Free, legal stream of some of the greatest Gundam series in the franchise!... and SEED. But you can easily ignore that.
Youtube:
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 20 - March 25)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 20 - March 25)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (March 25 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (March 25 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (April 22 - May 30)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (April 22 - May 30)
Crunchyroll:
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 1 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (March 25 - May 30)
ANN:
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 1 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (March 25 - May 30)
I'll update the rest of the available streams as they're uploaded.
Mobile Suit Gundam:
Set in the not so distant future, mankind has successfully managed to terraform large colonies in space, groups of which are referred to as 'Sides', in addition to several lunar cities and bases. The Earth has managed to unify under a single government, known as the Earth Federation. Civil unrest among the space colonies cause by perceived and actual mistreatment and a lack of representation leads to the creation of the Principality of Zeon who declare war on the Earth in addition to independence. One Year War happens, the Earth gets pretty well owned by Zeons forces, who make use of Mobile Suits while the Earth attempts to make due with outdated weaponry like tanks and such. End up with a stalemate for the most part, until the inevitable appearance of the Gundam unit RX-78. Cue the actual anime, wherein the spunky teen Amuro Ray ends up as the unwilling pilot of the Gundam along with a rag-tag group of Feddie soldiers and civilians aboard the White Base. Over the next 43 episodes, we're taken on a rollercoaster ride of a show setting the bar for all future robot shows. Some amazing human drama between numerous characters, great epic space battles between huge space fleets and dog fighting between mobile suit units, and very few morally black and white characters on either side. An indisputable classic, as it was the beginning of the realistic robot shows, a distinct change from the super robot series that preceeded it.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam:
Several years after the events in MS Gundam, the Earth Federation has pretty much won and created a taskforce known as the Titans to finish suppressing the remnants of Zeon. However they're pretty much evil fascists and have no respect for humans living in space at all. AEUG is a bit of a rebel splinter group consisting of former Federation officers and troops as well as former Zeon soldiers interested in fighting the corrupt Federation government as well as the Titans. Our main character, Kamille Bidan, is a natural pilot and is also the child of the scientists who created the Gundam Mk. II, who through various circumstances comes to pilot it in aide of the rebel AEUG group against the Titans. Easily my favorite Gundam series to date, some very compelling love triangles and character interaction in general. Also, hey, it has Char in it. In a lead role. It has to be good. Lots of cameos from the original as well, should definitely be viewed after the original but it stands just fine on it's own. Also a lot better about avoiding some of the "robot of the week" issues of the original due to the success of the original. I'd almost recommend the movie trilogy over the series, for the beautifully redone animation, but they kind of butchered the storyline.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
Unrelated to the UC series, but similiar in story, the "United Earth Sphere Alliance" acts as the Earth Federation in this show, brutally controlling and oppressing their space colonies. The space colonies create a resistance group in the form of five teenage boys piloting "Gundams" each incredibly unique in design and function, as well as being nigh indestructible. The Gundams and the pilots execute numerous stealth attacks on various Earth force military locations, culminating in the veritable shadow government of the Earth Sphere Alliance, known as OZ (Order of the Zodiac), striking back. Lots of fighting and Gundams acting as veritable super robots, single-handedly taking down dozens of units in a matter of seconds regularly. Not my favorite Gundam show and it's definitely showing it's age today, but you can see a lot of it's influence in Gundam SEED. I find the characters pretty boring, as well as the heroes supposedly being pacifists, while murdering hundreds if not thousands of enemy soldiers in every episode, to be absurd. Pretty mediocre overall, but definitely not too bad if you're looking for some late 90s mindless robot action.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED/Destiny:
Earth, space colonies, conflict, I think you get the idea. The "original" spin for this one is that you have humanity divided by the advent of genetic engineering, leading to normal humans known as "Naturals" and modified ones called "Coordinators" (think New-Types and rest of mankind). The Naturals are the Earth force, known as the Earth Alliance, and the Coordinators are the Zeons, known as ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty? whatever the **** that means). Our hero Kira ends up the unwilling pilot of the Strike Gundam, as his home colony is attacked. Turns out his best friend, Athrun is the son of a big wig in ZAFT military, they end up with like five up their own super Gundams reminiscent of those from Gundam Wing, and all piloted by completely intolerable whiny ******* teenagers. F*ck this show. It's a bastard child of the original Gundam and Gundam Wing gone as wrong as possible. I have nothing good to say about it, except that as bad as SEED is, SEED Destiny is far worse. I don't recommend watching it, there's no decent characters to be found, the plot is a huge mess, the factions names just seem to get dumber, as do the Gundams, and the only upside is a lot of dead pilots. Actually that's one of the best things about Destiny is certain characters dying off.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
This ones kind of set in an alternate timeline before the happenings in the original Gundam. Earth is still divided, among three super powers: the Union (North America), the AUE (mainland Europe), and HRL/Human Reform League, (Russia, China, and India). Each power controls one of three orbital elevators connecting to an enormous ring array of solar collectors providing an alternative energy source. The rest of the world is pretty much war torn, warring over the remaining natural resources amongst themselves or serving either as staging grounds for fights between the three powers. In comes Celestial Being, sporting four unique Gundams (again kind of overpowered and super roboty) attempting to suppress conflict in the third world as well as unify the Earth into one nation by providing a common enemy for purposes yet unknown. Our main characters are pretty much huge badasses and every mobile suit design in this show rules. Lots of great fights, top notch animation considering it's one of the most recent shows, and some enjoyable political intrigue and plot twists. Only bad thing I really have to say about it would be Saji and Louise, a pair of lovestruck teens living in Japan who kind of provide a third person limited narrator perspective, from the view of your average bystander. I didn't think they were handled very well, even worse in the second season where they took somewhat leading roles, but in the first season at least they're tolerable. Good show overall, worth a watch. Best animation of the shows being hosted.
-------
So yeah! This is exciting. Whether you've already seen every Gundam series or are completely new to it, go watch some of these now! (Except SEED and SEED Destiny unless you really want to) It's becoming more and more common for the big wigs at anime companies to stream stuff, but this is a pretty huge move by BANDAI and it's awesome they're offering it on multiple sites. As anime fans, showing support for these kinds of risks being taken by the anime industry is crucial to ensure they continue offering alternatives to overpriced DVD hard copies. Also, they're very good shows that anyone should be able to enjoy!
Fair warning, MS Gundam, Zeta, and Wing are all going to look fairly dated, but if it's your first time experiencing them try to overlook these faults, considering the oldest show is over 30 years old now, and the newest is over a decade old. 00 and SEED can provide you with eye candy to make up for the others, but definitely give the classics a chance; they're classic for a reason.
Youtube:
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 20 - March 25)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 20 - March 25)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (March 25 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (March 25 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (April 22 - May 30)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (April 22 - May 30)
Crunchyroll:
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 1 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (March 25 - May 30)
ANN:
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (February 1 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (February 20 - April 22)
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (March 25 - May 30)
I'll update the rest of the available streams as they're uploaded.
Mobile Suit Gundam:
Set in the not so distant future, mankind has successfully managed to terraform large colonies in space, groups of which are referred to as 'Sides', in addition to several lunar cities and bases. The Earth has managed to unify under a single government, known as the Earth Federation. Civil unrest among the space colonies cause by perceived and actual mistreatment and a lack of representation leads to the creation of the Principality of Zeon who declare war on the Earth in addition to independence. One Year War happens, the Earth gets pretty well owned by Zeons forces, who make use of Mobile Suits while the Earth attempts to make due with outdated weaponry like tanks and such. End up with a stalemate for the most part, until the inevitable appearance of the Gundam unit RX-78. Cue the actual anime, wherein the spunky teen Amuro Ray ends up as the unwilling pilot of the Gundam along with a rag-tag group of Feddie soldiers and civilians aboard the White Base. Over the next 43 episodes, we're taken on a rollercoaster ride of a show setting the bar for all future robot shows. Some amazing human drama between numerous characters, great epic space battles between huge space fleets and dog fighting between mobile suit units, and very few morally black and white characters on either side. An indisputable classic, as it was the beginning of the realistic robot shows, a distinct change from the super robot series that preceeded it.
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam:
Several years after the events in MS Gundam, the Earth Federation has pretty much won and created a taskforce known as the Titans to finish suppressing the remnants of Zeon. However they're pretty much evil fascists and have no respect for humans living in space at all. AEUG is a bit of a rebel splinter group consisting of former Federation officers and troops as well as former Zeon soldiers interested in fighting the corrupt Federation government as well as the Titans. Our main character, Kamille Bidan, is a natural pilot and is also the child of the scientists who created the Gundam Mk. II, who through various circumstances comes to pilot it in aide of the rebel AEUG group against the Titans. Easily my favorite Gundam series to date, some very compelling love triangles and character interaction in general. Also, hey, it has Char in it. In a lead role. It has to be good. Lots of cameos from the original as well, should definitely be viewed after the original but it stands just fine on it's own. Also a lot better about avoiding some of the "robot of the week" issues of the original due to the success of the original. I'd almost recommend the movie trilogy over the series, for the beautifully redone animation, but they kind of butchered the storyline.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
Unrelated to the UC series, but similiar in story, the "United Earth Sphere Alliance" acts as the Earth Federation in this show, brutally controlling and oppressing their space colonies. The space colonies create a resistance group in the form of five teenage boys piloting "Gundams" each incredibly unique in design and function, as well as being nigh indestructible. The Gundams and the pilots execute numerous stealth attacks on various Earth force military locations, culminating in the veritable shadow government of the Earth Sphere Alliance, known as OZ (Order of the Zodiac), striking back. Lots of fighting and Gundams acting as veritable super robots, single-handedly taking down dozens of units in a matter of seconds regularly. Not my favorite Gundam show and it's definitely showing it's age today, but you can see a lot of it's influence in Gundam SEED. I find the characters pretty boring, as well as the heroes supposedly being pacifists, while murdering hundreds if not thousands of enemy soldiers in every episode, to be absurd. Pretty mediocre overall, but definitely not too bad if you're looking for some late 90s mindless robot action.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED/Destiny:
Earth, space colonies, conflict, I think you get the idea. The "original" spin for this one is that you have humanity divided by the advent of genetic engineering, leading to normal humans known as "Naturals" and modified ones called "Coordinators" (think New-Types and rest of mankind). The Naturals are the Earth force, known as the Earth Alliance, and the Coordinators are the Zeons, known as ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty? whatever the **** that means). Our hero Kira ends up the unwilling pilot of the Strike Gundam, as his home colony is attacked. Turns out his best friend, Athrun is the son of a big wig in ZAFT military, they end up with like five up their own super Gundams reminiscent of those from Gundam Wing, and all piloted by completely intolerable whiny ******* teenagers. F*ck this show. It's a bastard child of the original Gundam and Gundam Wing gone as wrong as possible. I have nothing good to say about it, except that as bad as SEED is, SEED Destiny is far worse. I don't recommend watching it, there's no decent characters to be found, the plot is a huge mess, the factions names just seem to get dumber, as do the Gundams, and the only upside is a lot of dead pilots. Actually that's one of the best things about Destiny is certain characters dying off.
Mobile Suit Gundam 00:
This ones kind of set in an alternate timeline before the happenings in the original Gundam. Earth is still divided, among three super powers: the Union (North America), the AUE (mainland Europe), and HRL/Human Reform League, (Russia, China, and India). Each power controls one of three orbital elevators connecting to an enormous ring array of solar collectors providing an alternative energy source. The rest of the world is pretty much war torn, warring over the remaining natural resources amongst themselves or serving either as staging grounds for fights between the three powers. In comes Celestial Being, sporting four unique Gundams (again kind of overpowered and super roboty) attempting to suppress conflict in the third world as well as unify the Earth into one nation by providing a common enemy for purposes yet unknown. Our main characters are pretty much huge badasses and every mobile suit design in this show rules. Lots of great fights, top notch animation considering it's one of the most recent shows, and some enjoyable political intrigue and plot twists. Only bad thing I really have to say about it would be Saji and Louise, a pair of lovestruck teens living in Japan who kind of provide a third person limited narrator perspective, from the view of your average bystander. I didn't think they were handled very well, even worse in the second season where they took somewhat leading roles, but in the first season at least they're tolerable. Good show overall, worth a watch. Best animation of the shows being hosted.
-------
So yeah! This is exciting. Whether you've already seen every Gundam series or are completely new to it, go watch some of these now! (Except SEED and SEED Destiny unless you really want to) It's becoming more and more common for the big wigs at anime companies to stream stuff, but this is a pretty huge move by BANDAI and it's awesome they're offering it on multiple sites. As anime fans, showing support for these kinds of risks being taken by the anime industry is crucial to ensure they continue offering alternatives to overpriced DVD hard copies. Also, they're very good shows that anyone should be able to enjoy!
Fair warning, MS Gundam, Zeta, and Wing are all going to look fairly dated, but if it's your first time experiencing them try to overlook these faults, considering the oldest show is over 30 years old now, and the newest is over a decade old. 00 and SEED can provide you with eye candy to make up for the others, but definitely give the classics a chance; they're classic for a reason.