Some stories entertain you, some stay with you, and a rare few become part of how you survive. That would be Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam. It’s near and dear to my heart in a way that can sound dramatic, but honestly, it deserves that weight. Gundam is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Sunrise and director Yoshiyuki Tomino, and while anime as a whole shaped my life, Gundam is the one that truly stayed. To be blunt, Gundam saved my life.
I got into the franchise seriously during a deep depressive period. I had no direction, no motivation, and no real sense of purpose. I wasn’t living so much as existing. I spent most days stuck at home, waking up late, barely taking care of myself, and trying to sleep through the hours. That routine caused constant tension with my family and only reinforced the feeling that I was going nowhere. I watched a lot of TV to cope, but nothing really reached me. Anime did. And Gundam, more than anything else, did.
Finding the Light
I had seen Gundam throughout my life in bits and pieces. Random episodes on Toonami, Iron-Blooded Orphans airing weekly years later, model kits everywhere. Because of the merchandising, many people assume Gundam is just about cool robots fighting, but Tomino created it to be the opposite. Gundam is political, grounded, and deeply concerned with how war damages people and societies. Beneath the sci-fi setting were stories about grief, anger, division, pride, and feeling lost. Those emotions felt painfully familiar. Watching Gundam during that time didn’t feel like escapism. It felt like a mirror.
Eventually, I centered my life around it. I started this Gundam-focused news site and social media presence and turned that passion into meaningful work. My favorite story, Hathaway’s Flash, resonates with me more than any other piece of fiction. Hathaway’s anger, disillusionment, contradictions, and grief feel deeply personal. Gundam isn’t just my favorite franchise. It’s the thing that helped pull me out of a place where nothing else could.
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