Alternative title: Kidou Senshi Gundam GQuuuuuuX
Anime original by Studio Khara
Streaming on Amazon
Premise
UC0079. Zeon wins the One Year War, defeating the Federation and emancipating spacenoids from the rule of Earth. UC0085. Under Zeon rule, spacenoids still are not free. Amate Yuzuriha is a high schooler living on the ostensibly neutral space colony Side 6. Having lived in space all her life, she yearns for the world beyond the confines of the colony. A chance meeting with Nyaan, a refugee and smuggler, dramatically alters the trajectory of her life as she gets drawn into Clan Battle, the underground mobile suit duels that are held on Side 6. Elsewhere Challia Bull, a veteran of the One Year War, chases after sightings of the mysterious Red Gundam, once piloted by Char Aznable.
Gee’s verdict: One Must Imagine Tomino Happy
This will be a bit of a weird one to cover. Having seen the theatrical release of GQuuuuuuX which showed the first 3-4 episodes of the TV anime, I’m working with a fair bit more knowledge of what’s to come. I’ll do my best to keep this to what’s shown so far.
The elephant in the room is of course the reveal that GQuuuuuuX is a reimagining of the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam, where Zeon wins instead of the Federation. Anyone who knows me knows exactly how I feel about that kind of premise. Japan has been inching up to a sympathetic whitewashing of Zeon for decades now, aiming to present a more heroic depiction of the genocidal fascists that murdered billions in the original Tomino anime. To get it out of the way, so far it doesn’t seem like GQuuuuuuX is coming on stage to say Zeon did nothing wrong. The first episode takes great pains to showcase that Zeon’s rhetoric of spacenoid liberation did not bear out in reality. It’s not as condemning as I would have preferred but it should at least bar the Zeon weirdos at the door.
As for the first episode itself, it mostly focuses on introducing us to protagonist Amate. She’s a charming frontwoman, possessing both a kind of teenage flightiness and a surprising sardonic streak. She’s listlessly floating through life like a lot of teenagers do, but she’s also not going to put up with your bullshit. Her interest in piloting the titular Gundam is one part self preservation and one part novelty. This is the first interesting thing that’s ever happened to her, of course she’s going to give it a shot, risks be damned. It’s a compelling introduction that’s greatly helped by Kazuya Tsurumaki’s exceptional directing. It’s almost surreal to see the aesthetic composition of FLCL and Diebuster in 2025. It’s colorful, moodily shot, and surprisingly energetic in the right places. It’s a little bittersweet too then, that such beautiful visual storytelling is attached to such a fraught project.
There’s no way around, even if I’m ultimately charmed by what I see in front of me, I have to ask: “To what end?” What is Khara aiming to say about the UC and Gundam as a whole with this story? To reinterpret the UC this dramatically is not a trivial act, nor can it be treated like one. If Tsurumaki and Enokido have decided to tackle this beast, I have certain expectations. This show ultimately cannot just be about Amate getting into cool underground fights with her new Gundam. To invoke the names of Char Aznable and Kycilia Zabi inherently demands a certain degree of sociopolitical interrogation. What does it mean for spacenoids to still not be free under Zeon rule? What is the fate of Earth in a world where the stars themselves have become their prison? Was Char Aznable truly capable of becoming the leader mankind needs? He failed in the UC we know, why should we believe he’d be any better in a world where he stole the Gundam? Will GQuuuuuuX be capable of addressing any of this? Especially in the span of a scant 12 episodes? At the end of the day, I liked basically everything I saw in the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX, but it’s taken on the called shot to end all called shots. Can Tsurumaki pull it off? I’d like to believe, but I’ve been a Gundam fan for more than 20 years. This is not a franchise you make bets on.
Zigg’s verdict: The Quuuuuux of the Matter
I think starting with the ‘present day’ material is the right choice here, and it’s a much easier hook and a better display of the show’s strengths than the movie version. A half hour of 1979-looking alt history might be catnip for super hardcore Universal Century fans, but most viewers are much more likely to be charmed by the likable Amate and her gorgeously presented, moodily shot and delightfully animated colony world. Studio khara and Kazuya Tsurumaki’s terrific visual style and keen eye for direction makes this first episode bounce along at a very agreeable pace.
With that said, I’ve still got some major reservations about the direction the story seems to be going. We literally just finished up a Gundam show about a robot fighting tournament, and I thought it was kind of a shoehorned element even there. This might make sense as an entry point to a much wider scope story, but that would be a stretch even for a 26 episode series, let alone the 12 episodes Gquuuuuux is apparently scheduled for. There aren’t many anime that I am insistent should have a ‘message’, but Gundam is definitely one of them, and while underground robot battling league is definitely a cool concept it’s a bit of a struggle to see how we’ll get from there to ‘war is bad’. Not saying it’s impossible, just saying they’ve left themselves quite a task. Then of course there’s all the alt-UC stuff, which honestly seems more like a millstone around the show’s neck at this point. Even if we leave aside the thorny issue of lionising the Space Nazis, I’m just not sure what this element brings to the story aside from the chance for a bunch of ‘hey it’s that guy but different!’ moments. Still, the pedigree of the staff leaves me hopeful that they’ll be able to find positive answers to those questions. Until they do though, my endorsement can only be a cautious one.
BONUS INSANE PREDICTION: Amate turns out to actually be Four Murasame.
