History FandomRivalry / Gundam

* ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' vs. ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'', both were the first television departures from the Universal Century, one was more of a super robot series while the other was a return to the real robot subgenre. Both have vocal fans criticizing each other for not being like classic ''Gundam''.

* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' vs. every other ''Gundam'' series. (The unfortunate thing about this is that ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' -- a better-recieved series in its own right -- gets dragged into the hatedom.) Only many years later would ''Destiny'' [[VindicatedByHistory begin to be seen in a more favorable light]].

The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise is so diverse and cosmopolitan that many divisions exist in such a gigantic fandom. Most of the rivalries are a result of chronic in-fighting, some are against other big names in the mecha genre. These rivalries vary from place to place across different anime (usually mecha anime) boards across the internet. Japanese, and arguably East Asian fans in general, tend to favor the Universal Century and Cosmic Era while English speaking fans in general tend to favor ''Wing'', ''Turn A'', and ''Iron Blooded Orphans''. Currently there is a big divide as to whether or not Gundam fans take ''Anime News Network'' reviews seriously, complaints ranging from "too generic" to comparing them with ''WebVideo/FeministFrequency'' (yes, seriously). The Eastern fandom is considered [[FriendlyFandoms too soft on some entries]] while the Western fandom is considered self contradicting, essentially being the definition of a BrokenBase.

* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' vs. every other ''Gundam'' series. (The unfortunate thing about this is that ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' -- a better-recieved series in its own right -- gets dragged into the hatedom.) In recent years ''Destiny'' has been seen in a more favorable light.
* ''[[Anime/MobileFighterGGundam G Gundam]]'' vs. ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'', both were the first television departures from the Universal Century, one was more of a super robot series while the other was a return to the real robot sub genre. Both have vocal fans criticizing each other for not being like classic ''Gundam''.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' vs. ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ''. The former is serious while the latter is light hearted, fans of both series clash with one another on a regular basis over tones, characters, music, mech designs, fight scenes, pacing, and anything else you can think of.

* ''Gundam 00'' has minor in fighting as to whether or not season 1 or season 2 is better.
* Made a lot more apparent with ''Anime/GundamReconguistaInG'' and ''Anime/GundamBuildFightersTry'', since both shows began airing at the same time, with barely a week in between releases. G-Reco fans claim Try is extremely boring and hollow while Try fans accuse G-Reco of not making much sense, having bland and one-dimensional characters, questionable pacing and being pretty terrible series overall.
** To a certain extent, many of the fandom bickering can be simplified down to UC ''Gundam'' fans versus everyone and themselves. There are just some UC fans that won't accept any of alternate universes as "real Gundam"; if a series is too much like the UC, they'll scream "plagiarism" or if a series deviates too much, they'll cry "blasphemy". Even within the UC fandom, there is a division between fans of the [=OVAs=] and those of the classic series with American ''Gundam'' fans preferring [=OVAs=], which were the first UC entries to reach the west and have the most exposure alongside ''Gundam Wing''.
* ''Thunderbolt'' fans vs. ''Unicorn'' fans. Who had the better OVA and represented the Universal Century better? Who had better animation? Who had better characters? Who had better music? Who had the best romance? They hardly see eye to eye. Fans of ''Thunderbolt'' eventually joined in on fighting ''IBO'' fans when Anime News Network's review of ''December Sky'' thought the former's characters were monsters and tone was too dark while praising the latter for the exact same thing, not unlike the outrage from the reviews from ''Victory'' and ''MS IGLOO''.
* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0080WarInThePocket'' fans vs. Everyone else. While the six episode OVA is beloved by some, in recent years it has been seen as a detriment to others. Is ''Gundam'' meant to be gritty war stories or robot fighting? Fans of 0080 say the former, the ones that don't say the latter. 0080 often gets criticized for lackluster audio, pacing, forced drama, and getting memed to death while fans of it are perceived as snobs that have no sense of fun; to back up this claim ''SD Gundam'', ''G Gundam'', ''Gundam X'', ''Gunpla Builders'', and ''Gundam Build Fighters'' are all pointed to as not being war stories yet are still Gundam and still have robot fighting. The other side is accused of not being smart enough or getting it, this mentality being prevalent on general anime forums such as ANN and Anime Suki. IBO fans and 0080 fans are often intertwined and at odds against the rest of the fandom.
* ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' fans vs. Everyone else. Depending on what side of the Pacific or fandom you're on ''Turn A'' is either amazing art or a disaster. Fans, almost exclusively to the western fandom, proclaim this was Tomino's magnum opus eclipsing every entry in the franchise. Those that do not see this, and most Japanese fans, see it as a failed anniversary series that almost killed the franchise, noting that until ''Age'' it had the worst TV ratings, gave alternate universe entries almost no contributions, had pacing so slow it had no memorable moments until the last fifth, and had more tributes and references to Tomino's non-gundam titles from ''[[Anime/{{Raideen}} Brave Raideen]]'' to ''Anime/BrainPowerd''. ''Gundam SEED'' fans are the most vocal group since they claim (and were correct) on their series saving the franchise.
* ''G no Reconguista'' fans vs. Everyone else. ''G no Reconguista'' fans claim their series was an underrated masterpiece and that its only problem was the viewer has to think while watching it. English speaking fans, specifically newer fans, believed the show was mediocre at best or that character motivations, pacing, plot, everything is out of place and the show is one of the worst entries to date at worst. This dislike of the show is strong in the West, where it's the lowest rated Gundam series on MAL (5.82) and [=AniDB=] (2.54) and received an overwhelming negative response, granted some of that was due to ''Anime News Network'' skewing translations to make it seem worse than it really is. Japanese fans on the other hand found this to be a good anime and a welcome back to the franchise's original creators. Like ''IBO'' it is proof the fandom has deep divides on both sides of the Pacific.

** ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' vs ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' - in TheNineties ''EVA'' in manga format and ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'' were the only two positions from HumongousMecha genre on the market, leading some people to believe that ''EVA'' is deep and intelligent while Gundam, all of it, is stupid. While mostly discredited, this stereotype prevails to this day, much to annoyance of Gundam fans. On the other hand, the opposing stereotype is that ''Gundam'' is CloserToEarth, whereas ''EVA'' is snooty and pretentious. This view, unlike the other, holds much ''more'' of a sway over today's anime fandom.
* In recent years ''Gundam'' fans versus ''Anime News Network''. Why? Since Right Stuf licensed many Gundam properties, ANN took the liberty of doing a lot of reviews and other articles right in time for ''Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans''. Typical Gundam fans, mostly veterans, both on and off the site heavily slammed these articles for either being grossly inaccurate or leaving out key information. The one that sparked the biggest outrage was the ''Gundam X'' reviews [[note]] ''X'' being a perrenial /m/ favorite [[/note]] , mainly for slamming the art style and writing which most people actually liked. /m/ got so pissed off at this that they resorted to the good ol' Website/FourChan vote brigading technique, voting ''Gundam X'' on the "Best Anime of 1996" poll, resulting in X making the top ten.... Only for /m/ to then complain ''[[Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' got more votes.[[note]] Despite ''Nadesico'' also being another of /m/'s favorites [[/note]] The reviews of ''Victory'' and ''Evolve'' have received similar rage, the former even having a supposed sexist double standard attacking ''Victory'' outright for a scene that involved Zanscare women firing bazookas at the V2 Gundam in bikinis. After ANN's review of ''MS IGLOO'', citing a supposedly hard to follow and disjointed plot and a lack of hope, fan reactions called the website's Gundam reviewer into question as the criticism was completely unfounded.
* ''Iron Blooded Orphans'' fans vs. Everyone else. IBO fans tend to claim their series is one of the few good ones up there with (usually only) ''Turn A'' and ''War in The Pocket''. Other fans claim that IBO does everything wrong including animation, music, writing, characters, pacing, and especially a lack of action, and that most of its fans are just newcomers. This particular rivalry got a jump start from the ''Anime Suki'' forums where anyone that disliked IBO was labeled a troll and attacked by the staff despite overwhelming evidence of trolling not being the case. ''Mecha Talk'' is lumped in with AS since the website has had a history of being jokingly called a hivemind since finding any disagreement among the users is increasingly rare and the owner being notorious for banning people based purely on rage without reason. Since MT also praises IBO it divided long time fans of the franchise harder than ''TurnA'', ''SEED'', ''Destiny'', ''Age'', or ''G-Reco'' ever did. IBO is somewhat considered a cancer on the franchise not just for tarnishing the legacy, but for the destructive damage it did to the fandom as a whole. The Japanese fandom, perhaps even Asian ''Gundam'' fans in general, view this with more visceral to the point of death threats, boycotts, and even having the Japanese government investigate if it was appropriate content wise for daytime television, especially for a franchise that has long aimed at children. This is probably one of the biggest examples of East vs. West opinion divisions in anime of the current decade.

** To a certain extent, many of the fandom bickering can be simplified down to UC ''Gundam'' fans versus everyone and themselves. There are just some UC fans that won't accept any of alternate universes as "real Gundam"; if a series is too much like the UC, they'll scream "plagiarism" or if a series deviates too much, they'll cry "blasphemy". Even within the UC fandom, there is a division between fans of the OVAs and those of the classic series with American Gundam fans prefering OVAs, which were the first UC entries to reach the west and have the most exposure alongside ''Gundam Wing''.

* ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' vs. every other ''Gundam'' series. (The unfortunate thing about this is that ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' -- a good series in its own right -- gets dragged into the hatedom.) In recent years ''Destiny'' has been seen in a more favorable light.

The ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise is so diverse and cosmopolitan that many divisions exist in such a gigantic fandom. Most of the rivalries are a result of chronic in-fighting, some are against other big names in the mecha genre. These rivalries vary from place to place across different anime (usually mecha anime) boards across the internet. Japanese, and arguably Asian fans in general, tend to favor the Universal Century and Cosmic Era while English speaking fans in general tend to favor ''Wing'', ''Turn A'', and ''Iron Blooded Orphans''. Currently there is a big divide as to whether or not Gundam fans take ''Anime News Network'' reviews seriously, complaints ranging from "too generic" to comparing them with ''WebVideo/FeministFrequency'' (yes, seriously). The Eastern fandom is considered [[FriendlyFandoms too soft on some entries]] while the Western fandom is considered self contradicting, essentially being the definition of a BrokenBase.