Friday, December 22, 2017

FIF#46-After War Gundam X

After War 0015.  The Earth is now a barren wasteland in the wake of a war that destroyed 99% of the human race.  What’s left of Earth’s population survives any way they can.  Scavengers prowl the Earth surface in search of supplies, weapons and even Newtypes left over from the war’s aftermath.  Garrod Ran is a child born in the war’s aftermath.  When he discovers a beautiful Newtype girl named Tiffa Adill as well as the lost mobile suit Gundam X, Garrod finds himself thrust into the ranks of the scavenger group Vulture.  The goal of Vulture is simple: prevent the destruction of Earth from ever happening again.
 
After War Gundam X is an interesting entry in the Gundam Franchise in that it shares a few historical similarities with the original Mobile Suit Gundam Series.  X was the show that aired in the wake of Gundam Wing and was planned for a more traditional (at the time) 50 some odd episode run.  However, ratings were never nearly as strong as they were with Wing or it’s other predecessor, G Gundam, and after flopping back and forth between bad time slots, Gundam X was cancelled after 39 episodes, a similar fate which befell Mobile Suit Gundam which ended its run at 43 episodes, 7 short of its intended run.  For all the ratings drama, the question stands: did Gundam X deserve its fate and does its cancellation mean it’s a bad show?  After checking out the first couple of episodes I can say, in my opinion, that Gundam X holds a lot of promise when it comes to its story.  I think it could definitely keep me invested, even if the animation leaves a lot to be desired.
 
Gundam X is the first of the Alternate Universe Gundam shows (after G and Wing) to ask a very important “What If?”:  What if the One Year War had gone totally FUBAR and Zeon had carried out more colony attacks?  With a question like that, it’s easy to see why X and the original 1979 series have more similarities besides their abrupt endings.  Several images invoke the early episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam, from the colony drops to Garrod’s first ride in the titular Gundam X.  Thankfully, these omages don’t overshadow X’s potential in its story.  The Earth show in After War 0015 is as close to the end of days as you can get.  Often times I was thinking it reminded me of Mad Max, other times Trigun (though those two kind of go hand in hand don’t they?)  With the world on the brink of collapse around him, where scavengers are fighting each other to the death for the next big score, it’s amazing Garrod Ran is such a bright eyed optimist.  The kid seems a fan of “everything will work out” given he was born into this imperfect world right after it went to Hell.  And then there’s Tiffa.  Clearly, she’s this shows version of a Newtype, with precognitive abilities and some sort of spiritual connection to the Gundam.  The look of horror on her face after the X fired its big gun and left a field of glass, where there was once a forest, says it all.  She’s got the power but I doubt she knows how that power works or just how destructive it can be.  Garrod might not be an Amuro Ray but Tiffa definitely gives of vibes of an early Lalah Sune, without proper mastery of her abilities.  These two will clearly drive this show and I want to see where their journey takes them.
 
The animation department is where I can see the main problems I had with these intro episodes.  Gundam X looks a heckuva lot like Wing…sometimes.  Then there are moments where the pretty boy pilots Roybea and Witz look like they were plucked from Escaflowne, while Garrod’s Looney Tunes facial experession and hyperactivity remind me of Trigun again.  Then, of course, there are the aforementioned omages to the original Gundam series, which feel like reskins of familiar events (right down to the rise of the X and it’s initial glowing of the eyes upon activation) though they do have their differences.  Gundam has always been a long time title of Studio Sunrise.  So it’s kind of strange that X would look so inconsistent when it comes to finding its animation voice.  Gundam Wings animation might’ve gone all over the map, especially in the second half, but you could always tell it was trying to be serious and consistent.  Im hoping it will get better but like I said, the story seems to make up for this big shortcoming…for now anyway.
 
Upon initial watch, I can see why Gundam X is considered an overlooked title in the Gundam mythos.  It’s cancellation when it aired might raise a stink but, much like Joss Whedon’s Firefly, that doesn’t mean the show was bad enough to deserve it.  The What If scenario is fascinating and the setting you get from it is much bleaker than most Gundam shows, even the original series.  A pair of promising leads propel the story along a path that I hope doesn’t get to rough or even predictable.  I’m sure more original series nods will pop up but I cant see them overshadowing the here and now with Gundam X’s storyline (definitely now how they did for Gundam Seed).  I’ll have to look into checking this series out in full somehow.  Cause if im right, maybe this is the series Toonami should have gone with once Gundam Wing wrapped up it’s run (though G Gundam wasn’t a bad choice but that was two years after Wing aired…and a whole other discussion for another time).
 
See you next Friday for the conclusion of GundamCember, as well as the last First Impression Friday for a little while.

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