Mobile Suit SD Gundam is a series of animated shorts released in theaters and as original video animation between 1988 and 1993 by Sunrise. Part of the SD Gundam media franchise, the anime was based on the popular Gashapon capsule toys and model kits being released by Bandai at the time. The shorts initially parody stories and characters from the Gundam franchise with super deformed forms of Gundam characters and mecha. Starting with 1989's Mobile Suit SD Gundam's Counterattack, the series began featuring a regularly appearing set of SD Gundam characters based on existing SD Gundam toys, Carddass trading cards and manga series, notably from the Command Gundam, Knight Gundam, and Musha Gundam sub-franchises.