Posted by surprisetalk 12/2/2025
Many characters of that series of Karl May novels have a direct mapping, e.g.:
Old Shatterhand => Jake Sully
Winnetou => Neytiri (gender swapped)
tamed mustang => tamed flying dragon
and many others.
The second one developed its own story much better.
... I'll see myself out.
Gundam actual influences are well known, Tomino himself talked about it, more than one time. Gundam was inspired by WWII stories, but the direct source of inspiration is Gerard O’Neill’s “The High Frontier”, in which there is depicted the O'Neil Cylinder, whose design has been literally copied verbatim for Gundam's space stations/colonies.