The last Gundam show I watched was Gundam the Witch from Mercury. That show set a really high bar: animation, characters, story, mechs, all of it was brilliant, the references to the Tempest were a bonus. Let’s see what this new entry into the franchise holds.
First up, no I can’t pronounce that title. Second up, this is and is not a UC (Universal Century) series in that it’s the first alternate universe in the sense of things happening differently take on the Gundam series… well noticeably. Origins is slightly different from the original continuity but the main strokes were the same. GQuuuux is set in a universe where Zeon won the One Year War. The Mechs also have a similar yet strictly different design, the closest comparison on how different they look is Turn A. You can still tell what’s a Guncannon and what’s a Zaku but it’s noticeable how different the style is right away.
Starting on Side 6 we meet our lead high school student Amate Yuzuriha or more commonly called Machu as well as a refugee posing as a courier Nyaan. Due to an incident with the Red Gundam, Machu gets her hands on the Gquuux and uses it in underground clan battles – illegal battles using mobile suits. Interspersed with this are the occasional episodes that go back in time showing what happened during the One Year War in this timeline, showing Char getting the Gundam during the initial raid at the start of the show and other events that have things play out differently.
Honestly one the best parts of the series is seeing how that initial change altered things. For instance, a few episodes in we are shown Gelgoogs. In the original timeline these were Zeons answer to the Gundam. BUT in this timeline they were made by reverse engineering the Gundam and so look more like the GMs of the main timeline as those were mass produced versions of it.
Machu and Nyaan both bond with the pilot of the Red Gundam, a mysterious youth called Shuji Ito, all the while a federation task force lead by Challia Bull who was a character in the original timeline but died (he’s alive here obviously, he’s not a ghost) who are trying to get the Gquux back as well as hunt down the Red Gundam in homes of finding the missing Char.
The first half of the show is quite good, we get introduced to some elements of how the world is different and see our characters get explored a bit… well except Shuji. Problems start hitting during the second half of the show. You see, this is the Gundam show with the fewest episodes at only 12. The latter half seems really rushed. A good chunk of characters from the first half stop appearing and time keeps jumping forward resulting in characters suddenly having big leaps in what they are doing without adequately explaining how they reached that point or goal.
The final episode, while fine with a good ending, really hits home, however, for what is the final boss, they really needed this show to be twice as long for what it’s doing to work. And yeah that’s everyone’s main point about the show, it was too short. Characters needed more time to be fleshed out, plot points needed more time to be worked towards. You can enjoy the first half fine but after that the problems, due to its short length, become a large detriment. I don’t know why the decision was made to make this the shortest Gundam series but it did nothing but harm it.
While Witch from Mercury would have episodes with no mobile suit action and instead show character interactions, GQuuux had almost every episode have some form of mobile suit fight – yet outside of some memorable meme moments – we didn’t learn much about why to care about these people outside of the moments of “Oooh that’s how that differed in this timeline”. Heck I cant easily remember the lead characters name only Machu and even less everyone else’s.
It’s definitely the weakest Gundam show I’ve seen in full. Before anyone points guns at me I stopped watched Seed Destiny and I’ve never seen AGE. If I was to split Gundam series into the better half and weaker half, this one is firmly in the weaker, and as said that shorter episode count is to blame as I liked those earlier episodes.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
