GQuuuuuuX Record #1: The Red Gundam

Welcome to the start of ANIWIRE's coverage of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX! There will be spoilers for the first episode past this point.

There are many reasons to be excited for Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX. It’s an alternate universe take on the beloved Universal Century timeline. It’s the first season-long anime produced by Khara. Hideaki Anno, the director of the 1995 megahit Neon Genesis Evangelion, is credited on the script. None of those things matter to me, though. Why? Because GQuuuuuuX is first and foremost the return of director Kazuya Tsurumaki, give or take his scriptwriter collaborator Yoji Enokido. That’s a big deal.

Tsurumaki is responsible for some of my favorite anime series ever. He made his series director debut with FLCL, probably the single best anime ever made about adolescent male ennui. It became a cult hit on Adult Swim, changed the game for English dubs and introduced a generation to the Japanese rock band the pillows. Tsurumaki followed that series up with Diebuster, an uneven but extraordinarily imaginative sequel to the classic giant robot anime Gunbuster.

Say Tsurumaki's name!

Many of Tsurumaki’s collaborators from this time period, like Hiroyuki Imaishi, have gone on to do great work at their own studios. Tsurumaki, on the other hand, has spent the past decade toiling at Khara with his mentor Hideaki Anno on the Rebuild of Evangelion films. I think these films are pretty neat, particularly the last two. But Anno’s name can’t help but overshadow Tsurumaki's. Tsurumaki’s original projects, like the animated short I Can Friday by Day and the three-episode series The Dragon Dentist, are comparatively obscure.

GQuuuuuuX is thus the first high-profile animated series Tsurumaki has directed outside of Anno’s shadow in eighteen years. Not only that, but (as I said previously) he’s doing it with FLCL and Diebuster scriptwriter Yoji Enokido. GQuuuuuuX can’t be FLCL or Diebuster; the environment that produced those works no longer exists. But it’s much closer to either of those shows than Adult Swim’s FLCL sequels could ever hope to be.

The heart of GQuuuuuuX

I previously wrote about the series in its film edit, under the name Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: Beginning. This time I’ll cover just the first episode that was uploaded this week to Amazon Prime. In a change from the film version, the television series begins not with alternate history (Char, the villain of the original Gundam, taking the Gundam for himself instead of the hero Amuro) but a new story (Machu, Nyaan and company eeking by in the Side 6 space colony.) So that’s where I’ll start.

The backgrounds and art direction of GQuuuuuuX are what stand out to me most. FLCL was famous for its washed-out yellow skies and faded urban environments. Diebuster was similarly dreamy with its shrouded purple cities, telephone wires and towering smokestacks. GQuuuuuuX’s take on Side 6 (an already existing place from the Universal Century timeline) operates in the same register. Despite the futuristic architecture, the show’s heart is in its crowded alleyways and side-streets. Some of these locations, like a nearby shrine, are charming. Others (like a door leading to an illegal robot fight club) feel seedy and genuinely dangerous.

The muck and the shit

It’s a big change from the previous Gundam TV series, The Witch From Mercury. That one took place in the clean, brightly-lit Asticassia School of Technology. Its characters were corporate scions piloting expensive new weapons technology. GQuuuuuuX by comparison is about Uber Eats delivery people, graffiti artists and galactic refugees. They live down in the muck and the shit.

This show is all about what you can see and what you can’t. Cameras peer from behind corners; a mysterious man and his crew study the action from afar. Yet Side 6 is obscured by yellow smoke. Anquui, an older woman who runs the aforementioned giant robot fight club, keeps a handgun hidden in her pocket. Machu can see mysterious flashing lights after connecting with the powerful robot GQuuuuuuX. But are those lights really there, or are they a figment of her imagination? Who is the red robot she sees floating in the haze?

Obfuscation is a specialty

Obfuscation is a specialty of the scriptwriter Yoji Enokido. FLCL disguised its themes with bizarre terminology like “Medical Mechanica,” “N.O. potential” and “Galactic Space Patrol Brotherhood.” Diebuster is nothing but rug pulls; the series is a different experience on rewatch once you know the rules of its setting. GQuuuuuuX is already playing this game, not just by tampering with UC continuity but by introducing entirely new terms like “MAV” and “Zeknova.” A recent write-up on Anime Feminist suggested that as a Gundam newbie, they felt lost at sea with all this terminology. I’d say, don’t worry about it: GQuuuuuuX wants to befuddle not just new viewers but old-school Gundam fans as well.

While I was certainly satisfied by this first episode, there are three points that I am uncertain about. The first is that the next episode jumps directly to the “alternate history” that began the film version. While that part of the film has plenty to offer Gundam fans especially, it makes me sad that I’ll have to wait another two weeks to see more of Machu and her friends. There's even at least one key character who won't appear until the third episode at this rate.

Gundam's responsbility

That ties into my second worry, which is that Machu and Nyaan are harder for me to pin down than other characters from the Tsurumaki catalog. His first episodes usually do a great job putting you into the headspace of their protagonists: Naota is a mess, Nono is idealistic and naive, Lal’C is jaded. While you can get a sense of Machu and Nyaan by their actions or how they carry themselves, we don’t know their motivations as of yet. It’s actually Challia Bull, a character borrowed from the original Mobile Suit Gundam, who I find the most immediately compelling; this series reinvents him as a sad adult pining for his lost boyfriend.

Finally, there’s the question of 3DCG. GQuuuuuuX uses computer graphics rather than 2D animation to portray its robots. That isn’t unexpected because Khara has relied on 3DCG since its founding. It’s also fully in keeping with industry trends. Yet Gundam has a responsibility, as one of the last bastions of mechanical animation, to keep 2D robots alive. I can’t help but see GQuuuuuuX as an abdication of that responsibility even if the 3D models and movement aren’t bad per se.

The benefit of the doubt

Tsurumaki’s previous works benefited from 2D mechanical animation. Animators like Hiroyuki Imaishi, sushio and others did incredible work in FLCL and Diebuster. The robots and space creatures had the same wild elasticity as the human characters, which made the fights that much more fun to watch. GQuuuuuuX’s character designs have plenty of that foolish energy. But the robots do not.

The last Rebuild of Evangelion film, Thrice Upon a Time, ended with what I thought was a clear-cut thesis: there is no future in the past. We have to move forward. GQuuuuuuX might look like a brand new future for Gundam but I think it’s a legacy project at heart. An opportunity to see your friends from 20 years ago play the hits. I hope that’s not all that Khara is capable of.

But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt this time. After all, Tsurumaki only has a handful of original works to his name outside his Evangelion work. I hope that GQuuuuuuX earns him and his collaborators the respect they deserve.

This week’s addendum

Technobabble Corner: Challia Bull’s crew mentioned “MAV” and “Zeknova.” What could these terms mean? We’ll find out eventually, I suppose.

That's Right, Enokido: “The heavens aren’t above our heads but under our feet. Those of us born in the colonies don’t know the feeling of real gravity, or the sight of the real sky.”

The Machu and Nyaan Power Hour: That ending credits sequence sure has the two of them spend some time together, huh. After Bandai’s behavior with Witch From Mercury though I’m not holding my breath.

The Challia Bull and ______ Power Hour: Now that's more like it! Find out more next week.

Friends of Gundam: While Twitter has been eaten by Musk and his friends, Bluesky is thankfully overflowing with GQuuuuuuX fan art.

Another AMV of the Week

Why not? Here’s "Iron Lung" by Kusoyaro Productions.