Anime: Kidou Shin Seiki Gundam X

Introduction

So, here have we After War Gundam X. I've heard bad things about it, but decided to give it a shot nonetheless. I just happened to be pleasantly surprised by this one anime. Read on to find out why.

Art & Animation

This anime is, stylistically, an undeniable successor of Gundam Wing's art style, which I'm not too fond of. However, it's a bit better. The mecha designs are a bit more in line with the original Gundam series, mostly because they need to bear some resemblance to the ye olden mechas. With a bit of imagination, you can correlate GX's mobile suits to the UC suits. There are equivalents to Zakus, GMs, Gelgoogs, Goufs, Zeong, Big Zam, and even to the Qubeley. The titular Gundam is quite well designed, albeit a bit unorthodox, with the folded wings and all. The other Gundams are, however, too Wing-y for my taste, though not as flashy and unbelievable for the most part.

The character designs are also offspring of the 90's, although thankfully the main character stands out enough, in a good way. A few characters are also particularly well drawn - Jamil, Lancelow and Shaiga Frost, mostly. The rest of the cast are, sadly enough, average, but not so average that you have to distinguish them by hair color - each is distinctive and unique, only not unique enough. Also, no pilot suits for the Earth battles, while understandable and cool to some extent, gets old quickly, and impairs a sense of "the characters never get their clothes changed", which is something I dislike.

The animation... does its job decently enough for the most part. There are some moments where it shines and is greatly improved, most noticeably in the episodes right before the main character gets the Gundam Double X, and during the final battle. But it is mostly average.

Final grade: 6/10

Sound

The seyuus are... decent. They do their jobs. I did not notice any familiar voices, save for Mitsuishi Kotono's (Misato Katsuragi - Evangelion, Katerose von Kreutzer - Legend of Galactic Heroes, Sailor Moon - Sailor Moon) as one of the bridge bunnies. Don't get me wrong - the voices fit for the most part, and carry enough emotion. They're just not perfect.

The music is mostly disposable. Can't say I paid too much attention to the tunes, and nothing really stood out to me. The OPs are highly energetic, but they get old (and annoying) quite quickly. The rest of the music is just there, almost as if it weren't there at all, if you get what I mean.

The sound effects, in general, were lackluster, mostly being obviously copied from other Sunrise series. The "machine gun vroom" comes to mind as one of the most annoying sounds in this title.

What really stood out to me was, however, the amount of care directed towards environmental effects on voices - static, transmissions, wide metallic hangars, pretty much everything that could affect a character's voice is explored to my great surprise.

Final grade: Was supposed to be a 5, but gets raised to a 6/10.

Story

The setting for this anime is purely awesome. For any Gundam fan, that is. A "what if" branching of the story of the original Gundam 0079. What if Zeon had conducted a massive colony drop operation, almost extinguishing all life on Earth? What if Amuro, after his final battle with Char, had become a jaded, badass captain of a ship, with Quattro Bajeena's sunglasses to boot?

I do feel that this is one of the best Gundam series, despite its shortcomings. It definitely stands out to me above, say, Wing, 00, ZZ, SEED and Victory, just to list a few. No, it's not that good; it's just that the other series I listed are either plain bad, or started out good and turned horrible, or... are just not as good in my opinion.

I feel that too much focus was given to the Newtype girl and her powers, although I couldn't really see the plot advancing any other way.

The problem, in my view lie with the development of the plot.

While the development per-se would be quite alright if the series had been granted the additional 10 episodes that were cut, thus increasing the total length of the series to 49 episodes, it's just not so good the way things turned out to be. The final arc felt very rushed, and somewhat incomplete. Most of the crucial information of the series gets dumped in the two final episodes, which would have just screamed terrible pacing and planning, were the culprits the producers. They weren't, however, the real masterminds behind this shortcoming being the executives and their meddling who cut the series short by a whooping ten episodes (remember folks, we're not talking Dragon Ball Z here), thus harshly hampering its potential.

One thing I enjoyed is that, while the Gundams were technologically advanced and superior weapons, able to defeat multiple cannon-fodder, mass-produced enemy suits, true to their UC counterparts, they were far from invincible, being easily beaten by smart tactics. Technological superiority does play a role, but not as big a role as it plays in 00. The pilots' skills, tactics and deceit play a far bigger role, and although this show does have its fair share of nigh-Deus-Ex-Machina turnabouts, so does every single Gundam series out there.

Final grade: 7/10

Characters

I'll have to split the characters in three categories - major, minor and irrelevant.

All the major and minor characters are given backstories, personalities and a few perks here and there, although not too many. The major characters - Garrod, Tiifa, Jamil and the Frost Brothers - get the brunt of focus and development, although mostly not in unpredictable ways.

The minor characters - the other Gundam pilots, the bridge bunnies, Ennil El, Lancelow and Carris - get personalities and a bit of development, but are mostly left behind and don't evolve much. Which is a bit sad, given that the Gundam pilots fight and get screen time in pretty much every episode/battle.

Then there's the irrelevant, filler characters. They're mostly just there, but... well, they're just there. If they get some time in the spotlight, a few bits and pieces of their personalities get revealed, but not too many. But I guess every show has these.

The most intriguing characters are, by far, Jamil and the Frost brothers, who manage to have deeper personalities and to stand out above the rest.

Final grade: 5/10

Value and Enjoyment

Well, I certainly enjoyed this one, even though it had its shortcomings, bad parts and lackluster aspects.

Seen as a whole, it's a pretty solid package. It could have been better, had it been given another 10 episodes, but what we get is what we get. I still consider it one of the better Gundam series - even if it's not the best, or the most famous, or the one with the best mecha designs.

What it is, however, is a very enjoyable "what if" of the UC universe, that doesn't really shine in any areas, but doesn't drop the ball either.

Oh wait, it does shine in one aspect, and that is... a bloody Gundam fistfight. During the final battle. That is just purely awesome on so many levels that it is almost indescribable!

Final grades: Value 6/10, Enjoyment 8/10

Historically-speaking, this is the second spin-off (alternative universe) of the ever-expanding Gundam franchise. Despite trying to stay close to the premise of the original, it also added elements of other genres that didn’t mesh very well and turned it into just another superficial, shounen mecha show.

ART & SOUND SECTIONS: 6/10
Typical. TOO typical. The character and mecha designs, as well as the action scenes were not better than an average mecha show. Same thing for the music themes and the character voices. Gundam was always about pushing the limit when it comes to animation. This will not only disappoint fans of the original, it will also leave mecha fans in general indifferent about it.

STORY & CHARACTER SECTIONS: 5/10

Gundam is essentially a sci-fi war drama and this series has the same premise. In this timeline, the One-Year-War ends with all space colonies dropping on Earth, instead of surrendering. The result was an apocalyptic event that destroyed almost everything. 15 years later, the remaining humans try to rebuild the wastelands of the surface, only to find many are still using Mobile Suits for profit, while others begin another war for the survival of the fittest race. The protagonist is a young mercenary who is paid to protect a powerful Newtype girl, which possesses the ability to boost a mecha’s psionic capacities. The two enter a Gundam by accident (like in all Gundam series!), team up with a crew of vigilantes and are trapped between the war of Oldtypes vs Newtypes, for the control of the future.

Like in the original Gundam’s normal themes, there is:
- A conflict between the normal Homo-sapiens/Oldtypes and the new Psycics/Newtypes
- Angst before the tragedy of war
- Sorrow for the dead over the struggle for control of the world’s natural resources and the future

Unlike in the original, there is:
- The presence of a kind, magical, beautiful girl with a tragic past that gives the story a supernatural/messiah theme
- More focus on new bigger/better guns that make the story more action-based
- Less focus on character and scenario development, making the series more shallow

The story is very simple, with slow development and almost no plot twists. The characters act too typical and frankly they do not deserve to be remembered about anything they did or said. The ending was also poor, as the scriptwriters gave us a stupid moral message through a metaphysical entity, saying, “There is no difference between Oldtypes and Newtypes”. What is this, a fairy tale with a God-From-A-Machine conclusion? As if everybody else was too stupid to realize something that simple by himself. Not to mention that the bad guys in the story where just two siblings that wanted to kill everyone and were beaten in just 5 seconds. Furthermore the show’s sponsors decided to change the time slot and cut it from 50 episodes to 40, so it had a rushed conclusion which made it look even worse than it already was. To sum it up, there is little story, unmemorable characters and a simple ending. Not suitable for a Gundam series which is supposed to be far more than that.

VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTIONS: 1/10
If it wasn’t for the name and the basic design of the Gundam in this series, I doubt anyone would care to even try it out. It is just another average-to-bad series that tries to sell by using a renowned title.