Gundam GQuuuuuuX Ep 1 Review: Encounters in Space

Here we go! The most anticipated mecha series for this year – and of course, it’s Gundam. This time, it is extra special since this series is a collaboration between Studio Khara, the Evangelion maker, and Sunrise. Furthermore, this series went back to Universal Century and turned it upside down, presenting a completely new direction of the One Year War, and it resulted in a brand new story that will excited you.

Ep 1 of GQuuuuuuX started off with the new content immediately. Before the anime air on normal tv and streaming platform, a special cut movie was shown called “The Beginning”. In that movie, we get a very extensive explanation about the “new” One Year War and how it led to these new events, but in ep 1, we started with the new stuff first, and the OYW stuff will be in ep 2. I think it is to hook viewers with the new cast and aesthetic first, and explain later. For those that were able to watch the movie, this decision isn’t an issue at all. However, for those that didn’t, this might be a bit confusing, but believe me, it will be explained very soon. And furthermore, this episode contained enough information anyway.

Righto, onto the “new” and new characters. Firstly we started the episode with a “Zeon” warship, and if you think it looks familiar, that is because it’s the White Base from 0079. The commander of the vessel is a handsome middle-aged man, who bears a striking resemblance to Flit Asuno, but he is really Challia Bull – the leader of the Newtype Corp in the original series. I must say, they really gave him an update in terms of looks. Since I’ve already watched the Beginning movie, I can tell the Zeon crew of the White Base is actually quite interesting. Yes they are a bit one dimensional, but they are all unique in their own way. Kinda like the guys in Ner… whoops almost slipped the big E in.

Anyway, our new main protagonist is a young smol tomato named Amate Yuzuriha. Illustrated by the Pokemon char designer Take, Amate (nicknamed Machu) is a very cute young girl. However, she is definitely not a reserved girl, but rather a very straightforward and reckless teen. She found a smuggled and illegal item in her bag, decided to keep it and question the smuggler, then when she learned that the device is used for illegal mobile suit combat, she seems…interested instead of scared and just leave. We learned that the colony they are living in has a gravity of 1G, which gives Machu a “fake” feeling of life. There’s no real sky, no real beaches, and every natural thing around them is actually “artificial”, even gravity. Machu yearns for a chance to feel the actual environment as it is on Earth. She is also super reckless, jumping straight into the cockpit of a Mobile Suit to fight, and when she sees a stronger-looking robot, she immediately dashed out, jumping from a giant mobile suit arm to the next and essentially “hijack” the other one – which was the Gundam GQuuuuuuX. Her rashness reminds us of the older protagonists like Garrod or Kamille, with a very aggressive attitude while looking as cute as a tomato. The gap moe is absolutely sending fans crazy!

Speaking of the “Gundam”, this series introduced us to not one, but TWO Gundams straight out of the gate – in the first 5 minutes even. One of the Gundams is an all-red Gundam – reminiscent of Char’s color – because, according to Chalia’s words, it is actually Char’s Gundam! That’s right, in this timeline, Char successfully stole the RX-78-2 Gundam (or its equivalent in this universe), and even the White Base, and turning the tides for Zeon during the One Year War. The nitty gritty details will be explained in episode 2, so you just need to know that Zeon kicked the Federation’s butt, but the Zabis are still in power and the struggle of the colonies still continue to this day – just with a change of hands in power.

Now, the Red Gundam looks very…distinct in terms of design. Ikuto Yamashita has taken to the designing sheet and applied his style over the original RX-78-2. And the results is something drastically different. His style is very similar to the one he used in Evangelion ANIMA, with extremely sectioned body parts and lots of details on the surface. And the funky mechanical parts are distributed throughout the body. If you see the limbs or the parts separately, you’ll be reminded of the robot arms in the manufacturing factories for, well, stuff. The mechanical application is really extreme in this series.

And now we come to the namesake of the series – the Gundam GQuuuuuuX (pronounced G-Quarks). It is a completely new design – departed from every other 0079 design you can think of. This is the first “off-shoot” from the usual RX-78, the GM, the Zaku, etc… And the GQuuuuuuX is, well, an Eva….I mean a very unique design. From the head crest mechanism to the thruster-like feet and the bold color-scheme and the funky joints, the GQuuuuuuX is a big statement that can really make or break the show – because it is the main suit. Alas, there are still more secret hidden within this flamboyant design, so let’s see what they will cook up with this one.

Next, and this is one of the big pluses of the series: the animation. Khara really putting the Evangelion’s talent to work. And yes, the mecha action is full 3D, and it’s incredibly smooth. And the “Gundams” move with the desterity and agility of, you guessed it, a human. They are much more responsive and “fast” compared to the Zaku they were fighting. The roundabout camera works also remind us a lot of Evangelion. But not just the combat, the 2D animation is very good as well. The human characters are expertly animated, with no obvious “smear frames”. No matter when you pause the episode, it still looks really good. The color-grading in this series is also really nice – with a great palette to go with each scene’s atmosphere.

Lastly, the music for the series is pretty nice. We didn’t get the opening animation – but we did get the opening song – Plazma – as an insert song for the episode when Machu dash to the GQuuuuuuX. The ending is [I don’t care anymore] by none other than the Blue Comet – Hoshimachi Suisei. There’s a reason why Suisei’s concert are always fully packed – because she is damn good. The ending animation is extremely cozy and wholesome as well. Overall, the production quality of this first ep is really good.

From the preview, ep 2 will touch on the One Year War period where Char stole the Gundam. This will clarify a lot of details about the current premise. However, the movie had a very long screentime for the OYW sequence, so I’m not sure if they will cover all of it in the next ep, or just cut it and just flip flop between the 2 period. Guess we’ll see!

=Aaron=

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