GQuuuuuuX Record #5: Nyaan Doesn't Know About Kira-Kira

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

Last week I wrote about how GQuuuuuuX riffed on scriptwriter Yoji Enokido's earlier work on Revolutionary Girl Utena. But that’s not all this series can do. This week, GQuuuuuuX is operating in at least three registers at once and doing them all pretty well. Let’s break down what these are, and what they could mean for the show going forward.

The first is a low-key story about life on the space colony Side 6. We see Machu lock herself away on a rooftop, sunbathing in a swimsuit while drowning out her memories of Shiiki’s death with music. Anqi joins her with donuts, completing the strangely cozy–yet ominous–atmosphere. A worn rooftop furnished with cacti, the pale blue sky, and the whites of hanging skyscrapers gleaming in the light. “Those of us born in the colonies don’t know the feeling of real gravity,” Machu once said, “or the sight of the real sky.”

Washing machines

Later Machu meets Nyaan on the streets after school and goes with her to the laundry. It’s a strangely banal sequence for a giant robot anime. Who cares where heroes go to wash their clothes? But it’s clearly important to Tsurumaki, since laundry machines appear in his earlier series Diebuster as well. Not to mention that Yoshiyuki Tomino, who directed the original Mobile Suit Gundam, went so far as to have a giant robot do the laundry in his 1999 masterpiece Turn A Gundam.

Mobile Suit Gundam became a hit due to its larger than life characters like Char Aznable. That’s one reason why Char has such a pull in GQuuuuuuX, even though he’s nowhere to be seen. Yet the world of Gundam is larger than just space opera. I’m happy that Tsurumaki and his staff remain dedicated to carving out space in the canon for refugees, garbage truckers, and even folks who go to the laundromat instead of using their in-house unit.

Life during wartime

It reminds me of the OVA Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, which is unparalleled in the franchise for its depiction of civilian life. I don’t think it’s an accident that both series take place in Side 6. Tsurumaki himself has said that War in the Pocket is his favorite. So when Challia Bull’s subordinate, Xavier, chats with an informant, or when the villains of this episode yell about the protagonists wasting their time with video games, we know who and what GQuuuuuuX is harkening back to. 

The second part of this episode has to do with class. Our two heroines, Machu and Nyaan, are shaped by their circumstances. Machu has grown up in relative luxury. Her mother works for the government, and she herself attends a prestigious school “for debutantes.” If Machu rejects the colony in favor of the world outside, it is because some part of her is unsatisfied despite her other needs being met.

Killing without hesitation

Nyaan’s desires though are rooted in practicality. She is a refugee who makes due with crappy jobs. She knows the local police will lock her up indefinitely (or worse) if she fights back. Yet when push comes to shove, she fights with a ferocity that Machu does not have. Machu will kick a police officer in the balls without hesitation but hesitates when told to kill. Nyaan kills without hesitation. In fact, she relishes it: the power to assert what she wants in a world that has spent so long denying her.

Machu has spent the past couple of episodes fighting together with Shuji without ever thinking about the larger picture. Similarly, Nyaan has followed Machu and Shuji around since the start of the series, perhaps because nobody else will talk to her or take her seriously. This episode marks their greatest challenge yet. Machu, by having what she wants most taken away. Nyaan, by learning how great it feels to take what she desires.

Wow, cool robot!

Which brings us to the third part: sex. Really it’s no surprise. Yoji Enokido’s collaborations with Kazuya Tsurumaki have always been about sex in some capacity. FLCL was about a literally horny twelve-year-old boy. Diebuster had its share of older cast members fighting to regain their virility, and teenagers struggling to keep theirs. So far GQuuuuuuX is a lot more grounded in its imagery than either of those. But it does have the Red Gundam, and the GQuuuuuuX, which everybody wants to fuck.

There’s an incredible scene in this episode where Shuji, Nyaan and Machu meet up in the sewers. Shuji cools himself by lying on the metal of the Red Gundam. (He has a fever, but he’s such a strange guy that neither Nyaan or Machu realize until the Clan Battle later in the episode.) Seeing that Shuji’s having a great time, Nyaan strips her clothes and lies on the Gundam herself. Not wanting to be outdone, Machu follows suit. But she isn’t quite sure whether she’s doing it correctly.

What was owed

This scene has layers. Shuji is experiencing intimacy with the Gundam. Intimacy that Nyaan is casually able to replicate. But Machu lacks the experience. While she has seen the “Kira Kira” together with Shuji, the metal of the Gundam itself is a different thing entirely. So when Nyaan takes it for herself at the end of the episode, it doesn’t matter that Shuji was comatose for the encounter. Machu still feels as if a special something she once had, and thought was owed to her, has been stolen from her.

It reminds me of the scene in Witch From Mercury where Miorine bans Suletta from piloting the Gundam Aerial. That sequence, like this one, sets up a circumstance where a character we are supposed to like hurts the other. It’s a major turning point in Witch From Mercury that sets Suletta on the path towards self-determination. Yet the series takes care to engineer things so that Suletta and Miorine have both been manipulated. Not only that, but the two of them are operating on false information. So while Suletta is badly hurt by Miorine’s actions, we the audience know that it was all a big misunderstanding (and also that some time away from her mother really would do Suletta good.)

Nyaan knows now

The relationship between Machu and Nyaan in this episode, though, is messier. Machu really does feel anguish and confusion that her friend Nyaan piloted something she thought was hers. Nyaan really did get so carried away piloting the GQuuuuuuX that she killed someone for the pleasure of it. Sure, Nyaan piloted the robot for Machu, but she did it for her own sake, too. How can these two kids find middle ground?

That’s the sort of tension I love. It’s been missing from Enokido’s recent anime series, but it’s back in GQuuuuuuX. Perhaps it's because of that focus on societal rejects I wrote about earlier in the piece. Or maybe it's Tsurumaki's own influence from the bittersweet seinen and josei comics that inspired FLCL. Whichever it is, it couldn't be more clear that only Machu takes her privilege for granted. Everybody else is hungry for the stars.

This week’s addendum

The Machu and Nyaan Power Hour: The Machu and Nyaan stocks are either rising or falling based on how you read the end of this episode. I’m curious to see where the series goes next!

The Machu and Shuji Power Hour: idk he’s sick for most of this episode. Give him a break.

This Week’s Moment of Violence: The Black Tri-Stars (or at least, the two of them that appear in this episode) make for a fun challenge this week. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to win, whether that be electrocuting the pilot, blinding them with flash bombs or ganging up two to one. It might have worked against Machu, but unfortunately Nyaan is just as sneaky and unforgiving as they are.

Robot Central: What the hell is a Kikeroga? Tom has the answer.

The Fool Zone: The Saturn Doughnuts motto is a FLCL reference: "I told you, I don't like sour stuff!"

Friends of Gundam: The internet overflows with Gundam fanart.

Bookmarks

• Variety did an interview with GQuuuuuuX director Kazuya Tsurumaki, who named (among other things) his favorite Tokyo Jihen music video.
• For scrmbl, Alicia Haddick wrote about the new wave of fan projects set in the world of Serial Experiments Lain, including a promising title named signal.
• Comics Beat published their giant roundtable for A Goofy Movie’s 30th anniversary. One of the folks there (Heidi MacDonald, the founder of the site) worked at Disney Magazine at the time of the film’s release, and it’s fascinating to see how her experience with the film differs from the other, younger staff.
• For Anime Herald, Kai Redfield wrote about the connections between doujin illustrators and the Japanese music scene.
• For Maximum Utmost, Zoey Handley wrote about how the manga series Hi Score Girl kept her sane through awful work conditions.

What I Wrote

• For Yatta-Tachi, I interviewed Manga Mavericks about them starting their own small publisher, Manga Mavericks Books.
• For Comics Beat, I spoke with my colleague Hilary Leung about episodes 2-4 of the Chinese animated series To Be Hero X, which had both good and disappointing stuff to pick through.
• For startmenu, I wrote about free games to play in case you are broke, jobless or have a crappy computer.
• For the podcast Unpacking the Shelf, I spoke with my friend Alex about two manga published by Glacier Bay Books: …And the Strange and Funky Happenings One Day and To the Sea.

AMV of the Week

Here’s "to friends like magnolias" by HazelNeverTalks.