The most popular Gundam anime is free to stream

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 29 seconds ago

Gundam is one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises, dating back to 1979. Gundam mobile suitand over that time it’s filled with different timelines, but there’s one that stands out among the rest, for better or for worse. After the Gundam X war set in a post-apocalyptic world, it explores the franchise’s themes of war and suffers in a different direction, namely after the damage has already been done. On paper, it sounds like a great canvas to paint another sci-fi masterpiece, but in practice, any good idea is immediately undermined by the worst pacing in franchise history and a disaster of an ending.

Post-apocalyptic Gundam

After the war Gundam X starts off with mercenary Garrod Ren on a simple rescue mission to save a young girl, Tiffa, but because he doesn’t have much information about her, you can see one of the twists coming a mile away. Sure enough, Garrod ends up joining the Vultures, the group that held Tiff, after his client tipped his hand. It is the standard beginning of countless animebut the biggest problem is that even a mecha battle in a nuclear power plant about to explode can’t beat the painfully slow pace.

There’s no intrigue between the rival factions trying to restore civilization, and while the Vultures are interesting characters, it takes over a dozen episodes to get there. After the Gundam X war it 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 long since given up. The back third of the 36-episode run kicks in to make up for it, cramming all the good parts of the story into 12 episodes, but it’s not enough to redeem the show.

Short and undeveloped

Cramming in multiple episodes worth of character development, reveals, and mecha fights is incredibly awkward, and it’s clear that wasn’t the original plan. After the Gundam X war it flopped when it first aired in Japan in 1996 and the episode count was reduced from 49 to 39 as a result. The storylines are not developed but there is a compelling ending, it just has to accept the bleakness and anger of the world instead, ending on a hopeful, inspirational note other Gundam show. As a Gundam deconstruction, it works, but it’s not even enough to rise to the level of a hidden gem.

Garrod, Tiffa, Jamil, Ennil, Roybea, none of the characters After the Gundam X war appear on fan lists of the main characters from the franchise, and even the Gundam models, including the GX-9901-DX and its satellite cannon attack on the moon, haven’t left much of an impression on fans. As a result, it’s one of the more obscure entries in the long-running franchise, ranking even below Mobile suit compilation moviesand while it will appeal mainly to completionists, there are worse anime options. In keeping with his status as the forgotten black sheep of the franchise, After the Gundam X war not streaming on Netflix or Crunchyroll like the others, but free on Tubi, so at least it’s cheap to watch.