GQuuuuuuX Record #11: Alphacide

Our Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX coverage continues with the eleventh episode! There will be spoilers after this point.

There’s a famous scene in The Matrix where Morpheus presents Neo with two pills. “After this, there is no turning back,” he says. “You take the blue pill, the story ends; you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Last week’s episode of GQuuuuuuX faced a similar choice. Would the series remain a stand-alone story set in an alternate Gundam universe? Or would it fully embrace the metafictional slant teased in earlier episodes? Was Machu’s belief that the world in which she lived was fake a product of her adolescent imagination, or something more than that? Well, this episode confirms it: Machu’s worries were literal truth. The world of GQuuuuuuX is a fake, and Shuji (with the help of the original Gundam) is here to destroy it. We’re red pilled now.

You belong to me

This revelation comes with a cavalcade of references to Gundam series from the Universal Century. Char is here, wearing his original costume thanks to an inter-dimensional costume change! He has a conversation in a theater buried in the solar ray Yomagn’tho that references the climax of Zeta Gundam! “Beyond the Time,” the ending theme of the Gundam film Char’s Counterattack, plays in the finale as the Gundam arrives from the other side of the Zeknova!

I’ll be honest and say that I don’t have much to say about any of those things. While I’ve seen my share of Gundam, I’m relatively unschooled in the Universal Century. Thus these elements that must play like gangbusters for folks familiar with the references don’t do much for me. They also work against one of the show’s greatest strengths, building a dirty and detailed world off screen from typical Gundam. If all that was fake, where does that leave us?

I belong to you

I’m left thinking through this episode of GQuuuuuuX with just the tools I have: examples from Tsurumaki and Enokido’s past work. The comparison that jumps out to me right away is FLCL. That series ends with the protagonist, Naota, torn between two crappy adults fighting over a man. Haruka, who Naota has a crush on, wants a space pirate called Atomsk buried in the Medica Mechanica plant. She is willing to let the plant be activated so that she can take what she wants. But Amarao, a government stooge, is convinced that activating the plant would “flatten” the Earth. Amarao is a fool, but in this respect he is correct.

This whole time on GQuuuuuuX, I”ve been trying to pin down which of its selfish adults would betray the kids first. I first landed on Challia Bull and Kycilia because they were given the most screen time. But they’re concerned first and foremost with worldly affairs; they would destroy a planet to fulfill their grudges but not the universe.

We belong to Earth

This episode reintroduced Char as a possible candidate. Despite sweeping Machu off her feet, he swiftly leaves her behind in the Red Gundam in order to accomplish his goals. He’s just as selfish as Char and Kycilia. That fits his portrayal in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, as well as scriptwriter Yoji Enokido’s love of writing “responsible adults” who are pathetic in reality. Who else would hang with a bunch of kids?

After this episode, though, my bet is on Shuji. This whole series I’ve been trying to figure out his deal. Is he supposed to be a romantic interest for Machu or Nyaan? A ghost haunting the Red Gundam? A bad boyfriend that the two of them have to get over?

This episode positions him as one of the show’s three most important characters along with Char and Lalah. He’s a refugee from “the other side.” All this time he has been aiming to hitch a ride to Earth; not to stand in its fields, as I thought, but to find Lalah and wake her up. He even has the original Gundam on his side. There’s no doubt that he’s a hero.

You can change your destiny

But is he really? The title of this episode is “Alphacide.” Shuji ends the episode by insisting that he will end the world, Machu’s world, with his own hands. That’s more than just blowing up the Earth with the Yomagn’tho. That’s total extermination. Shuji has no problem with it, though, because nobody in the world of GQuuuuuuX is real to him.

Seen through the lens of FLCL, that establishes him firmly as the show’s villain. He’s willing to destroy the world in order to get what he wants just like Haruka. He’s also similar to Haruka in that the people that knew him just assumed his motivations without knowing what he really wanted. Naota saw Haruka as a substitute for his brother. He had no idea that Haruka would sacrifice him in a heartbeat for power. Machu and Nyaan are no different; they saw Shuji and the Red Gundam as an escape, and Shuji was happy to let them believe it. After all, he could walk away whenever he wanted.

Beyond the time

It’s looking bad for Machu and Nyaan. All that Nyaan wanted was security. She was even willing to sacrifice the lives of everybody on Earth in order to get it! Unfortunately, nobody else saw her the same way. She was only ever a rung on a ladder for Kycilia to climb and reach her own ambitions. As for Machu, all she wants is a straightforward answer to why the world is fake, the cops are cruel and people like Lalah have to suffer. The answers she’s been given have so far been, a) put Lalah out of her misery, and b) erase the world from existence. I don’t know if she’s very happy with either of those options.

The character in this episode who is most clearly presented as a moral arbiter isn’t any of these folks. It’s Comoli: Challia’s right-hand woman, and someone whose main narrative contribution so far has been lending Machu her own spare clothes. Comoli doesn’t get a cool robot like Xavier or Chalia; she doesn’t have Machu’s stubborn protagonist energy, and she doesn’t have to navigate Nyaan’s non-stop moral quandaries. She merely corrects a lieutenant on her ship, who says that Challia “is trying to eliminate Lady Kycilia for the sake of the coming era of Newtypes.” To which Comoli says, “True Newtypes would never do something like that.”

The world of GQuuuuuuX is unjust. It must be overturned. But if Comoli, a nobody, knows what’s up, what right do “real people” like Shuji have to erase her? That’s my question going into next week’s episode, which is carrying a lot of load-bearing weight.

This week’s addendum

The Lalah Conundrum: The most fraught question in this series, I've heard said, is whether the original Mobile Suit Gundam can be forgiven for fridging Lalah. The world of GQuuuuuuX stems from her past and present abuse. Does the series have the time or inclination to address this, in-text, with the depth it deserves? I have no idea.

This Week’s Moment of Violence: Lots of giant robot fighting in this episode, but Nyaan firing her gun and not even being successful in killing Kycilia (she’s even apologetic!) was my favorite bit.

The Nyaan and Kycilia Power Hour: It’s so over?!

Last-Minute Cameos: Anyone want to guess who shows up in the final episode? Amuro? Sayla? I hope we see Annqi.

You Only Meant Well: Well, of course you did.

Bookmarks

Publishers Weekly announced the nominations for this year’s American Manga Awards.

For Anime News Network, Coop Bicknell interviewed legendary anime producer Masao Maruyama.

For Anime Feminist, S. Chang wrote about the anime adaptation of Orb and living on the horizon.

For Aftermath, Chris Person wrote about the elaborate YouTube in-joke SilvaGunner.

For Animation Magazine, Kambole Campbell wrote up the 25th Anniversary Cartoon Network panel at Annency.

What I Wrote

My colleague Hillary and I reviewed the Lucky Cyan arc of To Be Hero X.

For Beat’s Bizarre Adventure, I covered the classic parody series Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga.

AMV of the Week

Here's "Sin Triangle" by Extraterrestrial Elephant.