Review of Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

This is what you guys get from not being harsh enough on Unicorn. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is a Khara production, and as such, it's a cynical cash grab made to exploit nostalgia for a better series that this one fundamentally misunderstands. It's a show that suffers from an identity crisis, trying to both be an alternate universe version of the original Gundam that explores a OYW where Zeon won, but also a FLCL-style coming of age story for a group of young Newtypes who don't know how to face the world. Instead of deciding to pick one, the show tries to cram both radically differentstorylines in a mere 12 episodes, leading to both sides to be criminally underdeveloped due to a lack of breathing room, leaving both the character development non-existent and the world building of such a changed UC a blip on the radar.

Machu is very clearly intended to be a Kamille type character, a rebel who wants to break free into the world but doesn't have a way to so they go straight to violence, but that's basically all her character, she never really grows in any way and never faces consequences for her actions, she ultimately exists as a character the UC cast can give exposition to. Shuji is basically a mix of Kaworu and Lalah, a mysterious boy whose relationship to the MC serves to drive a breaking point, but we're never given explanations on WHO he is and HOW he's involved with the Rose of Sharon at all. Nyaan is probably the most developed of the three, as her desire for a new place to belong actually gets her on a way to take greater role in the story, but the entire thing is cut short with no real resolution once she's reduced to just a love triangle with Machu and Shuji.

Something really damning about this show is that, despite the constant key jiggling of references to the original Gundam and Zeta (constantly bringing characters and even music from those even if it plays no role on the plot, like the Titans), it really doesn't seem to understand the characters it is using from those old shows. Why would Char want to do CCA like Challia says? He never lived the events of Zeta, he has no reason to have his faith in humanity broken over his dreams of a giving the next generation to Kamille and the AEUG being shattered, him wanting to do this without that context is completely opposite to his portrayal in the actual CCA movie. Why does Sayla want to lead Zeon? She hates her family heritage, always siding with the Federation at every turn, her suddenly deciding to take it is complete character assassination. And the series just keeps having all these little holes, like why does the Murasame Lab exist if Flannagan research wasn't folded into the Federation, why does Bask have a Psyco Gundam when the Federation lost the Gundam and never even made GMs, why does Haro exist in multiple numbers without Amuro making it popular after the war - this show is more focused on referencing old shows than actually following its premise of exploring a different UC.

Unicorn did irreparable damage to the depiction of Newtypes, completely destroying their lore to make them weird reality warpers, and GQuuuuuuX follows Unicorn's lead by having Newtype powers (or Kira Kira as they bizarrely want to call them here) literally remake universes, which is such a disgusting and gross misappropriation of what Newtypes were always supposed to be in Tomino's work, even Gundam X could get this shit right but not an actual UC work. Ignore anything allegorical about their role in the search for human understanding, a Newtype realm is completely real, they can make black holes and travel to other timelines, because these hack writers are just going to use them as plot devices to make anything they want possible, including facilitating a MCU level member berries multiverse plot like this one.

FLCL was definitely a fluke, because Tsurumaki has never shown himself capable of making any good original work again, this shit is on the level of the FLCL sequels he had no hand in. Anno is an hypocritical nostalgia obsessed fanboy who wants people to move forward, but is completely incapable of doing anything but retreating old plot threads, and has done nothing but remake his childhood shows for years now. Khara has given us the most creatively bankrupt Gundam series since Unicorn, and I hope that people clapped at the epic cameos and references, because this is what you get for always refusing to innovate and instead relaying on infinitely exploiting decades old IPs as the Disney of anime.

Thank you for reading.