G Gundam debuted in 1994 in Japan, in 2002 in the United States.  Earth's growing population had forced many to move to the hundreds of space colonies for each nation.  To prevent war amongst the nations, a tournament is held every four years.  This test of skill, speed and grit is called the Gundam Fight.

 

In Future Century 60, the year of the 13th Gundam Fight, a young man named Domon Kasshu is selected to represent Neo-Japan.  His partner, friend and mechanic Rain Mikamura joins him in his quest to provide guidance, friendship, a helping hand when it is needed, and to keep him alive.  Domon carries a picture of a man, and he asks every opponant if they have seen the guy in the photo.  No one knows of the man, but Domon doesn't give up.  The man he searches for is his own older brother, Kyoji Kasshu, falsely accused of stealing the Devil Gundam and murdering Mrs. Kasshu, Kyoji and Domon's mom.

 

As Domon travels Earth, he makes some surprising friends along the way.  First is Chibodee Crockett of Neo-America, pilot of the Gundam Maxter.  Second is Sai Saishi of Neo-China, pilot of the Dragon Gundam, followed by George de Sand of Neo-France, pilot of the Gundam Rose.  Lastly is Argo Gulskii of Neo-Russia, pilot of the Bolt Gundam.  These three men and the boy (Sai Saishi) learn that Domon is the King of Hearts, the strongest man in the colonies and a member of the Shuffle Alliance.  And after learning that Domon seeks to kill his brother and destroy the Devil Gundam, they join him.

 

The storyline is amazing, and there are some elements never seen before in any MSG series besides 08th MS Team.  In the episodes, Domon and Rain pick on each other affectionately and in the very last episode, with some encouragement from his friends and Allenby Beasley (Neo-Sweden, pilot of the Noble Gundam), Domon is finally able to tell Rain he loves her.  Now, there's no kissing, but the whole series is kawaii.  Definitely a must-see.

 

It's year 60 of the Future Century, and Earth is once again the ring! Dozens of the world's mightiest Gundam Fighters have descended from the orbiting space colonies to do battle on the planet's ravaged surface. For the glory of their mother nations, these warriors will fight, and fight, and continue fighting, until at last only one remains to claim the title of... Gundam of Gundams!

Down on Earth, the huddled masses watch with dread as the capsules descend from space like blazing meteors. For them, the advent of the Gundam Fight means only destruction; their crumbling cities will be further reduced to ruins, and the planet's fragile environment will sustain even more damage. For youngsters who've never known any other way of life, this epic tournament is an occasion for patriotic fervor, and the champions who represent their nations are celebrated as heroes. But there are those who are old enough to remember how life once was--before the ruling classes fled into outer space and the planet they left behind became nothing more than a rubble-strewn battlefield....

A man walks into a bar. The setting is Neo Italy--in the ruins of the once-great city of Rome--on the eve of the 13th Gundam Fight. Approaching the wary bartender, the cloaked stranger brandishes a tattered fragment of a ten-year-old photograph and growls a question. "Do you know this man...?"

So begins Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the latest installment of the Gundam saga to hit the U.S. airwaves, courtesy of the Cartoon Network. Like the earlier Gundam Wing, G Gundam is a stand-alone story unconnected to the Gundam franchise's original "Universal Century" continuity, and its mixture of over-the-top kung fu action and heroic drama is closer in tone to the other works of its director Yasuhiro Imagawa--such as the superheroic adventures of Giant Robo--than it is to the gritty realism that's the hallmark of the typical Gundam story. Indeed, when G Gundam premiered in Japan in 1994, this first and most radical of the "alternate universe" series generated intense controversy with its heretical treatment of the Gundam legacy. (Western viewers, many of whom were first exposed to the saga with Gundam Wing, may find the shock slightly less severe.)

As the series progresses, G Gundam's story evolves from simply a martial arts tournament with giant robots into an elaborate stew of nanotechnological plagues, evil armies, zombie legions, betrayal and heartbreak. These complicating elements not only enable Imagawa to add some of his own creative flair to the somewhat juvenile premise mandated by the show's sponsors, but also make the end result entertaining for more sophisticated viewers as well as for youngsters enticed by the colorful shiny robots. Fundamentally, though, G Gundam shouldn't be taken all that seriously; the stakes may be life and death, the heroes' emotional torment may be compelling, but the bottom line is that this is a world where the space colony of Neo Holland is represented by a Gundam that transforms into a giant windmill.

So welcome, one and all, to the wacky world of the Gundam Fight, a grand tournament in which an international cast of colorful Gundams struggle for supremacy. Think of it as something like Disneyland's "It's a Small World" ride--except the robots are 50 feet tall and fighting each other....

THE GUNDAM FIGHT RULEBOOK

According to the legend and lore of G Gundam, the Gundam Fight was instituted at the dawn of the Future Century to give the world's nations a relatively peaceful means of settling their differences and jockeying for world domination. At the start of this far-future space age, Earth's elites fled the planet's surface to live a life of luxury in the orbiting space colonies, and each colony now serves as the capital of its respective terrestrial nation; Neo Japan, Neo America, Neo France, and dozens of other nations are all ruled from their own characteristic space cities.

The leadership of these space colonies is determined through the Gundam Fight. The colony whose champion triumphs in the Gundam Fight becomes the effective ruler of the world, and the pursuit of victory in the tournament thus commands the kind of scientific and technological resources that would otherwise be devoted to conventional warfare. The contest was instituted in the year F.C.6 and, like the modern-day Olympics, repeated every four years thereafter--with the exception of F.C.52, when the growing international tension caused by the third consecutive victory of Neo England's Gentle Chapman led to a four-year postponement.

In the Gundam Fight each nation is represented by a champion warrior, or Gundam Fighter, who serves as the pilot of a fifty-foot-tall mobile fighter. These mobile fighters are called "Gundams," and each reflects the technological prowess and cultural heritage of its sponsoring nation. The Gundam Fighters are required to abide by the seven articles and two supplements of the Gundam Fight International Regulations, which enforce the principles of honor and sportsmanship and minimize loss of life among the combatants. However, these rules make no attempt to reduce the devastation the Gundam Fight causes to the already ravaged Earth....

The Gundam Fight traditionally begins with an 11-month elimination round called the Survival Eleven. As the opening of the tournament draws near, each space colony dispatches its own Gundam Fighter to Earth. Once the contest is declared officially open the Gundam Fighters begin roaming around the planet, seeking out rival contestants and challenging them to single combat, which typically ends with one of the combatant mobile fighters losing its head and being disqualified from the tournament. Only those Gundam Fighters who remain in the game after the end of the Survival Eleven are eligible to compete in the tournament finals.

ENTER THE KING OF HEARTS

As the 13th Gundam Fight begins, we are introduced to the hero of our story: Domon Kasshu of Neo Japan, the brash and brooding martial arts champion who has been chosen to bear the title "King of Hearts." Domon possesses kung fu skills so advanced that he can swat down burly thugs by the bushel and pluck bullets out of midair. However, he seems less concerned with battling rival Gundam Fighters than with tracking down the mysterious man pictured in the fragmentary photograph he carries. With his faithful sidekick Rain Mikamura in tow, Domon pursues his quarry around the world like a globe-trotting version of a Spaghetti Western hero, pausing once an episode to do battle with the Gundam Fighter in residence.

We soon learn the story behind Domon's manhunt, and discover how Neo Japan's leaders are forcing him to carry out not one but two vital missions. In addition to winning the Gundam Fight for Neo Japan, Domon must also seek out the man in the photograph before this dangerous renegade puts the entire world in jeopardy. But Domon won't be alone in his quest for long; whether he likes it or not, he's earned the respect of several of the world's top Gundam Fighters, and their individual destinies are fated to become intertwined as the forces of evil begin to manifest themselves. Soon, these five warriors will have more pressing concerns than the outcome of the 13th Gundam Fight....