The 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 Feminist Frequency (yes, seriously). The Eastern fandom is considered too soft on some entries while the Western fandom is considered self-contradicting, essentially being the definition of a Broken Base.
- The classic one is UC vs Gundam Wing, arguably set about from which one fans are exposed to first.
- Gundam SEED Destiny vs. every other Gundam series. (The unfortunate thing about this is that Gundam SEED — a better-received series in its own right — gets dragged into the hatedom.) Only many years later would Destiny begin to be seen in a more favorable light.
- G Gundam vs. 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.
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam vs. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ. The former is serious while the latter is lighthearted, 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.
- Mobile Suit Gundam vs. Gundam SEED, the latter being a remake of the former, it's no wonder why these group frequently clash with each other.
- Lets not forget about Gundam SEED vs. Gundam 00, Gundam Wing vs. Gundam 00, and most recently a tag team match between Gundam SEED and Gundam 00 vs. Gundam Unicorn and Gundam AGE.
- Gundam 00 has minor infighting as to whether or not Season 1 or Season 2 is better.
- Made a lot more apparent with Gundam: Reconguista in G and Gundam Build Fighters Try, 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. Which had the better OVA and represented the Universal Century better? Which had better animation? Which had better characters? Which had better music? Which 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.
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket fans vs. everyone else. While the six-episode OVA is beloved by some, in most 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.
- ∀ Gundam 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 Brave Raideen to Brain Powerd. Gundam SEED fans are the most vocal group since they claim (and were correct) on their series saving the franchise.
- Reconguista in G fans vs. rveryone else. G-Reco 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.
- Another example is other Real Robot shows vs. the Gundam franchise. Macross vs. Gundam still fires up every now and again, the Macross fandom in particular (at least on Macross World forums) openly mock Gundam X for reasons never expounded upon beyond getting a fourth course cancelled. Needless to say sympathy over Harmony Gold's legal hold is not exactly high among fans of X. Another one that's... interesting to say the least is stuff like Fang of the Sun Dougram and Armored Trooper VOTOMS and subsequent debates of whether they are better than Gundam or not. If you're a fan of Dougram or VOTOMS, and you insinuate that Gundam is unrealistic and too close to Super Robot shows, the gates of hell have been opened. On the flipside, if a Gundam fan tries to point out that, say, Chirico Cuvie has just as much as, if not more "plot haxs" than any given Gundam Pilot, expect a small vocal minority of VOTOMS faithfuls to swear to GIRUGAMESH to kill you.
- On /m/, with the VOTOMS's appearance in Super Robot Wars Z2, alongside Gundam 00 and other Gundam titles, there has been some....rather heated debate. it led to everyone who likes VOTOMS being called "hipsters" who hate anything that is popular, while this in itself led to a lot of trolling, it came full circle when someone pointed out that Gundam fans on the same imageboard are pots calling the kettle black, and routinely complain about Gundam SEED.
- Gundam vs Neon Genesis Evangelion. In The '90s, EVA in manga format and Gundam Wing were the only two positions from Humongous Mecha 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 Closer to Earth, 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 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 reviewsnote , 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' 4chan 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 Martian Successor Nadesico got more votes.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 longtime fans of the franchise harder than Turn A, 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 disdain 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 been long aimed at children. This was probably one of the biggest examples of East vs. West opinion divisions in anime of The New '10s.
