One among Gundam’s Most Underrated Sequence Is Lastly Streaming

For western audiences, Nineties Gundam can largely be outlined by one sequence: Gundam Wing, the sixth main entry within the franchise, and the one that may set the stage for the mecha series’ rise within the west by means of its landmark broadcast run on Cartoon Community in 2000. However only a yr after Wing aired in Japan, Gundam returned with an entire new sequence—one that always flies below the radar as one of many sequence’ most intriguing additions.

After Struggle Gundam X first broadcast in Japan in 1996, and is now, outdoors of Blu-ray releases a number of years in the past, lastly making its worldwide streaming debut for free on Tubi this month. Set in what was on the time Gundam‘s third alternate timeline—i.e, not being a part of the “Common Century” continuity that the primary 4 Gundam sequence had been all a part of—after Wing and its predecessor G Gundam, Gundam X picks up a decade and a half after a lethal interstellar battle has ravaged the Earth and its area colonies. Following a younger scavenger named Garrod Ran, one in every of many survivors eking a dwelling by scavenging and repairing remnant mobile suits from the battle’s aftermath, Garrod discovers the titular Gundam X and crosses paths with the crew of the battleship Freeden and wrapped up of their goals to safeguard a handful of Newtypes, developed people who’ve developed enhanced notion from dwelling in area, from being exploited by numerous emergent factions seeking to thrust the Earth Sphere into interstellar battle as soon as extra.

Whereas Gundam‘s prior alternate universes in Wing and G Gundam solely carried free parallels to the framework of the worldbuilding of the Common Century—principally within the type of battle between Earth and area colonies, and, after all, big mecha—Gundam X was the primary of the alternate universes to actually explicitly grapple with one in every of Gundam‘s most fascinating concepts within the type of Newtypes, each in taking the literal identify (different AU Gundam reveals have explored the idea by means of completely different lenses and names, after all) for these enhanced people and in addition in analyzing their place on the planet past their exploitation as belongings of battle. Though on the time Gundam X had combined reception—it ran for simply 39 episodes, truncated from a deliberate 49, and was in the end overshadowed within the west fully by the success of Gundam Wing, by no means receiving an English-language dub—in years because it’s been re-examined and appreciated for its place in the wider oeuvre of Gundam‘s alternate timelines.

Of the trifecta of ’90s Gundam AUs (placing apart X‘s direct successor, 1999’s anniversary sequence Flip A Gundam, a sequence that, whereas in its personal continuity, largely performs with concepts connecting itself to the unique timeline and the broader Gundam franchise), it’s the one which’s arguably essentially the most in dialog with the unique Cellular Swimsuit Gundam and its own direct successors in Zeta and Double Zeta. It’s properly value testing, particularly as Tubi’s free—and hopefully an indication that, even when a whole lot of Gundam‘s large hitters are all presently touchdown on different streaming properties, we may see a number of extra entries from the franchise get a highlight on Tubi too (the aforementioned Flip A, a franchise spotlight, is in determined want of a streaming residence!).

You possibly can try After Struggle Gundam X on Tubi here.

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