This Week in Anime

Who the GQuuuuuuX is That?

Chris
Coop, I've been enjoying Gundam GQuuuuuuX pretty well since it started this season. But as someone who's not super up on all my Universal Century lore, I can have a hard time keeping track of all the legacy characters that show up. Fortunately, I've hit upon a solution: I call any character I don't recognize "Fred!" This works perfectly and totally won't make me confuse them with anyone or anything else-

Oh son of a-

I respect them introducing him eyepiece-first, just to throw off all the normies (like yours truly) who would presume this bad blonde boy was a returned Char, rather than some other blorbo from Zeta Gundam instead.

This has been the way of GQuuuuuuX and a major emergent element of discourse around it: is Tsurumaki and Anno's vision accessible for newcomers as many might have hoped? And if not, how; and is that necessarily a bad thing?

It's a fair point. The initial teases for GQuuuuuuX made it look for all the world like another alternate universe entry point starring a funny red-headed girl piloting the Gundam much like that G-Witch show that made waves a couple of years ago. Then the movie came out and made clear that this was a reverent alternate history to the One Year War, complete with callbacks and cameos that have only piled up into apparent continuity porn as the show has hit the two-thirds mark.

Like you, I've seen this element discussed a lot with the series, to the point that several people have noped out of it, thinking they aren't getting everything they could. Which is too bad, I think, because I'm not up on all this stuff either, and I'm still having a great time with the show!

This man waited over thirty years to become a BL superstar, but boy, did those stocks pay dividends.

Exactly, in Challia's case, new viewers don't need to know who he was because the show does a good job of explaining who he is in this context when he's introduced. He has a role to play here. Similarly, it's easy to grok what Kycilia's deal is and her position in Zeon. I will it the series hasn't been super detailed about the Zabi family as a whole, but the basics as they motivate the immediate plot are here.

A lot of the other returning characters, like the aforementioned Bask and Gates, or even characters who are references to past characters like Psycho Gundam pilot Deux Murasame, are more like little treats for those established fans. You aren't missing out on crucial information if you don't know what they're about in the moment.

And also GQuuuuuuX moves so dang fast that it's not like a lot of them stick around long enough to matter.

Having someone who hasn't seen the series before check out Revue Starlight The Movie as their first exposure stands as an odd little social experiment I'd love to conduct one day. It's a movie that can get by on its sheer vibes and the communicated tenor of its plot, which I think would work even for a newbie. So long as they were the right level of theater-kid sicko.

Duality and references to series within series to layer things even further! Along those lines, I wouldn't be me if I didn't take this opportunity to bring up the legacy sequel that I know brought in a bunch of newcomers. MyGO!!!!! technically occupies the same universe as the original and even features numerous cameos, but they're ultimately as consequential as the likes of Gates in GQuuuuuuX.

I'm thrilled to see Moca in It's MyGO!!!!!, but the real attraction was a whole new wave of viewers glomming onto these lost girls and their psychological horror B-side Ave Mujica to the tune of a third season of this take on BanG Dream being green-lit. You don't need to know who Kasumi is to make that work.

The irony is that even as Ave Mujica was marketed as a newbie-friendly jumping-on point (and even had the BanG Dream! name stripped out of its title on Crunchyroll), it doesn't work as such. It's a series you need to see that first half in It's MyGO!!!!! for.

There are cases where these sorts of series don't pan out as entry points.

At least that's probably easier to track as a video game tie-in than this season's Guilty Gear anime. That one's so steeped in the lore (appropriately for Guilty Gear) that I haven't even seen people attempting to discuss it the way they have GQuuuuuuX.

As we've indicated with several of these examples, all these anime are going to be someone's entry point into these franchises. It's an opportunity for conversation, both within the stories and without; as you alluded to at the start of this column, both you and I have the advantage of watching GQuuuuuuX with someone steeped in Gundam lore who will happily explain who all these Mobile Suit Glup Shittos even are. That's something special, but also in an era of anime-fan interconnection, not the rarest thing.

I believe GQuuuuuuX can be enjoyed on its own, and any Freds you encounter that you're unfamiliar with? That's an opportunity for some entertaining wiki-diving or chats with your fellow fans!

If only they could help identify this mystery man who showed up in the latest episode. I'm inexperienced, so all I know is that he's not Gates Capa.