The Most Overlooked Gundam Anime is Free to Stream

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 29 seconds ago

Gundam is one of the longest running sci-fi franchises, dating back to 1979 with Gundam Mobile Suitand during that time, it is filled with different timelines, but there is one that stands out among the others, for better and for worse. After Gundam X War takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring the franchise’s themes of war and suffering from a different direction, namely, after the damage has already been done. On paper, that sounds like a great canvas to paint another sci-fi masterpiece series, but in practice, every good idea is immediately undermined by some of the worst pacing in franchise history and a disaster of an ending.

Post-Apocalyptic Gundam

After War Gundam X begins with mercenary Garrod Ren on a simple rescue mission to save a young girl, Tiffa, but since he doesn’t get much information about her, you can see one of the twists coming from a mile away. Sure enough, Garrod joins the Vultures, the group that held Tiffa, after his client tries his hand. It is a standard start to countless animebut the biggest problem is that even a mecha battle in a nuclear plant about to blow up can’t beat the painfully slow pace.

There is no conspiracy between the rival factions trying to rebuild civilization, and while the Vultures are interesting characters, it takes over a dozen episodes to get there. After Gundam X War eventually gets around to introducing Newtypes to this alternate universe, competing philosophies about the nature of humanity and governance, and the usual franchise staples, but by the time that happens, most viewers have given the best for a while. The back third of the 36-episode series starts to overdrive to compensate and jams all the good parts of the story into 12 episodes, but it’s not enough to redeem the show.

Cut short and undeveloped

Filling up multiple chapters worth of character development, revelations, and mecha combat is incredibly awkward, and clearly wasn’t the original plan. After Gundam X War it flopped in Japan when it first aired in 1996, and the episode count was cut as a result, from 49 to 39. Plots are not developed, but there is a definite ending, just embracing the bleakness and anger of the world instead ending on a hopeful note , inspired other Gundam shows. As a Gundam deconstruction, it works, but that’s not enough to rise even to the level of a hidden gem.

Garrod, Tiffa, Jamil, Ennil, Roybea, none of the characters from After Gundam X War appearing on any fanlistings of the best characters from the franchise, and even the Gundam models, including the GX-9901-DX and its satellite cannon attack based on the Moon, have failed to leave much of an impression on fans. As a result, it’s one of the more obscure entries in the long-running franchise, placing it below even the Mobile Suit collection filmsand while it will appeal mostly to completists, there are worse anime options out there. Befitting his status as the forgotten black sheep of the franchise, After Gundam X War It’s not streaming on Netflix or Crunchyroll like the rest, but free on Tubi, so at least it’s cheap to watch.