Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuux

And so, as quickly as it arrived, Gundam GQuuuuuux is over. Handing the reigns to Evangelion’s creative team has certainly been an interesting experiment, but was it a successful one?

Let’s rewind for those that missed our theatrical “Beginnings” review a few months back, wherein the opening episodes were released in cinemas with a little editing and some rearranged scenes. 

Gundam GQuuuuuux follows introverted student rebel Amate Yuzihara (aka Machu), a young girl raised by her mother in a world in which Zeon were the victors of the legendary One Year War, and it was Char Aznable, not Amuro Ray, who discovered and piloted the Gundam. During a mission, Char disappears in his (now signature red) Gundam and his friend and comrade Challia Bull (a Zeon officer who failed to make it through the single episode of the original series he appeared in) now commands a Zeon cruiser, constantly looking for his friend. 

Machu falls into the underground world of Clan Battles (aka Clan Bat) wherein two teams of two take each other on in deadly combat to earn big money. This is thanks to a shady courier called Nyaan who, while evading the law, stashes a drive into Machu’s bag. Using the tracker she finds on the drive, Machu lures Nyaan to a rooftop to get the drop on her, before events conspire to introduce them to the refugees they’ll work with in the Clan Battles (collectively called The Pomeranians), the titular GQuuuuuux Gundam and the mysterious pilot of the red Gundam, Shuji.

And so GQuuuuuux sets out its stall as an alternate universe based on the original Gundam series, but which takes a new narrative turn to create an entirely fresh world for characters old and new to interact. 

Initially I thought that the Clan Battles would take centre stage for much of the series, in the way G-Gundam uses a tournament around which to weave its story, but honestly it takes up about half of the series before writer HidekiAnno shuffles the deck and completely changes the trajectory - raising the stakes, separating the characters and moving the story into space, away from the colony, Clan Battles and indeed the refugees Machu had fallen in with. The series then becomes a military affair with a macguffin now driving events, perhaps to the collapse of the universe itself.

I had hoped that the series would be open enough for newcomers to follow, but honestly if you’re not at least familiar with the original Gundam series then this is going to lose a great deal of its emotional impact. Events from the original Gundam are absolutely pivotal to events here, and without an understanding of the who and why behind certain relationships, you may struggle to understand not only the weight of events, but the logic of them. 

That’s a shame too, because there’s a lot in GQuuuuuux to like, if not love. The characters are all interesting and relatable to one extent or another and regardless of the side they find themselves on, it’s hard not to want to root for the entire cast (except the really nasty villains, obviously). Using pivotal characters from the original series in new ways and seeing how they could have developed if not for an untimely demise, is fascinating and enjoyable.

Machu in particular is a typical teenager, discovering much for the first time, emotions boiling over and despite the bratty demeanour, very likeable. She’s really the anchor for the series, as without her, the technobabble, Newtype ability-driven space magic and oft-times confusing motivations of those around her could have sunk the series, but instead it just revolves around her, Machu’s confusion finding empathy with an audience that similarly can’t figure out just what the hell is going on. 

The rare moments of peace were nicely handled, especially when the characters had space to be themselves.

The story is never less than compelling though. I eagerly awaited every episode as it arrived every Tuesday, watched unfailingly within a few hours of going live, but now that it’s over, I wanted a bit of time for the ending to settle. It’s very Evangelion in nature, with a lot of emphasis on emotional payoff for the cast and a sort of hand-waving of any questions about the driving technology behind the events themselves.

It’s an upbeat ending though and one that felt a lot more earned than Witch From Mercury, which just hand-waived murder and war-crimes to leave everyone smiling at the end (to the point of having what were effectively smiling ghosts). Shuji’s origins are never really explained, perhaps there was a reference I missed but I’m pretty sure I was keeping pace. Perhaps he was always supposed to be an enigma, or perhaps a stand in for Anno himself. Either way, he's a bit inconsistent as a character and honestly my least favourite element of the show - when he's not on screen, everyone is asking "where's Shuji?". Me, I was more interested in the Zeon political maneuvering, the evolving relationship of Nyaan and Machu and the way in which each was manipulated by the leaders of various factions.

GQuuuuuux is undoubtedly a love-letter to the franchise, a cheeky and playful teasing of the timelines to play out some fan-fiction with characters some may have felt under-utilised originally. Fans of the original will obviously take most away from this, but even as someone with a cursory understanding of the UC timeline, it was an enjoyable ride. I wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s first Gundam series, but as a short, fun and stylish entry into the global franchise, it stands as a worthy addition.

See you around, Machu