History
In a pre-production memo, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino wrote that the first series takes place in 2066 AD, which would have the Universal Century calendar starting in 1988 AD. However, a "2079" date stamp in the first Gundam series' episode 26 and a "2087" date stamp in Zeta Gundam's episode 8 indicated a 2001 starting date(but not necessarily AD). The date stamps were not included in the subsequent movie versions of these series, and these dates have since been contradicted by later works.
Based on a dated newspaper shown in the last episode of the Gundam 0080 OVA series written by Gainax's Hiroyuki Yamaga (Monday, January 14, 0080) and in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Axis Zeon became Neo Zeon on 29th Feb, 0088, the Universal Century can be pinpointed to begin in several specific years, including 2053, 2081, 2109, and 2149. In the Universal Century chronology, the last dated entry of the AD system was 2045 AD, leading to the common misconception that U.C. 0001 followed immediately afterwards. A few early unofficial sources even listed U.C. 0001 as 2046 AD (or even 2045), but current official materials indicate the presence of a gap of years between the AD and U.C. calendar systems. Therefore the first year of the Universal Century calendar is deduced on the official Gundam website in North America as being 2053, 2081, 2109, or possibly later, meaning U.C. 0079 would correspond to 2131, 2159, 2187, or later.
Read more about this topic: Universal Century
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