Ever since its first televised appearance in 1979, Gundam has gone on to become a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most popular anime franchises of all time.  In 2013, Sunrise announced an interesting take on Gundam as part of its 35^th Anniversary.

That would be Gundam Build Fighters (GBF), a new series involving kids competing against each other with their own customized Gunpla! Many anime fans of different walks of life will be able to easily enjoy GBF and jump onto the Gundam bandwagon.

So why would GBF be the best place to start watching Gundam from scratch?

Point 1: ALL the Gundams from ALL the Generations!

As GBF is a celebration of all things Gundam, then it must have appearances from all Gundam series right?

Throughout the entire series, you will see various cameo appearances from multitudes and multitudes of mobile suits from the 35 years of history. You may be able to recognise the more obvious ones from the TV series but there will also be appearances from the more obscure Gundam side stories, mangas, photo-novels and even games such as Extreme Gundam, S Gundam and Gundam Aesculapius.

Going through 35 years of history, you must have stumbled upon a couple of mobile suit designs you might really like. And from there you can start by watching/playing the series that has those designs!

There’s really no need to start from the first Gundam series and follow chronologically all the way. Just watch the shows with your favourite mobile suit designs, and continue from there. You can always rewatch the series again if you plan to watch them all chronologically!

Point 1: Feels like your regular anime so it’s easy to get into!

While GBF is a pretty fantastic Gundam/mecha show, it is still an anime first and foremost. It boasts a fair share of really good character designs, especially the female characters.

GBF fans seem to be going crazy for Iori Rinko and Aila Jyrkianen. The mecha designs are no slouch either, having some really impressive suit designs like the Wing Gundam Fenice, Sengoku Astray Gundam and Kampfer Amazing.

You also get a good mix of character interaction intertwined with fast paced mecha action every episode, even in the fillers!

The animation is the standard Sunrise quality so it is pretty good as you would expect it to be. The mecha are all hand drawn as well. The voice cast has a nice balance between rookie seiyuus and some famous veterans such as Nakamura Yuuichi and Kotono Mitsuishi! The show is pretty light-hearted as well so you won’t be disappointed to see your favourite character being killed off.

It’s a pretty fun Gundam show for all ages to enjoy!

Lastly point 1: It’s FREE to watch on YouTube!

Yes, you heard me correctly;

GBF is free to watch on YouTube! Like the previously aired series Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, GBF airs on the Gundam.info YouTube channel every Monday at 7pm (GMT+8).

You get to enjoy the entire show in 720p goodness~ and with English Subtitles only 2 hours after the original airing of the show on Japanese TVs. There’s no need to wait for eventual TV airings, DVDs or Blu Ray releases as you can get your hands on the show via the most popular video sharing site on the internet!

So that is what makes GBF one of the best places to start watching is because it is the most easily accessible amongst the others. And with the series just ending this past week, newcomers can easily watch all the episodes at one go!

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You might wonder why I’m only recommending everyone to watch Gundam Build Fighters when it just ended.

Actually, this coming week is Gundam’s 35th Anniversary on April 7th! And what better way to celebrate the long history of Gundam with the show that’s a love letter to the franchise! Majority of the merchandise have already been released as of today as well so you can start grabbing all those stuff that you really want to get.

And there you have it guys. For those who have yet to give GBF a try, I hope that you will give it a go. I’m sure you will get excited and want to start building your own custom Gunpla! This will probably be popular among youngsters as well!

There are plenty of parts where people who aren’t as knowledgeable about Gundam can still enjoy. For the Gundam fans that have yet to watch it –  is truly the Gundam fans’ Gundam anime with tons of homage to practically every series in existence so you’ll definitely want to watch GBF as soon as possible!

GO Watch it!!