Gundam GQuuuuuuX - None of Us Can Escape The Möbius Ring
When Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX was announced, I couldn't imagine a more exciting concept. Kazuya Tsurumaki of Diebuster and FLCL fame, finally unchained from the Evangelion mines he'd been locked in for the last decade, would finally strike out on his own. And with Gundam no less! Little did I realize that Tsurumaki had merely exchanged one cell for another.
I think generally, Gundam GQuuuuuuX is a story about breaking free from the gravity of the Universal Century, and more broadly the legacies of the past, through the guise of its young protagonists against the backdrop of an alternate timeline. It is all the more a shame then that I think ultimately, GQuuuuuuX does not succeed. It's too beholden to the past, unable to resist the siren song of the callback and the cameo. For every impassioned speech about how we must move forward, the show can't help but slip in just one more reference to an older story.
GQuuuuuuX could be basically divided into three (though functionally two) narrative pillars. The first is the story of Machu and her pursuit of freedom, meeting Nyaan and Shuji along the way. The second is the story of the alternate timeline where Zeon won the One Year War. The third is the multiverse story orbiting the relationship between Lalah Sune, Char Aznable, and Amuro Ray; the myriad ways in which that inciting event is responsible for the entire thematic identity of Gundam itself. This is the part where I must remind you that GQuuuuuuX was only 12 episodes. If you have even a passing familiarity with Gundam, you can probably already tell why this was a problem.
Each of these threads alone could easily justify a 12 episode TV run. And as a result, each of the three feel half baked at best. It's maybe a testament to Tsurumaki and Enokido's skills as storytellers who specialize in shortform narrative that GQuuuuuuX is as legible as it is. There's a deft leverage of evocative imagery and dialogue to establish concepts a lesser creative would have needed thrice the runtime to achieve. But just because something is truncated well does not mean you still don't feel the cuts.
Machu and Nyaan manage to do a lot with how little screentime they get in aggregate. Again, Tsurumaki's talent for impactful visual storytelling helps to communicate a lot about the two. The problem is once again, the constant feeling of needing more. Never in the show did I ever really feel that Machu and Nyaan were actual friends. Not the way they're portrayed in the show's charming ED sequence. You get the indications that these two enjoy hanging out, but the inclusion of Shuji and their mutual infatuation with him meant I constantly felt like Machu and Nyaan were hanging out to spend time with Shuji more than each other. The lack of real connection between the two defangs a lot of the power of their midseason separation and the intended catharsis of their reconciliation toward the climax.
I don't think the other pillars necessarily fare much better. The invocation of the Titans feel so vestigial that it's basically just fanservice for the oldheads. Ghiren barely gets to remind you how much of an irredeemable psychopath he is before he drops dead. For a show so concerned with Char Aznable, Sayla is a footnote in this story, reduced to a prop. This pillar is so surface level it might as well just be folded into the third.
Sidebar: I get that Sayla, having experienced both sides of the One Year War would probably be the best choice to lead Zeon toward a more reconciliatory path in this timeline. Her time spent fighting with the Federation balancing out her familial ties. It still feels kinda gross that the scene where she takes power has an overwhelming hitler particle count. Did they really have to lean so hard into the Sieg Zeon stuff? I also just think it's ultimately a tragic fate for Sayla, who spent most of her time in the original UC trying to escape the politicking that destroyed her family. The idea that GQuuuuuuX would portray this as her "reward" is somewhat galling. At least Ramba Ral made it in this timeline. It's the small mercies.
Finally, you have the problematic throuple that started it all, though GQuuuuuuX decides to mostly focus on the Char/Lalah aspect of it. I think the big problem with this theme is how last minute it's introduced. Also I kinda just hate how every UC work has to have these three around like force ghosts. They did it in Unicorn, they did it in Hathaway's Flash, they did it here and it just didn't work for me. I don't mind the occasional ghostly Amuro giving some vague statement about humanity, but I really don't care to relitigate the "original sin" of the trio. Amuro and Char's confrontation at A Baoa Qu gives more catharsis than literally anything that came after it. Char and Lalah meeting at the end of GQuuuuuuX feels like some fix-fic bullshit, the ravings of a gunota who just couldn't let it go.
Maybe GQuuuuuuX's original sin is the inability to let go. Anno's involvement in GQuuuuuuX's production has been frequently overstated, especially by less informed anime viewers. However we do know that Anno was responsible for spearheading the OYW flashback scenes and it shows in all the worst ways. Where Tsurumaki and Enokido's callbacks to the UC feel incidental but impactful, rarely overtaking the main narrative, Anno cannot help but be the worst kind of gunota, incapable of letting go of his childhood toys. As a result, the OYW flashback casts such a heavy shadow on the rest of GQuuuuuuX. Despite my earlier comment on how underexplored the alt UC concept is, its very premise ends up pulling every other aspect of the story into its gravitational pull.
I'm at the point where I think maybe the show would have been better off without them entirely. Imagine the mystery of trying to uncover what happened in this timeline in a world where episode 1 just introduced Challia Bull without any prior information. Where Annqi says Spacenoids will never be free, even under Zeon rule. I think it would have been a lot more engaging to slowly uncover the true nature of this timeline in a world where it wasn't fed to us like a documentary. But we don't live in that world, we live in the world where Anno possessively recounts every minor detail of how Zeon won the war, from Char getting the Gundam to the mass production of the Big Zam. Even as a died in the wool Tomino patriot, it's all so tiresome. I've seen these moments relitigated a million times, why can't they move on? Even Tomino's moved on.
I think overall, GQuuuuuuX's decision to tell a story about teenage adolescence's instinctual yearning for independence mirroring the aftermath of a cataclysmic war for independence AND a story about the alternate Universal Century is the anime's undoing. Not because either thread is inherently faulty, but because the reality of the show's production preclude a satisfactory telling of both simultaneously. To be clear, the intent is good, but the execution is messy, and maybe that's what makes GQuuuuuuX so compelling and frustrating in equal measure. I actually love a lot of the thematic meat of GQuuuuuuX as a text, and wish the story had given them all the time I think they deserve. But in a world where we only get 12 episodes, I don't mind holding Studio Khara somewhat responsible for not tempering their own ambitions accordingly.
Ever since I saw the following cohost post by Heather Flowers, it's lived in my head rent free. The coda that instantly clarified every media obsession I've ever had.
If you want to make a work people like, make it good.
If you want to make a work people love, make it great.
If you want to make a work people are obsessed with, make it almost good.
God if that doesn't describe Gundam, I don't know what does. Has Gundam ever actually been great? Hard to say, which is absurd to say about a franchise I hold closer to my heart than almost any other piece of fiction in human creation. Do I love Gundam or do I obsess over Gundam? Am I any better than Hideaki Anno in that regard? Am I also in thrall to the White Devil, the Red Comet, and the Lalah Sound?
Maybe it was impossible. The gravity of Gundam, especially the Universal Century, is too great, too all encompassing to conceivably escape. Perhaps Yoshiyuki Tomino is the only one with the willpower and clarity of purpose to destroy the very thing he created.
In that sense, maybe the nicest thing I can say about Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX is that it is the great crucible. It's probably an awful way to get into Gundam, I can't even imagine how incomprehensible this show would be to a newcomer. On the other hand, if you can survive it and come out the other side hungry for more, the world is your oyster. There's 40 years of Gundam waiting to enrapture and disappoint you in equal measure. Beautifully made, compelling in fits and starts, its abundant potential peeking through the quagmire only to be dragged back by the gravitational pull that’s caught all of us. GQuuuuuuX is Gundam to its core, in its triumphs and failures alike, nobody can take that away from it. It's a show I wish I could love more but I understand why its unique spell worked on so many. Alas, I'm already in thrall to another.
#anime #gundam #mecha #gquuuuuux