Note: This episode review is mostly a re-edit of stuff taken from my post for the GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- review.
Right after I started blogging about Witch from Mercury Season 2, Bandai Namco announced the next major Gundam TV series, Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (pronounced as “G-kwux” and yes, that is actually the title of the show). I don’t know if Gundam will be a mainstay for episode reviews. This franchise is simply too big for the format and I already started covering a couple installments in series reviews. That said, I did enjoy WFM so I was open to covering at least the next mainline installment in this fashion.
There’s some big names attached to GQuuuuuuX. Sunrise is of course back to produce the show but this time, they’re teaming up with Studio Khara, the studio best known for the Rebuild of Evangelion film series. Khara’s founder and the creator of Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, is attached as a head writer, as is Yōji Enokido, who handled series composition on a number of famous anime such as Revolutionary Girl Utena and Bungo Stray Dogs. Mech designs are being handled by Ikuto Yamashita, who also designed the mechs for Evangelion. Among the voice cast are prolific voice actors such as Tomoyo Kurosawa and Yui Ishikawa. Suffice to say, the crew and cast list for GQuuuuuuX is stacked. I suppose there’s still a small chance that GQuuuuuuX might not stick the landing but given who’s working on this show, I’d honestly be shocked if that ends up being the case.
I suppose this is still a spoiler but I have to address the elephant in the room. So generally, Gundam is split into two sets. The first is the franchise’s original and most prolific canon, the Universal Century (UC) timeline. The second are all the Alternate Universe (AU) series independent from the UC. With some exceptions such as Gundam SEED‘s Cosmic Era setting, most AUs are one-off series. GQuuuuuuX blurs the line a bit as it is a UC series but it takes place in an alternate version of the timeline, branching off from the pivotal One Year War depicted in the original 0079 series. There is actually precedence for this in the franchise but GQuuuuuuX is the first mainline TV show with this distinction. I say this is a spoiler because the first episode doesn’t explicitly confirm that it’s an alternate UC series but if you have cursory knowledge of Gundam, then you’ll figure it out after a couple curious lines of dialogue. The show’s compilation film makes the setting more obvious via a prologue section though that appears to be reserved for the second episode. Part of me kind of likes that the twist is confirmed later in the show. For the compilation movie, it makes more sense to start with the prologue but the TV version offers a better sense of intrigue, allowing the viewer to pick up the clues and connect the dots. As for how accessible GQuuuuuuX will be for newcomers, it’s an alternate timeline so you can probably digest this series without doing any homework. That said, I have seen some of 0079 and that prior knowledge does help with catching some of the callbacks to the original show.
GQuuuuuuX begins on the outskirts of the space colony, Side 6. A task force from the Principality of Zeon, is currently in pursuit of the Red Gundam, a powerful mobile suit that went missing after the One Year War. The task force confirms the Red Gundam’s whereabouts but its commander, Challia Bull (Shiniji Kawada), suspects via some sort of psychic connection that the Gundam’s original pilot, Char, is not the one currently using it. If you have some knowledge of UC, then you’ll already tell that this show takes place in an alternate version of the timeline. In the original series, the Earth Federation defeated Zeon in the One Year War but here in GQuuuuuuX, it’s stated that Zeon won instead. Char is arguably Gundam‘s most iconic character so him getting mentioned is a dead giveaway that this is a UC series. What is peculiar is the Red Gundam belonging to Char as he doesn’t pilot one during 0079.
Since a regular mobile suit would not stand a chance against the Red Gundam, Bull decides to send out one of his top pilots, Xavier Olviette (Seeichiro Yamashita) with the most advanced Gundam in his ship’s possession, the gMS-Ω GQuuuuuuX. I don’t know what possessed Zeon’s engineers to give the mobile suit such a goofy name and what’s even funnier is that the “G” technically stands for Gundam. This would mean that the full title of this show is Mobile Suit Gundam Gundam QuuuuuuX. The design however I quite like. One nitpick I have with the main Gundams is they sometimes stick too closely to the look of the the original RX-78 from Gundam 0079, which is understandable but it can feel too safe. I therefore appreciate just how out there the GQuuuuuuX looks by comparison, with its weird heels and the side horns.
Over at the surface of Side 6, we get introduced to our main protagonist, a young girl named Amate “Machu” Yuzuriha (Tomoyo Kurosawa). Machu is mainline Gundam‘s second female protagonist, right after WFM‘s Suletta Mercury. It was cool seeing Gundam finally break the mold by starring a girl for a change and Suletta proved to be a very likable and interesting character that made the shakeup even better. I don’t know if lightning will necessarily strike twice with Machu but so far, she shows some promise. I like how different she is from Suletta, being more assertive than her predecessor. It’s also interesting how, despite living a peaceful life at Side 6, Machu can’t help but think it’s nothing more than a dream or an illusion. Being voiced by Tomoyo Kurosawa certainly helps too.
On her way home from school, Machu bumps into a courier named Nyaan (Yui Ishikawa) and she accidentally obtains the package the latter is carrying: a data drive needed to pilot a mobile suit. Machu manages to track down Nyaan and hands over the drive on the condition that the courier fixes or replaces her phone, which Nyaan cracked during their first encounter. This scene, as well as the ED, gets a little bit intimate or at least I can’t help but interpret it as such after Suletta and Miorine’s relationship in WFM. I’m not going to get my hopes up but it’d be pretty amazing if Gundam went the yuri route twice in a row.
Machu and Nyaan head over to the latter’s client, a group of people called the Pomeranians (best group name ever, by the way). They hope to use the drive with a standard Zaku mobile suit they stole so they can partake in an underground tournament known as the Clan Battles. The meeting is soon interrupted by the GQuuuuuuX and the Red Gundam, who have accidentally taken their fight to the local area, causing a lot of damage in the process. Xavier struggles to defeat the Red Gundam as he is unable to use the GQuuuuuuX’s Psycommu, an advanced system that would enable him to fully utilize the Gundam. Side 6’s military police soon arrive, prompting both fighters to go into hiding. To find the wanted pilots, the police proceed to ransack the area, showing a disregard to civilians and their homes due to their status as refugees.
Noticing that Nyaan is disheartened over the situation, Machu grows upset at the police’s actions and she decides to use the stolen Zaku to fight them. I love that this girl just immediately chooses violence. That might become important when the show inevitably gets darker but for now, it’s a little amusing. Machu’s scuffle takes her underground to where Xavier and the GQuuuuuuX are hiding. Figuring out that the GQuuuuuuX is a lot stronger, Machu decides to ditch the Zaku and commandeer it instead. This was obviously inevitable since Machu is the protagonist and the GQuuuuuuX is the titular main mobile suit in the show. Funny how this super advanced giant robot gets stolen by a civilian girl, partly because of the ease at which Machu pulls it off but also as a cheeky nod to how 0079’s protagonist, Amuro Ray, ends up with RX-78.
After some initial hurdles, Machu does manage to defeat the police with the help of the Red Gundam and by activating the GQuuuuuuX’s Psycommu system. This is a pretty entertaining fight, primarily thanks to the combined animation efforts of Sunrise and Studio Khara. I particularly like that the GQuuuuuuX is exclusively a melee fighter at the moment, which still enables some fun choreography but lets the movie obscure how powerful the Gundam could actually get. The fight triggers a phenomenon that Machu dubs the “kira kira”, where she finds her mind in some sort of outer plane and she can communicate with the Red Gundam’s pilot. It’s a visually stunning scene but newcomers might be wondering what the hell is going on. This seems like a good time to mention that in UC Gundam, there’s a special subspecies called Newtypes and being a Newtype enables someone a heightened psychic awareness and the ability to do fancy stuff with their mobile suits. Xavier is explicitly stated to be a Newtype and the premiere all but confirms that Bull is one as well, due to his psychic ability. Because Psycommu requires the pilot to be a Newtype and given what just happens in this fight, we can safely assume that Machu is a Newtype herself and that will most certainly be important down the line. Also, this kind of sci-fi magic moment is actually a recurring thing in Gundam. I always find it bizarre as barring the giant robots, Gundam tries to be pretty grounded in science but at least GQuuuuuuX does the smart thing of establishing this at the beginning, as opposed to saving it for the end like some other shows in the franchise
Watch Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX on Amazon Prime Video
Xenodude Scribbles 
>Also, this kind of sci-fi magic moment is actually a recurring thing in Gundam. I always find it bizarre as barring the giant robots, Gundam tries to be pretty grounded in science
Yeah, the Newtype psychic stuff is one of two aspects of the Universal Century setting that firmly date it as a product of the 1970s. The other is the backstory of why the setting has space colonies in the first place and why there is unending conflict between “Earthnoids” and “Spacenoids”.
In the 1970s, the great environmental crisis that people thought that all of humanity would have to band together and make drastic changes to society to solve wasn’t climate change, but overpopulation. In the mid 20th Century, much of Asia was smack in the middle of the demographic transition that Europe had already gone through, from pre-industrial high birth and death rates to modern much lower birth and death rates through the intermediate step of high birth rates and low death rates. People like Paul Ehrlich (author of The Population Bomb) saw the population of China exploding and imagined that it could only end in either global mass starvation or radical intervention.
The backstory of the Universal Century is that in the century leading up to the original Gundam anime, humanity solved the overpopulation crisis by forming a world government (the Earth Federation) that more or less forcibly emigrated the lower classes to the colonies and made living on Earth a privilege reserved for the elite. Meanwhile in the real world, intervention came in the form of China’s One-Child Policy, which was first proposed in 1979, the same year the original Gundam aired.
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