Zoids Reading
A lot of people come to this site and get a little confused about where to start. We have a lot of content to cover, a lot that we haven't even started on yet, and what you're looking for may not match all of that material. This page is here to help you figure out what reading material on the site best suits your interests!
Please Note: A lot of these pages rely on machine translations. If you're concerned about their content, please review each page for a machine translation disclaimer. We try to clearly mark everything that uses them.
Core Story:
Most of the core Zoids lore is centered around what we fans call the "Battle Story." The Battle Story was a set of books released that covered all of the OJR (1980s stuff) content, as well as a term referring to the bits of lore on the back of the boxes. The name was just kind of adopted by fans for the remainder of the media. We actually started somewhere in the middle, with the Zoids Fan Books, which covers most of the Zoids our typical fans are familiar with. Blade Liger, Geno Saurer, Liger Zero. The reading order generally goes something like this.
- Zoids Battle Story (Not yet started)
- Zoids Official Fan Books (Covers the newer story of Helic, Guylos, and Zenebas)
- Official Fan Book EX (Set of pamphlets that covered the continuation and end of the core Battle Story)
Peripheral Content
What about other stuff? After reading the story you might have additional questions for how it all works. How do Zoid Cores function? What are wild Zoids? How did the armies begin? For questions like these, you'll want to check out:
- The Zoids Bible (Zi History File)
But there's tons of other content, most of which isn't fully translated here. Nevertheless, here's a quick list of other media pertaining to this core literature that you might enjoy.
- Zoids Graphics (OJR) (Contains product info from the 1980s, build advice, and story content)
- MSS Zoids (Each kit contained some OJR story lore with the variation concepts from the old boxes.)
- NJR Box Lore (Contains product info, mechanical insights, and bits of the battle story.)
- Zoids Graphics (NJR) (Contains product info with lore and concept art relating to specific Zoids)
- Yuji Kaida Series (Each model had a couple paragraphs or so of story / lore content.)
- Smack Zoids! B-Part (A set of articles from DHM, containing concept art with stories and lore attached to it)
- HMM Lore (An alternate universe. Deep dives into Zoids lore and functionality, expanding on multiple series.)
Zoids Wild Era:
- Zoids Wild Box Lore (Each Zoid page contains any lore from the boxes.)
I want to read a story!
Some Zoids content serves as a stand-alone story, following a specific adventure with little interruption. Aside from the above-mentioned battle story, here's some other stories you might enjoy.
Traditional Zoids
- Zoids Generations (This light-novel-ish story with fantasy elements follows Midori and her Liger Zero, Souga.)
- Zoids Note Map (This supporting game material book also contained a short story about two pilots.)
Zoids Original Era
- Zoids Concept Art Books (This series retold the Zoids story during a reboot, with highly stylized CG renders.)
- Zoids Original (During the Zoids Original line, TT published these web stories related to each kit.)
Zoids Wild Era
- Zoids Wild Biographies (Each kit came with a story expanding on Wild Zero. Also the end of Senki's story.)
- Zombie-kun's Survival Guide (A Zoids Wild centric children's horror story about a zombified Liger!)
Insights Into The Company
Aside from general lore-based reading material, we've also covered a few interviews with leading staff. This can give you a look inside the company's history with Zoids. Learn about how certain products came to be, what their inner thought process was for decisions you may've found strange, and gain knowledge about the technical limitations and ambitions of the company.
- CoroCoro Interviews (Currently wild-centric interviews with Tokuyama, one of the lead creators.)
- HMM 3rd Public Product Meeting (Covers the moment Gojulas was decided, questions, fan input, and news.)
- The Art of HMM (Currently contains an interview with HMM staff about the inner workings of Kotobukiya.)
- CG World (An interview with the staff and animators of Zoids Genesis and its CG works.)
- Figure King 299 (A huge 2023 interview with staff containing product lineups, concept art, and more.)
- Hobby Search Anniversary Interview (Dives into the logistics and imagination that went into the AZ line)
