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Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘GQuuuuuuX' Is Taking Its ‘Gundam' Remix to a Whole Other Level
Last week, I said that Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX's remixing of the original Gundam continuity was letting several of the original series' biggest characters haunt the narrative, from the absent Amuro Ray, to the slightly less absent Char Aznable, and then the one figure who's really been skirting around the edges of GQuuuuuuX's periphery in earnest, the mysterious Lalah Sune. This week, Lalah stopped skirting… and then some. To the surprise of no one after last week's setup, episode nine of GQuuuuuuX, 'The Rose of Sharon,' is indeed for the most part about Lalah Sune making her way into the series' narrative, as Machu manages to escape confinement with the GQuuuuuuX and head to Earth, where she finds Lalah forced to work at a lavish brothel. But while this Lalah is indeed a Newtype—regaling staff and Machu alike of the visions she sees in her dreams—she is not the Rose of Sharon that Machu was seeking in her hopes to be reunited with Shuji. Instead, this Lalah is almost haunted by what has come to pass, her Newtypism not really granting her a vision of the future, but what was, as GQuuuuuuX offers yet another spin on a classic scene from the 1979 anime. Floating in the cosmic glow that represents the connection forged between Newtypes, Lalah flatly explains that the future she sees is her own: the future of another Lalah, a young woman who meets a young Zeon officer in red who whisks her to the stars… a Lalah who falls in love with that man, and also his rival, as she dies in battle saving the former from the latter. What the Lalah of GQuuuuuuX sees beyond time, as she says to Machu, is the original story of Mobile Suit Gundam. The implication then that GQuuuuuuX's remixed timeline of the Universal Century co-exists alongside Gundam's original one, in some capacity, already raises a bunch of fascinating questions, but things only get more interesting in the episode's climactic moments, when we and Machu alike discover that the Lalah was right when she told them that she is not the rose neither she, nor Shuji, nor everyone else has been looking for after it went missing… Because another Lalah Sune is. The Lalah Sune, if you will. Hidden for years at the bottom of the ocean until Machu and the GQuuuuuuX find it, Lalah's mobile armor the Elmeth, locked in time from the moment of her death in the 1979 anime, has some how become an almighty object of vast psionic power, a Newtype beacon that has transitioned across this divergent timeline, calling out to the generation of Newtypes that forged it in the first place in characters like Char and Lalah, but also the generation that has grown beyond them in this new timeline, like Machu, Nyaan, and Shuji. Of course, Gundam is no stranger to the alternate reality trend that has become du jour in contemporary pop culture. It's been on it for decades at this point, when Mobile Fighter G Gundam created the first alternate Gundam universe to exist on TV outside of the stories that had been told in the Universal Century setting. Ever since we've had a bunch of other alternate realities to provide the setting to new Gundam series, we've had realities that, like GQuuuuuuX, has mirrored and riffed on the Universal Century stories to create their own echoes of its ideas. Hell, Turn A Gundam presented a vision where its setting was a far-flung future after a 'Dark History' that eradicated humanity back to a technological reset—one that touched upon every corner of Gundam continuity up to that point in some way, a comment on the cyclical nature of historical trends, while also symbolically honoring the entire metatext of the franchise up to that point, regardless of continuity. Suffice to say, the coexistence of a GQuuuuuuX timeline, with all its changes, and that potential of the original timeline alongside it, is not exactly unfamiliar territory that Gundam is wading into as it explores all this. With GQuuuuuuX having just a few more episodes to lay out what exactly it wants to say in all this remixing and meta-commentary, time will tell if all these self-referential reveals will result in the series creating something additive to that vast canon—or if its wild evocations are simply designed to spin the heads of diehard fans.
Gizmodo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
GQuuuuuuX Is a Celebration of Gundam Blorbos
The latest Gundam show is clearly made by people who love the 1979 classic—but that love isn't getting in the way of the story it wants to tell. Now that it's almost halfway through, Gundam GQuuuuuuX is setting the stage for a fascinating story between its young trio of protagonists and the forces at play beyond them in the show's vision of an alternative version of Gundam's beloved original continuity. But something has become clear about the series with every episode: this is a series that is made by creatives who are absolute sickos for the original Gundam. Set in an alt-future re-imagining of what Gundam could look like if the Earth Federation lost the One Year War depicted throughout the original 1979 anime, by its very nature GQuuuuuuX has had plenty of opportunity to include tons of familiar characters. It's pulled out some big guns: Char Aznable, arguably one of the most famous Gundam characters of all time, if not the most, has both appeared and left an indelible shadow over the series' whole narrative even as he has become largely absent from it. You might have expected, in some ways, for the series' cast to be peppered with oodles of other prominent characters from the original show, from series protagonist Amuro Ray, to Char's sister Sayla, to Bright Noa, or other members of the White Base crew that could've been, if Zeon hadn't won the war. But GQuuuuuuX's primary cast is both blessedly largely original, and filled with 1979 throwbacks… just the wildest, weirdest choices imaginable. Challia Bull, an important yet one-off character from the 1979 show—paradoxically both fundamentally vital to that series' early explorations of one of the franchise's most fascinating concepts, Newtypes, and also unimportant enough that he was killed off in his debut appearance, and even left on the cutting room floor of the original show's movie compilation trilogy—is a major figure and potential antagonistic force in GQuuuuuuX, radically re-imagined as an incredibly close partner of Char now in search of his missing friend and the Red Gundam he piloted. But he's a major character in a sea of what the internet would otherwise affectionally call 'blorbos' (or Glup Shittos, if you take your fandom parlance from Star Wars): incredibly minor one-hit wonders whose invocation is for the most diehard of fans. We've had Cameron Bloom, a minor bureaucrat from the original show who mostly existed to get in the way of Mirai's burgeoning relationship with Bright and be subject to one of the funniest punches in Gundam history, in one of several weekly appearances of a random minor character in GQuuuuuuX's narrative. That's a list that has included Mosk Han, a Federation scientist who appears in a single late episode of the original to upgrade the Gundam's response time; and Dren and Denim, Char's stooges (and most hilariously by absence Gene, a Zaku pilot who's presence on the mission to scout out the Gundam is apparently the decisive turning point of GQuuuuuuX's entire timeline). This week we got Gaia and Ortega, two-thirds of the Black Tri-Stars, a trio of Zeon ace pilots best known for one extremely cool attack maneuver that they then proceed to immediately whiff when they try to use it on Amuro more than once. Next week, we're getting Kycilia Zabi, a member of the fascistic ruling family of Zeon whose main plots in the original show were executing her Nazi-loving brother and then getting gruesomely blown up by a Char bazooka headshot in the series' closing episode. The vast majority of these characters are not ones you would expect an alternative retelling of Gundam's primary 'Universal Century' timeline to even mention, let alone give prominent plotlines to. And yet, for as incredibly referential and reverential of the original Mobile Suit Gundam as GQuuuuuuX is, its story is not beholden to a cameo fest. GQuuuuuuX never slams the breaks on its narrative to grab its audience by the shoulders and scream 'look! a reference!', or make awareness of the original Gundam vital knowledge to that narrative's logic. Anyone watching the series without prior knowledge of a 46 year old anime is still getting a compelling story, one built largely on entirely new characters (or characters like Challia, so drastically re-imagined that they might as well be new). Anyone who does know? Well, they get to delight in whatever Little Guy of the Week will show up next. It makes the fanservice not the point of the series, but a shared language between the creative team and diehard audiences that reminds the latter, every week, that the former adores all this weird stuff as much as you do. There's a kind of absurd sincerity to GQuuuuuuX in that sense, that invites trust: come along this wild ride with us, the show asks, wherever it takes this remixing of Gundam's fundamental world. And you kind of want to, because you can tell just bursting from every seam is a creative team that understands all the flavor and minutiae that made that world so compelling in the first place.
Forbes
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Upcoming Char Aznable Action Figure Came Here To Laugh At You
The upcoming Char Aznable action figure from Bandai Spirits. In a curious move, Bandai Spirits has announced a new upcoming Char Aznable action figure from Mobile Suit Gundam. The reason why this is curious is that while shows like Kamen Rider and Ultraman get loads of action figures, characters from mecha anime tend not to get the same treatment. I learned years ago from a representative at Bandai Spirits that when it came to mecha shows, people didn't tend to want figures of characters but more of the mecha themselves. The reason for this is that the mecha in these shows act as cyphers for the characters, so buying a toy of the mecha they pilot is the equivalent of also buying an action figure of the character. However, the big change now is that series like Mobile Suit Gundam have a much larger international market share compared to a decade ago. As with other releases, this figure will have a very wide range of articulation. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder My guess is that this Char Aznable figure is meant more for the international market to see if character action figures from mecha anime can have more traction abroad. Naturally, this Char Aznable action figure also ties neatly into the currently airing Gundam GQuuuuuuX anime, where he is featured as part of the backstory for the series. Char Aznable is also arguably one of the most iconic characters from the Gundam saga, so it makes sense that Bandai Spirits would start here. Admittedly, this is by no means the first mecha anime-related character action figure, but they are a rarity due to the reasons specified above, so this does stand out as a more strategic release from an international standpoint. As with other releases, the figure comes with all manner of gimmicks, from different facial expressions to the Newtype 'flash' effect. This Char Aznable action figure will be released this October and cost 9,900 yen (or around $71 at the current exchange rate). As for the whole Char meme, admittedly, that is from Zeta Gundam, when Char called himself Quattro, but it still feels appropriate considering how snarky Char can be across the Gundam franchise. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
