Mobile Suit SD Gundam
2011 cover toG-Collection: Mobile Suit SD Gundam DVD-Box, distributed by Bandai Visual
機動戦士SDガンダム (Kidō Senshi Esudī Gandamu)
Genre	Mecha,Comedy,Action,Parody
Created by	Hajime Yatate Yoshiyuki Tomino
Anime film
Directed by	Osamu Sekita
Written by	Hiroyuki Hoshiyama
Music by	Norimasa Yamanaka
Studio	Sunrise
Released	March 12, 1988
Runtime	20 minutes
Original video animation
Studio	Sunrise
Released	May 25, 1988 – October 25, 1990
Runtime	30 minutes per OVA
Episodes	5
Anime film
Mobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack
Directed by	Shinji Takamatsu Tetsuro Amino
Written by	Tetsuro Amino
Music by	Osamu Totsuka
Studio	Sunrise
Released	July 15, 1989
Runtime	24 minutes
Original video animation
Mobile Suit SD Gundam: SD Gundam Legend
Directed by	Tetsuro Amino
Written by	Tetsuro Amino
Music by	Toru Okada
Studio	Sunrise
Released	March 25, 1990 – March 21, 1991
Runtime	28 minutes per OVA
Episodes	4
Anime film
Mobile Suit SD Gundam: Musha, Knight, Commando: SD Gundam Emergency Sortie
Directed by	Takeyuki Kanda
Written by	Takeyuki Kanda
Studio	Sunrise
Released	March 16, 1991
Runtime	16 minutes
Anime film
Mobile Suit SD Gundam: Dawn of Papal, Episode 103: Suginamu's Bride
Directed by	Takeyuki Kanda
Written by	Takeyuki Kanda
Studio	Sunrise
Released	August 22, 1991
Runtime	16 minutes
Anime film
Mobile Suit SD Gundam Festival
Directed by	Takashi Imanishi Tetsuro Amino
Written by	Asahide Ookuma Tetsuro Amino
Studio	Sunrise
Released	March 13, 1993
Runtime	81 minutes

Mobile Suit SD Gundam (Japanese:機動戦士SDガンダム,Hepburn:Kidō Senshi Esudī Gandamu) is a Japanese anthology ofanimated shorts produced bySunrise between 1988 and 1993. The series was released theatrically alongsideanime feature films and asoriginal video animations (OVAs), and forms part of the broaderSD Gundam franchise, which draws fromBandai's popularGashapon capsule toys andplastic model kits.^[1][2]

Early installments parody the mainlineGundam franchise usingsuper deformed (chibi-style)mecha and characters.^[2] Starting in 1989 withMobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack, the series began incorporating recurring teams likeCommand Gundam,Knight Gundam, andMusha Gundam—characters developed through toy lines,Carddass trading cards, andmanga tie-ins.^[3][4][5]

Each short runs roughly 10–30 minutes and was issued either as a comedic theatrical segment or an OVA with exaggerated designs and parody humor.^[1][2] While the early works relied on rapid, self-contained gags, from 1989 onward the shorts adopted more coherent narrative structures tied to specific sub-franchise motifs.SD Sengokuden entries embrace samurai-period settings,Knight Gundam adopts medieval fantasy backdrops, andCommand Gundam features military science fiction influences, aligned to contemporary merchandise lines.^[3][4]

Mobile Suit SD Gundam was produced by Sunrise between 1988 and 1993 as a series of theatrical shorts and OVAs based on super deformed (SD) Gundam figures that rose to popularity through Bandai's Gashapon capsule toys and model kits in the late 1980s.^[6][7] The earliest entries were structured as brief gag animations parodying well-known events from the mainlineGundam series, using chibi-style mobile suits and characters for comedic effect.^[1][2]

With the 1989 theatrical shortMobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack, the series introduced recurring characters and settings adapted from SD Gundam's expanding toy, trading card, and manga lines, including the Musha, Knight, and Command sub-franchises.^[8][3] This shift enabled later shorts to move from stand-alone parodies to themed story arcs such asSengokuden andGaiden that blended fantasy or historical motifs with Gundam elements.^[3]

In an interview tied to the Blu-ray collection, director Tetsurō Amino and episode director Shinji Takamatsu explained that the team adjusted the approach over time: early works emphasized rapid-fire comedy, while later entries adopted more structured narratives to support an expanding SD Gundam "universe".^[9] Contemporary coverage and release notes around the DVD and Blu-ray box sets also document the compilation of theatrical shorts and OVAs from 1988 through 1993.^[7][10]

Between 1988 and 1993,SD Gundam was issued as short theatrical programs bundled with Sunrise features and as OVAs: the first two shorts opened withChar's Counterattack on March 12, 1988 (1988-03-12) (a third segment was added on video),^[11][12]SD Gundam's Counterattack followed withPatlabor: The Movie on July 15, 1989 (1989-07-15), introducing the animatedSD Sengokuden line,^[13][14] while the 1990 OVA cycle (Mark III–V) expandedSengokuden alongside gag shorts.^[15] In 1990–1991, four fantasy OVAs underSD Gundam Gaiden adapted the Knight Gundam arc,^[16] and the crossover shortMusha–Knight–Command: SD Gundam Scramble premiered withGundam F91 on March 16, 1991 (1991-03-16) (14 min).^[17][18] The anthology featureMobile Suit SD Gundam Festival opened on March 13, 1993 (1993-03-13), comprisingSD Command Chronicles II: Gundam Force Super G-ARMS Final Formula vs Noumugather,SD Gundam Gaiden: Seikihei Monogatari (Chs. 1–2, 53 min), andSD Sengokuden: Tenka Taihei-hen (15 min).^[19][20][21]

On television,TV Tokyo aired an eight-episode compilationDo Your Best! The SD Gundam March from February 9 to March 30, 1993.^[22][23] For home video, Bandai Visual first issued theMobile Suit SD Gundam Collection Box on November 23, 2007,^[24] followed by the four-discG-SELECTION Mobile Suit SD Gundam DVD-BOX on July 22, 2011,^[25][26] and the limitedSD Gundam Blu-ray Collection Box on November 12, 2021, sold via A-on STORE and Premium Bandai; the compilation omits the theatrical parodySD Gundam SD Wacky Races.^[27][28] In Japan, catalog streaming is available intermittently on Bandai Channel and FOD.^[29][30]

The complete list of works are as follows:^[31]

Contemporary professional reviews of the late-1980s shorts are scarce online, but later coverage has characterized the series as a formative, long-lived pillar of the SD sub-brand. Japanese entertainment press reported renewed interest around archival releases: AV Watch highlighted Sunrise's HD-remastered DVD box in 2007 as the first comprehensive home-video treatment for the shorts, positioning it alongside high-profileGundam restorations and noting SD's distinct super-deformed appeal within the franchise's catalog.^[33] In 2021,Comic Natalie's coverage of the Blu-ray collection again framed the shorts as enduring works and detailed the scope of the set, reflecting sustained audience and archival value decades after release.^[34]

Official retrospectives and staff interviews further emphasize how the shorts' early parody skits evolved into more structured narratives that broadened the SD line's appeal. In a Bandai Namco Filmworks interview tied to the 2021 Blu-ray, directors Tetsurō Amino and Shinji Takamatsu discussed the transition from rapid-fire gags to themed arcs such asSengokuden andGaiden, describing how this shift helped cement SD's identity for fans beyond simple pastiche.^[35]Gundam.info's editorial "Gundam School" series likewise presents the shorts as works that "leap beyond pure parody", crediting early installments and the 1989 theatricalSD Gundam's Counterattack with driving SD popularity at the time.^[36][37]

In English-language retrospectives, analyses ofGundam's media mix and visual language frequently cite the SD shorts as emblematic of late-1980s experimentation with parody, deformation, and transmedia merchandising. A University of Iowa study on digital technology and anime form references the shortDecisive Battle Chapter: SD Olympic!! in a discussion of stylization tropes, situating SD's humor and visual compression within broader trends in animation aesthetics.^[38] More broadly, a DiGRA case study of theGundam franchise highlights SD as a durable transmedia vector that reinforced brand longevity through toys, cards, and video releases, underscoring the shorts' role in expanding audience touchpoints beyond the mainline series.^[39]

• Mobile Suit SD Gundam Web (Japanese)
• Gundam

• 1988 anime films
• 1988 anime OVAs
• 1989 anime films
• 1990 anime OVAs
• 1991 anime films
• 1993 anime films
• SD Gundam
• Sunrise (studio)
• 1993 films
• 1991 films
• 1989 films
• 1988 films

• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Japanese-language text