Review of Mobile Suit Gundam: GQuuuuuuX

Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is an insanely wild and gripping piece of AU storytelling that only a director of Kazuya Tsurumaki’s talent could have handled. Whether it's the thrilling and weighty mobile suit fights, the intensely dramatic and moody color design, or the sheer mass of energy with which this production moves, it is, if nothing else, visually enrapturing. I especially loved its depiction of Newtype perception and how their sensory connection to the world is so emotionally intoxicating. With this show essentially being officially licensed fanfiction, it perfectly weaponizes nostalgia for the original Mobile Suit Gundam to near-perfection, creating a perpetual game of seeingwhat changed, what stayed the same, and how all the pieces of this new timeline lock into place. This also means, of course, that 0079 is required viewing in order to fully grasp what GQuuuuuuX is trying to do, which is perfectly fine in my book since 0079 is on my shortlist of absolute must-watch anime.
Unfortunately, the climax of this story ultimately got too big for its britches and mostly lost whatever emotional direction it had, and there’s one particular plot point that I just fundamentally don’t understand in terms of emotional purpose. While I adored Machu’s initial presentation as an aimless brat searching for her place in the world, as well as the plethora of intriguing characters that surround her, the final arc of this series became so intensely plot-focused that most of the interesting character dynamics got drowned out in the end. I know this isn’t a fair comparison at all, but I’m just not going to remember Machu the same way I remember Amuro, or even the MCs of other, more condensed Tsurumaki projects like FLCL and Diebuster. The best and worst thing I can say about GQuuuuuuX is that it’s an incredibly entertaining show to watch once. While I don’t see much return value, it’s at least worth it for the first experience.