Among the hundreds of robot-orientated franchises, Transformers and Gundam are some of the biggest. Throughout the Internet, facilitated by social media and forums, there have been many debates between these two franchises. A quick search on Google will provide Reddit threads or other articles comparing the two. It’s time to take matters of comparison into our own high schooler hands. (Just a disclaimer: there are indeed other very popular “mecha anime” to compare Transformers to, such as Evangelion [1995], but Gundam was one of the first mecha anime to really become popular, and stayed popular, in the United States. The original show also has a closer release date to the first Transformers show.)

Let us start by connecting their similarities. They are both centered around gigantic, anthropomorphic machines that are often locked in combat with one another. Additionally, depending on the show or media reviewed, both are composed of two factions facing off against each other. In the original Mobile Suit Gundam show from 1979, a majority of the fighting is between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon. In almost every episode of The Transformers show from 1984, the Autobots face off against the Decepticons. Both franchises have also altered their style of animation from 2D animation to 3D, though that likely has to do with budget concerns. Recent examples are the Transformers One (2024) film and the Netflix Series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance (2024).

However, unlike Gundam, Transformers are sentient, mechanical aliens from their own extraterrestrial planet, while Gundam are advanced “mobile suits” that humans created and use in their own conflicts. Each franchise has explored different media to experiment with, also. What I mean by this is that while Gundam is well known for their Gunpla (short for Gundam Plastic model) kits produced primarily by Bandai Namco, the Transformers franchise stretches out into comic book series and many popular movies that almost everyone has seen. Even though they have the same basic idea (large robots) they have evolved to be distinct over the forty years they’ve been around.

Now that we’ve reviewed both their similarities and differences, it’s time for the fun part: let us debate (or, more politely speaking, compare) the two franchises. While it is confirmed that the original Transformers show from 1984 was partly inspired by Gundam, which was released five years earlier, it is immensely different and has ventured creatively over time and almost everyone has heard of the characters Optimus Prime and Megatron. However, I will not use overall popularity as an argument since Gundam is exceedingly popular in Japan which is where it originated. Instead, I’ve asked students around our school to hear their opinions!

“The simple answer is I like big robots,” Edward Alfaro said. “The complex answer is I like the moral gray-ness of it. At first glance, I thought it would be ‘Earth Federation good, Zeon bad’, but both sides have heroes and villains.”

“I prefer Transformers because they have great characters, awesome fight scenes, and I like cars!” Dino Michael Martinez said. 

After considering the thoughts of others on the matter, I’ve come to the conclusion that both are equally wonderful in their own rights. I suppose it all comes down to the consumer and their preference. Of course, this does not mean we cannot continue to throw around a few playful debates about these two franchises!