This article is a follow-up to my previous post from 2023, building upon that initial research. We’ll once again be taking a look at the history of Charma (Char x Garma) and Charmuro (Char x Amuro), two of the most popular and influential BL pairings in Gundam, using doujinshi (self-published print works made by fans) as the point of reference. This time, I also wanted to view these two pairings within the wider scope of UC Gundam fan works, as well as update the old numbers.
As a disclaimer, I of course wasn’t involved in the fandom, much less the Japanese fandom, during the periods of time I’m discussing, and as such my judgements are solely based on the data I could find and not personal experience.
Where does this data come from?
Before we get into the results, I want to quickly explain where I pulled this information from for the purposes of transparency.
My sources are:
- Surugaya
- Mandarake
- YJA Auction Listings (current and old)
- pixiv (ads for printed books only)
- Toranoana and similar shopping sites
For determining release date, I either go by what is on the cover/interior (if shown), or what is listed in the store or auction description. I also rely on these sources to tell me if a book includes the pairing I’m looking for, as it’s hard to know any other way unless the cover makes it obvious.
In the case of anthologies, I include them if a work with the specific pairing is known to be in the publication, especially in the case of older doujinshi from the 1980s where the anthology format was more common.
It’s important to mention here that my data pulls are NOT comprehensive by any means. I exclude any books that have no release date listed, are digital only, or have no cover. Plus it’s just not possible to find every single doujinshi ever made, since many older ones probably have no trace online anywhere. There is also some inherent bias in using a second hand source, but unless I find a complete catalog somewhere, this is the best I’ve been able to do for the moment.
The sample size used is roughly 3000 books. Full spreadsheet with all of my data is linked here.
How are these books categorized?
Doujinshi like these are often broadly categorized as “For Men” and “For Women”. You see this both in physical locations such as Mandarake brick and mortar stores, online on websites like Toranoana, and even at events like Comiket itself. Books featuring BL pairings like Charma and Charmuro fall under “For Women”. For the purposes of this study, I relied on the classification provided by each store/source.
For simplicity’s sake, I also combined all variations on a pair within the same category. For example, “Charmuro” here also includes doujinshi that features the reverse, “Amuchar” (Amuro x Char).
What counts as a UC Gundam themed doujinshi?
Any doujinshi featuring characters from the following as the majority focus:
- Mobile Suit Gundam (1979)
- Zeta Gundam
- Gundam ZZ
- Char’s Counterattack
- War in the Pocket
- F91
- Stardust Memory
- Victory Gundam
- 08th MS Team
- Zeta: New Translation
- Gundam: The Origin
- Crossbone
- Unicorn
- Narrative
- Hathaway’s Flash
The Graphs
Charma vs Charmuro
Plotting just the updated Charma and Charmuro data gives the following result, both by year and by decade.
You also probably noticed the large spike in a category I labeled 198X. This is because I know the book’s publishing circle was active in the 1980s (among other context clues) but I don’t know the exact date.
As before, the dominance of Charma in the 1980s and later Charmuro in the 2000s is obvious, though interestingly they’ve leveled out somewhat in recent years.
All UC Doujinshi
Adding in other UC Gundam doujinshi on the same graph gives this result.
General (F) includes all other BL pairing focused doujinshi, along with other books targeted towards a female audience. General (M) is books targeted towards a male audience.
In terms of percentages, here’s how those numbers stack up (there may be slight errors due to rounding):
| Year | Char x Amuro | Char x Garma | General (F) | General (M) |
| 1979-1989 | 1.1 | 37.7 | 25 | 36.2 |
| 1990-1999 | 0 | 1.1 | 21 | 77.9 |
| 2000-2009 | 31.3 | 2.6 | 24.7 | 41.4 |
| 2010-2019 | 36.1 | 7.4 | 22.6 | 33.9 |
| 2020-2023 | 18.8 | 21.8 | 22.4 | 37.1 |
We can see now that the sudden boom in the early 2000s not only affected Charmuro, it was across all UC-themed books.
Other pairings
Just for fun, here’s a quick look at some of the other somewhat popular pairings I noticed in the General (F) category with their own dedicated graphs. Note the scale bars aren’t consistent.
Graph Overlays
The popularity of a series or pairing in fandom is usually a direct result of what media was being released at the time. In this section, I will be taking the previous graphs and overlaying release dates of shows/movies, as well as home video releases in order to spot possible correlations.
TV/Movies/OVA/Manga
Here’s an overview of the release dates of Gundam shows, movies, and manga in the Universal Century timeline.
| Year | Title | Format | Category |
| 1979 – 1980 | Mobile Suit Gundam (TV) | TV | Universal Century |
| 1981 | Mobile Suit Gundam I | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1981 | Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1982 | Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1985 – 1986 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam | TV | Universal Century |
| 1986 – 1987 | Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ | TV | Universal Century |
| 1988 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1989 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket | OVA | Universal Century |
| 1991 | Mobile Suit Gundam F91 | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1991 – 1992 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory | OVA | Universal Century |
| 1992 | Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: The Last Blitz of Zeon | Movie | Universal Century |
| 1993 – 1994 | Mobile Suit Victory Gundam | TV | Universal Century |
| 1996 – 1999 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team | OVA | Universal Century |
| 1998 | The 08th MS Team: Miller’s Report | Movie | Universal Century |
| 2000 | G-Saviour | TV Movie | Universal Century |
| 2001 | Gundam Neo Experience 0087: Green Divers | Movie | Universal Century |
| 2001 – 2011 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Manga | Manga | Origin |
| 2004 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation – Heirs to the Stars | Movie | Universal Century |
| 2005 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation II – Lovers | Movie | Universal Century |
| 2006 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation III – Love Is the Pulse of the Stars | Movie | Universal Century |
| 2005 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Manga: To War (Beginning) – Tankōbon | Manga | Origin |
| 2010-2014 | Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn | OVA | Universal Century |
| 2013 | The 08th MS Team: Battle in Three Dimensions | OVA | Universal Century |
| 2015 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Blue-Eyed Casval | OVA | Origin |
| 2015 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Artesia’s Sorrow | OVA | Origin |
| 2016 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Dawn of Rebellion | OVA | Origin |
| 2016 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Eve of Destiny | OVA | Origin |
| 2017 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Clash at Loum | OVA | Origin |
| 2018 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA – Rise of the Red Comet | OVA | Origin |
| 2019 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin –Advent of the Red Comet (TV) | TV | Origin |
| 2021 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash | Movie | Universal Century |
Taking the notable ones from this list and overlaying them with the graphs gives the following.
Home Video Releases
Likewise, here’s some relevant dates for Gundam releases on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-ray, mostly focusing on old UC.
| Year | Title | Format | Category |
| 1982 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy | VHS | Universal Century |
| 1987 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy Box Set | LaserDisc | Universal Century |
| 1990 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | VHS | Universal Century |
| 1990 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | LaserDisc | Universal Century |
| 1990 – 1991 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy | LaserDisc | Universal Century |
| 1994 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam vol. 1-13 | VHS | Universal Century |
| 1994 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Memorial Box Part 1 & 2 | LaserDisc | Universal Century |
| 1996 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: vol. 1-12 | LaserDisc | Universal Century |
| 1998 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy Box Set | VHS | Universal Century |
| 2000 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy Special Edition Box Set | DVD | Universal Century |
| 2001 | Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Box Set | DVD | Universal Century |
| 2001 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | DVD | Universal Century |
| 2005 – 2006 | Zeta New Translation | DVD | Universal Century |
| 2006 – 2007 | Mobile Suit Gundam TV Series Box Sets | DVD | Universal Century |
| 2011 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
| 2012 | Zeta New Translation | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
| 2013 | Mobile Suit Gundam TV Series | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
| 2014 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
| 2015-2017 | Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA | DVD/Blu-ray | Origin |
| 2019 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
| 2020 | Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy (4k Ultra) | Blu-ray | Universal Century |
Taking the notable ones from this list and overlaying them with the graphs gives the following.
Influences on Popularity
It’s important to remember that doujinshi releases are just one small part of a much, much larger fandom. That said, here are some of my theories based on what I now know.
Charma vs Charmuro
In a contemporary sense, BL developed in the 1970s as a subgenre of shoujo manga (shounen-ai), with works from this period focusing on romantic relationships between beautiful, androgynous men. A great example is Kaze to Ki no Uta by Keiko Takemiya. The mid 1970s and 80s were also the very first years of Comic Market (Comiket), an event that would become the largest doujinshi convention in the world. Influenced by these works, these early years were very popular for creators of what became known as yaoi doujinshi. Mobile Suit Gundam’s original run in 1979-1980 fell right within this window, and hence the early boom of Charma-related works. Aside from the obvious early 1980s dominance, I think a combination of the Origin manga (notably the flashback chapters) and OVAs helped revive the pairing, as well as increased accessibility of Mobile Suit Gundam on DVD and Blu-Ray.
Of course by the early 2000s, the landscape of BL and doujinshi had changed considerably. The genre itself had become more mainstream and more modern tropes had begun to take hold. This, combined with a new generation becoming exposed to Gundam for the first time through the Gundam Big Bang Project (more on that below) in my opinion played a big role in the influx of Charmuro works right at the turn of the millennium. It’s also impossible to ignore the apparent influence of the Zeta: A New Translation films on the pairing’s popularity.
UC Gundam, the whole picture
Adding in the rest of UC doujinshi from this time period puts into perspective just how massive said 2000s boom was UC fans as a whole.The spike in works of doujinshi for male audiences is even more drastic and for Charmuro in the early years of the new millennium. The question is though, why?
The Mobile Suit Gundam compilation movies, Zeta, and Char’s Counterattack all released on DVD in 2000-2001 for the first time as part of Sunrise’s Big Bang Project to celebrate Gundam’s 20th anniversary. Judging from the numbers, it seems reasonable to believe that this celebration may have helped kickstart the popularity of UC Gundam for a new generation. I also have to wonder if new fans being introduced to Gundam through AU spin-offs like Wing and SEED played a role as well.
I think it’s also worth mentioning again how much the Zeta: A New Translation films seemingly changed the landscape. Counting Charma, Charmuro, and all other works in General (F), doujinshi for a female audience far surpassed those for men from 2005-2010, in contrast to the years prior.
Finally, we can cross-reference this with the Comiket data. Judging by attendance numbers, doujinshi sales were also more popular than ever, as until the 2020 pandemic, Comiket participation rose or held steady nearly every year. New technology and accessible printing services have made the production of these books easier than ever.
Final Thoughts
Over a year ago, I dove into the history of Charma and Charmuro in an attempt to provide concrete data of when each rose to popularity. Now in 2024, I hope this expanded research gives the whole timeline a little more context, and acts as a fun snapshot into the history of one small part of the UC Gundam fandom.
I just want to reiterate again that this article is not meant to serve as a comprehensive resource, but rather one person’s effort to dig into the data and see what it tells us. If you take anything from all this, I hope it’s an increased appreciation for Charma, Churmuro, doujinshi as a whole, and their place in Gundam fandom history.
Published: October 31, 2024