Review of Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX
A brand new UC Gundam series albeit in a timeline where Zeon won? As someone who loves UC Gundam the most out of all of them, I was excited when hearing about GQuuuuuuX and starting the show. That quickly turned to disappointment however. While I love the many references to events and characters from the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, what GQuuuuuuX has to add on its own falls short of the original series it is based on. To begin with, I really don't like the presentation of mobile suit combat in this show. The UI of the Gundams is taken straight out ofEvangelion with the orange hexagonal displays. I love Neon Genesis Evangelion, but without Gundam there would be no NGE. Gundam is too iconic to need to borrow from NGE. Further on, there's lame stuff like "i-fields" (just like AT fields).
And this show adapts what I consider to be one of the worst elements of Gundam Wing (maybe it is like this in other non-UC Gundams as well). That is the idea that the Gundams are sentient and can carry a subconscious will to influence their pilots. This motif is used repeatedly and really takes me out of what I'm watching.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam invented the real robot genre of mecha, and being a real robot mecha is what sets UC apart from other entries in the franchise. And while UC Gundam did have newtypes and displays of "newtype magic" I feel it was done in a much more reasonable way. GQuuuuuuX is like Gundam Unicorn in that a newtype pilot and a Gundam leads to crazy universe defying superpowers that are well beyond the realm of any believable science fiction.
To further that note, I feel the newtypes in GQuuuuuuX and the concept of being a newtype has been cheapened. Much like the many people who felt that the concept of a Super Saiyan was cheapened with the introduction of the Universe 6 Saiyans in Dragon Ball Super. Being a Super Saiyan should mean more than feeling tingles in your back, unlocking it requires a massive emotional experience and only someone at the pinnacle of their potential should be able to experience it. In GQuuuuuuX, being a newtype is about seeing "sparkies" and wanting to see the "sparkies" again. Much like those back tingles.
And did we really need two back to back red-headed young girl Gundam protagonists? Sunrise, the next time you try to handle a UC story, please go back to what made the original Gundam so great. Give us a serious space opera war drama again. How has the culture degraded so much that it can no longer produce epic stories like Mobile Suit Gundam and Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam? Especially since those were created in times of more relative peace and prosperity than the current era. There's so much more to Gundam than what GQuuuuuuX gives us, and even though it is only a 12 episode single season series, War in the Pocket proved that you don't need much runtime to set-up a serious story. UC Gundam fans deserve better than this, as well as fans of the mecha genre itself.
If you are like me, you will enjoy episode 2 of GQuuuuuuX a lot, but do yourself the favor to forget the rest of it.