Whenever Char isn’t on screen all the other characters should be asking “where’s Char?”
What They Say:
Amate Yuzuriha is a high-school student living peacefully in a space colony floating in outer space. When she meets a war refugee named Nyaan, Amate is drawn into the illegal mobile suit dueling sport known as Clan Battle.
E2 – The White Gundam
Char, an ace pilot of the Principality of Zeon forces, captures the Earth Federation’s latest mobile suit Gundam, a key component to their “Operation V,” at Side7. From that moment, the tide of war shifts dramatically, ultimately leading to the Principality of Zeon’s victory in the One Year War. However, just before the end of the war, Gundam and Char…
E3 – Machu in Clan Battle
Amate meets a boy named Shuji, who pilots the Red Gundam. She can’t forget the sensation of the glowing universe they experienced together and suggests forming a MAV to enter the Clan Battle. Amate decides to use the entry name “MACHU.”
E4 – The Witch’s War
A super unicum known as the “Witch,” who shot down over 100 enemies during the One Year War, enters the Clan Battle to settle an old score with the Red Gundam. Seeing this Witch, who clings to mobile suit combat even at the cost of abandoning her husband and child, Machu witnesses the depths of human obsession.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Let’s talk about episode two, shall we? Kestrel tells me that Episode 2 led off the premier version of the first part of this series, which certainly made an impact on him. I knew before that premiere that the series was UC alternate history because of a leak on one of the official websites, so no shock here. The presentation of the episode, however, now this is both silly and fun.
Episode two is presented as an alternate episode of the original series. That means the character designs, music, and sound effects are all retro. Eyecatches too! The music and sound are actually more jarring than the retro looks, at least until you put the modern characters next to the old ones.
We get to see the moment the timeline went askew. Char discovers the Gundam in Side 7 and manages to capture it. White Base is taken as well. Zeon holds the weapon which will turn the tide of war, and the pilot necessary to pull it off. Then everything goes to hell, and Char disappears, presumed dead. Yet the Red Gundam lives. Challa’s core motivation is unlocked, we know what he wants, but we already knew what he wanted.
All of the details of the flashback just washed over me. As I said previously, the events of the original Gundam story are not fresh enough in my mind to make the plot connections that an uber-fan would. Therefore, what I get is an info dump which I can’t possibly keep track of. Too many names, places, and lingering thoughts of “which parts of this are new and which are old?” Certainly a love letter but it has fallen into the hands of a bystander.
The plot moves back to the present and the present aesthetic. Amate joins the Clan Battles alongside the strange boy who pilots the long-lost Red Gundam. Both share a connection which is psychic and intrinsic, giving the pair a very “fated pair” feel. Even though Amate blushes at Shuji, the attraction is more metaphysical and physical. Meanwhile, Nyaan is over here third wheeling for reasons which feel perfunctory. Get paid and go home, girl.
Shuji is a strange character and not only because he is an explained weirdo loner. He is part feral child and part mystic, and Amate herself admits she knows nothing about him yet keeps entrusting her life to him. Weirdo loner Gundam pilots have been done before (looking at you, Heero), but nothing about how any of these characters interact with him feels natural. If some kid walked up to me, smelled me, and then decided to be my second in a giant robot duel I wouldn’t take him up on the offer.
As for Nyaan, she is also a completely blank slate. She is hard up for money, possibly a refugee, and that is all we know. She exists to dance in the ending credits and make deliveries, and that seems to be all.
This show feels as if someone came into the writers room and cut out all of the moments of character building and growth that would have come along with a full 24 to 26 episode series. With only a single cour everything feels both rushed and yet somehow as if time is being wasted. I speak of the plot of episode 4. Why do I care about this lady who has a death wish and obsession with newtypes and Char? She isn’t even a returning character! Her death is meaningless, except to show that Shuji the star-touched wunderkind isn’t going to pull his punches if it means his own life is on the line.
Newtypes are perhaps the worst part of the UC continuity. It’s space hippy bullshit and doesn’t while it does go along with the whole hippy “War is Hell” notion it is better left back in the early 80’s. It just distracts from the science fiction stuff. This series doesn’t even bother to explain what Newtypes are, which once again forces the audience to either look it up or go track down the original series. Maybe this is just a situation where the Japanese audience is so familiar with the concept it would just be cultural knowledge. Like how nobody needs to explain what a Jedi is to someone in the US.
So I am left wondering where this story is going. Amate wants to go to Earth, but then what? Shuji too, but why does he only want to do what the robot wants? (“To find the rose.” Yeah, red… Char, we get it.) Is the theme here obsession? Learning to let go of the past? If it is the later than that is funny for a series wallowing in it.
I hope when they find Char he is either a corpse or a junky. See where that nostalgia gets you.
In Summary:
GQuuuuux is an enigma. A series apart from time, but so intertwined with the past. A novice cannot step into this series and understand what these characters often expound about. Nor can it truly forge an identity of its own when so much of the story is truncated and the cast sidelined, but the ghosts of Gundam’s past. It also doesn’t seem interested in making the audience invested in the teen leads, letting their looks do all the heavy lifting. The action is strong, the second episode a brilliant call back in aesthetics to the original series, and the set dressing is top notch. I just can’t see the plot going anywhere, beyond Challa’s quest to find out what happened to Char. To that end, why have the teen casts?
Episode Grades: A -, B +, B
Streamed by: Amazon Prime
