By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Gundam is one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises, dating back to 1979 with Mobile Suit Gundam, and during that time, it’s been filled with with different timelines, but there’s one that stands out among the others, for better and for worse. After War Gundam X takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring the franchise’s themes of war and suffering from a different direction, namely, after the damage is already 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 the franchise’s history and a disaster of an ending.
Post-Apocalyptic Gundam
After War Gundam X starts off with mercenary Garrod Ren on a simple rescue mission to save a young girl, Tiffa, but since he isn’t given much information about her, you can see one of the twists coming from a mile away. Sure enough, Garrod ends up joining the Vultures, the group that was holding Tiffa, after his client tips their hand. It’s a standard start to countless anime, but the biggest issue is that not even a mecha battle at a nuclear plant about to blow can overcome the painfully slow pacing.
There’s no intrigue between the competing factions attempting to rebuild civilization, and while the Vultures are interesting characters, it takes over a dozen episodes to get there. After War Gundam X eventually gets around to introducing Newtypes into 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 given up. The back third of the 36-episode series kicks into 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
Cramming multiple episodes worth of character development, revelations, and mecha fights is incredibly awkward, and it’s clear that it wasn’t the original plan. After War Gundam X flopped in Japan when it first aired in 1996, and the episode count was trimmed as a result, from 49 to 39. Plotlines are undeveloped, but there is a conclusive ending, it just has to embrace the bleakness and anger of the world instead of ending on the hopeful, inspirational note of other Gundam shows. As a deconstruction of Gundam, it works, but that isn’t enough to even rise to the level of a hidden gem.
Garrod, Tiffa, Jamil, Ennil, Roybea, none of the characters from After War Gundam X appear on any fanlistings of top characters from the franchise, and even the Gundam models, including the GX-9901-DX and its Moon-based satellite cannon attack, failed to leave much of an impression on fans. As a result, this is one of the most obscure entries in the long-running franchise, ranking beneath even the Mobile Suit compilation movies, and though it will mostly appeal to completionists, there are worse anime options out there. Befitting its status as the forgotten black sheep of the franchise, After War Gundam X isn’t streaming on Netflix or Crunchyroll like the rest, but for free on Tubi, so at least it’s cheap to check out.
