Mobile Suit Gundam

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[SPOILERS] GQuuuuuuX discussion mega thread (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 week ago by async_amuro@lemm.ee to c/gundam@ani.social

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Just got back from seeing GQuuuuuuX Beginning and wanted to start a thread for people to share thoughts and feelings. I’m gonna write a proper post tomorrow once I’ve had some time to digest (FYI I loved it). Please use the spoiler formatting for any key plot points to protect our fellow Gundam fans who have to wait until April for the full release. But I thought a discussion post would be fun for this community!

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[–] async_amuro@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Background:

I'm still fairly new to Gundam, loved WFM, 08 MS Team and 0079 (although it took me a year of on and off watching). I'm also a big fan of Anno, especially EVA and Shin Godzilla. So I was already pumped for GQuuuuuuX. Having seen the movie last night and having some time to reflect, I wanted to share some of my thoughts.

Story

Beginning appears to be 3-4 episodes of the series condensed into an hour and a half. The first part feels like a prologue/episode 0, and it retells the One Year War in an alternate version of the Universal Century timeline. I got chills watching Char steal the RX-78-2 and seeing so many familiar aspects of 0079 on the big screen (White Base/Guncannon/Challia Bull). I'll touch on music and character design later, but they managed to capture the magic of 0079.

The film then takes a sharp turn to the modern day and we meet our protagonists. Due to the nature of the film being an edit of multiple episodes, the story and pacing felt a little off, but this was to be expected, and I'm sure this will improve in the series. The atmosphere and dialogue were engaging and we get a lot of subtle nods to the original show that really surprised me. The Pomeranian's & Amate's family need a little fleshing out, and I do wish they'd spent more time on Nyaan and Shuji during the movie, but again I'm sure this will improve.

Overall I'm happy with the direction they are taking with the Clan Battles and the mystery surrounding the Red Gundam and Char's disappearance. The brief cameo of Sayla/Artesia was awesome and I hope we see more flashbacks to what happened between the past and present day in the show.

It would be difficult to recommend the movie/show to non Gundam (or UC) fans, due to all the fan service and callbacks. I'd suggest watching one of the movies or other timelines first. My wife who isn't a fan, but loves me and sacrifices her time to listening to me harp on about Gundam, had a great time, even if she didn't understand it lol!

Character/Mech design

The art style at the start feels like it fits right into UC0079 and has that Origins feel and look to it. When we get to modern time, the style switches pretty drastically, thanks to the work of Take who is best known for Pokemon. Although a little jarring at first, I really grew to love it, especially for the Pomeranian's.

As a EVA fan, I'm probably a little biased on the mech designs, I think they look great. The speed and movements looked phenomenal and the Gunpla or stills we saw before this came out don't do them any justice. I totally get why people are complaining, change is hard, but I'm always open to something new!

Music/Sound

Holy shit, the music is banging! It's got an old PSX era DNB vibe and really fits the pace of what you are seeing. I fell in love with "The Girl on a Space colony" when I saw the first teaser and I've been listening to Plazma almost daily since we saw the movie trailer. I highly recommend you listen to the score by Yoshimasa Terui & Masayuki Hasuo.

What really stood out to me, was the use of original soundtrack from 0079 and how the sound effects took me back to a happy place. It really fills you with nostalgia and didn't feel jarring at all.

Final thoughts

I am very excited for the show to drop and I suspect it'll take over as my new favorite Gundam series (sorry 08th MS Team). But the condensed format definitely hurt it a little and I wish they'd spent a little more time on Amate, Nyaan and Shuji. I understand why the focus was on Char, seeing as it really feeds the rest of the plot. Also the chemistry between Char and Bull was kinda hot 🥵

Thank you for attending my Ted Talk, I don't write things like this often, so apologies in advance for the questionable writing. I'm excited to hear everyone's thoughts and remember, a lot of people won't have access to Beginning right now and have to wait until April, so be courteous and don't spoil it for others.