[Yellow Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Powerman293

It doesn't have the same tone/focus as the mainline gundam series of being dark, being set in a war, the repurcussions that come of it, very cereberal and intense discussions about himanity, the nature of war, possibility, e.t.c.

I think you can just tell the difference by watching something like Unicorn compared to BF. Do they both have mech fights? Yeah. But the stories, emotional centers and dialouge content are completley different.

And yes, G Gundam is different, but I haven't seen it so I don't know how to classify it.

The problem is that most Gundam shows have a different tone/focus from each other because they're Alternate Universes about the only thing they share in common is their theme of "war is bad" and a red,white and blue main mecha. The only Gundam shows I'd consider "Dark" are Zeta and Victory. Neither Zeta,Wing or 00 was set in a war. Only Zeta and Victory had immediate lasting repercussions from their respective series conflicts*most of the cast dying and two suffering major brain damage* 00 season 1 would qualify if season 2 didn't have Celestial Being fixing everything and riding off into the sunset. Half the time though that comes off as forced*because our bright robot toy commercial must be taken seriously let's add philosophy...now watch as pseudo-science green space magic and aliens create world peace!* or the one-sided ravings of a madman with a superiority complex*cough*Char*cough*.

I can say the same about 0079 or Wing in comparison to Unicorn largely because Unicorn has a more serious tone than the former.

Personally my definition is a lot stricter unless specifically stated as a spin-off if it has a full 25+ episode season and a toyline it's a "main" series in my eyes.

Basically the Lucas method

EDIT: algo448 beat me to it.