the one and only gundam that got me interested in the gundam world:
S-ex gundam from gundam sentinel!
this is i think the first katoki designed gundam(correct me if i am wrong).
there were no tv series, only novels with some model scene as illustration
published under Model Graphix. at that time, the design and also the model
building technique was simply amazing(details please refer to the novels,
and its graphical model illustration book). that was da first step into the
katoki style of gundam like the GFFs we have today. and at that time, the
design of the S-ex, zeta plus, FAZZ, deep striker etc.
Let alone the mecha design took a quantum leap from the likes of zeta,
and double zeta, the story of G-sentinel is also very realistic. gone was the
idea of transforming in battle like Z and ZZ, but rather in S, most of the time
S has to fully transformed before it can be put into battle. And the only instance
which S transforms in mid-battle, Z plus pilot has to sacrifies himself to shield
S from being hit while transforming. This is only one instance of the style of
S in the novel. And only until recently like 5 yrs ago that bandai was able
to buy back the S copyright from model graphix to begin its S-line up products
from MG to the most recent GFF z-plus. the history of the gundam sentinel as
a unique piece in the gundam universe being one of the most popular non-tv
series gundam, the quality and ground breaking production and the emergence
of mr katoki and the spectacular and timeless mecha design in s-ex, z-plus,
deep strike etc are still among the most popular mecha designs of all gundam fans.