I loved the original Mobile Suit Gundam show, but I found the other series a lot harder to get into. The WWII-flavoured drama applied onto Space Battleship Yamato's formula hit me just right. I sometimes wonder if there's a different magic in the franchise for other fans.

You might like Gundam Origin. It's a prequel to the OG story that explains Char's backstory

I don’t think it’s popular in the west though? It went through (still in?) an unusual phase where the target audience shifted to women and the protagonists became vaguely gay effeminate young men iirc