How the Gundam anime timeline works

These cards are Gundam productions: TV series, films, OVAs, CG and web releases, and one live-action TV movie. Under each title is the format and a line about the plot or the pilot at its center. Order them by the year each premiered in Japan. You begin with one card on the line and its year showing; each new one goes into whichever gap you choose. Hit the right gap and its year appears. Miss, and it slides into its true place while you give up a life, with three in hand at the start.

The franchise splits between the original Universal Century timeline and a string of alternate universes, each with its own calendar, and the two strands run side by side rather than one after the other. That makes in-story chronology a poor guide, because prequels and side stories set during the first war keep turning up much later. The format line is worth a look, since OVAs and films come in waves. The Gunpla battle shows, built around plastic model kits, are a branch of their own and easy to misplace.

Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.

What's in the deck

Here are 28 of the 37 cards you might be dealt, with 9 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.

Mobile Suit Gundam TV series, Amuro pilots the RX-78-2
Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam TV series, Kamille vs. the Titans
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ TV series, Judau vs. Haman's Neo Zeon
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack Film, Amuro and Char's showdown over Axis
Mobile Suit Gundam F91 Film, the Crossbone Vanguard attacks
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory OVA, a stolen nuclear-armed Gundam
Mobile Suit Victory Gundam TV series, Uso vs. the Zanscare Empire
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing TV series, five teen pilots of the After Colony era
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team OVA, jungle warfare in the One Year War
After War Gundam X TV series, a world ruined by colony drops
Turn A Gundam TV series, the Moonrace and the Correct Century
G-Saviour Live-action TV film shot in Canada
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED TV series, Kira Yamato and the Cosmic Era
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny TV series, Shinn Asuka of ZAFT
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO OVA, CG tales of Zeon's weapons testers
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 TV series, Setsuna and Celestial Being
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer Film, Celestial Being meets the alien ELS
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE TV series, three generations of the Asuno family
Gundam Build Fighters TV series, battling with Gunpla models
Gundam Build Fighters Try TV series, three-on-three Gunpla team battles
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA, Char's youth before the One Year War
Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans TV series, the child soldiers of Tekkadan
Gundam Build Divers TV series, Gunpla battles in an online game
Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative Film, the hunt for the Phoenix Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway Film, Hathaway Noa leads the Mafty uprising
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury TV series, Suletta at the Asticassia School
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom Film, Kira and Lacus lead Compass
Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance CG Netflix series, Zeon pilots in Europe