I currently have a premium Crunchyroll account which comes to about a fiver a month. I could get a slight discount if I went for the annual subscription but I think it’s better this way, especially when I have the opportunity to cancel the subscription whenever.

One anime I’ve been following of late is Mobile Suit Gundam : Iron-blooded Orphans 「Kidō Senshi Gandamu Tekketsu no Orufenzu | 機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ」 which began screening in October 2015. I’ve to admit that I never was a fan of the franchise, only because there are too many of them to watch[1]!

One thing that struck me when watching the first few episodes was that story is somewhat serious. I have watched a bit of the Macross franchise, and in Gundam you don’t see some singing girl playing a pivotal part in the story. This current incarnation of the Gundam franchise deals with war, corporate greed, slavery… you name it. The level violence in this was kinda unexpected, and I’ve read somewhere of criticisms levelled against the anime in Japan especially when the series title implies that it’s okay for kids.

The orphans in this series are a group of self-liberated army of child labourers called Tekkadan, who, aboard the ship Isaribi, are travelling from Mars to Earth in a long-winded way (via Jupiter!) to transport the somewhat delicate Kudelia Aina Bernstein, a figurehead of the Mars independence movement, without attracting due attention from anyone, especially Gjallarhorn, a Terran military entity. The story is set 300 years after what was referred to as the Calamity War, and lucky for Tekkadan, they have in their arsenal a still-working Gundam mobile suit (named Barbatos). The tale’s protagonist is a young pilot named Mikazuki and he pilots Barbatos via a neurally linked system called the Alaya-Vijnana.


Before my recent vacation, I managed to watch the series until episode 13, and I was up to date then. I’m unsure as to how many episodes will this series have, but I look forward to see this one to the end. As for the franchise, my interest is now piqued. Which of the earlier Gundam series should I go watch, then?

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[1]The franchise began from 1979. Just do the maths.