of regular titanium (except for their lunar titanium shield) and their beam spray gun has less range than the Gundam's beam rifle. In-universe, they're considered BoringButPractical, with a design that would continue to be used for decades with occasional improvements.

** The use of jetpacks under gravity is something that only really appeared in this show and pretty much never appeared again. All other works set in the same or other timeline's show them as only powerful enough to use in microgravity1.

** The effect is pretty terrifying. The blast was 60,000 megatons, devastated southeastern Australia (killing 10 million people in Sydney alone), and left a 500 kilometer crater in the continent that leaves a massive gulf along the coastline.

''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' was a direct sequel and continuation of a new conflict after the One Year War, with ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Gundam ZZ]]'' and eventually ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's Counterattack]]'' concluding the overall stories of characters introduced in this series. There are several {{OVA}}s and one [[WebAnimation ONA]] set in the same time period during the One Year War: ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamThe08thMSTeam The 08th MS Team]]'', ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket]]'', ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamMSIGLOO MS IGLOO]]'', and ''[[Manga/MobileSuitGundamThunderbolt Gundam Thunderbolt]]''. More details can be found on the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise page.