well okay it all really depends on how much you're willing to go through some oldies
speaking super really i think the original Mobile Suit Gundam is still actually a solid show that defined a genre. one of the biggest thing in gundam is that a lot of the characters aren't exactly likeable but they're understandable. They get a lot of human moments that show how and why they think and act why they do
but it's still from 1979 and it looks and sounds like it's from 1979. if you can stomach that then you'll get yourself a really good war story with giant robots also being present
moving forward from that, you have a lot of side stuff that may/may not need additional context to it
War in the Pocket is a fantastic small scale story about how innocents are affected by war and how both sides will have good people on them. It's also got a solid dub for when it came out, pre-MGS David Hayter's a main character even
08th MS Team is the trenches story about the regular joe soldiers who don't get the cool super robot (they get the shitty super robot)
Stardust Memory is the 80s-est bullshit to come out of 1991 and it has some fantastic animation and solid characters that get admittedly kinda lame at the end (due to a change of directors)
Zeta Gundam is the second full series its' like Gundam but more so and I don't mean that in a bad way, the characters are good and they were pretty big shakeups for 1985 and it really helped to cement gundam as a juggernaut in the zeitgeist + some classic memes (genuine actually memes and also funny haha memes) like you'll learn what a Char is.
skipping forward to the 90s you'll find a lot of weird stuff and I'm skipping over some other things that I'd recommend if you find yourself like goin' crazy for the series (F91 is a beautiful mess of a movie that I love every minute of but I can't really recommend it to a normal person)
G Gundam is stupid shounen garbage with a bunch of stereotypes and stock footage but it's just so goddamn fun that I can't not recommend it like oh my god it's the best bullshit ever.
a horse gets a gundam
Gundam Wing is a very political story and I'd recommend it if you're down for that but i think it's aged a bit hard and it doesn't quite focus on the common folk as much as older gundams have so it doesn't do a lot for me but there's a lot of iconic moments early on so at least watch like the first couple episodes
Gundam X is an absolute diamond in the rough and I'm genuinely mad it's not more popular than it really is. It's essentially a sorta post apocalypse series where the earth faced a large scale catastrophe that leads to most of humanity being wiped and it focuses on people who are living in times only 15 years after the event. It's not mad max levels of metal but there's a unique atmosphere and camaraderie to it that's just unmistakable. The characters are very strong and it boasts the cutest most best main couple in the entire series like goddamn they're precious.
Turn A Gundam has one of the most unique settings in any mecha series (it's world war I and mechs are there) and it manages to be a very enjoyable methodically paced (a little sluggish at times) story that manages to turn the entire gundam franchise into a metaphor for dealing and overcoming depression + the main villain is basically the personification of every fan that ignores the nuance and messages of the series in favor of "Wow cool robot" and it's the best
everything after Turn A is a lot of "meeeeh" like Gundam SEED and its sequel are flatout terrible, 00 is fun if you feel like riffing on some dumb bullshit, AGE shits the bed in its third act so hard it killed the show for basically everyone, Build Fighters is Selling Toys: We Aren't Even Trying To Hide It Edition, Gundam Reconguista is a beautiful mess that everyone hates but meeee, and IBO is basically Shadow the Hedgehog for Gundam
moving on to not Gundam things
Ideon. Ideon Ideon Ideon. It's not a great show but watch it and then watch the movie and then watch the SECOND movie which is one of the best pieces of anime movie ever. it's the fucking shit that's all I can say. Please Watch Ideon.
Macross is a super janky inconsistent series about idols in space and also mecha/jets are there but what you really need to fuckin' watch is Macross Plus it's goddamn immaculate like holy shit. Directed by the same man as Cowboy Bebop (with another cool dude on animation direction) and the same composer as Bebop too. it's like Top Gun in Space only it's like 100x cooler
Macross 7 is about a hot-blooded rock band in space who fight aliens by playing rock music it's good and stupid and here's a gif of the main character eating a leaf
i'd also recommend a look into the works of Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa, especially Getter Robo Armageddon
and a couple other titles to throw out there that I don't feel like detailing too much because I'm falling asleep: Patlabor, Gunbuster, King Gainer, Eureka Seven, Gao-Gai-Gar, bunch of other fuckin' stuff man i don't even know
