How do we determine what is canon in the Gundam universe?
With so many stories told in animated series or shorts, in print and in games, it is inevitable that discrepancies will occur, especially when there are different creative teams working within the same universe. Here at MechaBay, we define canon as whatever is considered Gundam Official.
Our articles are written from the in-universe perspective using the most canon information, and then we fill the gaps with less canon. We avoid non-canon references as best as we can.
Gundam Official
What this means is, Gundam anime has the highest priority when it comes to determining what is Gundam Official. If a series has both an anime and a non-anime release, the anime will always be considered official regardless of whether it came before or after the non-anime release. If a series is first published as a light novel or manga and an anime is subsequently released, the characters and events in the anime will be considered Gundam Official.
This doesn’t mean that non-anime stories and characters are considered non-canon. If a particular story only exists in manga or novel form, that will be Gundam Official until an anime is made. However, the caveat is that all these have to be produced under Sunrise supervision. These are considered semi-official.
There are too many Gundam spinoffs, especially in manga and games. Some of these are licensed from Sunrise but not created with input from Sunrise. These are considered unofficial by Sunrise, hence MechaBay regards these as non-canon.
MechaBay canon
We use the following to determine what storylines are canon:
- Anime series, OVAs and ONAs
- Compilation movies – usually condensed or corrected versions of the anime series
- Manga and light novels
- Games
Discrepancies will be pointed out in the Behind the Scenes section of each article.
If something was considered canon based on a lower ranked media, and a new media released is ranked higher, the new media will be considered more canon.
For example, the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn novel was canon when it first came out. When the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA series was released, priority is given to the animated series. Thus, the OVA series was considered more canon than the novel and when discrepancies or conflicts occured, we give preference to the OVA.
When the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096 anime series was released, it displaced the OVA series as being more canon, since full anime series are given greater priority than OVA or ONA series.
While we try to ensure that MechaBay provides the most updated information, we might be a little slow in catching up with changes due to a release of an anime production. We are most likely working on new articles so we appreciate any help with noticing areas in existing articles that require updates.