Now some good news to temporarily forget about YTV's official take-down of their anime content. Sort of.

As most of us have been aware for a while, Bandai's announced that they're doing limited-run free streams for Mobile Suit Gundam(the original series), Zeta Gundam, Gundam Wing, both Gundam SEED series, and the first season of Gundam 00(the one Gundam series which has evaded free Canadaian viewing which has been officially localized). I believe I've had a conniption fit about this problem, blaming YTV's incompetence and alleging Sunrise was pissed off royally with their cuts to SEED Destiny as to why we haven't gotten it. Could be Superchannel, could be Corus. Besides the new stream will only be EP01-26. Since it's going to be incomplete(completist talking here) I'm only interested in three of the six shows: Mobile Suit Gundam, Zeta Gundam, and Gundam Wing. I already own Gundam SEED and GSD(and Final Plus) on DVD. Bandai's going to air subs/dubs for five of the six shows, but dub only for Mobile Suit Gundam(read below as to a relatively educated guess why). This all as promotion for Gundam UC/Universal Century/Unicorn, the series of OVAs that are being released this year.

So far, Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam are viewable up here in Canada on Crunchyroll and ANN respectively.

Bandai's official site gives a calendar of sorts as to when to expect which series, moreso than ANN's article from Monday:
http://www.b-ch.com/contents/gundam-unicorn/?xm=5&xr=13

Check the "Schedule" button, the whole stream release itenerary is there for Anime News Network, Crunchyroll and Youtube.

For those who don't want to check the grid, here's the itenerary of release dates:
=ANN video=
February 1st 2010: Zeta Gundam sub(ends on April 22nd 2010)
February 20th 2010: Mobile Suit Gundam dub, Gundam SEED sub(ends April 22nd 2010)
April 22nd 2010: Gundam SEED Destiny sub(ends May 30th 2010)

=Crunchyroll=
February 1st 2010: Mobile Suit Gundam dub(ends April 22nd 2010)
February 20th 2010: Zeta Gundam sub, Gundam 00 Season 1 sub(ends April 22nd 2010)
March 25th 2010: Gundam Wing sub(ends May 30th 2010)

=Youtube=
February 20th 2010: Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam dub(ends March 25th 2010)
March 25th 2010: Gundam 00 Season 1 and Gundam SEED dub(ends April 22nd 2010)
April 22nd 2010: Gundam Wing and Gundam SEED Destiny dub(ends May 30th 2010)

If you've not seen either of the first two series, you have until late March to see them (dubbed at least) without having to fork over wads of cash. Of these six offered shows, I had only seen Gundam SEED
(and Destiny). Matter of fact, Gundam SEED was the last show of the original 2004-05 YTV Bionix shows that I watched. Since the first two series streamed are from the Universal Century, and I prefer watching timeline-specific shows in order, I picked Mobile Suit Gundam first for watching online.

For those who shelled out the cash for the DVDs, the Gundam Original Series and Zeta Gundam streams are the same as the ones on the DVDs:
-ANN, Crunchyroll and Youtube are only airing the dub for the original Mobile Suit Gundam. This is probably because the original Japanese version has never been released in subbed form officially in either North America or Europe. For purists, that means one episode is missing - EP17 in the original order, IIRC. The episode never got dubbed by Ocean Group, and the reasons behind this have never been disclosed.

-Similar to all of it's current North American/European DVD releases, Zeta Gundam won't have the original OP and ED music due to music licencing troubles(fervent in a lot of 1970s-1980s series worldwide, even now in 2010 - royalties, various other huge troubles). Justin evakis has confirmed this on ANN's boards. He has also confirmed that the subtitled version will be using the original Japanese script and not those infamous 'dubtitles'(dubbed version script being used for the subtitles, glorified closed-captioning from what I understand) used on some of the earlier DVD releases.

With the exception of the forthcoming Gundam Unicorn/Universal Century/UC OVA series, these are I believe the only full-length series from the Universal Century timeline(the first Gundam timeline) to be officially released in North America/Europe at the moment. This does not count stand-alone sequel OVAs, movie retellings(glorified revisionist clip shows), and so on. The other two full-length series from the Universal Century timeline - 1986's Gundam ZZ(1986) and 1993's Victory Gundam - have never been released officially outside of Japan. Bandai should really look into their own backcatalog if there's no new shows worth picking up (after they eventually release Code Geass R2 and Gundam 00 Season 2). Or if there's no shows from the past five years which Funimation or ViZ haven't gotten the rights to.

Source: Bandai official site(for complete stream schedule), Justin Sevakis's ANN posts about the subs and music complications for Zeta Gundam)

So far, I'm liking The Original Series(when I posted this I was at EP11). This is the first time I've actually seriously coined the term "The Original Series" for something that's not Star Trek(even though every anime fan should know Gundam is essentially Trek's Japanese equivalent). Prior to now, I'd only watched Gundam SEED. The similarities to the two series's basic plot development(early on) are there, but only in how they initally progress. Having seen both series, I can now see why people crticize SEED for it's similarities to the original on this point. But only with how the story progresses at the start, and how that the main antagonist wears a mask. The characters and the story themselves are entirely different. Besides when the respective ships(White Base in Original, Archangel in SEED) get to Earth they no longer follow the parallel story-progession setup.
Both have an anti-war message, but this one's more implied, not as in-your-face with SEED(which had more angst, agony, pink-haired j-pop singer princesses named Lacus Clyne, lead protagonist actually having sexual relations in one ep, and so on). In in the episodes so far from the Original Series which I've watched, the anti-war comments are just brief and to the point. Oh how I've missed old-school hand-drawn animation. And the combination of orchestras with synthesizer, electric guitar/bass, and basic rock-style drumkit/e-drums.

The fact that they have a cut-off date nullifies this as a form of "progress", as far as I'm concerned.

And why do you keep going on about distributors being pissed off about YTV making edits? That makes absolutely no sense.

SITTING on an ATOMIC BOMB

Victory, ZZ along with GundamX and Turn-A are always going to be seen as "failures" in the eyes of Bandai because of low model/merch sales related to the series at the time of their airing over there. It's part of the reason why SEED will never die because people are still buying the kits and what not over in Japan today.

The chances of them being dubbed and/or released on DVD in North America is slim to none at this point. I will say that of those four that ZZ has the best shot since it's the story in between Zeta and Char's counter-attack so it only makes sense for it to be the one.

Gundam Plus II. Forums open to Gundam and any other anime related talk plus a possible way for us to "stick together" while the site is under the bot attack

@Theodormin: Ah, right...the merchandizing. I was just generally musing about how the shows could get an English release, not taking into account the merchandizing aspect as well for international distribution. That's what happens when you get older...one tends to forget about the merchandising factor with a show like this :P. I'm 24, I turn 25 on June 9th.

I've been reading up on ANN's boards that Zeta has a bad dub...just how 'bad' is it? It might speed up my marathon run for the original series if I know ahead of time. I have a penchance to go for dubs, but I can work with subs, either if a dub's non-existant/unavaialble or if the dub's really bad in the eyes(or ears?) of more than just the 'sub-only' fanbase.

Seconded. From the few episodes I've seen it's not the best but it could always be worse. The biggest issue I've always heard of from Gundam fans is the change with the op and end (though I've heard they put them back in for the anime legends dvd sets) since the fanbase considers Zeta to be the be all and end all of all the Gundam Series.

Well, Gundam is just nothing but a big commercial for Model kits and action figures. ;)

Gundam Plus II. Forums open to Gundam and any other anime related talk plus a possible way for us to "stick together" while the site is under the bot attack

No, just implied that he did and he went underground in the time between MSG and Zeta.

He's not even spoken of during 0083 despite that taken place in between MSG and Zeta.

Gundam Plus II. Forums open to Gundam and any other anime related talk plus a possible way for us to "stick together" while the site is under the bot attack