Netflix Adds Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Mobile Suit Gundam is currently in the middle of celebrating its 40th Anniversary, so now’s a better time than ever than find a place to jump into the massive franchise. But one of the more pressing issues with a franchise that’s been running for 40 years is that it might be tough to choose where to start. Thankfully, Netflix is now offering a good option to get your bearings with the franchise so to speak with Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. As one of the more fan-favorite releases of the series that fans are clamoring for more of, now even more fans can see why!

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is a self contained, 50 episode series, and both the original Japanese language release with English subtitles and the English language dubbed release are both now available for streaming on Netflix. Time to start burning through that Netflix queue!

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is described as such, “Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is a series set more than 300 years after the Calamity War first seen in the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime. With the Earth Sphere falling into anarchy, the world has given way to bandits and rebels. Iron-Blooded Orphans focuses on a young boy named Mikazuki Augus as he works for a security company, and his is used as cannon fodder during an ambush. Augus, along with his friend Orga Itsuka, take the chance to revolt against their demeaning employers – and the determined boy changes his fate when he begins piloting an abandoned mobile suit known as Gundam Barbatos.”

The series is a spin-off of the original Mobile Suit Gundam taking place centuries after the events of that first series. It’s one of the many series in the franchise to explore the effects war has on various nations, and thus has become a major cult favorite among fans of the franchise overall. Many of the Gundam series do the same, but Orphans, as its title suggests, has a few more existential crises than some of the other more colorful releases of the franchise.

If this series doesn’t suit your tastes, you can also find the OVA adaptations of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Mobile Suit Gundam UC, on Netflix as well. The “series” of anime specials lasts for seven entries at about an hour or so each.