After War Gundam X Part 2 Episodes 6-10

Armed with the powerful Mobile Suit Gundam X, Garrod Ran joins the Vulture crew of the Freeden.  Being a loner all his life, adjustment is difficult and it’s not long before Garrod is questioning his new lifes direction.  But there are those looking to take advantage of that weakness.  New enemies looking to steal or destroy his prized Gundam emerge, testing Garrod’s resolve.  But the real prize is Tiffa Adill, a beautiful young Newtype trying to regain her lost humanity.  In a world gone to hell, the growing love between Garrod and Tiffa might be the spark the Earth needs to begin life anew.

Jeez that was a doozy of a cliffhanger to end things on.  I know I’m jumping ahead but wow, I did not expect Gundam X to go that far by pushing Garrod and his trusty weapon of mass destruction into a hopeless defeat 10 episodes in.  Could we be looking at the eventual Double X upgrade next time?  Wait, wait, it’s like I’m closing out the review before it’s begun.  Let’s take it back.

Gundam X’s second set of episodes was enjoyable despite one very glaring flaw but we’ll touch on that momentarily.  This time it was about Garrod learning to let go of his lone wolf mentality and coming to terms with being part of a crew that could become a family he never had.  Of course, that was a long, winding road for Garrod to navigate to get there.  While I know the show isn’t completely leaning on the Universal Century What If scenario and is trying to be it’s own thing, it’s hard not to compare Garrod’s plight to Amuro’s in Mobile Suit Gundam at this point.  The difference between Amuro and Garrod when it comes to them abandoning their motherships is with Amuro, it was bratty, spoiled arrogance in his abilities.  With Garrod, it’s the fact that he’s been on his own for so long in this war torn world that he doesn’t know how to ask for help, work as part of a crew or even express concern normally.  Running away with the X after Jamil nearly died saving him kind of makes sense.  Garrod tries to return to the way things were before he met Tiffa and acquired his Gundam.  By the end of this set though, I think he’s aware those days are gone and, hopefully, aren’t coming back.

Garrod skipping out on the crew led him to possibly the sexiest character ever to walk a post apocalyptic landscape: Ennil El.  God what a woman.  A charmer with a small army at her disposal (or rather she HAD one), Ennil is a beauty to be reckoned with and damn if you cross her or break her heart.  Not sure about her hitting on Garrod but then again apparently Haman Kahn had a thing for Judau Ashita in Gundam ZZ so nothing new there.  Still, Ennil was the ultimate temptress and I’m glad Garrod stuck to his feelings for Tiffa and resisted this older beauty.  Thankfully, Ennil survived that clever maneuver Garrod and Jamil used to eliminate her forces and I hope she’ll have more of a role to play in the future.  Also back were the Frost Brothers: Shagia and Olba.  Their meeting with Garrod has some echoes of Amuro’s meeting with Ramba Ral, especially a line that’s a direct callback to that important moment in Gundam, “You won by the Gundams power, not your own skill”.  I think the Frost’s are too devious to be the likeable adversary that Ral was.  Theyre in this for their own pride it seems, or is it?  Guess we’ll learn more about them later.

We got some good action in these episodes, especially towards the end.  Garrod’s become quite popular attracting the wrath of Ennil and the Frosts because the forest fight was an epic three way battle that pushed everyone to their limits.  We got good glimpses of how effective each fighting force was with Garrod and Jamil working together to decimate everything and some good teamwork between Witz and Roy, furthering evidence that they’ve been teaming up quite often before this series got started.  The real doozy though, that ending.  Jarrod faced a “true” Newtype (I say “true” because I’m not sure about the extent of the Frost boys’ abilities).  Carrius is a scary kid and the way he nearly blew apart the Gundam X was terrifying.  I don’t know why it phases me so much because I’ve seen the devastation a Newtype on the side of evil can cause.  This was next level and were it not for the fact that we’re on Episode 10 out of 39, id say Garrod has had it, along with that poor Gundam X.  That does bring me back to the question of whether or not this means we’ll see the Gundam Double X sooner rather than later.  We know that kid genius mechanic Kid Salsamille has a ton of spare parts around that could be used to make that upgrade possible.  I guess we’ll see.

So I did enjoy this set a lot but something did kind of bug me.  What is this show’s endgame or ultimate goal?  Right now Jamil wants to try and rescue every Newtype he can but to what end?  Who is the big bad of this series and what kind of threat could they pose to the rest of the Earth and maybe even space?  By Episode 10 these questions still haven’t been answered.  In Mobile Suit Gundam, it was the war against Zeon.  In Zeta Gundam, it was the war against the Titans.  Even in G and Wing, it was a tournament and a battle against a shadowy organization respectively.  X needs to start giving us a bit more of an idea of where the show is heading.  It doesn’t have as long as other shows have due to it’s relatively short episode length and we’re almost a third of the way through.  It’s time to step things up a bit people.

So…Garrod might be dead (but probably not).  And I get the feeling we’ll be seeing Tiffa in the hands of a new big bad and in need of rescuing.  Oh and are we getting that awesome Gundam upgrade well before the second half of the show?  So many questions but I’m excited.  See you tomorrow for the continuing saga of After War Gundam X.