Background
Kidou Senshi Gundam was not popular when it first aired, and came close to being cancelled. The series was originally set to run for 52 episodes but was cut down to 39 by the show's sponsors, but the staff was able to negotiate an extension to end the series with 43 episodes. When Bandai bought the copyrights to build plastic models for the show's mecha things changed and the show became popular. It revolutionized the genre by portraying mecha as piloted military weaponry with real-world scientific basis instead of superheroes' giant robots. Often referred to as the 'real robot' genre, it became the norm for mecha anime in the following years after its release. The series was the first winner of the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize, in 1979 and the first half of 1980.