Official After War Gundam X Thread

[schwarz ritter]

Like the name says. Rules are out of my hands, as only the modsquad can enforce them. That said, enjoy this little thread.

I'll add in my own little spice later. Gotta pawn more Feddie scum in UCGO

[Zeino]

So um, what's the point of this thread? Gundam X already aired back in 1996, why would it need a talkback thread now?

[schwarz ritter]

You know what? I'll report to the modsquad my self so that they lock it. ZOINKS it.

[Chris]

So um, what's the point of this thread? Gundam X already aired back in 1996, why would it need a talkback thread now?

So if it already aired years ago, there's no reason to discuss it? By that logic, most of the threads on here shouldn't exist.

[Zeino]

So if it already aired years ago, there's no reason to discuss it? By that logic, most of the threads on here shouldn't exist.

I thought only currently airing Gundam series get "Official" talkback threads?

[DuelGundam2099]

Ah yes X, fourth favorite gundam series after Destiny, 00 season 2, and Seed. It was a nice adventurous take while using elements from past gundam shows into a nice amalgamation. Kunio Okawara's designs in this series were definitely top notch (as always) and after CE it had the best music of any gundam timeline. Also Double X Gundam denounces people that claim Wing Zero is the ultimate gundam just because it has a big gun. Definitely a classic series all around.

[Dark Duel]

Having finished watching it myself just yesterday, I would have to say that overall, X is probably one of my favorite entries in the franchise, especially of the AUs.
First, as I've already said elsewhere, Garrod is IMO one of if not the most interesting and effectively developed Gundam main protagonists, especially in terms of his interactions with other characters like Jamil, Ennil, and of course Tifa - who by the way is just plain adorable, especially in the latter half or so of the series once she starts to open up and express herself more.
Setting aside occasional silliness like the psychic albino dolphin from early in the series, X also gets props for having some really interesting villains in the form of Shagia and Olba Frost. Then of course on the good guys' side there's also Captain Badass, aka Jamil Neate. Probably my favorite Captain in Gundam ever - with the exception of Bright Noa himself.
I really enjoyed Witz's development as a character as well, but beyond Garrod, Tifa and Jamil my favorite character in the series had to be Ennil El. Not just because she's hot, either. No, what I find interesting is how she progresses as a character; of course, she took VERY badly the way Garrod reacted during their first encounter(though I can see why he did that), but then after a certain point she gets over that - partly due to her eventual encounter with Toniya(who is hilarious, BTW), but also the events on Saints Island.
Then there's things I didn't like so much; As much as I liked Witz, for instance, I did not much like Roybea at all. Maybe it's that he's such a womanizer, or maybe it's that of the characters in the series he's one of the few that really does not seem to much change over the course of the series, but something about him just rubbed me the wrong way. And of course, I can't talk about X without mentioning the Char to Jamil's Amuro, the SRA's Lancerow Dawell. He's a minor character, really - only appears in a handful of episodes in the series's final third or so - but I really liked how much of a contrast there was between him and...well. pretty much everyone else in the SRA. Especially Zidel(who I couldn't help but notice seemed to sport a very Bonaparte-esque hairdo). And Bloodman was just a toad. I actually laughed myself silly at how easily the Frost brothers manipulated him by appealing to his ego.

And then there's the Mecha themselves. LOVED the AirMaster, and especially the AirMaster Burst, and of course the GXs - my personal favorite being the X-Divider, mostly because of that awesome shield/booster pack/uber-BFG that just, as AmuroNT1(or was it Shadowcell? I can't remember) put it "opens up and ruins your day" .
The Double X I didn't like as much because of how dumpy it was compared to the GX, but it grew on me pretty quickly after a while. The others were kind of a mixed bag, but I rather liked the Jenice series.

[schwarz ritter]

First of all, I'd like to thanks Mr. Chris for clearing that up and defending this thread.

I agree with most what Mr. Dark Duel said above me. It is, for me, the best Gundam series (yes, better than Zeta. Get over it), particularly due to the optimistic feeling it has.

Garrod is the best Gundam protagonist due to the development Dark Duel mentions. And it isn't just in character: by the last ten episodes, he has become an excellent pilot. And the way his relationship with all of the other characters is very well written and his romance with Tiffa doesn't seem forced or shallow at all.
Jamil is second-best captain (with Bright being first, obviously), and he's the perfect blend of Bright, Quattro and Amuro. Dutiful, sensible, and with enough common sense to know when to not let himself be dragged down by trauma.
And the girls in particular are my favorites: they're all charming, sexy and funny. Ennil El in particular had the best development, turning from villanous bastard to sexy conflicted heroine. I liked that development.
I would say that Roybea and Witz were just there to do their job: the focus of the show was, after all, Garrod and Tiffa. The two other Gundam pilots were just there to support the main character, and I would say that they did a very good job.

And Lancerow looks just like Treize, with different hair, lol. Fortunately, he wasn't a Char Clone, which was something I appreciated a lot, because let's be honest: Char Clones (both literal and figurative) are just sooo boring and sooo overused. Lancerow just felt like an average ace who happaned to meet the main character's mentor.

I loved all of the mechs: they have a classic feel, and yet they're refreshing. You can tell the Jenices, for instance, are based on the Zaku, but they do not seem like rip-offs (like SEED's GINNs). Same goes for the Daughtresses, which are most likely based on the original GM, but they weren't rip-offs like SEED's Daggers.

Overall, this is my favorite series, and I truly, honestly consider it the best Gundam series out there. And the fact that its staff was able to conclude the series in a satisfying way, without any open endings or anything, proves this is truly a piece of superior work.

My favorite mech is the Visargo Chest Breaker. Seriously, those arms are just so ZOINKING badass.

[mcred23]

I thought Gundam X was good and enjoyable, but I don't put it in the same elite, top 5 level as some people do. It wasn't that the show had many faults or any major low points, but by the same token I didn't think it had all that many great, defining ones either.

The thing for me is the show never really pulled me in consistently the way Gundam shows I truly love do. What I mean is the first ten-to-twelve episodes were solid, they were all pretty entertaining, but when I finished any one of them, I felt no real urge to move on to the next one the way I do when I'm watching a show that I really loved such as Victory or Turn A (Among others). It got better after that, the Fort Severn arc being really good and kept me wanting to see what happened, but the show didn't consistently deliver in that manner again until the Estard arc and the last ten-odd episodes (Although some of those has a rushed feel). Again, it's not that the episodes between those points were bad or anything, most were quite good, I just don't recall much that made them particuarly great or memorable, and most didn't leave me wanting more.

Beyond that, I felt pretty similar about the characters. Most were solid and interesting enough, but none really stuck out as overly memorable. Garrod's most memorable feature was that he was pretty upbeat, which is atypical for a Gundam protagonist, but it's not like he's the only one (Shiro and Judau were, at least at the start of 08th and ZZ, respectively) and I never felt too strongly about him. Tiffa alternated between very mildly annoying and somewhat intriguing, Jamil was one of the more interesting characters, and while the rest of the cast all got bits and pieces of development that fleshed them out a bit more than usual, it wasn't really enough to make me really care about them that much more than I would the supporting cast of any other show. Still, the only characters I'd say I was unhappy with were the Frost brothers, who seemed to have that mystery for the sake of it feeling for most of the show and just kinda annoyed me.

The same stuff would apply to the mecha. Most were good, but none really stood out as great (Although I did enjoy the intentional pseudo-OYW grunts) and only the Frost Brothers' Gundams stood out as things I didn't like. And the only comment I'll make about the soundtrack was it sounded odd at points and I didn't really care for it, but like mecha and character designs, that's just a matter of my personal taste.

Which I guess is how I feel about the show overall. It was good and enjoyable enough, I'd recommend watching it (Although there are very few Gundam works I recommend avoiding ), but it just didn't quite fit with my tastes, I never found it particularly memorable, and it's probably near the middle of the pack of my personal rankings.

[schwarz ritter]

I'm interested on that, red. Was it because its too optimistic?

[mcred23]

I'm interested on that, red. Was it because its too optimistic?

Not at all. I think that was one of the things that helped the show, and it certainly worked with the way Garrod is (And to a lesser extent, some of the other characters). I don't think making it darker would have made it any better (If anything, with the nature of the characters, I think it would make things awkward, but now we're getting into some massive, massive speculation on things would be different if you change X, Y, or Z about the show ).

[schwarz ritter]

Yeah, you're right. I'll not to open another Pandora (or Laplace) box, for that matter
And yeah, I agree with what you said about its optimism helping it. I personally think that, with the setting already being grimdark as it is, the show doesn't really need anymore "angst/emo" mood. Or at least itS my very personal opinion.

[steeltamashii]

Gundam X has one of my favorite gundams ever: The GX-9900-DV Gundam X Divider. The X already looked pretty awesome originally, but add a shield with a harmonica-style beam laser and you have one freakin awesome mobile suit. It definitely made for an awesome model too.

As for the show, i enjoyed watching the 3 episodes i've seen, but it's one of the few gundam series i haven't seen from beginning to end.

[Khandri]

...Okay, I'll admit it. Seeing this thread was the siren song that got me to finally join. I've seen quite a bit of the various Gundam series over the years--not all of them, but quite a bit--but somehow, this is the series I keep coming back to without fail. Heck, it's a big part of why I've found myself getting back into Gundam again this year; I pulled it out to watch a few months ago when I was in a funk, and goodness, did it ever help. So much so, in fact, that I've been doing an extensive episode-by-episode recap of it on another forum (I'm currently through episode 21 as of right now), because I wanted to share the love with more people. Now if there was only more fan-made media out there related to it (artwork, fanfic, AMVs, etc.) that wasn't created by me!

But really, the biggest thing that makes me keep coming back to GX time and time again would have to be the character development. There's so much growth and change among the main cast from the time we first see them to the end of the series, and much of it feels so natural and genuine. While Garrod still remains lovably dorky all the way through, he still manages to really grow up over that span of time, and it never comes across as forced like in some of the other Gundam series; he's fifteen years old, and everything he does makes you believe it. I also see a lot of myself in Tiffa as well (even though I'm now more than twice her age), and so watching her gradually opening herself up to others as she learns to trust them is something I get as well.

And of course, I can't let a GX thread go by without mentioning how Jamil is still my number-one favorite character in the show. (And gosh darn it, I thought I was the one who coined the "Captain Badass" nickname for my recaps! ) While Garrod and Tiffa may be the lead characters, the story itself is really his, travelling the world in hopes of seeking out and protecting Newtypes as some way of atoning for his actions in the war. He's one part Amuro Ray, one part Quattro Bajeena, and one part Bright Noa, but still manages to be completely different from them as well. For as juvenile as it would seem for me to say "I just like him, okay?" to explain more about why he's my favorite...it's almost hard for me to put in words beyond that. There are simply so many things that draw me to the character, although it was episodes 18 and 19 (the Sea of Lorelei/Lucille Lilliant mini-arc) that really sealed the deal for me way back when I first saw it. For as many questions as that story answered, there are still many more new questions it created, and I really like that.

And the mecha...oh, GX Divider, you are still my favorite Gundam after all these years. I love its versatility and armaments, and of course, it's piloted by a couple of total badasses. Don't get me wrong, the standard GX is pretty awesome too, but it's saddled with the Worst Shield Ever™ (running joke from my recaps) in that silly shield/buster rifle combo.

Another thing I find remarkable about the show? The fact that they were still able to wrap everything up properly, give it a solid ending, and not screw up characterisations when it got cut down to 39 episodes. As much as I often wonder what they could have done/how the last arc would've gone had it been allowed to go the full 49-episode run, the fact that they were able to do what they did with the final episodes on such short notice is simply amazing to me, and I almost can't see it any other way now.

But I'm still sad that we may never see it get a legitimate release here in the States now. Even if it's starting to look a little dated by present-day standards, I think it could've succeeded here despite it not doing well in Japan. It's unfortunate, because I can already think of various VAs who I'd want doing some of the dub voices.

I'd say more about this, but really...I've written enough of a novel already. I'm sure I'll have more to add should this thread keep going.

[schwarz ritter]

...Okay, I'll admit it. Seeing this thread was the siren song that got me to finally join. I've seen quite a bit of the various Gundam series over the years--not all of them, but quite a bit--but somehow, this is the series I keep coming back to without fail. Heck, it's a big part of why I've found myself getting back into Gundam again this year; I pulled it out to watch a few months ago when I was in a funk, and goodness, did it ever help. So much so, in fact, that I've been doing an extensive episode-by-episode recap of it on another forum (I'm currently through episode 21 as of right now), because I wanted to share the love with more people. Now if there was only more fan-made media out there related to it (artwork, fanfic, AMVs, etc.) that wasn't created by me!

But really, the biggest thing that makes me keep coming back to GX time and time again would have to be the character development. There's so much growth and change among the main cast from the time we first see them to the end of the series, and much of it feels so natural and genuine. While Garrod still remains lovably dorky all the way through, he still manages to really grow up over that span of time, and it never comes across as forced like in some of the other Gundam series; he's fifteen years old, and everything he does makes you believe it. I also see a lot of myself in Tiffa as well (even though I'm now more than twice her age), and so watching her gradually opening herself up to others as she learns to trust them is something I get as well.

And of course, I can't let a GX thread go by without mentioning how Jamil is still my number-one favorite character in the show. (And gosh darn it, I thought I was the one who coined the "Captain Badass" nickname for my recaps! ) While Garrod and Tiffa may be the lead characters, the story itself is really his, travelling the world in hopes of seeking out and protecting Newtypes as some way of atoning for his actions in the war. He's one part Amuro Ray, one part Quattro Bajeena, and one part Bright Noa, but still manages to be completely different from them as well. For as juvenile as it would seem for me to say "I just like him, okay?" to explain more about why he's my favorite...it's almost hard for me to put in words beyond that. There are simply so many things that draw me to the character, although it was episodes 18 and 19 (the Sea of Lorelei/Lucille Lilliant mini-arc) that really sealed the deal for me way back when I first saw it. For as many questions as that story answered, there are still many more new questions it created, and I really like that.

And the mecha...oh, GX Divider, you are still my favorite Gundam after all these years. I love its versatility and armaments, and of course, it's piloted by a couple of total badasses. Don't get me wrong, the standard GX is pretty awesome too, but it's saddled with the Worst Shield Ever™ (running joke from my recaps) in that silly shield/buster rifle combo.

Another thing I find remarkable about the show? The fact that they were still able to wrap everything up properly, give it a solid ending, and not screw up characterisations when it got cut down to 39 episodes. As much as I often wonder what they could have done/how the last arc would've gone had it been allowed to go the full 49-episode run, the fact that they were able to do what they did with the final episodes on such short notice is simply amazing to me, and I almost can't see it any other way now.

But I'm still sad that we may never see it get a legitimate release here in the States now. Even if it's starting to look a little dated by present-day standards, I think it could've succeeded here despite it not doing well in Japan. It's unfortunate, because I can already think of various VAs who I'd want doing some of the dub voices.

I'd say more about this, but really...I've written enough of a novel already. I'm sure I'll have more to add should this thread keep going.

You can make as many posts as you want praising this series. Heck, the more praise, the better.

I agree with you that the fact that they managed to wrap up the story in very few episodes proves how the staff truly put heart into this. Seriously, these guys could teach the rest of the Gundam writers and directors a lesson or too. So yeah, I'm an X fanboy.

What VAs were you thinking, btw? I've had a few in my head for several years now...

[AmuroNT1]

Ah, Gundam X. Maybe it gets a little more praise than it deserves, but it's still a really good show. I think my personal favorite mecha were the Frosts' Gundams, especially the under-loved Ashtaron and its Hermit Crab upgrade.

Honestly, not trying to be a killjoy, but I'm just not a fan of the Double X. It seems like all they did was make the GX beefier and strap on a second Satellite Cannon, which isn't all that different in the way of an upgrade Gundam (which is part of the reason I prefer Wing Zero EW to the TV version). I really do wish they'd managed to work in at least one of the "bonus weapons" that ended up being relegated to the 1/100 model kit.

Also, I can't remember ever saying that quote Dark Duel attributed to me re: the Divider, but I wish I could because it's a pretty good one.

[Chris]

So if it already aired years ago, there's no reason to discuss it? By that logic, most of the threads on here shouldn't exist.

I thought only currently airing Gundam series get "Official" talkback threads?

It's not a hard and fast rule that only currently airing series get the "official" moniker. That's just the way it's happened over the years.

[reeoyuy]

I thought only currently airing Gundam series get "Official" talkback threads?

I think you mistook the rule about only currently airing series that will get stickied, not that it's not allowed to make general thread of past series. It just won't get a sticky.

Speaking of the series itself, I love it and I feel it has huge potential for many prequels, sequels, or sidestories. One can explore the 7th space war in entirety or even the other wars before it. Sequel works too, as the world has long way to go to rebuild itself. And sidestories...if one Junk Guild in SEED Astray can give us so many stories and wacky MS designs, imagine how much we can have in a world that is literally filled with such group. Okawara will busy churning X-MSV, no limit to them because every Vulture group will customize their own MS. If only X is as popular SEED, or at least Wing.

[Khandri]

^ One story I would've really liked to see would've been a more in-depth take on the events of the 7th Space War, whether from the perspective of Jamil or Lancelow (I'm sorry, but I just can't spell his name with an R), or from the perspective of an entirely new character, even if it would be hard to tell the story without those two given their important role in the final battle. What else happened before that last battle? What was the timeline before AW--is it far-flung UC, or something else entirely?

Now before anyone says "but such a story already exists!"...yes, I'm perfectly aware of the "Newtype Soldier Jamil Neate" manga story. I have it, and have gone through it multiple times over. But there are multiple elements of that story that don't fit with the series canon, especially the presence of the GX before that last battle (it's strongly implied in the series that the Gundams weren't rolled out until then), and especially Jamil and his partner helping to break up Operation Lilac (not to mention that it just so happened that Lancelow was a part of it, never mind that it's explicitly said in the series that all the Bertigo pilots died in combat before the operation could be carried out in the first place). It's not bad or anything--it does help give a little bit of insight into what happened then, and is proving for some useful inspiration for part of a fanfic I'm working on--but it's terribly contrived in a number of ways, and I'd really like to see something that expands beyond that.

For sequel stories...honestly, for as popular as "Under the Moonlight" has been, what I've read of it has completely failed to grab me. It feels to me entirely out of place in the After War world as we know it from the series, there's a bit too much fanservice going on with the female characters (something I as a straight female fan often find a turn-off), and Kai...seems more like a character from the CE or AC universes than a holdover from the 7th Space War. The unoriginality in recycling the ship designs doesn't help either, nor does it more or less ignoring most of the characters and events of the series. If there ever were an animated sequel, I'd much rather see something that involves at least some of the original cast, or something much further in the future and more removed from the original events.

[Amion]

Glad to know I'm not alone in liking GX. Personally, I am in the middleground with the show. I really liked the first few arcs, particularly the one involving Tiffa and Frost brothers. Olba pilots my favorite gundam in GX, after all.

But I never liked the Estard Saga that much. I really don't understand why. I'm a writer and I like good development, and it really pleased me to see Rooks turn out to be the opposite of what I thought. The affect on Garrod is immense too, another plus. Despite all this, I just never cared for it. I think the series could have prospered from using these episodes in space, developing the Revolutionary Army and Saliticon more. That said-

-A Question. Exactly when were the GX Staff told their show was being canceled? Do we have that information?