Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino: Young animators must “crush” Hayao Miyazaki
Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, encouraged young professionals to "crush" Hayao Miyazaki and surpass him. Tomino's comments are praise for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli…
Mobile Suit Gundam (Gundam 0079) has aged well. Start there. The compilation movies are good if you don't feel like diving into the whole series.
That's exactly where I was going to start, the 1979 original.