One of Gundam’s Most Underrated Series Is Fi...

For western audiences, 1990s Gundam can largely be defined by one series: Gundam Wing, the sixth major entry in the franchise, and the one that would set the stage for the mecha series’ rise in the west through its landmark broadcast run on Cartoon Network in 2000. But just a year after Wing aired in Japan, Gundam returned with a whole new series—one that often flies under the radar as one of the series’ most intriguing additions.

After War Gundam X first broadcast in Japan in 1996, and is now, outside of Blu-ray releases a few years ago, finally making its international streaming debut for free on Tubi this month. Set in what was at the time Gundam‘s third alternate timeline—i.e, not being part of the “Universal Century” continuity that the first four Gundam series were all part of—after Wing and its predecessor G Gundam, Gundam X picks up a decade and a half after a deadly interstellar war has ravaged the Earth and its space colonies. Following a young scavenger named Garrod Ran, one of many survivors eking a living by scavenging and repairing remnant mobile suits from the war’s aftermath, Garrod discovers the titular Gundam X and crosses paths with the crew of the battleship Freeden and wrapped up in their aims to safeguard a handful of Newtypes, evolved humans who have developed enhanced perception from living in space, from being exploited by various emergent factions looking to thrust the Earth Sphere into interstellar conflict once more.

While Gundam‘s prior alternate universes in Wing and G Gundam only carried loose parallels to the framework of the worldbuilding of the Universal Century—mostly in the form of conflict between Earth and space colonies, and, of course, giant mecha—Gundam X was the first of the alternate universes to really explicitly grapple with one of Gundam‘s most fascinating concepts in the form of Newtypes, both in taking the literal name (other AU Gundam shows have explored the concept through different lenses and names, of course) for these enhanced individuals and also in examining their place in the world beyond their exploitation as assets of war. Although at the time Gundam X had mixed reception—it ran for just 39 episodes, truncated from a planned 49, and was ultimately overshadowed in the west entirely by the success of Gundam Wing, never receiving an English-language dub—in years since 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 (putting aside X‘s direct successor, 1999’s anniversary series Turn A Gundam, a series that, while in its own continuity, largely plays with ideas connecting itself to the original timeline and the wider Gundam franchise), it’s the one that’s arguably the most in conversation with the original Mobile Suit Gundam and its own direct successors in Zeta and Double Zeta. It’s well worth checking out, especially as Tubi’s free—and hopefully a sign that, even if a lot of Gundam‘s big hitters are all currently landing on other streaming homes, we could see a few more entries from the franchise get a spotlight on Tubi too (the aforementioned Turn A, a franchise highlight, is in desperate need of a streaming home!).

You can check out After War Gundam X on Tubi here.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.